The Russian stock market as a social space: A theoretical basis

Abstract

The world experience of investment activity shows that economic growth is impossible without an effective national stock market, which contributes to development of the shared economy and to creation of a community of owners. However, in the post-Soviet CIS countries stock markets operate mainly as secondary or speculative. These markets do not perform the functions of the developed stock markets. Therefore, the generally accepted theoretical interpretation of stock market's role and functions in the economy has not been proved in practice. There is a contradiction in the priority development of the national secondary stock markets in the CIS countries, whereas the primary share markets are ignored. The author of the paper presents his view on the sociological theory defined as «The Russian Stock Market as a Social Space» which shows the features of the emergence, development and functioning of stock markets. The author pays special attention to the theoretical justification for the formation of new social spaces. The stock market is represented as the social space with its capital, habitus and practices inherent by its actors. A brief comparative analysis of the formation of stock markets in the CIS countries, the United States and the Eastern Europe has been carried out.