Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Surviving the Russian Transition

20世纪90年代，俄罗斯的社会政治转型预示着预期寿命的空前下降，主要是男性。这一死亡率危机被广泛认为是现代历史上最严重的。目前，俄罗斯的预期寿命是工业化国家中最低的，男性为58.3岁，女性为71.8岁；男女预期寿命的性别差异为13.5岁，是世界上最大的。本研究使用人类学方法超越现有的死亡率数据，了解俄罗斯老年男性和女性如何在危及生命的社会政治转型中受苦并幸存下来。这个项目为健康危机带来了一种人类学的方法，而这种方法还没有通过实地人种学进行研究。核心问题是：在过渡时期，男性和女性的生活经历有何不同？男性和女性如何将他们的过渡经历与他们目前的健康状况联系起来？感知健康如何与生活事件、社会经济轨迹和性别相关？俄罗斯媒体如何构建健康、性别和转型之间的关系？为了回答上述问题，该项目将使用人种学和社会流行病学，重点关注1990年中年的莫斯科人，他们在危机期间承受了俄罗斯死亡率上升的冲击。人种学方法将包括参与观察、半结构化的深度访谈、生活史和媒体话语分析。社会流行病学方法将包括半标准化的结构化调查访谈。将对收集到的数据进行文本分析和统计分析。此外，该分析将利用处理俄罗斯健康危机的现有流行病学数据，以便将应答者的生活置于更广泛的社会中。这项研究将进一步了解俄罗斯的政治和社会转型如何与健康观念联系在一起。反过来，这可能会增加我们对社会变革与健康之间联系的总体理解，并确定人们如何在社会动荡时期生存。

The 1990s sociopolitical transition in Russia heralded an unparalleled drop in life expectancy, primarily among men. This mortality crisis is widely regarded as the most severe in modern history. Currently Russian life expectancy is the lowest among industrialized countries at 58.3 years for males and 71.8 years for females; the sex difference in men's and women's life expectancies, at 13.5 years, is the largest in the world. This research uses anthropological methods to go beyond existing mortality data and understand how older Russian men and women suffered and survived the life-threatening sociopolitical transition. This project brings an anthropological approach to a health crisis that has not been studied through on-the-ground ethnography. The central questions are: How do lived experiences of men and women during the transition differ? How do men and women relate their experiences of the transition to their current perceived health? How is perceived health related to life events, socioeconomic trajectories, and gender? How is the relationship between health, gender, and the transition constructed in the Russian media? In order to answer the above questions the project will use ethnography and social epidemiology, focusing on a cohort of Muscovites who were middle-aged in 1990 and bore the brunt of increased mortality in Russia during the crisis. The ethnographic approach will consist of participant observation, semi-structured in-depth interviews, life histories, and an analysis of media discourse. A social epidemiological approach will consist of a semi-standardized structured survey interview. Textual and statistical analyses will be done on the data collected. In addition, the analysis will draw on existing epidemiological data that deals with the Russian health crisis in order to position respondents' lives in broader society. This research will further an understanding of how political and social transformation in Russia is connected to perceptions of health. This, in turn, may increase our general understanding of the linkages between social change and health, and identify how people survive during times of social upheaval.