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Russia's Abandoned Children An Intimate Understanding

Clementine K. Fujimura, Sally W. Stoecker, Tatyana Sudakova

ISBN: 0-275-97909-1

ISBN-13: 978-0-275-97909-6

DOI:

184 pages

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 9/30/2005

List Price: $51.95 (UK Sterling Price: £35.95)

Discount Price: $25.98 Sale Price for U.S. Customers Only. Save 50%. Ends 12/31/2009.

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Also Available: Ebook

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Reviews:

Fujimura has written an intense and powerful book. In addition to providing a disturbing portrait of Russia's abandoned children, the book's great merit is found in the author's insights about the cultural meaning of child abandonment in Russia.
—Smith College Studies in Social Work 2007
[F]ascinating case studies....[c]ould stimulate good discussion on issues like the role of culture in human development and the universality or specificity of the causes and/or effects of experiences (e.g., the abandonment of children) that cross national lines.
—PsycCritques March 1, 2006
Draws on interview and other data to examine the lives and stigmatization of children in Russian shleters, orphanages, and streets.
—The Chronicle of Higher Education November 11, 2005
Fujimura provides an astonishing anthropological perspective on a virtually unexplored and forgotten group of the world's most vulnerable children. The author must be applauded first for the comprehensive and rigorous participant observation that she conducted over several years. Rarely is a researcher so devoted. In addition, she is somehow able to provide readers with a stark and shocking view of the lowest common denominator [of children] in a manner that is rich, comprehensive, and extraordinarily disturbing. Yet, somehow, Fujimura presents her research--the stories she uncovers--with a uniquely sensitive understanding of Russian culture, contemporary and historic. The manner in which she writes, often using the voice and subjective perspective of Russian citizens, allows readers to learn about an invisible group of children within the context of an almost forgotten world. This amazing book has the depth of rigorous research, yet reads like a novel. Highly recommended. Professional and lay readers, especially those interested in international adoption. All levels.
—Choice 7/1/2006

Description: Fujimura takes us across history and into Russian society, its orphanages and shelters, and along the streets of the nation to see how abandoned children are stigmatized and shunned. Readers come to understand how and why these children, left orphans by death or by choice, form their own culture to find power and to survive. This pioneering work on child abandonment looks at Russian society from a new angle: from the perspectives of abandoned youngsters and their caretakers. Based on direct observation of and interviews with abandoned children, this work shows why any effort to rescue these children calls for a deep understanding of Russian culture, and why any effort to address abandonment in Russia calls for a joint effort between psychologists, social workers, and the children themselves.

Researcher Fujimura takes us across history, into Russian society, its orphanages and shelters, and along the streets of the nation to see how abandoned children are stigmatized and shunned. We also come to understand how and why these children, left orphans by death or by choice, form their own culture to find power and to survive. This pioneering work on child abandonment looks at Russian society from a new angle: from the perspectives of abandoned youngsters and their caretakers. Based on direct observation of and interviews with abandoned children, this work shows why any effort to rescue these children calls for a deep understanding of Russian culture, and why any effort to affect abandonment in Russia calls for a joint effort between psychologists, social workers, and the children themselves.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Entering the Doorway to Abandoned Russia
Institutionalized, Neglected Orphans
Victims of a Failed System, or Cold Cultural Beliefs?
Many Forms of Abandonment
Moscow's Homeless Children
The Lure of the City
Domestic Violence Contributing to Child Homelessness by Tatyana Sudakova and Sally Stoecker
Options for the Abandoned Child
Their World Still With Secrets and Sorrow
Appendix
Endnotes
Bibliography

About the Author: Clementine K. Fujimura is an Associate Professor of language and culture studies at the United States Naval Academy, where she teaches Russian and German, culture, and literature courses. She received her doctorate in cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago and has been writing about Russia's homeless children, abandonment, and its cultural concept of childhood since 1991. She has received numerous grants and fellowships in support of her work on homeless children in Russia.

Sally W. Stoecker is a Lecturer in ciminology and criminal law, and a candidate of sciences, at Baikal State University of Economics in Irkutsk, Russia. Her reserach focuses on child homelessness, drug addiction of minors, and juvenile crime. She is formerly Coordinator of the Irkutsk Center for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption in Irkutsk.

Tatyana Sudakova is Scholar-in-Residence at American University's Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC), where she conducts research on human trafficking, child homelessness and exploitation, and juvenile crime. Stoecker also teaches courses on child homelessness and exploitation, and juvenile crime. Stoecker teaches courses on Russian politics in the School of International Service at American University and served as Executive Editor of Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization for six years.


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