'If you are Small, Nobody Cares': Young Creative Entrepreneurs of St. Petersburg and Their Relations with the State

Abstract

The article discusses the experience of interaction among young creative entrepreneurs of St. Petersburg with controlling state authorities and their expectations of the state as a participant of economic relations. Experts analysing creative industries in Russia point out the need to strengthen government support for this sector: grant competitions, favourable rental conditions, educational courses or platforms for entrepreneurs. However, our analysis of fifty-eight interviews with craft entrepreneurs developing their business in St. Petersburg in 2018–2019 showed that young entrepreneurs seek, on the contrary, to preserve their autonomy and maximize the distance between their craft business and the state. The topic of formality / informality in a young entrepreneurs’ relationships with the state is revealed through the intersection of several axes: visibility – invisibility, closeness – distance, written – unwritten rules. They are dynamic in the changing of positions (for example, from invisible to visible and back) and the degree of youth agency (to what extent these relations turn out to be voluntary or forced). Young entrepreneurs rationalize their aspiration to remain invisible to the state with two arguments: the small size of their business and the absence of reciprocity from the state. Avoiding direct and regular contact with the state fits into two different scenarios: (i) 'bureaucratic incompetence' and (ii) 'autonomous economic agent.' Communication skills become a key form of capital that helps entrepreneurs survive and develop their business under a combination of formal and informal rules. While striving for independence and distance from the state, as well as critical attitudes towards the work of state authorities, the interviews emphasize the significant role of the state in creating formal economic institutions (rules of the game) and the readiness of young entrepreneurs to play by formal rules.