Abstracts
Russia on Edge: Reclaiming the Periphery in Contemporary Russian Culture
Interdisciplinary Workshop, 11-12 December 2009 (CRASSH, University of Cambridge)
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University of Warwick
'Skinhead Is a Movement of Action': the Ideological, the Political and the Personal in Extreme Youth (Sub)Cultural Strategies
Based on ethnographic research conducted (in collaboration with researchers from SRC `Region', Ul'ianovsk) between 2002 and 2007 in the city of Vorkuta, in the Russian far North, this paper considers the relationship between a particular group of young people identifying themselves as `skinheads' and local, national and global political discourses of the far right. Based on both the narratives of the young people themselves and ethnographic observation, the paper explores three aspects of contemporary skinhead practice. First, it pieces together traces of ideology within the group, their connection to external discourses and the diversity of views and varying levels of significance attached to `ideology' among individuals. Secondly, it outlines the links - and absence of such - with formal political parties and other ultranationalist `groupuscules' and their ideological resources. Thirdly, it explores the range of meanings individuals attach to `skinhead' and places ideology and formal political participation within these broader meanings of skinhead identity. It concludes that, for this group of young people, skinhead is neither ideology nor politics but a collective practice that, in a very physical way, binds them in the struggle to find transcendent meaning to their lives.