A Review of Gary Gallopin's Beyond Perestroika

Axiology and the New Russian Entrepreneurs

Abstract

This author brings the discipline of formal axiology into his research as an ethnographer to discern the value structures of Russian entrepreneurs during a time of great social change—the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Gallopin advances the discussion of formal axiology in three new directions. First, he discusses the role of values in understanding culture. Second, he uses formal axiology as his lens through which to study the Russian phenomenon known as “blat.” Blat can be roughly translated as “networking.” Third, and perhaps most originally, Gallopin applies formal axiology to social network analysis. He explores values that are manifested in relationships between or among people. He describes the common ground that needs to be established between any two people who are seeking a relationship as being located at the cusp between extrinsic valuation and intrinsic valuation. He names this cusp the “potential intrinsic.”