The Problem of Identity and Social Anxiety Among City Dwellers in Connection with the Holding of the World Cup in Saransk

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. “‘Ontologicheskaia bezopasnost’’ i ee granitsy v sovremennom obshchestve,” Sotsiodinamika, 2017, No. 9, pp. 75–89.

2. Vladimirova, T.V. “Sotsial’naia bezopasnost’: k obosnovaniiu sotsiologicheskoi perspektivy,” Idei i idealy, 2011, No. 1, p. 79.

3. Samygin, S.I.; A.T. Latysheva; and K.S. Cherevik. “Sotsial’naia bezopasnost’ kak sotsiokul’turnaia deiatel’nost’,” Gumanitarnye, sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie i obshchestvennye nauki, 2016, Nos. 1–2, pp. 58–62.

4. As of the beginning of 2018 the population of the city of Saransk was about 319,000 (Chislennost’ naseleniia po munitsipal’nym obrazovaniiam na 1 ianvaria 2018 g. // Territorial’nyi organ Federal’noi sluzhby gosudarstvennoi statistiki po Respublike Mordoviia. URL: https://mrd.gks.ru/folder/27964 (date accessed: 11/25/2019)). The capacity of the Mordovia Arena stadium is about 44,000 (Official website of the Mordovia Arena stadium. URL: https//arena-mordovia.com/places/203851 (date accessed: 11/25/2019)).

5. Giddens, E. [A.] Ustroenie obshchestva: Ocherk teorii strukturatsii, p. 499.

6. Quoted from Elfimova, O.S. “Kontsept bezopasnosti v sovremennykh zapadnykh sotsiologicheskikh teoriiakh,” Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo un-ta im. N.I. Lobachevskogo. Ser. “Sotsial’nye nauki,” 2012, No. 3, p. 36.

7. Barinov, D.N. “Sotsiostrukturnye istochniki trevozhnosti,” Vestnik Tambovskogo un-ta. Ser. “Gumanitarnye nauki. Filosofiia, sotsiologiia i kul’turologiia,” 2008, No. 10, p. 148.

8. Gofman, I. [Goffman, E.] Predstavlenie sebia drugim v povsednevnoi zhizni.

9. Barinov, ibid., p. 149.

10. Cherniavskaia, O.S. “Izuchenie identichnosti gorozhan,” Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo un-ta im. N.I. Lobachevskogo. Ser. “Sotsial’nye nauki,” 2012, No. 2, p. 96.

11. Taifel, H. Social Identity and Intergroup Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

12. We are grateful for the financial support from the Foundation for Educational Innovation of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, which allocated funds for executing the field stage of our study as part of the Rediscovering Russia program of expeditions.

13. “And in general, with such a crowd of people it’s easy to give in to the overall mood. What if, God forbid, there’s some kind of clash, I don’t want to be caught up in it” (a man of about thirty, lives in the center of the city).

14. “We corresponded with acquaintances, too. Some people say it’s spam. Well, as they say, spam is spam, but every spam contains a kernel of truth. We can go away, too” (a woman of about thirty-five, has a child).

15. “There’s a patrol continuously making the rounds here. Continuously. Before there was no one at all, and now there are three, four, or even five [police officers] at a time. There were some kind of continuous training exercises. The Ministry of Emergency Management, fire trucks, ambulances” (a woman of about fifty-five, lives outside the center of the city).

16. “People were worried that it [the World Cup] wouldn’t happen. They could have … What do you call it, what happened in ’80—those guys didn’t come, these guys didn’t come. That’s what people were concerned about. But the fact that the event is massive—that’s a good thing. In the end, after all, Mordovia did a great job” (a man of about sixty).

17. “As soon as the Cup started, everyone was absolutely thrilled, because while the matches in Saransk were going on, the atmosphere seemed like a total holiday. We were constantly going out into the streets, people were taking pictures with the foreign visitors, and attended the fanfests themselves. Eventually I became so caught up in the atmosphere that I bought tickets at triple the face value and went to a match” (a man of about thirty, lives in the center of the city).

18. An indirect indicator of the heightened interest of the fans and tourists who were visiting specifically in Saransk and Mordovia was the high demand for souvenirs on these themes and the relative meager sales of soccer paraphernalia. “Almost nothing [in terms of souvenirs] related to Saransk and Mordovia was left. … There were a lot of different Zabivaka dolls [the mascot of the 2018 World Cup, the name is derived from the Russian words zabiiaka (bully) and zabivat’ (to score).—Trans.]. By the way, even mugs with Saransk on them (from the official World Cup souvenir line) were already gone. But there was as much as you want of everything else” (a woman of about 45, a vendor at a souvenir stand).

19. “We had no doubts when Saransk got onto the expanded list (of host cities for the World Cup). But when it was detached in the final stage, everyone worried. They were glued to their TVs, and then strolled around and rejoiced” (a man of about forty, a sports reporter).

20. “My only concern was about how it would all go: whether we would fall flat on our faces. You never know, something might go wrong somewhere, there might be some glitch” (a man of about fifty).

21. “It is nice, after all, that our city performed well, especially with the good comments. Now we will look forward to the next competitions” (a man of about fifty).

22. “We’ve read a lot of positive comments from foreigners about our city in social media, they are all happy, with good feelings. And after all, there must be a reason, so we have something to be proud of!” (a woman of about twenty-five).

23. “They think, after all, that we are in the middle of nowhere here, with bears and hares all around … But there’s a nice city here, with humans it turns out. Real humans. We gave them a friendly welcome, with all our heart. And people must have tried scaring them out of traveling to Saransk. In other words, the opinion about this corner of Russia can change, after all” (a woman of about sixty-five).

24. “After all, Moscow and St. Petersburg are not the only ones that can present themselves this way. Here we also have a small town with only a few hundred thousand inhabitants” (a man of about thirty-five).

25. “No one knew what to expect from them. They might turn out to be completely different” (a woman of about forty-five).

26. Cherniavskaia, O.S. “Izuchenie identichnosti gorozhan,” Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo un-ta im. N.I. Lobachevskogo. Ser. “Sotsial’nye nauki,” 2012, No. 2, p. 96.

27. “Many were worried for their children, the reason being people from such (non-European) countries might bring some infection with them, and I would get out of the city. Others were afraid that people would come and follow some, to put it crudely, unwanted religion, let’s put it that way. … Then we also needed, in short, to leave” (a man of about thirty, lives in the center of the city).

28. “They aren’t boors, they are normal people, as we found out. They turned out to be very friendly and cheerful—it was nice to watch them. Even though we speak different languages, the same joy seemed to be on everyone’s faces—that’s where we found our points of contact” (a man of about fifty).

29. “I don’t speak English very well, but I have excellent comprehension. I heard a lot of satisfied conversations about Saransk—the volunteer workers would chat with the foreigners, and they (the foreigners) were practically planning their next visit there already. What captivated them was our Mordovian hospitality. They’re nice people” (a man of about thirty-five).

30. Cherniavskaia, O.S. “Izuchenie identichnosti gorozhan,” Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo un-ta im. N.I. Lobachevskogo. Ser. “Sotsial’nye nauki,” 2012, No. 2, p. 97.

31. “We knew ourselves that everything was pretty nice here. But when foreign tourists tell us that our city, a place called Saransk that no one had ever heard of before, was a very clean, very nice, inviting city, it’s still somehow pleasing, and you yourself already start to realize that, in general, yes, it really is” (a woman of about forty-five).