Socio-Cultural and Institutional Mechanisms and Resources of Contemporary and Soviet-Era Solidarity Practices (Through the Example of Soviet-Era Patronage and Corporate Volunteering)

Abstract

This article continues the analysis of the continuity problem with regard to contemporary and Soviet-era solidarity practices as exemplified by patronage and corporate volunteering, which was started in the article published in the Yearbook of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2019 and was devoted to the theme of meanings and functions of both activities This article analyzes the subjects, resources (organizational, material, and personal) and competencies of both solidarity activities as well as their socio-economic mechanisms. The author draws abconclusion that the organizational orderliness of volunteering is not always sufficient for its social effectiveness. In turn, social effectiveness occurs where absystem of non-random horizontal connections is built and where the interaction of subjects included in volunteer projects is based on local identities and an operational system of social responsibility. Where local interests (ofbauthorities or businesses) supersede the public good, both recipients and donors get disappointed in volunteer projects. The objective of comparing the two social practices is to reveal the theme of the semantic and functional continuity of current solidarity practices and Soviet-era experience (with corporate volunteering and Soviet-era patronage as abspecial case). The application task is to identify sociological parameters of comparison in order to understand what elements of Soviet experience can be used today in doctrinal substantiation and organizational solutions related to volunteering (public and corporate).