Meri Kulmala : State and Society in Small-Town Russia

This book is about state-society interrelations in contemporary Russia. A core question is: How do Russian citizens relate to the Russian state and more broadly to other public-sector institutions?

This question is investigated through citizens' involvement in civil society by asking: What kinds of organizational civic activities occur? How are these organized forms of civic activity interwoven with the state and public structures? Finally, why do particular forms of engagement occur? The book focuses on the local level which is a logical level for citizens to interact with the state. The "messy" conceptions of civil society and state are profoundly analyzed through a bottom-up ethnographic approach. The analysis of citizens' organization and engagement with the state is grounded on an extensive ethnographic investigation within the Sortavala district. Sortavala's location on one hand in Russian Karelia, outside big Russian cities, and on the other hand on the border of Finland and the European Union allows a fascinating view from below to a local setting that can be characterized as peripheral and transnational at the same time.