Civil Society and Biopolitics in Contemporary Russia: The Case of Russian "Daddy-Schools"

Abstract

This article deals with civil society organizations active in the field of family pol-icy and demographic issues in contemporary Russia. This article uses Michel Foucault's con-cepts of biopolitics and governmentality and later developments discussing technologies of citizenship. More specifically, using interviews, documents, and participant observations, so-called "daddy-schools" that have emerged in and around Saint Petersburg since 2008, are studied as a mode of governmentality. The analysis shows how the civic initiative studied at-tempted to empower fathers and how it has altered demographic discourses while approach-ing similar societal goals as the state does in its biopolitical strategies. Thus, the daddy-schools provide a complementary discourse concerning fatherhood while approaching the same per-ceived demographic crisis that the Russian state is challenged by.