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Социальный цирк в постсоциалистической России: кейс-стади новой солидарности
This article is based on a case study of the Social Circus, a Russian NGO
created in the 2000s that focuses on developing the potential of children from
social risk groups. We analyse how the inclusion of these children into society
is performed, how the circus’s methods and socially oriented activism manage
to solve the problem of exclusion and reproduction of poverty in Russia. We
analysed the subjective meanings attributed to the social circus by participants,
civic activists and supporters; then we explored internal strategies of inclusion
into the circus elaborated by participants from different social classes and
how these strategies were supported by different external parties. In this way,
we were able to reconstruct the concept of inclusion and present it as a process
of realization of capabilities, when, with the realization of external opportuni
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ties, the accumulation of internal resources takes place, as well as the ability
to act and produce a positive effect. We argue that the inclusion of socially
disadvantaged groups can change the structure of opportunities in practice
under three conditions. Firstly, through a change in the status of socially
disadvantaged groups, when negative identification forms a platform for the
practical promotion of the special status and differences of participants,
considering their interests. Secondly, attitudes towards achievement strengthens
the positions of participants, if it is combined with the formation of social
skills to coordinate different positions. Thirdly, opportunities are accumulated
if they are fixed in emancipation methods of interaction at the individual,
group and local levels, involving the recognition of the causes of oppression,
the promotion of the interests of disadvantaged groups, the reformatting of
their experience and the accumulation of social ties. As a result, reflective
solidarity is considered, involving the joint development of moral guidelines
and the variability of their implementation.