Teodor Shanin (20 October 1930 – 4 February 2020) was a British sociologist who was for many years Professor of Sociology at the
University of Manchester
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
. He was credited with pioneering the study of Russian peasantry in the West, and is best known for his first book, ''The Awkward Class: Political Sociology of Peasantry in a Developing Society, Russia, 1910–25'' (Clarendon Press, 1972). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Shanin moved to Russia where, with funding from
The Open Society Institute,
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
and others, he founded the
Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences in 1995. Shanin was President of the Moscow School, Professor Emeritus of the University of Manchester, and an Honorary Fellow of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
His main research interests were
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
, peasant studies,
historical sociology
Historical sociology is an interdisciplinary field of research that combines sociological and historical methods to understand the past, how societies have developed over time, and the impact this has on the present. It emphasises a mutual line ...
,
sociology of knowledge
The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and the effects that prevailing ideas have on societies. It is not a specialized area of sociology. Instead, it dea ...
,
informal economies,
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
, and
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
.
In 2002 he was made an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
for service to education in Russia.
Biography
Teodor Shanin was born in
Wilno
Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...
on 29 October 1930. He was exiled to Siberia in 1941 and after being freed on amnesty lived in
Samarkand
fa, سمرقند
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from the top:Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zinda, ...
,
Lodz, and
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
.
In early 1948 he left for
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
to take part in the
1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
(
Palmach
The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach ...
: Harel brigade). In 1952 he graduated from the
Jerusalem University College of Social Work, followed by a professional career in social work. He graduated from the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
in 1962 and completed his PhD in sociology in 1970 at the
University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
(where his dissertation was titled ''Cyclical Mobility and Political Consciousness of Russian Peasants 1910–1925''). He became a lecturer at Sheffield University, and in 1974 he was appointed Professor of Sociology at Manchester University. He was an Honorary Fellow of the
Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Rector of the
Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences, a Fellow at
St Antony's College, Oxford
St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economic ...
, and Visiting Professor at
Ann Arbor
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
(US).
Shanin was one of the originators of contemporary peasant studies. He made his name with his books ''The Awkward Class'' and ''Peasants and Peasant Societies'', the latter of which was reprinted numerous times and in many languages. For a time it was a basic textbook delimiting the topic. Shanin was one of the initial team of editors of ''
The Journal of Peasant Studies
''The Journal of Peasant Studies'', subtitled ''Critical Perspectives on Rural Politics and Development'', is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering research into the social structures, institutions, actors, and processes of change in ...
''. His other works and teaching addressed historical sociology, social economics, epistemology, interdisciplinary studies, political sciences and
rural history
In historiography, rural history is a field of study focusing on the history of societies in rural areas. At its inception, the field was based on the economic history of agriculture. Since the 1980s it has become increasingly influenced by social ...
. He paid particular attention to conceptualization and analysis of the so-called "developing societies". His fieldwork was in Iran, Mexico, Tanzania, and Russia. Shanin's methods stressed particularly interdisciplinary issues, and pointed at meeting of sociology with history, economics, philosophy, and political sciences. He described himself professionally as a historical sociologist.
Much of Shanin's work was given to Russia and bringing to life methodological traditions of Russia's rural studies of the early 20th century. It was also Russia where his research spilled into active involvement in organization within the educational sphere. This began in the early days of
perestroika
''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
when, together with academician
Tatyana Zaslavskaya
Tatyana Ivanovna Zaslavskaya (russian: Татьяна Ивановна Заславская, April 9, 1927 – August 23, 2013) was a Russian economic sociologist and a theoretician of perestroika. She was the prime author of the Novosibirsk ...
, he set up schools for up-training of young Soviet sociologists. The high point of those efforts became creation in 1995 of a Russian-English post-graduate university: the
Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences, whose first Rector he became. He was President of that graduate university. He was also instrumental in setting up of the InterCentre – a multi-disciplinary research unit of MSSES. Central to his vision and analytical work were efforts to overcome the over-simplifications of the theories of "progress". His works reflected impacts of scholars whom Shanin considered his teachers:
Mark Bloch,
Alexander Chayanov
Alexander V. Chayanov (russian: Александр Васильевич Чаянов; 17 January 1888 – 3 October 1937) was a Russian, then Soviet agrarian economist, scholar of rural sociology, and advocate of agrarianism and cooperatives.
...
,
C. Wright Mills
Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962) was an American Sociology, sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual journ ...
, and
Paul A. Baran
Paul Alexander Baran (; 25 August 1909 – 26 March 1964) was an American Marxist economist. In 1951 Baran was promoted to full professor at Stanford University and Baran was the only tenured Marxian economist in the United States until his ...
. In his later research, he put forward the concept of expolary economies – types of informal economy which challenge neoclassical economics and its relationship to state policies.
Shanin died on 4 February 2020 in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
.
Selected publications
Books in English
*
Alavi, Hamza & Shanin, Teodor (2003) ''Introduction to the Sociology of "Developing Societies"'', Monthly Review Press
* "Defining Peasants: Essays Concerning Rural Societies: Expolary economies and Learning from Them” Blackwell Publishing, 1990
* “Revolution as a Moment of Truth: 1905-1907→1917-1922” Yale University Press, 1986
* “Russia as a Developing Society: Roots of Otherness, Russia's Turn of Century” Macmillan, 1985
* "Late Marx and the Russian Road: Marx and the Peripheries of Capitalism", Routledge, GB. Monthly Review US, 1983
* “The Rules of the Game: Models in Contemporary Scholarly Thought” (ed.) Tavistock Publications, 1972
* "The Awkward Class: Political Sociology of Peasantry in a Developing Society, Russia 1910-1925"'','' Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1972.
* ‘Peasants and Peasant Societies’ (ed.) Penguin Books, 1971
Books in Russian
* Отцы и дети. Поколенческий анализ современной России, Левада Ю., Шанин Т., НЛО 2003
enerational Analysis of Contemporary Russia
* Крестьянское восстание в Тамбовской губернии в 1919-1921гг. Антоновщина, (ed. together with V.Danilov) Тамбов, 1994
he Peasant War in Tambov Region in 1919–1921. Antonovschina* Неформальная Экономика: Россия и Мир, (ed.) Логос, 1999
nformal economies: Russia and the World
* Рефлексивное крестьяноведение и десятилетие исследований сельской России, (ed. together with A.Nikulin and V.Danilov) РОССПЭН, 2002
eflexive Peasantology
References
External links
* Teodor Shanin
The Idea of Progress 1997.
Web-page about Teodor Shanin's life, books and Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, cofounded by himSelected Articles*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shanin, Teodor
British sociologists
Polish sociologists
Development specialists
Academicians of the Russian Academy of Agriculture Sciences
Academicians of the VASKhNIL
1930 births
2020 deaths
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Writers from Vilnius
Palmach members
Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Social Sciences alumni
British Jews
British socialists
Deutscher Memorial Prize winners