Culture Matters in Russia-and Everywhere: Backdrop for the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

by Lawrence Harrison (Editor), Evgeny Yasin (Editor), Oscar Árias Sánchez (Contribution by), Miguel Basáñez (Contribution by), Marita Carballo (Contribution by)

Overview

This book pulls together experts in the fields of economics and Russian culture, all participants in the Samuel P. Huntington Memorial Symposium on Culture, Cultural Change and Economic Development, a follow-up to the 1999 Cultural Values and Human Progress Symposium at Harvard University. As the sequel to the 2001 volume Culture Matters, it discusses modernization, democratization, economic, and political reforms in Russia and asserts that these reforms can happen through the reframing of cultural values, attitudes, and institutions.

(Cover design by Katie Makrie.)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498503501
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	04/23/2015
Pages:	582
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Lawrence Harrison is visiting scholar, retired, at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and author of Jews, Confucians, and Protestants: Cultural Capital and the End of Multiculturalism.

Evgeny Yasin is academic supervisor at the National Research University—Higher School of Economics and author of Will Democracy Survive in Russia?

Table of Contents

Part One: Introduction
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Moscow Symposium Collection, Lawrence Harrison
Chapter 2:Transformation of Countries in Transition: Culture and the State, Evgeny Yasin

Part Two: Regional/Civilizational/National Cultures
Chapter 3:European Culture: What It Was, Where It Is Going, Josef Joffe
Chapter 4: Quo Vadis, Latin America? Four Cultural Obstacles to Economic Development, 'scar Árias Sánchez
Chapter 5: Janus in Latin America, Mariano Grondona
Chapter 6: How Can African Cultural Capital Prosper?, Daniel Etounga-Manguelle
Chapter 7: Cultural Stability and Long Run Economic Performance, Deepak Lal
Chapter 8: China’s Quest for a New Cultural Identity from a Confucian Humanistic Perspective, Tu Weiming
Chapter 9:Economic and Political Development in Slovenia: Betwixt and Between Europe and the Balkans, Katherine Taylor

Part Three: Religions and Development
Chapter 10: Contemporary Russian Orthodoxy: From the Social Paradoxes to the Cultural Model, Boris Knorre
Chapter 11: Religious Affiliation and Individual Economic and Political Attitudes in Ukraine, Maria Snegovaya
Chapter 12: The Cultural Revolution in the Islamic World and What It Means for the Future of Muslim Societies, Pervez Hoodbhoy
Chapter 13: “Creation Theology” in Economics: Several Catholic Traditions, Michael Novak
Chapter 14: Fight Ethos versus Work Ethos:The Role of the Catholic Church in Fostering Pro-Development Values in Poland, Damian Pyrkosz
Chapter 15: Holy Ghost Fire! Pentecostal Religious Culture in Africa, Rachel Okunubi

Part Four: Culture’s Influence on Economic Variables
Chapter 16: The Role of Culture in Understanding theProcess of Economic and Social Change, Douglass North
Chapter 17: Culture, Cooperation, and Repeated Games, Eric Maskin
Chapter 18: The Effect of Culture on the Functioning of Institutions: Evidence from European Regions, Mariaflavia Harari and Guido Tabellini
Chapter 19: Culture and Economic Growth: Getting the Theory Right, William Easterly
Chapter 20: An Appraisal of the Cultural Change Institute Factors Typology, Matteo Marini

Part Five: Culture, Psychology and Economics
Chapter21: Cultural Values Influence and Constrain Economic and Social Change, Shalom Schwartz
Chapter 22: Cognition East and West: Fundamental Differences in Reasoning and Perception, Richard Nisbett
Chapter 23: American Culture and the 2008 Financial Crisis, Geert Hofstede
Chapter 24: Culture of Horizontality and Personal Autonomy: A Humanistic Approach to Culture Change, Valery Chirkov and Nadezhda Lebedeva

Part Six: Measuring Culture and Cultural Change
Chapter 25: Measuring Culture and Cultural Change: An Introduction, Ronald Inglehart
Chapter 26: Measuring Cultural Capital and Change: Axiological Diagnosis, Miguel Basáñez
Chapter 27: Trust and Cultural Change in Argentina: A Latin American Comparison, Marita Carballo

Part Seven: The Russian Case
Chapter 28: The Economic Wonder: Market and Culture, Oleg Chirkunov
Chapter 29: “All Are Guilty, Which Means That Nobody Is!”—Continuing the Talk on Progress in Russian Culture, Andrei Konchalovsky
Chapter 30: Basic Human Values of the Russians: Different from and Similar to Other Europeans, Vladimir Magun and Maksim Rudnev
Chapter 31: Socio-Cultural Modernization in Russia: Norms and Values System Shift, Natalya Tikhonova

Part Eight: Promoting Progressive Cultural Change
Chapter 32: The Role of the Family in the Acquisition of Values, Jerome Kagan
Chapter 33: Can Teachers Empower Youth for Democratic Citizenship? Evaluating Civic Education Pedagogies in Mexican Secondary Schools, Fernando Reimers, Maria Elena Ortega, Mariali Cardenas, Armando Estrada, and Emanuel Garza
Chapter 34: The Me to Everyone Cable, Reese Schonfeld with Erica Shusas
Chapter 35: New Occasions Teach New Duties: Social Change and Leadership, Richard Lamm
Chapter 36: Economic Policy and Cultural Change, James Fox
Chapter 37: Culture and Legal Dogmatism in an Era of Immaterial Wealth: The Case of Latin America, Octavio Sánchez
Chapter 38: A Culture of Profitability, Robert Kleinbaum

Editorial Reviews

Lawrence Harrison has been a pioneer in applying a cultural perspective to intractable questions of economic and political development. His most famous early work was on Latin America, and now he asks similarly penetrating questions about Russia's present and future. It is a topic of enormous significance, and the chapters in this volume are clarifying and stimulating.

James Fallows

This is a superb compendium for anyone wanting to understand the vital role cultural values play in the achievements and failures of any tribe, society, or nation. Only Lawrence Harrison could have brought together thirty-nine of the world’s preeminent experts in human culture to present their work at this historic Moscow Conference. Thanks to Harrison, these are all now captured in this book.

Among presenters,Russia’s former Minister of Economic Development, Eygeny Yasin, now Academic Supervisor at the Higher School of Economics, led a group of eight prominent Russians. Their excellent papers (chapters in the book) cover: the role of the Orthodox church; the status of Russia’s market economy; Russian’s views on work; entrepreneurship; private property; security; stability; and other cultural values important in that country—and in all the others as well.

Steven Pease