Blood Donation in Russia: the Self and the Body in the Donation Practices

Blood donation is a constantly developing sphere with an annual increase in number of blood donors, what requires a more thorough examination of this problem. As for Russian case, a gradual development of the activity is also observed there. However, the investigation of blood donation sphere is poorly developed from sociological point of view in Russia. In addition, a previous attempt (Shcherbakova, 2019) revealed some difference in motives of blood donors at various ageы, but the chosen theories gave no description of the reason to such a result. That is why, the present paper if focused on other theoretical approach, which is corporeality. The research has two aims, where the first one is to understand in what vector the donors perceive their blood, as an element of body or as a part of self, while the second one is to reveal whether such an attitude to blood may be a reason to giving the biomaterial. Sixteen interviews of blood donors under 26 were collected and then studies through content analysis. The findings showed that donors mainly perceived their blood as a biological particle, which can be used as a resource for serving society, what makes it also as a motive to starting this activity. The idea of perception of blood as a part of self was not widely reported, but was identified at the intention to create donor self by giving this biomaterial. Keywords: blood donation, young people, corporeality, body, self, gift, body wholeness, hierarchy of self