Designing the Russian Worker Image in the Events Worldskills Russia

Abstract

This article raises the problem of constructing the working class as an imaginary community in the official power discourse. It is solved by the example of the Workdskills Russia event. The purpose of this research is to show the formation and development of perceptions about the Russian worker in the official power discourse of mega-events, and their connection with the practices of producing ideas of such a discourse. The study is based on the idea of P. Bourdieu about workers as a 'class on paper.' The approaches of M. Foucault and T.A. van Dyck emphasize the decisive role of power in structuring sociality. The official authoritative discourse of Workdskills Russia was studied using N. Fairklow’s theory. Sources and methods of analysis contain infrequent content analysis of publications in The Republic of Tatarstan newspaper and on the WorldSkills Russia portal, texts of competitions, their opening and closing ceremonies and other events that took place on August 22–27, 2019 in Kazan, and a semiotic analysis of the spectacular effects used by the power groups. During Workdskills Russia, several signs of a modern Russian worker were promoted. This is professionalism at the level of world standards, success in the profession, active participation in global social transformations, professional longevity, and the development of professional knowledge at any age. Various methods of discourse transmission utilized by the organizers of Workdskills Russia became part of the production of meanings in accordance with the genre of mega-events. The active phase of the production of official power discourse about the worker took place during the competition. Before the start of Workdskills Russia, it was characterized by poor content rhetoric and gradually disappeared after the event. Along with the promotion of the image of the Russian worker, the idea of a pan-­Russian civic identity and the desire to position Russia and Tatarstan before the world community has received a rich embodiment.