One of the most interesting and important parts of the LaboratoryТs work, which unites research and educational activities, is summer fieldwork. Students from each year have carried out fieldwork in the Leningrad region for two years running, together with Laboratory researchers. It all began with the project УPoverty in a Post-Soviet Capitalist SocietyФ (supervised by Natalya Danilova) which was financed by the УKhamovnikiФ Foundation. In 2006, five students from HSE Ц St. Petersburg joined the project, which took place in two settlements of the Priozersk region. One of them became the base for the LaboratoryТs summer fieldwork. Thanks to the УKhamovniki" Foundation, 15 students from HSE Ц St. Petersburg took part in the research.

The fieldwork has the simultaneous aims of research (collection of empirical material for the LaboratoryТs projects) and education (students get the opportunity to assess their abilities). As well as the usual student-lecturer form of socializing, they begin to communicate on another level; they are engaged in a team project, and consequently they get professional skills. Furthermore, this contributes to so-called effective secondary communication in the profession. But who can report on fieldwork better than the students themselves?