ABSTRACT
Employing a neo-institutionalist framework, this book has analysed the implementation of the deinstitutionalisation reform in the Russian context, embracing a wide variety of empirical phenomena. As the main findings, the multilayered analysis revealed sporadic and fragmented implementation, which in theoretical terms can be characterised as incremental institutional change and nested newness. Asking why these features are among the most sound in the case of the deinstitutionalisation reform in Russia, we identify four key factors which account for them. Firstly, the authoritarian political regime in Russia, which creates broader rules and sets incentives for individual and collective actors to act in an ambivalent manner in as far as actors must demonstrate numerical results despite scarce resources and limited time to shift everyday practices. Secondly, a low level of societal trust serves as an obstacle in much of the reforms, both at the individual level of behaviour and the organisational level of shifting from residential care to other forms of alternative care and preventive care. Thirdly, permanent and kinship-like understanding of alternative care contributes to a focus on alternative care rather than preventive care. And finally, child rights as the guiding principle seem to be overridden by another reform goal, namely the withdrawal of as many children as possible from residential care and, thus, meet the demands of foster parents looking for appropriate children. In seeking to reach these latter goals, as a rule, the interests of children are overlooked.
