Regional particularities of the reform of institutionalized care for children in Russia

Abstract

The analysis is focused on the particularities of the reform of social provision for children left without parental care in Russian regions. Theoretically, the paper considers the reform as a process of deinstitutionalization, implying the transformation of the scope and the content of the activity of public and non-state organizations. The key goal is to identify conditions of the inertia of the deinstitutionalization. The first part of the article is devoted to the literature observation to formulate assumptions about factors that impact or impede deinstitutionalization of child's care. Three assumptions are formulated about the influence of the social-economic development, conservative or innovative ideology and the activity of the nonprofit organizations and associations of citizens. The second part of the article works with the statistical data on the scope and the positive dynamic of the reduction of state providers and particularities of the attraction of non-state providers. The empirical analysis shows the scope of retrenchment of the institutional care in various Russian regions and particularities of non-state activity (nonprofit organizations and private companies). The analysis enabled to identify three main types of nonprofit organizations involved as service providers: SOS villages, associations of foster families and civic organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church. In the third part of the article, the detailed empirical analysis of two Russian regions with the largest scope of institutionalized care for children (Ulianovskaia oblast' and Amurskaia oblast') has been conducted. On the basis of these two regional cases assumptions about the social-economic and political factors have been examined.