Biopolitics in Russia: History and Prospects for the Future

What is the structure of a modernized hirama-type network like? It is a creative group of 10 to 20 people. It deals with an interdisciplinary task/problem such as Small-Quantity Generators of Environmental Pollution or Culture as a Self-Organizing Evolutionary System. The problem (task) is subdivided into several subproblems. However, despite subdividing the problem into subproblems, the group is not subdivided into parts. The group members work, in parallel, on several (ideally on all) subproblems. The subproblems, therefore, should overlap and provide for a broad interdisciplinary vision of the group's focus.Roles or functions in this network structure as not fixed or defined, as with the "offices" in a Weberian bureaucracy. Often only one person, the subproblem leader, is explicitly attached to a particular subproblem (see Fig. 1). This person collects ideas on this subproblem, generated by other group members. A hirama-type network group has also a psychological leader. The individual in this functional role estimates the contributions of all members to the intellectual "money-box" of the network group. The psychological leader, however, does not overemphasize this controller function. This role is rather that of a helper, providing advice, support, and psychological help that is often sought by other group members. Like a "socio-emotional leader" in any task-oriented groups, this individual "can reinforce or reward people on a personal level, take care of the emotional well-being of the group, and behave in ways designed to reduce tension and provide orientation for the group" (Burgoon et al. 1974: p. 146).

A network of this kind typically also includes an "external affairs" leader. This individual with this role is responsible for organizing the activities outside the group itself, propagandizing hirama-promoted ideas, establishing contacts with other network groups and organizations, and shaping the pastime and leisure activities, thus contributing to the development of informal loyal relationships among group members. Both the psychology and external affairs functions entail personalizing and harmonizing the relations among members. Modernized hirama-type networks usually make alterations in the group's organizational pattern. For instance, additional leader roles are introduced:

Figure 1. Hirama networking pattern. This is a "momentary close-up" picture, since this structure is dynamic, and creative subunits included in it are constantly in the process of formation & disintegration (fission-fusion structures, resembling the hunter-gatherer society pattern, see Maryansky and Turner, 1992). Designations: S, subproblem leaders; G - just group members; O - an outsider collaborating with the group on one of the subproblems. Thin-line circles are temporary creative subunits or discussion groups. These relationships all correspond to the "task-fullfillment plane" shown in the picture. The psychology and "external affairs" leader (P and E, respectively), are beyond this plane. Types of relations: → partial (task-limited) leadership; ↔ horizontal networking; no symbol between two individuals, standing by and watching.

a commercial leader, responsible for searching for sponsors and grant opportunities and for marketing and other profit-making activities; an organizational leader who is particularly important while a hirama-like group is organizing its work and legalizing its status; a spiritual leader (a "guru"). It is evident from the above historical examples that the operation of community-type structures depends on unitary spiritual values, often implying collective attempts at "attaining certain ideals" (Kanter, 1972: p.2). This conceptual basis is personified by the "guru" image.

The group members strive to attain the goals formulated by the "guru" (King Hiram was probably the first of such "gurus"). Importantly, this "spiritual guidance" by the "guru" should be prevented from transforming into an authoritarian dictatorship, which would be quite incompatible with the decentralized non-hierarchical character of a hirama-like group. For this reason, "hiramists" typically prefer a legendary "guru" (like Wilhelm Tell in Switzerland), a long-deceased person whose ideas are contained in his/her works, or, finally someone sufficiently far away from the group's location (the Moscow University hirama dealing with biopolitics has recently suggested an American biopolitician as the "spiritual leader").

Hirama-type structures, despite all modifications, retain some general structural similarity to a primitive hunter-gatherer band. Some essential social functions in a hunter-gatherer group have their equivalents in a hirama. For instance, the "headman" described by Maryansky and Turner (1992) corresponds to the "external affairs" leader in a network group, the shaman resembles the "psychology leader", and the influential people, who are especially skillful in doing certain jobs, are clearly related to creative "subproblem leaders".

Hiramas and similar groups can be useful in a number of different ways in post-communist countries. As internally dynamic and flexible, informal relationships-enhancing collectivities, they can effectively operate in an unstable, unpredictable, turbulent, and ruthless social environment. In contrast, more formalized and more hierarchical groups can only perform well under stable socio-political conditions (Scott, 1981). The following list deals with "a representative sample" of potential applications of hirama-like groups in present-day Russia:Interdisciplinary Scientific Research. For instance, an analysis of the effects of environmental pollution on human social behavior cannot be carried out by any traditional-style specialized "Scientific Research Institute," insofar as this analytic research calls for joint efforts of chemists, biologists, neuropsychologists, and scholars in various fields of social sciences and humanities. A modernized network group seems to be an attractive option in this situation. The transition to a market society in Russia (and other similar post-communist countries) necessitates creating special job positions dealing with grant applications, financial accounting, and other tedious "paperwork". The commercial leader position in a modernized network group is perfectly adapted for this sort of work. However, according to the hirama principles (and common sense as well), the commercial leader should only coordinate this work, done by the whole network group with its creative "subproblem leaders". Small Management-Oriented Group can be structured as a hirama (a kibbutz is also an option successfully tested by history). Apart from the commercial leader, who becomes a "star of the first magnitude" under these circumstances, the organizational leader can also be expected to be extremely useful. This individual will be responsible for all the legal procedures involved, from promoting the official establishment of the management group to filing commercial lawsuits, a very frequent practice in an "uncivilized" market environment. In such fields as computer software, such networking groups have often proved far more effective than larger, bureaucratized firms. Small-Size Political Decision-Making or Problem-Resolving Organization. The creativity-oriented laboratory "Russia's Future," set up under the aegis of the City Council of Moscow, is a good real-life example of an operative network composed of 12 hirama-like structures. In the United States over the last generation, "think tanks" like the Rand Corporation or Hudson Institute have repeatedly illustrated the advantages of such networks in policy planning. Family. Particularly an extended, polynuclear family (e. g. resulting from a previous divorce with subsequent reconciliation, achieved in the interest of the children) can be restructured as a network group. Everybody will feel like a partial leader, and viewing someone as a family "psychology leader" will undoubtedly help overcome the tensions characteristic of such post-divorce families (or ex-families). Staffs, Cabinets, and Committees within Command-and-Control Bureaucracies. Even within traditional, hierarchically organized bureaucracies, much of the crucial work is conducted in committees and staff networks that are organized in a loose fashion that does not correspond to formal tables of organization and morms of authority. Most obvious in "inter-ministerial" coordinating committees established to meet temporary crises, the hirama is also approximated in some standing committees. High level officials in business and government typically have staffs and aides that are often organized in loose networks, particularly under leaders like the American Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy who resist bureaucratic rigidity. Even at the apex of a modern industrial state, the Council of Ministers advising the head of government may be supplemented by an informal "kitchen cabinet".Despite these applications of these small-scale structures, post-communist society cannot be restructured from below unless these isolated networks are linked to produce "molecular" networks.hiramas should use horizontal, non-coercive contacts between them. The establishment of a truly horizontal "molecular" network is facilitated by the social leaders who fulfill "external affairs" function. It is in their competence to conduct negotiations between network groups, thereby establishing creative unions, hiramiades. The resulting unions may be very loose, temporary task-oriented organizations (with the main decision-making power resting with the individual network groups). An example of such relationships might be the interlocking memberships on the Boards of Directors of large American industrial, commercial, and banking firms (Levine, 1984). A relatively rigid second-order structure (practically tested by the Moscow City Council) may be expedient under conditions favoring long-term cooperation among a number of hirama-like groups, with each group specializing in a specific part of the overall task. Despite this specialization, each network group deals with a sufficiently broad field of interdisciplinary research, and the tasks of individual network groups overlap. The resulting network can be called a"second-order" network group if the individual groups join together according to the hirama pattern. In this case, each of the modernized hirama functions (subproblem, psychology, "external affairs", organizational, and commercial leaders) corresponds to a specific network group, which, in keeping with its organizational principles, breaks down its subproblem into "sub-subproblems". Thus, one of the groups deals with the external affairs of the whole collective, and this task is further subdivided inside it.