The Business-superman: Oligarchs Justifying Giving in Post-Soviet Ukraine
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Hanna Söderbaum
Hanna Söderbaum completed her doctoral thesis “From Oligarch to Benefactor? Legitimation Strategies among the Wealthy Elite in Post-Soviet Ukraine” at the Department of Economic History at Uppsala University in 2018. The thesis explores how wealthy actors in post-soviet Ukraine seek to legitimize their extraordinary positions in society through elite giving and media ownership. The analysis sheds light on the agency of individual actors in relation to oligarchy as a social system and contributes to the understanding of the role of elite giving in transition economies as well as in social change movements. Her articles have been published, for example in Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, Ukraina Moderna, Baltic Worlds.
Abstract
This paper examines the self-proclaimed public role of two Ukrainian oligarchs with special attention to how they justify their initiatives surrounding giving. Since the term oligarch has generally negative connotations in Ukrainian society, individuals who are in the public eye and perceived of as oligarchs have a strong need for legitimacy. The assumption is that the increased engagement in giving among the wealthy elite is connected to this need. Building on the theory of justifications and logics of worth by Boltanski & Thevenot and Boltanski & Chiapello, this study examines the donors’ perspective of the phenomenon: How do wealthy elite actors and their charitable organizations’ representatives explain their engagement in giving and their choice of philanthropic causes? The analysis builds on interviews with oligarchs published in the Ukrainian and international press as well as original interviews with foundation directors and employees. This paper demonstrates, on the one hand, an increasingly strong preference for efficiency, systemic approaches and statistics, belonging to the managerial world of worth. On the other hand, reference to authority, responsibility, loyalty and personal connections, belonging to the domestic world of worth, are also important in the value system. These two types of worth logics, in combination with a rhetoric of the inefficiency of the state, create the promotion of a self-appointed business-superman. Contrary to Schumpeter’s thesis of the dying entrepreneur, the dynamic of justification logics suggests that the current kind of capitalistic entrepreneur is highly sensitive and adjustable to social and political changes.
About the author
Hanna Söderbaum completed her doctoral thesis “From Oligarch to Benefactor? Legitimation Strategies among the Wealthy Elite in Post-Soviet Ukraine” at the Department of Economic History at Uppsala University in 2018. The thesis explores how wealthy actors in post-soviet Ukraine seek to legitimize their extraordinary positions in society through elite giving and media ownership. The analysis sheds light on the agency of individual actors in relation to oligarchy as a social system and contributes to the understanding of the role of elite giving in transition economies as well as in social change movements. Her articles have been published, for example in Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, Ukraina Moderna, Baltic Worlds.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Abhandlungen
- Friends or Foes of Transformation? Economic Elites in Post-Soviet Ukraine – an Introduction
- Oligarchs in Ukrainian Foreign Policymaking: Examining Influences in Transnational Politics
- Sustaining Business-State Symbiosis in Times of Political Turmoil: the Case of Ukraine 2007-2018
- The Business-superman: Oligarchs Justifying Giving in Post-Soviet Ukraine
- Global Arms Production and Ukraine’s Unpredictable Soviet Inheritance
- Forschungs- und Literaturberichte
- Die Rübenzuckerindustrie im Süd-Westen des Zarenreiches und die neuen Agrareliten
- Necessity or Luxury? Welfare Work in the Company Towns of the Russian Empire
- The Importance of Connections: The Rise of Jewish Business Elites in Galicia
- Handlungsspielräume in der Befehlswirtschaft – Die Hüttenwerke in der Ukraine unter deutscher Besatzung
- Preis für Wirtschaftsgeschichte
- The Political Role of Business Magnates in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Abhandlungen
- Friends or Foes of Transformation? Economic Elites in Post-Soviet Ukraine – an Introduction
- Oligarchs in Ukrainian Foreign Policymaking: Examining Influences in Transnational Politics
- Sustaining Business-State Symbiosis in Times of Political Turmoil: the Case of Ukraine 2007-2018
- The Business-superman: Oligarchs Justifying Giving in Post-Soviet Ukraine
- Global Arms Production and Ukraine’s Unpredictable Soviet Inheritance
- Forschungs- und Literaturberichte
- Die Rübenzuckerindustrie im Süd-Westen des Zarenreiches und die neuen Agrareliten
- Necessity or Luxury? Welfare Work in the Company Towns of the Russian Empire
- The Importance of Connections: The Rise of Jewish Business Elites in Galicia
- Handlungsspielräume in der Befehlswirtschaft – Die Hüttenwerke in der Ukraine unter deutscher Besatzung
- Preis für Wirtschaftsgeschichte
- The Political Role of Business Magnates in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes
