Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research, 3/2012

Publisher Marketing: **Articles: * "'Sibiriak': Community, Nationality, or 'State of Mind'?" Alla Anisimova, Olga Echevskaya (in Russian). Using an actionist approach to identity studies, this article explores the core elements and "versions" of Siberian identity, the contexts of its formation and actualization, and regional variations in its manifestations. Two manifestations of Siberian identity-the "Siberian character" and the "Siberian civic nationhood"-are discussed, key dimensions of their actualization (territorial, ethnic, and political) are described, and regional differences in the actualization of identities are analyzed. We conclude by suggesting that the study of Siberian identity highlights the need for the constructionist perspective in the analysis of regional identities in "resettlement" societies. * "Comparing Violence: Organ Theft Rumors in Chechnya and Latin America," Amandine Regamey (in English). In 2001 a rumor started to spread in Chechnya, according to which Russian forces arrested and murdered young Chechen men in order to sell their organs. These rumors of organ trafficking are reminiscent of those that have surfaced in other contexts of extreme violence. A comparison with Latin America allows us to show how organ theft rumors gradually spread and crystallize as structured stories and permits to examine how these stories enter international discourses about the mistreatment and commodification of human bodies under conditions of violence and conflict. This article argues that such rumors are a collective way of putting a traumatic experience into words, and talking about what war has done to Chechen society. * "The Disposable Surplus: Notes on Waste, Reindeer, and Biopolitics," Hugo Reinert (in English). The article examines the emergence of waste as an industrial category in the context of contemporary indigenous Saami reindeer pastoralism in northern Norway. Focusing on the relationship between disposal and harm, the first half of the article explores some reorientations involved in transition from traditional methods of utilization to industrial reindeer slaughter. The second half relates the emergence of industrial waste to the formation of a disposable surplus at the populational level. Is there a link between the anonymous disposability of reindeer parts, constituted as the worthless waste of industrial modernity, and the anonymous disposability of living reindeer constituted within state biopolitics? * "Legal Wounds: The Meaning of Human Rights for Lesbians and Gay Men in Russia," Alexander Kondakov (in Russian). This article discusses the production of lesbians and gay men as subjects of human rights discourse in Russia. Conclusions are drawn from discourse analysis of group discussions and life history interviews with St. Petersburg lesbians and gay men. I base my analysis on the methodological concept of the "legal wound" which makes it possible to show the legal situation of the subjects that personify human rights discourse in contemporary Russia. ** Essay: * "The Erotic Biopower of Putinism: From Glamour to Pornography," Francisco Martinez (in English). In the present essay I explain how the exaltation of glamour in Russia and the persecution of queer sexual practices belong to the same normalizing strategy, which aims to freeze ideological discourse and empower conservative nodal points of Vladimir Putin's political regime. By analyzing the genealogy of "glamour" and the emergence of the term in the post-Soviet context, I explore how the glorification of certain sexual practices to the exclusion of others limits the possibilities for symbolic alternatives within Russian society. The study of certain erotic phenomena intimately related with the process of subjectification illuminates how hegemony is articulated in post-Soviet Russia.