Growing Partnership with the HSE Contributes to Comparative Social Research on Russia and Germany
International participants of the XV HSE April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development speak to the HSE News Service.
International participants of the XV HSE April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development speak to the HSE News Service. Katharina Blum has longstanding ties with Russia, having studied in the Faculty of Philosophy at Lomonosov Moscow State University. She knows and loves Russian literature, especially Mikhail Bulgakov, as well as those places in Moscow where the action takes place in his novel The Master and Margarita. She studies the Russian and German elite through comparative analysis, as well as other topics common to Russia and Germany.
— Katharina, you have long been collaborating with the HSE. Just last year, you participated in a conference and a performance assessment for the Faculty of Sociology. What are your expectations from the April Conference−2014?
— It was a great honour to be invited to participate in the conference. We are developing our relationship with the Faculty of Sociology. In addition to listening to my colleagues’ reports, I am planning to discuss in greater detail our partnership involving a joint PhD programme as part of an international training school for PhDs.
— Your research interests focus on the Russian and German elite and corporate social responsibility, which are not the most popular topics for Russian research or Russian business for that matter.
— My most recent study of corporate social responsibility is based on data from Germany, Hungary and Poland. I am interested in countries where there was a rapid transition to a market economy. I am also interested in the degree of responsibility that residents of those countries feel. It is important to understand and record the relationship that business has with corporate social responsibility and, if possible, to focus business on more productive solutions in this area.
— We’ll watch closely for your new publications — best of luck!
Anna Chernyakhovskaya, specially for the HSE news service