Based on data from a survey conducted in Saint Petersburg in 2013, this article sheds new light on attitudes towards fatherhood in contemporary Russia. We explore what norms are held concerning fatherhood, how these attitudes are related to age, sex, education and income as well as to ideal?typical models established in previous research on fatherhood from Western Europe and the US. Thus, the article also discusses what explanatory value established theoretical models have for the Russian context. Norms of the role of the father in the family are related to general norms of masculinity and, hence, are an important part of the study of politics and the political climate in a society. The results show that there are several fatherhood ideals present in contemporary Northwestern Russia: a traditional breadwinner model, an active fatherhood model as well as what we refer to as a marginalized fatherhood model. The latter has not been substantially identified in previous research, and may tentatively be identified as a legacy of the Soviet era.

This article deals with civil society organizations active in the field of family policy and demographic issues in contemporary Russia, using Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics and governmentality. More specifically, so called “daddy-schools” that have emerged in and around Saint Petersburg since 2008, are studied, using interviews and documents. The analysis shows that the organizations work as a complement to the state but have also been able to influence policy, alter legislation and challenge the established assumptions and governmentality of the Russian state concerning parenthood, the “good” father and how to deal with the ongoing demographic crisis and increase fertility.

History and traditions are important for many civil society organizations (CSOs). However, they have to mediate between their original mission and modern-day realities. This article argues that the concept of decoupling can enrich analyses of how organizations deal with path dependency. Hence, theoretically, the article discusses cross-fertilization between historical and organizational institutionalism. This is illustrated through a study of Swedish CSOs using survey data, interviews and documents. The Swedish popular movement tradition is argued to be a path that is not easily abandoned, and the results show how actors in CSOs find history to be both a resource and a constraint. Furthermore, different decoupling strategies, including both reversed and official decoupling, are used to balance between historical legacies and current challenges.

This paper will deal with civil society organizations active in the field of family policy and demographic issues in contemporary Russia, using Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics and governmentality. More specifically, so called “daddy-schools” that have emerged in and around Saint Petersburg since 2008, are studied, using interviews and documents. A preliminary analysis shows that the organizations work as complements to the state but have also influenced policy, altered legislation and challenged established assumptions and the governmentality of the Russian state concerning parenthood, the “good” father and how to deal with the ongoing demographic crisis.

Civil society organizations are discussed as actors who can reduce democratic deficits in global/regional governance institutions, not least the EU which is the focus of this paper. However, organizations with different aims and ideologies often come together in large meta-organizations to address EU-institutions. This paper studies how the identity and ideological acerbity of CSOs is affected by membership in heterogeneous meta-organizations through a case study of CONCORD Europe, active in the development cooperation field at the EU level. Theoretically, neo-institutional theory and research on meta-organizations is used. Empirically, documents and interviews with representatives of CONCORD and CONCORD’s membership are analyzed.