No 3 (2013)

The article proposes to introduce and apply the concepts of “strong” and “weak” science, which in their research focus on the cognitive practices of social sciences. A “strong” social science (in a region or in the world) is a science whose representatives hold the leading position in the process of producing social knowledge as a whole. A “weak” social science is a science whose representatives occupy the position of outsiders in the production of social knowledge. The transformation of Russian social science from “weak” to “strong” requires the following prerequisites: leaning on the “inner” reserves; state support; development of freedom and democracy, as well as active national non-government foundations; and development of inter-disciplinary and poly-disciplinary research.

Despite the fact that various aspects of value orientations of today’s young people are widely covered in modern scientific and popular literature, it is hard to find research papers where dominant ideas in the outlook of the young generations would be considered through the prism of sociologically (and not psychologically) adequately interpreted fears. In sociology the problem of fear is most often viewed in the context of studying the so called “catastrophe consciousness” — the assessment of fears and apprehensions is done on the basis of wide representative examinations without focusing on the group of the youth specific in its ideological structure. The article presents basic outlines of sociological “measurement” of young people’s fears, hopes and apprehensions not in a comparative generation context, not only in the sphere of employment, not as an exclusively psychological condition, but from the point of view of a detailed characteristic of the general social well-being of this group.

The legal consciousness of a contemporary Russian is characterized by contradictions, which, as the article argues, are of a fundamental-critical nature, being a manifestation of the crisis in contemporary (not only Russian) society, connected with the formation of the indefinite society. The article presents the results of the methodological experiment which confirmed the thesis of a breach between the moral and legal aspects in the legal consciousness of Russian students.

The article examines the process of forming the theory of systems as a scientific paradigm of social-humanitarian cognition. Focusing their attention on the interpretations of the structural composition of a political system, the authors analyze the relations between the state and the citizens of modern Russia, the actually effective mechanisms of interaction between the authorities and public associations.

The article describes the experience of designing, testing and implementing the National system of monitoring the quality of meteorological services in Russia. Within the framework of this project a large-scale research program was carried out aimed to develop the conception, methodology, research tools and design of customer assessment of the Roshydromet services.

The article presents basic conceptual and empirical interpretations of the notion “patriotism”, used in sociological research on various subjects. On the one hand, the authors point out the complexity of this notion used by various disciplines, which becomes even more complex due to its obvious ideological connotation. The latter shifted its content and functional accents in the post-soviet period, but never lost its weight, which actually stands in the way of reaching a compromise by researchers in their theoretical interpretations of patriotism. On the other hand, the article demonstrates the “diagnostic” significance of empirical “readings” of the patriotic moods among the youth: it presents empirical indicators of assessing patriotism as a social goal, basic research approaches to the study of patriotism are systematized, and a comparative analysis of patriotic moods among students in Russia and Serbia is carried out.

The case study of a district in the Novgorod region shows some scenarios of recruiting new employees in the district and town municipalities, their work motivation and the most plausible career trajectories. The author argues that on the municipal level (district or its administrative center) there are parallel career ladders for the top-ranked municipal clerks and for the rest of the municipal staff: the career trajectory of the high-ranked clerks can be described as a step-by-step trajectory, while the one of the lower-ranked employees — as a shuttle trajectory. There is an almost insurmountable border line between these two levels of municipal hierarchy, an obstacle for implementing the classical Weberian characteristics of “proper” bureaucracy: meritocratic recruitment and workers’ promotion and predictable long-term career ladders.

The article examines the history of establishment, principles of organization, areas of activities and missions of the basic national and international archives of sociological research data in Russia, the USA and some European countries.