Kolesnik N.V. Russian Elite Families: Methods of Studying and Practicing Functioning. Petersburg’s Sociology Today, 2019. Vol. 11, pp. 34-47.

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: http://pitersociology.ru/ru/node/654 (дата обращения 29.08.2019)

Abstract

The article analyzes the phenomenon of elite family. First of all, the question is raised about what are the features of studying the elite as a social community and what are the possibilities of applying qualitative research methods. Attention is drawn to the fact that the biographical method has serious potential in studying the elite and power practices, and empirical possibilities of using the structured biography method and traditional biographical interviews are considered. On the basis of primary and secondary empirical data (analysis of interview materials), the problem of what role family resources play in the reproduction of elite positions (by the example of elite families) is resolved. The cases examined allow us to identify the corpus of ideas of the political and economic elite about the role and functions of the family, educational and cultural capital: who is the main carrier of capital, methods and forms of its transfer and inheritance. A separate plot in the work is devoted to the consideration of the interaction between sport and family as social institutions.