А Review of Alexandr Davydov, Pavel Abramov, Etnografiya tufty: kto i kak pishet zakaznye raboty v Rossii [The Ethnography of a Scam: Who Writes Commissioned Essays in Russia, and How They Do It]. Moscow: Social Research Support Fund “Khamovniki”; Common Place, 2021, 176 pp.

Аннотация

The book discusses the market for paid-for essays in Russia and the people involved in it, the ghostwriters. The authors themselves are no strangers to this occupation and describe not only other people’s experiences in the form of interviews, but also their own in the genre of auto-ethnography. The interviews and their personal experience demonstrate the motives for taking up this occupation, the peculiarities of working in it, the pragmatics of writing paid-for essays, the formation of small groups and communities of ghostwriters and their social trajectories from within the occupation and after leaving it. The organisation and functioning of different types of commercial associations of ghostwriters, such as workshops and marketplaces, is described. Particular space is devoted to the connection between ghostwriters and institutes of higher education, and also to how Russian higher education provides the conditions in which it is possible to earn money by writing paid-for essays. Unfortunately, although it addresses a gripping topic, includes excellent material and represents a significant first attempt at describing the functioning of the field of paid-for academic essays, the book is written rather haphazardly, and the interpretation and presentation lack structure.