Tikhonova N.E., Karavay A.V. Professionals in the Institutional Conditions of Russia: Methodology of Definition and Specifics of the Group. Journal of Institutional Studies. 2023. Vol. 15(1). P. 100–121.

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Abstract

Under the conditions of the task of ensuring the technological sovereignty of the country, the importance of the group of professionals (professionals or specialists of the highest qualification level as defined by the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation) is growing. Correspondingly, the importance of the information about dynamics, composition and specific features of this group in Russia is growing as well. However, despite the employment statistics published by the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, scientific publications devoted to them, and the availability of The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE), where professionals are separately identified, the information that is currently available about them is insufficient, contradictory and, in part, quite controversial. This is due in particular to methodological and methodical challenges of their definition, the analysis of which, as well as the identification of ways to overcome them and the characteristics of the institutional environment of Russian society that are seen in the course of such analysis, is the subject of this article. It describes the main approaches to interpretation of the concept of professional in the social sciences, some specific features of their classification in the ISCO-08 and All-Russian Classification of Occupations, the main problems associated with the application of these classifications in Russia considering the specifics of its institutional environment. A solution is proposed that involves correcting the basic version of ISCO-08 in RLMS-HSE databases, used by most researchers on the socio-professional structure. The advantages of such an adjusted version of ISCO-08 in research on socio-professional structure in general and professionals in particular are demonstrated, as well as how the share, composition and characteristic features of this group change when it is applied. The multidirectional dynamics in the share of professionals when different versions of ISCO-08 are used is demonstrated on the RLMS-HSE data from 2001–2021, and the conclusion is made about the specifics of the institutional environment in Russia which strongly affects the situation of this professional group.