Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:12:01.650Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Resolving Problems among Neighbors in Post‐Soviet Russia: Uncovering the Norms of the Pod”ezd

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Kathryn Hendley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article presents findings from a qualitative study of how Russians deal with neighbors who have leaked water onto them. In the Russian context, this is neither an uncommon nor a small problem. Building on US‐based studies of neighborhood relations, the article lays out three alternative strategies: avoidance, self‐help, and third‐party intervention. The Russian participants lived in close proximity to one another and had little opportunity for exit. The study documents a strong preference for self‐help, confirming the potency of the relational distance hypothesis for Russia. In contrast to their US counterparts, the Russian participants' lack of exit did not give rise to more intense and prolonged disputes. The findings suggest that there is a strong informal norm in favor of neighbors resolving disputes among themselves and that the residents who share common entryways (pod”ezdy) work out the parameters of acceptable behavior over time. These informal norms shape Russians' legal consciousness.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , Spring 2011 , pp. 388 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2011 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aistrup, Joseph A., and Bannister, Shala Mills. 1999. How Previous Court Experience Influences Evaluations of the Kansas State Court System. Court Review 36 (3): 32–34.Google Scholar
Alexeev, Michael. 1988. The Effect of Housing Allocation on Social Inequality: A Soviet Perspective. Journal of Comparative Economics 12 (2): 228–34.Google Scholar
Barnes, Andrew. 2006. Owning Russia: The Struggle over Factories, Farms, and Power. Ithaca, N.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, M. P. 1988. The Moral Order of a Suburb. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Black, Donald. 1984. Social Control as a Dependent Variable. In Toward a General Theory of Social Control, ed. Black, Donald, 1–36. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Black, Donald, and Baumgartner, Margaret. 1980. On Self‐Help in Modern Society. In The Manners and Customs of the Police, ed. Black, Donald, 193–208. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Chekhov, Anton P. 1991. The Cherry Orchard. New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Doveria institutam vlasti. 2007. http://www.levada.ru/press/2007040901.html (accessed September 16, 2009).Google Scholar
Emerson, Robert M. 2008. Responding to Roommate Troubles: Reconsidering Informal Dyadic Control. Law & Society Review 42 (3): 483–512.Google Scholar
Engel, David M. 1994. The Oven Bird's Song: Insiders, Outsiders, and Personal Injury in an American Community. In Law and Community in Three American Towns, ed. Greenhouse, Carol J., Yngvesson, Barbara, and Engel, David M., 27–53. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, and Silbey, Susan S. 1998. The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Felstiner, William L. F. 19741975. Influences of Social Organizations on Dispute Processing. Law & Society Review 9 (1): 63–94.Google Scholar
Felstiner, William L. F. 1975. Avoidance as Dispute Processing: An Elaboration. Law & Society Review 9 (4): 695–706.Google Scholar
Felstiner, William L. F., Abel, Richard L., and Sarat, Austin. 19801981. The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes: Naming, Blaming, Claiming … Law & Society Review 15 (3/4): 631–54.Google Scholar
Figes, Orlando. 2007. The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia. New York: Metropolitan Books.Google Scholar
Finn, Peter. 2008. A Russian Candidacy in Peril: Authorities Scrutinize Putin Foe's Campaign. Washington Post, January 23, A10.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc. 1974. Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change. Law & Society Review 9 (1): 95–160.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc. 1985. Vision and Revision: A Comment on Yngvesson. Wisconsin Law Review (3): 647–54.Google Scholar
Gibson, James L. 2003. Russian Attitudes towards the Rule of Law: An Analysis of Survey Data. In Law and Informal Practices: The Post‐Communist Experience, ed. Galligan, Denis J. and Kurkchiyan, Marina, 77–91. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn. 2001. Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg: Business Disputes in Russia. In Assessing the Value of Law in Transition Economies, ed. Murrell, Peter, 20–55. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn. 2009. “Telephone Law” and the “Rule of Law:” The Russian Case. Hague Journal of the Rule of Law 1 (2): 241–64.Google Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn. 2010. Mobilizing Law in Contemporary Russia: The Evolution of Disputes Over Home Repair Projects. American Journal of Comparative Law 58 (4): 631–78.Google Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn, Murrell, Peter, and Ryterman, Randi. 2000. Law, Relationships and Private Enforcement: Transactional Strategies of Russian Enterprises. Europe-Asia Studies 52 (4): 627–56.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Declines in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Humphrey, Caroline. 2002. The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday Economies After Socialism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kagan, Robert A. 2001. Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kewinbuk, Katerina P. 2009. Russia's Labor Pains: The Slow Creation of a Culture of Enforcement. Fordham International Law Journal 32 (3): 846–87.Google Scholar
Kritzer, Herbert M., and Voelker, John. 1998. Familiarity Breeds Respect: How Wisconsin Citizens View Their Courts. Judicature 82 (2): 58–64.Google Scholar
Kurkchiyan, Marina. 2009. Russian Legal Culture: An Analysis of Adaptive Responses to an Institutional Transplant. Law & Social Inquiry 34 (2): 337–64.Google Scholar
Ledeneva, Alena V. 1998. Russia's Economy of Favours: Blat, Networking and Informal Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ledeneva, Alena V. 2006. How Russia Really Works: The Informal Practices that Shaped Post‐Soviet Politics and Business. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Ledeneva, Alena V. 2008. Telephone Justice in Russia. Post-Soviet Affairs 24 (4): 324–50.Google Scholar
McFaul, Michael. 2001. Russia's Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle. 1990. Getting Justice and Getting Even: Legal Consciousness among Working Class Americans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, David L., and Krueger, Richard A. 1993. When to Use Focus Groups and Why. In Successful Focus Groups: Advancing the State of the Art, ed. Morgan, David L., 3–19. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Osadchuk, Svetlana. 2008. The Season of Cold Showers. Moscow Times, May 13, 15.Google Scholar
Politkovskaya, Anna. 2004. Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy. Trans. Arch Tait. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Prevost, Dyranda, and Dushkina, Natalia. 1999. Living Places in Russia. Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia: The Images Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Raleigh, Donald J. 2006. Russia's Sputnik Generation: Soviet Baby Boomers Talk about Their Lives. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Rassmotrenie del sudami obshchei iurisdiktsii po 1 instantsii za 1996–2007 g.g. 2008. http://www.cdep.ru/statistics.asp?search_frm_auto=1&dept_id=8 (accessed September 16, 2009).Google Scholar
Regiony Rossii. Osnovnye kharakteristiki sub”ektov Rossiiskoi Federatsii 2008. 2008a. Moscow: Goskomstat.Google Scholar
Regiony Rossii. Osnovnye sotsial'no‐ekonomicheskie pokazateli gorodov. 2008b. Moscow: Goskomstat.Google Scholar
Regiony Rossii. Sotsial'no‐ekonomicheskie pokazateli. 2008c. Moscow: Goskomstat.Google Scholar
Ries, Nancy. 1997. Russian Talk: Culture & Conversation during Perestroika. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Rossiiane na rynke uslug strakhovaniia. 2006. http://bd.fom.ru/report/map/dd062526 (accessed September 19, 2009).Google Scholar
Rottman, David B. 1998. On Public Trust and Confidence: Does Experience with the Courts Promote or Diminish It? Court Review 35 (4): 14–22.Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin, and Kearns, Thomas R. 1993. Beyond the Great Divide: Forms of Legal Scholarship and Everyday Life. In Law in Everyday Life, ed. Sarat, Austin and Kearns, Thomas R., 21–51. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Sem'ia v Rossii 1996. 1996. Moscow: Goskomstat.Google Scholar
Sem'ia v Rossii 2008. 2008. Moscow: Goskomstat.Google Scholar
Shlapentokh, Vladimir. 1989. Public and Private Life of the Soviet People: Changing Values in Post‐Soviet Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shmerpina, Irina. 2006. Sosedi po domu. http://bd.fom.ru/report/map/projects/dominant/dom0619/dd061925 (accessed September 15, 2009).Google Scholar
Smith, Hedrick. 1977. The Russians. London: Sphere Books.Google Scholar
Starodubrovskaya, Irina. 2001. Housing and Utility Services. In Russia's Post‐Communist Economy, ed. Granville, Brigitte and Oppenheimer, Peter, 397–418. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Trifonov, Iurii. 1983. Another Life and the House on the Embankment. Trans. Michael Glenny. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Trifonov, Iurii. 2002. The Exchange and Other Stories. Trans. Proffer, Ellendea, Burlingame, Helen P., Somers, Jim, Lindsey, Byron. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Trubek, David, Felstiner, William L. F., Kritzer, Herbert M., and Grossman, Joel B. 1983. The Costs of Ordinary Litigation. UCLA Law Review 31 (1): 72–127.Google Scholar
Vasil'eva, Elena 2007. Otnoshenie k svoemu zhilishchu. http://bd.fom.ru/report/cat/home_fam/hosehom/d074623 (accessed September 15, 2009).Google Scholar
Voinovich, Vladimir. 1976. The Ivankiad. Trans. David Lapeza. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Yngvesson, Barbara. 1985. Dispute Processing: Re‐Examining Continuing Relations and the Law. Wisconsin Law Review (3): 623–46.Google Scholar
Yngvesson, Barbara. 1994. Making Law at the Doorway: The Clerk, the Court, and the Construction of Community in a New England Town. In Law and Community in Three American Towns, ed. Greenhouse, Carol J., Yngvesson, Barbara, and Engel, David M., 54–90. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar