The Centre for Independent Social Research (CISR) was established in 1991. In the early nineties a diversity of independent sociological research organisations appeared in the largest cities of Russia. Following their own priorities and finding themselves under the pressure of newly-forming market conditions, the majority of such organisations has focused onšapplied commercial research. CISR, however, has been one of the few non-state institutes in Russia engaged in both academic research as well as professional training for young researchers.
The 15-year period of CISR's existence can be conventionally divided into three phases. The first phase began a few years before the legal registration, when a group of enthusiastic employees of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Sociology (Russian Academy of Sciences), inspired by the rapid social and political changes in the country on the one hand, and unsatisfied with the system of Soviet science organisation on the other, set out to conduct independent research.
Credit for the idea of establishing an independent sociological institute belongs to Viktor Voronkov and Oleg Vite. Likewise, Eduard Fomin, Elena Zdravomyslova and Ingrid Oswald took an active part in the creation of the Centre and joined Viktor Voronkov and Oleg Vite soon after.
The founders aimed to create a non-state, non-commercial research organisation that would address a series of tasks. First, they aimed to create a flexible organisational structure that would facilitate operative decisions and research on social changes in the country with minimum bureaucratic formalities. Secondly, the new institute ought to be a resource centre for young sociologists and non-state Russian organisations focused on conducting scientific research. Finally, the centre and its employees ought to seek to integrate itself into the world sociological community.
The first phase of CISR's development also includes the formation of a research staff, the application for international grants and the recruitment of students and post-graduates to work at the Centre. Initially, all the Centre's activities, including thešregular seminars, took place in one of the organisers' private apartments.
The beginning of the second phase can be traced to 1993, when, thanks to the support of foreign colleagues, the Centre became the official owner of the four-room apartment which was then converted into an office. The office consisted of several workstations equipped with computers, an archive, a library, and a small room which was used as a conference-hall. Having developed rapidly for several years, received more and more research grants from foreign foundations, and having recruited anšincreasing number of researches, CISR had become a significant participant in the international sociological community. Thešnumber of employees exceeded 30 persons, and in 1996 the Centre received the status of an "Autonomous Non-Commercial Organisation".
The third phase of CISR's development commenced in 2000, when the Centre received a grant from the Ford Foundation for thešpurchase of a new office. Then, in 2001, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation provided a grant which was thešfirst one aimed specifically at the Centre's institutional development. These grants allowed the Centre to renew its facilities and make them available for more researchers. The grants also enabled the Centre to broaden its activity area and to apply new forms of work with young scientists, especially educational ones.
These new conditions have opened up opportunities for the further development of the Centre. They have also allowed for thešintensification of further sociological research and the training of the new generation of sociologists. Currently, 40 persons work at the Centre: seven attend to the maintenance of the organisation, and the remainder are researchers.
The Centre has a well-developed infrastructure:
- a library with more than 12 000 items containing relevant publications in Russian, English and German;
- a large research archive;
- an archive of the biographical and task-oriented interviews collected since 1991 during the research process and sections of related news items in 60 research areas.
Since 1995, the Centre has published its own periodicals in Russian and English in which research results have been presented (ten issues of the Working Papers have been published). Up to 100 works of CISR researchers are published annually in Russian and foreign scientific journals (they are also available in the library).