Jeremy Morris

I’m an ethnographer who has carried out fieldwork in Russia and (and a bit in Ukraine) since 2009. I lived in Russia in the 1990s. When I came back to the UK I did a PhD in Russian literature and then worked as a lecturer until taking up a research and teaching position in Denmark in 2016. I’m one of the only foreign researchers able to conduct fieldwork in Russia since 2022.

email: jmorris [at] cas.au.dk

Or search online: ‘Jeremy Morris Aarhus University‘

Full List of Publications (reverse chronological order):

2026

Morris, J. Russia’s Vanguard Authoritarian Neoliberal System, In, Don Kalb and Walden Bello, Backlash: The Global Rise of the Radical Right. London and Las Vegas: Pluto Press. pp. 122-141.

Shenderova, S, Morris, J. Comai, G. Where is Russian higher education? The spatial imaginaries and realities of internationalization policy. International Journal of Educational Research 136 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102860

2025

Morris, J. Maintaining the Illusion: Russian Society After Three Years of War Current History 124 (864): 243–248 https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.2025.124.864.243

Kovács B, Morris J, Grauslund Kristensen AS. Making Sense of Bureaucratic Information: Conceptualising Bureaucratic Translation. Social Policy and Society. Online first:1-14. doi:10.1017/S147474642510105X

Kovács B, Morris J, Grauslund AS. Performative agency among street-level bureaucrats: its implications for citizen encounters with the welfare state. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 45 No. 5-6 pp. 529–545, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-10-2024-0520

Morris, J. Everyday Russian Politics: From Resentment to Resistance. Bloomsbury (monograph, 250 pages)

Morris, J. (2025), Russian Politics: A Very Short Introduction by Brian D.Taylor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. 152 pp. $12.99. ISBN 978-0-19-751602-7. Russ Rev, 84: 728-729. https://doi.org/10.1111/russ.70085

2024

Morris J.  Chapter 12. Inequality and Marginalized Groups. In. Developments in Russian Politics 10, edited by Henry E. Hale, Juliet Johnson, Tomila V. Lankina

Morris, J. The “socialist” experiment, in Gregor Gall (ed). The Handbook of Labour Unions. Agenda Publishing.

Morris, J. The Ethical Imperatives Deriving from War: Decolonization Begins at Home. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 25(1): 143-154.

Morris J. How People Contribute to Foreign Policy—Contrasting Perspectives from Russia and Occupied Crimea – Elizaveta Gaufman. Everyday Foreign Policy: Performing and Consuming the Russian Nation after Crimea. Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2023. vii. 177 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. Figures. Tables. ₤85.00, hardbound. – Yuriy Lukanov. The Press: How Russia Destroyed Media Freedom in Crimea. Ukrainian Voices, vol. 32. Stuttgart: ibidem Verlag, 2023. 203 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Illustrations. Photographs. $25.00, paper. Slavic Review. 2024;83(1):129-133. doi:10.1017/slr.2024.321

2023

Bogdanova, E., Dzenovska, D., Morris, J., Muravyeva, M., & Pallot, J. (2023). Post-Soviet Studies: Crisis of Concepts, Conventions, and Compromises. Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research, 15(2), 93–114. https://doi.org/10.25285/2078-1938-2023-15-2-93-114

Morris, J. How homophobic propaganda produces vernacular prejudice in authoritarian states. Sexualities, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607221144624

Morris J. Coproducing the Car and the Stratified Street: Automobility and Space in Russia. In, Eds. Ger Duijzings and Tauri Tuvikene, If Cars Could Walk: Postsocialist Streets in Transformation.­ Berghahn, pp. 89-105.

Morris, J. Activists and Experiential Entanglement in Russian Labor Organizing. In, eds. J. Morris, A. Semenov, and R. Smyth. Varieties of Russian Activism: State-Society Contestation in Everyday Life. Indiana University Press. Pp. 143-165.

Jeremy Morris, Andrei Semenov, and Regina Smyth, Everyday Activism: Tracking the Evolution of Russian State and Society Relations /, In, eds. J. Morris, A. Semenov, and R. Smyth. Varieties of Russian Activism: State-Society Contestation in Everyday Life. Indiana University Press. pp. 1-30.

Jeremy Morris, Andrei Semenov, and Regina Smyth, Why Grassroots Activism Matters / In, eds. J. Morris, A. Semenov, and R. Smyth. Varieties of Russian Activism: State-Society Contestation in Everyday Life. Indiana University Press. pp.279-298,

2022

Morris, J. Political ethnography and Russian studies in a time of conflict, Post-Soviet Affairs, 39(1-2): 92-100.

Morris, J. Russians in Wartime and Defensive Consolidation. Current History 121(837):258-263.

Morris, J. »Har vi nogensinde været europæiske?« Hverdagsrefleksioner fra Rusland om køns- og seksualitetskulturkrigen. Nordisk Østforum | 36, 2022: 106-124 ISSN 1891-1773. https://doi.org/10.23865/noros.v36.3384

2021

Hinz, S. & Morris, J., (in press) “Arbeiter und alternative Gewerkschaften in Russland: Neo-Autoritarismus, Kooption und Widerstand”, Mehr als Arbeitskampf: Workers weltweit gegen Autoritarismus, Faschismus und Diktatur. Azzellini, D. (ed.). Hamburg: VSA-Verlag, pp.12

Hinz, S. & Morris, J., “Neo-Authoritarianism, Co-optation and Resistance: Workers and Alternative Unions” If Not Us, Who?: Workers worldwide against authoritarianism, fascism and dictatorship. Azzellini, D. (ed.). Hamburg: VSA-Verlag, p. 178-184 [translation of Arbeiter und alternative Gewerkschaften in Russland: Neo-Autoritarismus, Kooption und Widerstand]

Morris, J. And Orlova G. “Пандемия в (без)умном городе: цифровые протезы и аффордансы московской самоизоляции”. [edited book chapter] In, Лапина-Кратасюк Е. Г., Запорожец О. Н., Возьянов А. Сети города. Люди.Технологии.Власти. Новое литературное обозрение, Moscow. pp. 135-179. https://www.nlobooks.ru/books/studia_urbanica/

J.  Morris & M. Garibyan (2021) Russian Cultural Conservatism Critiqued: Translating the Tropes of ‘Gayropa’ and ‘Juvenile Justice’ in Everyday Life, Europe-Asia Studies, DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2021.1887088 20 p.

J. Morris, ‘From prefix capitalism to neoliberal economism: Russia as a laboratory in capitalist realism’, Sociology of Power 33(1): 193-221.

2020

Bryn Rosenfeld, Samuel Greene, Jeremy Morris, Grigore Pop-Eleches and Graeme Robertson. “Putin’s support is weakening. Will that show up in Russia’s regional elections this weekend?”, Monkey Cage Blog, Washington Post, 10 September 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/10/putins-support-is-weakening-will-that-show-up-russias-regional-elections-this-weekend/?tid=ss_tw

Orlova, G. & Morris, J. ‘City Archipelago: Mapping (post)lockdown Moscow through its heterogeneities’)  City & Society, 33(1) 18 p.

Morris, ‘Arbeitsprotest, Organisation und Klassenpolitik in Russland’ 20 Jul 2020, Russland-analysen. 389, p. 2-5

Polese, A., T. Stepurko and  J. Morris ‘Informality and (Lack of) State Legitimacy in Ukraine, A View from the Higher Educational Sector,’ in Elena Denisova-Schmidt (ed): Corruption in Higher Education Global Challenges and Responses. Brill, pp. 123–131.

Morris «Мизерная зарплата — главная проблема российского рабочего эпохи постсоциализма» Realnoe vremia, Kazan’ [newspaper article] 1 May 2020. https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/173460-dzheremi-morris-ob-izmenenii-balansa-mezhdu-kapitalom-i-trudom

J. Morris «Россия оказалась плодотворным полем для лаборатории неолиберализма», Republic 10 March [magazine interview] https://republic.ru/posts/96109?utm_source=republic.ru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morning

2019

J. Morris, ‘Russia’s Incoherent State’, Current History (October) 118(810): 251-257.

J. Morris, ‘The Informal Economy and Post-Socialism: Imbricated Perspectives on Labor, the State, and Social Embeddedness.’ Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, vol. 27 no. 1, 2019, pp. 9-30. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/715963.

2018

Morris ‘Review of: Simon Kordonsky, Socio-Economic Foundations of the Russian Post-Soviet Regime. The Resource-Based Economy and Estate-Based Social Structure of Contemporary Russia’, Europe-Asia Studies 70 (7), 1171-1172,

Polese, Seliverstova, O, Pawłusz, E. & Morris, J. (eds) 2018. Informal Nationalism After Communism: The Everyday Construction of Post-Socialist Identities,30 Mar 2018, London: I.B. Tauris. 213 p.

Polese, Seliverstova, O., Pawłusz, E. & Morris, J, 2018 Introduction: the silent noise of (everyday) identities., 30 Mar 2018, Informal Nationalism after Communism: The Everyday Construction of Post-Socialist Identities. London: I.B. Tauris, p. 1-16

Morris, 2018 ‘Hauntology and the trauma of social change: deindustrializing communities in Mumbai and provincial Russia’, 13 Feb 2018, City & Society, 30.

A Polese, L Rekhviashvili, B Kovács, J Morris (eds) Post-socialist Informalities: Power, Agency and the Construction of Extra-legalities from Bosnia to China, (Routledge), pp. 268, ISBN: 9781138296220.

Polese,J Morris& B Kovács 2016 States of informality in post socialist Europe and beyond, in A Polese, L Rekhviashvili, B Kovács, J Morris (eds) Post-socialist Informalities: Power, Agency and the Construction of Extra-legalities from Bosnia to China, (Routledge), pp. 1-10. ISBN: 9781138296220.

J Morris ‘2.9 Kalym (Russia)’, in, The-Global-Encyclopaedia-of-Informality-Volume.1. (ed. Alena Ledeneva), UCL Press, pp. 157-160.

J Morris, ‘Automobile masculinities and neoliberal production regimes among Russian blue-collar men’, in Masculinity, Labour and Neoliberalism: Global Perspectives, (eds. Charlie Walker and Steven Roberts), Palgrave, pp 171-193.

J Morris and S Hinz, ‘From ‘Avtoritet’ and Autonomy to Self-exploitation in the Russian Automotive Industry’, in Chris Hann and J. P. Parry (eds.) Industrial Labor on the Margins of Capitalism: Precarity, Class, and the Neoliberal Subject, Berghahn.

2017

J Morris, ‘An Agenda for work and class studies in the post-socialist world’, Sociology Compass 11(5): 1-12 (ISSN: 1751-9020, DOI: 10.1111/soc4.12476.)

A Polese, J Morris, O. Seliverstova, E. Pawlusz, (eds), The National in Everyday Life. Identity and nation­-building in post­-socialist spaces (Palgrave), pp. 182, ISBN: 9781138736412

A Polese, J Morris, O. Seliverstova, E. Pawlusz, ‘Introduction: on informal and spontaneous national identities’, in A Polese, J Morris, E. Pawlusz and O. Seliverstova (eds), The National in Everyday  Life. Identity and nation­-building in post­-socialist spaces (Palgrave), pp. 1- 14. ISBN: 9781138736412

J Morris and S Hinz, ‘Free automotive unions industrial work and precariousness in provincial Russia‘, Post-Communist Economies, 29(3): 282-96.

B Kovacs, A Polese and J Morris, ‘Chapter 12: Adjusting social welfare and social policy in Central and Eastern Europe growth, crisis and recession’, Handbook of European Social Policy. Kennett, P. & Lendvai-Bainton, N. (eds.). Edward Elgar, pp. 194–217. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781783476466.00021

B Kovács, J Morris, A Polese, D Imami; Looking at the ‘sharing’ economies concept through the prism of informality. Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society, 10(2): 365-378. doi: 10.1093/cjres/rsw046 ISSN 1752-1386

A Polese, L Rekhashvili, J Morris ‘Informal Governance in Urban Spaces: Power, Negotiation and Resistance among Georgian Street Vendors’, Geography Research Forum 36 (January 2017), 15-32. ISSN: 2414-8725

2016

J Morris ‘Not soft power, but speaking softly. ‘Everyday diplomacy’ in field relations during the Russia-Ukraine conflict’, Cambridge Journal of Anthropology 34(2) (September): 110-126. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/ca.2016.340208

A. Polese, J Morris & B Kovács 2016 ‘“States” of informality in post-socialist Europe (and beyond)’, introduction to special issue, Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 24: 181-190.

Y Krupets, J Morris, N Nartova, E Omelchenko, G Sabirova 2016. ‘Imagining young adults citizenship in Russia from fatalism to affective ideas of belonging’ Journal Of Youth Studies, 20(2): 252-267.

 J Morris 2016 ‘Review of: Ethnographies of Grey Zones in Eastern Europe: Relations, Borders, and Invisibilities, edited by Ida Harboe Knudsen and Martin Demant Frederiksen (Anthem Press, 2015, 205 pp.)’, Slavic Review 75(3).

J Morris 2016 ‘Review: Headlines of Nation, Subtexts of Class: Working-Class Populism and the Return of the Repressed in Neoliberal Europe. Ed. Don Kalb and Gábor Halmai. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2011.’ Anthropology of East European Review Vol 34, No 1.

J Morris and S Hinz 2016 ‘Trade Unions in Transnational Automotive Companies in Russia and Slovakia: Prospects for Working class power’, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 23(1): 97-112. ISSN: 09596801.

J Morris 2016 ‘Working-Class Resilience in Russia’ Current History (October) 115(783): 264-9.

J Morris 2016 Everyday Post-Socialism: Working-Class Communities in the Russian Margins (Palgrave) – pp. 260. ISBN 978-3-319-28524-5. September [see Research page for links]

2015

J Morris 2015 ‘Notes on the worthless dowry of Soviet Industrial Modernity’, Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research 3.December

J Morris 2015 ‘Venäläiset työläiset ja sääntelemättömät yrittäjät’, Idäntutkimus 2, February 2015 66-80

J Morris and A Polese 2015 Informal Economies in Post-Socialist Spaces: Practices, Institutions and Networks. (Palgrave), 304 pages (co-edited book; my contribution includes introduction, conclusion). [978-1-137-48306-5]

2014

J Morris and A Polese (edited Journal Special Issue) 2014 The Failure and Future of the Welfare-state in Post-socialism, Journal of Eurasian Studies, late 2014, 67000 words. [ISSN 18793665]

A Polese, J Morris, B Kovács & I Harboe 2014 ‘Welfare States’ and Social Policies in Eastern Europe and the former USSR: Where Informality fits in’, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 22: 2: 184-198. [ISSN 14782804]

J Morris and A Polese 2014 ‘Informal Health and Education Sector Payments in Russian and Ukrainian Cities: Structuring Welfare from Below ‘, European Urban and Regional Studies, 23(3): 481-496 [ISSN 09697764]

J Morris 2014 ‘The Warm Home of Cacti and other Soviet Memories: Russian Workers on the Socialist Period.’ Central Europe 12(1).

J Morris, V Strukov, N Rulyova (editors) 2014 New Media in New Europe  Asia (Routledge), 286 pages.

J Morris 2014 ‘Precarious work, entrepreneurial mindset and sense of place: female strategies in insecure labour markets: a response to Hanna-Mari Ikonen’, Global Discourse  DOI:10.1080/23269995.2014.883241

J Morris ‘Low wages and no dignity: Russian workers reflect on the stark post-Soviet choices in blue-collar employment’, International Labor and Working-Class History 84, 7 January 2014, pp 271-277. [ISSN 01475479]

2013

J Morris and A Polese (eds) 2013 The Informal Post-socialist Economy: Embedded Practices and Livelihoods (Routledge), 3rd December 2013, 188 pages. ISBN 978-0-415-85491-7

J Morris and A Polese ‘Introduction: informality – enduring practices, entwined livelihoods’ (with A. Polese), in  eds, J. Morris and A. Polese, The Informal Post-Socialist Economy: Embedded Practices and Livelihoods, (Routledge 2013), 1-19.

J Morris 2013 ‘Moonlighting strangers met on the way: the nexus of informality and Blue-collar sociality in Russia’, in, The Informal Post-socialist Economy: Embedded Practices and Livelihoods (Routledge), pp. 51-66.

J Morris 2013 ‘Actually-existing Internet Use in the Russian Margins: Net  Utopianism in the Shadow of the ‘Silent Majorities’’, Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia 2(2), 181-200. [ISSN 2166-4307]

J Morris 2013 Mastering Chaos: The Metafictional Worlds of Evgeny Popov (Oxford: Lang), 240 pages.

2012

J Morris 2012 ‘Unruly Entrepreneurs: Russian Worker Responses to Insecure Formal Employment‘, Global Labour Journal 3.2 (2012).

J Morris 2012 ‘Learning to Shoot Fish on the Internet: New Media in the Russian Margins as Facilitating Immediate and Parochial Social Needs,’ Europe-Asia Studies 64(8) (2012), 1546-64. DOI:10.1080/09668136.2012.712275.[ISSN 0966-8136]

J Morris [co-editors: V Strukov and N Rulyova] 2012 New Media in New Europe-Asia – a Special Issue of Europe-Asia Studies 64(8). [ISSN 0966-8136]

J Morris [co-authors: V Strukov and N Rulyova] 2012 ‘Introduction’, New Media in New Europe-Asia – a Special Issue of Europe-Asia Studies 64(8) 1349-55. DOI:10.1080/09668136.2012.712271[ISSN 0966-8136]

J Morris 2012 ‘Independent learning? I came to this university to be taught Russian’. A VLE-based project to support self-study,’ Rusistika September 2012.

J Morris 2012 ‘Beyond Coping? Alternatives to Consumption within Russian Worker Networks’, Ethnography, (13)4: 85-103. DOI: 10.1177/1466138112448021 [ISSN 1466-1381]

2011

J Morris 2011 ‘Socially Embedded Workers at the Nexus of Diverse Work in Russia: An Ethnography of Blue-Collar Informalization’ International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 31(11-12): 619-631. [ISSN 0144-333X], DOI:10.1108/01443331111177832

J Morris. 2011 Review: ‘Hilary Pilkington, Elena Omel’chenko & Al’bina Garifzianova, Russia’s Skinheads: Exploring and Rethinking Subcultural Lives. Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series. London & New York: Routledge, 2010, xþ292pp., £90.00 h/b. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 63, No. 5, 898-890.

2010

J Morris. 2010. Elevating Verka Serdiuchka: A Star-Study in Excess Performativity. In Glamour and Celebrity in Post-Soviet Russia: Shocking Chic, ed. H. Goscilo, London & New York, Routledge, 2010 pp. 195-218, ISBN 0415587654.

2009

J Morris. 2009. ‘Drinking to the Nation: Russian Television Advertising and Cultural Differentiation‘. In Globalisation, Freedom and the Media after Communism, eds. Birgit Beumers, Stephen Hutchings and Natalia Rulyova. Routledge 2009, 141-158. ISBN 978-0-415-48351-3. [link is to journal version]

J Morris. 2009. Review: The Absurd in Literature. By Neil Cornwell. Manchester and New York. Manchester University Press. 2006. xiii + 354 pp. £17.99, Modern Language Review, 104: 1, January 2009, 145-6. ISBN 978-0-7190-7410-3

2008

J Morris. 2008. Review: Eliot Borenstein, Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture. Ithaca, NY & London: Cornell University Press, 2008, xiþ239 pp., £10.95 p/b, Europe-Asia Studies, 60:7, September 2008, 1276-1277. ISSN: 09668136.

J Morris. 2008. Nation Branding and Russia: Prospects and Pitfalls, Russian Journal of Communication, 1: 2, 208-211. ISSN: 19409419.

2007

J Morris. 2007. Drinking to the Nation: Russian Television Advertising and Cultural Differentiation, Europe-Asia Studies, 59: 8, December, 2007, 1387-1403. ISSN 0966-8136.

2005

J Morris. 2005. The Empire Strikes Back: Projections of National Identity in Contemporary Russian Advertising, Russian Review, 64, 642-660. ISSN: 00360341.

J Morris. 2005. The Kitchen Space in Soviet Russian Writing: Escape or Refuge? (In Constructed Happiness – The Domestic Environment in the Cold War Era, Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, 245-260, ISBN: 9985960076.

2004

J Morris. 2004. From Chudak to Mudak? Village Prose and the Absurdist Ethics of Evgenii Popov, Modern Language Review, 99, 3, 696-710. ISSN: 00267937.

2003

J Morris. 2003. “Prokliataia dolia” v russkoi literature. Sluchai Evgeniia Popova. In Deviance in Social, Literary and Cultural Contexts, a Multidisciplinary Study, A. Lalo (Editor), Minsk, European Humanities University, 269-280, ISBN: 9856745012).