Editor-in-Chief: Nikolay P. Narbut, DSc. (Sociology), Professor ISSN: 2313-2272 (Print) ISSN: 2408-8897 (Online) Founded in 2001. Publication frequency: quarterly PUBLISHER: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba (RUDN University) Open Access: . APC: no article processing charge Peer-Review: double blind. Publication language: Russian, English Indexation: White List, Russian Science Citation Index (K1), Web of Science Core Collection — Emerging Sources Citation Index (Clarivate Analytics), Scopus (Q2), Google Scholar, Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, WorldCat, Cyberleninka, ERIH PLUS, DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), Dimensions, ResearchBib, Lens, Research4Life, JournalTOCs
Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumamba
The right of authorship belongs to the authors of articles. The authors transfer the rights to use the article (including the use and distribution of an article in the Open Access) to the publisher of the journal on a non-exclusive license (Publishing Agreement (Public Offer)). At the same time, authors remain full rightsholders. Publishing Agreement (Public Offer) to Publish an Article in an Academic Periodical RUDN Journal of Sociology The Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education "Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba” (RUDN University), represented by the Vice-Rector for Scientific Work Andrey Aleksandrovich Kostin, acting under a Power of Attorney No 0036-03/21-163 dated 12.10.2021, hereinafter referred to as the Publisher, on the one hand, hereby offers to the public at large, hereinafter referred to as the Author, on the other hand, hereinafter collectively referred to as the Parties, to enter into this agreement, hereinafter referred to as the Agreement, regarding publication of scholarly materials, hereinafter referred to as the Article, in the Journal named 'RUDN Journal of Sociology', hereinafter referred to as the Journal, under the following terms. 1. General Terms and Conditions 1.1. Pursuant to Clause 2 of the Article 437 of the Russian Federation Civil Code, this Agreement shall be recognized as the public offer, hereinafter referred to as the Offer. Subject to Article 438 of the Russian Federation Civil Code, this Offer shall be deemed to have been completely and irrevocably accepted after the Author had submitted his/her materials by uploading those onto the network electronic system of the article acquisition for review available at the respective section of the Journal's site at URL: http://journals.rudn.ru/index.php/sociology/author/submit/1 on the Information and Communication Network known as the Internet, hereinafter referred to as the Internet. 1.2. 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The Offer Acceptance means a complete and irrevocable acceptance of the Offer under the terms specified in Clause 3 hereof (the Author accepts the Offer by submitting an application to the Publisher, i.e. by uploading the Article along with support materials onto the network electronic system of the article acquisition for review available at the respective section of the Journal's site at URL: http://journals.rudn.ru/index.php/sociology/author/submit/1 on the Internet). The Journalmeans an academic periodical named 'RUDN Journal of Sociology'. The Application means an electronic request of the Author addressed to the Publisher for publishing the Article in the Journal by uploading the Article and support materials onto the network electronic system of the article acquisition for review available at the relevant section of the Journal's site at URL: http://journals.rudn.ru/index.php/sociology/author/submit/1 on the Internet). 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The Journal's Editorial Staff will not enter into any correspondence regarding the rejection of the Article by the Journal's Editorial Board; suspend provision of services to the Author hereunder temporarily for technical, technological and other reasons preventing the services from being provided for the duration of remedial activities; suspend services hereunder in accordance with civil procedures if: the Article does not correspond to the topics covered by the Journal or by any part thereof, or the submitted material is found insufficient for the individual publication, or the Article design is found at variance with the requirements imposed; the Author is in breach of any other obligations assumed under the Offer arrangement; introduce changes to the Offer as per the procedure established by the Offer. 5.6. Unless otherwise provided or stated herein, the Parties shall refer to the effective legislation of the Russian Federation. 6. Offer Acceptance and Conclusion of the Agreement. The Term of the Agreement 6.1. This Agreement shall become effective when concluded, i.e. when the Author Accepts the Offer by sending an application to the Publisher, that is, by uploading the Article (Article Upload), and remain in effect for five years. 6.2. The Offer Acceptance constitutes an Agreement made in writing (Articles 438 and 1286.1 of the Russian Federation Civil Code) under the Offer terms. 6.3. Unless any of the Parties sends to the other Party a written notification of the Agreement termination no later than two months prior to the end of the specified five-year period, the duration of the Publisher's copyright to the Work shall be automatically extended by the similar period. The number of extensions is not limited. 6.4. The term of the Agreement may not exceed the duration of exclusive rights to the Article pursuant to the Russian Federation legislation. 6.5. 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Any notifications, messages, requests etc., excluding documents which need to be forwarded in original form pursuant to the Russian Federation legislation, shall be deemed to have been received by the Author, if delivered (sent) by the Publisher via the Journal's site, including by publishing those, by fax or e-mail specified in the Application, or using other communication facilities. The Parties acknowledge validity of notifications, messages, requests etc. delivered (sent) using the above-listed methods. 10.2. Where the Publisher becomes subject to any claims related to non-compliance with an exclusive copyright or other intellectual property right of any third party during the writing of the Article or in connection with conclusion of this Agreement by the Author, the Author undertakes to: immediately upon receipt of a Publisher's notification, take measures to settle disputes with such third party, and, where necessary, join the litigation in favor of the Publisher and use its best endeavors to exclude the Publisher from the defendants; reimburse the legal cost, expenses and loss incurred by the Publisher as a result of application of a pre-award relief and measures for execution of a judgment, and damages paid by the Publisher to any third party for the infringement of exclusive copyright and/or other intellectual property rights, as well as other expenditures incurred by the Publisher as a result of infringement by the Author of any warranties provided hereunder. 10.3. Subject to Article 6 of the Federal Law On Personal Data No. 152-FZ dated July 27, 2006, for the period from the conclusion of this Agreement and until the discharge of Parties obligations hereunder, the Author expresses his/her consent to processing of the following personal data by the Publisher: last name, first name, patronymic; taxpayers identification number (TIN); place and date of birth; citizenship details; ID document details; registration and actual location address; e-mail address; mailing address with postal code; contact phone numbers; fax numbers; and details of the employers. 10.4. The Publisher is entitled to process the above personal data for the purpose of this Agreement performance, including for provision of information and reference services to the Author. The processing of personal data shall be understood to mean any handing (operations) with personal data, including collection, systematization, accumulation, storage, refinement (update, alteration), use, distribution (including transfer to third parties), depersonalization, blocking and deletion of personal data in accordance with the effective Russian Federation legislation. 10.5. Where permitted by the Russian Federation legislation, the Author is entitled to withdraw his/her consent to processing of personal data as listed in Clause 10.3 by forwarding a respective notice to the Publisher. Upon receipt of such notice, the Publisher has a right to suspend services. 10.6. The Author will, on a goodwill basis, submit his/her details (and details of each Co-Author subject to their prior consent) to the Journal's Editorial Office consisting of his/her: last name, first name, patronymic, academic rank, academic degree, job title, employer details (name and mailing address), work phone number and e-mail address for the purpose of its general publication in the Journal along with the Article. 11. Registered Address and Particulars of the Publisher Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education "Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba” (RUDN University) Address: 6 Mikluho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation TIN 7728073720, CRR 772801001, PSRN 1027739189323. Vice Rector for Scientific Work A.A. Kostin
R. Merton: Factors of production of scientific innovations in sociology
The article considers the nonlinear production of scientific innovations in sociology in the context of Robert Merton’s success in creating an original theory in competition with other authoritative scholars. The relevance of his experience is determined by todays’ focus on training sociologists as experts ready to develop creativity and ability to apply unconventional approaches to diagnose the increasingly complex challenges that Russian scientists face. The article explains the enduring significance of such Merton’s principles as “organized skepticism”, “sociological ambivalence”, and “specific ignorance”, which have proven their efficiency in producing scientific innovations in various historical periods. The article presents Merton’s description of sociology in the USSR through its “original organization” as the social-cultural determinant of such innovations as the integral use of the results of natural sciences and sociology for the national development, “rapprochement” of Marxism and the world sociological thought as the basis for the transition from monodisciplinarity to polyparadigmality, development of “engineering of social change”, new ideas about social well-being as a working and healthy lifestyle, search for humanized technologies, etc. The authors focus on the expression “standing on the shoulders of giants”, which allowed Merton to reveal the “critical nonlinear reflection” of scientific innovations not only in sociology, but also in natural sciences. The authors make conclusions about the cultural and civilizational determinacy of innovations in sociology, providing an example of a comparative analysis of the contribution of Russian and foreign scientists to the world sociological thought and warning about the uncritical borrowing of “universal” innovations from other cultures as leading to pseudo-innovations, non-functionality and dysfunctionality of social institutions.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kravchenko S.A., Filippov R.I. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Artificial sociality: Ontological foundations of sociological research
The article considers the phenomenon of artificial sociality as a new form of social being that emerges under the widespread dissemination of digital technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), and algorithmic mediation. The relevance of the study is determined not only by the technological penetration of AI into everyday life and institutional interactions, but also by the lack of an established ontological and methodological framework for the analysis of emerging hybrid forms of communication. The article aims at identifying ontological foundations and analytical perspectives of the sociological study of artificial sociality, providing its typology and assessing its social consequences. The theoretical-methodological basis of the article is formed by systems theory (N. Luhmann), critical realism (R. Bhaskar), social constructivism (P. Berger and T. Luckmann), and concepts of the network society and hybrid agency (M. Castells, T. Malsh, S. Turkle, D. Haraway). The authors expand ontological analysis with the tools of digital sociology: categories of autopoiesis, network, agency and mediatization and approaches of digital ethnography and analysis of algorithmic structures. Thus, artificial sociality is presented as a stable socialtechnical phenomenon with such features as subjectivity, institutional integration, and symbolic legitimation. The authors distinguish five forms of artificial sociality (imitational, assistive, hybrid, agent-initiated, and autonomous) and mention directions for their empirical analysis and criteria for operationalization, emphasizing that artificial sociality not only transforms institutions and communications but also generates new forms of social stratification, desubjectivation, and digital inequality.
Copyright (c) 2025 Menshikov V.V., Komarova V.F. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Deepfake as a social-technical artifact: A sociological analysis
Deepfakes as digital artifacts created with deep machine learning have already become a common phenomenon with multiple forms, but social consequences of this technology are still controversial. The authors conducted a sociological analysis based on the social construction of technology theory (SCOT) and cultural sociology to identify three intertwined levels of the deepfake as an artifact: (a) technical - based on generative neural networks capable of creating highly realistic content and providing artificial intelligence (AI) with features of a perfect mimetic object, thus, overcome barriers of social recognition; (b) media - mechanisms of pragmatic impact, including creolization, intertextuality and metanarrativity; (c) social - functions and dysfunctions of deepfakes and also social domains that change under their influence. The social significance of deepfakes is ambivalent: on the one hand, this technology is highly risky, produces significant threats to privacy, cybersecurity, and social stability; on the other hand, it provides previously unseen opportunities for development in the fields of art, education, healthcare and business. This approach allows to overcome the limitations of the dominant alarmist discourse that reduces deepfakes to tools of disinformation and fraud, thus revealing the social construction of technical artifacts. Despite the obvious discursive stigmatization in the very portmanteau “deepfake”, it is important to see the satirical potential of such media as a tool for maintaining democratic culture. In the mixed communication perspective, deepfakes ensure visible prosopopean transmobility of AI, creating new forms of social agency through the mechanisms of social mimesis. The most technically advanced deepfakes generate virtual personas capable of effective mimetic communication beyond the “uncanny valley”. Their quasi-human subjectivity is recognized as normal and credible, since the conditions for constructing a significant Other are mimetic: mimicry (of human visceral features); imitation (of social actions); emulation (of meaningfulness and empathy). As with other innovative technologies, the key to controlling deepfakes is not its prohibition but a deep understanding of its social construction together with reasonable modes of its management in the interests of the public good.
Copyright (c) 2025 Katernyi I.V., Karpova D.N., Skulchuk E.V. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The privacy paradox: Why privacy concerned users disclose personal data
The loss of privacy is one of the most powerful challenges associated with the Internet media. Information privacy is an important topic of empirical and theoretical research mostly focused on the level of information privacy concerns. Regular monitoring of public opinion on this sensitive issue revealed the “privacy paradox”: Internet users express concern about information privacy and report a desire to protect their data but disclose personal data for a small reward and rarely make efforts to protect their privacy. The privacy paradox is widely considered in Englishlanguage works, while in Russia, there are only a few studies and no complete overview of the current relevant theoretical explanations of the paradox. The article aims at presenting the most popular and widespread theoretical explanations of the privacy paradox. Based on the conceptual, comparative and integrative analysis of empirical, theoretical and review articles in English, the article identifies the following relevant ways for explaining the privacy paradox: the theory of privacy calculus, the theory of decision biases and bounded rationality, the model of social influence and exchange, the privacy paradox as a methodological artefact, the privacy cynicism and digital resignation. The very existence of several strategies for explaining the paradox of privacy suggests that it has not yet received a final solution. The most promising direction seems to be integration of the above-mentioned explanatory models and contextualization of general theories in relation to specific cases.
Copyright (c) 2025 Tsurkan E.G. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Contradictions in the development of eco-consumerism in the context of R. Inglehart’s evolutionary theory of modernization
The article considers the development of eco-sustainable practices as a part of the global cultural shift from materialist values to the post-materialist ones. The first part briefly outlines the central ideas of R. Inglehart’s evolutionary theory of modernization, which defines the global cultural shift as a transition in individual life strategies from “survival” to “self-expression” due to the growing predominance of post-materialist values over the materialist ones. Such transformations are expected to reshape consumer practices - from hedonistic consumption rooted in acquisitive values to responsible, proenvironmental consumption shaped by post-materialist orientations. However, this transition is inconsistent and contradictory due to multiple barriers. The author considers institutional and value-based barriers to the expansion of pro-environmental consumption (green gap, elitism of eco-consumption in qualitative terms, hedonistic values and orientations). The article is based on empirical data and aims at proving the hypothesis of the macro-social stability of hedonistic consumer practices which prevail even in societies with high levels of economic and existential security, where post-materialism dominates the social-political sphere. Even younger generations, which socialized in the conditions of relative economic security and are more likely to have post-materialist orientations, show a decline in interest in pro-environmental consumption. The author argues that eco-consumerism is a nonlinear outcome of the global value shift from materialism to post-materialism, which makes ecoconsumption practices a hybrid phenomenon that reflects an adaptation of consumer values to ecological trends. Thus, eco-consumerism as an expression of post-materialism contradicts the logic of consumerist hedonism supported and reinforced by the contemporary consumer culture.
Copyright (c) 2025 Goncharov N.V. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Family values in the views of Russian university students
The article considers family-related values a s perceived and practiced by the Russian student youth. The article is based on the data of the 2025 online survey conducted in six higher education institutions (N=1173; bachelor’s, master’s, and specialist’s studies; natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, mathematics-information profiles). The study’s initial hypothesis was that life-related values f orm the core of attitudes toward family and the focus of building a family and marital career. Conceptually, the question of family values r equires the analysis of basic life meanings that regulate ideas, beliefs, attitudes, and actions of young people. The priority values o f contemporary students include: sufficient economic and cultural capital, financial security (stable, good income), and a quality education. The authors note a pragmatic attitude toward family: although family ranks third or fourth on the list of values, it encompasses a range of attributive life-meaning values, including the meaning of life together, the goal-setting of family life, a plan for future financial and economic activities, attitudes toward a partner, an assessment of marriage, rights and obligations, sexual life and intimacy, family planning, future parenthood, and relationships with family members. Familymeaning values a re largely represented by maintaining ties with the parental family and having children, but without specific reproductive plans. Students are also interested in the family tree and genealogy, family fate, and lives of relatives in the context of the country’s history. Respondents positively evaluate digital technologies as a means of interaction in the (re)production of family relationships and ensuring family well-being. The family’s life-meaning values, which determine the worldview, attitudes and behavior of the Russian youth, vary by generation but are relatively stable.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kozlovskiy V.V., Pankratova L.S., Svetlov R.V. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Family values and well-being of adolescents in two-parent and divorced Russian families: A study in a small town and a metropolis
The article considers family values and subjective well-being of adolescents in divorced and two-parent families, based on the survey of 14-17-year-olds in Saint Petersburg and the city of Tosno in the Leningrad Region. The study showed that adolescents’ family attitudes are contradictory: having children is not necessary for them, while the desired parenting is rather egalitarian; boys more often plan to start a family and have (many) children (higher reproductive aspirations), while girls express higher educational, career and prosocial aspirations. Adolescents in divorced families face significant risks in creating stable families, having children and achieving subjective well-being; they are more likely to have reduced parenting potential and low reproductive aspirations. The authors suggest a “phenomenon of intergenerational transmission of divorce”: adolescents from divorced families are more likely to accept divorce in families with children (90 % of girls and 70 % of boys). Moreover, adolescents in the large city report higher levels of satisfaction with various aspects of life, which proves a better social environment of growing up compared to small towns. Adolescents in large cities are more likely to support values of individualism and personal rights and to accept new family practices, such as paternity leave and shared parenting after divorce, while adolescents in small towns express more traditional views on starting a family and having children.
Copyright (c) 2025 Bezrukova O.N., Samoylova V.A. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The place of man in Russia’s social space (possibilities of empirical research)
The article considers concepts and phenomena that provide an understanding of the social space of the country, which encompasses individuals with their abilities, needs, life circumstances, assessments, and opinions. The study is based on P. Bourdieu’s theory of social space as a set of social fields: economic, political, bureaucratic, religious, national, regional, and value-based. The study of the last three fields, which Bourdieu did not specifically address, is explained by the specifics of the Russian situation. Without taking these fields into account, the study of mass consciousness and the positions of actors and groups in social space would be incomplete. The article aims at presenting a holistic view of social space on the basis of empirical indicators. Fields of social space are considered as multi-component objects that cannot be reduced to a single whole due to different foundations, sets of features/indicators and different influences on the position of the individual in society. The author considers social space through the prism of mass consciousness (assessments of social fields and one’s positions in them), which provides an insight into the qualities of these fields, which contribute to or hinder the development of society and human well-being. The empirical data of the study consists of the all-Russian monitoring of the Center for the Study of Social-Cultural Changes of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CSSC IF RAS) (1990-2023), European Social Survey (ESS), in which Russia participated, surveys conducted by the leading Russian public opinion centers in 2024-2025 and the Russian Social Survey (RSI) in 2024. The article shows that the fields of social space in Russia are heterogeneous and dynamic, which makes its study an urgent task under the current internal and external, economic and social-political challenges.
Copyright (c) 2025 Belyaeva L.A. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Information-digital transformation of everyday life in expert assessments and public perception (Kazakhstan case)
Today informatization and digitalization are the only viable megatrend for innovative social transformation; however, the rapid development and global spread of digital information and communication technologies (ICT) have led to complex, multifaceted problems and ambiguous consequences. Public perception of everyday life as an immediately given, self-evident, first-order reality, as it was in the recent past, has changed - in the information society, everyday life transforms into an area of strategic instability, fundamental uncertainty and unpredictability. The article outlines the features of public perception and evaluation of the impact of informatization and digitalization on the everyday life in Kazakhstan. The article is based on the data of sociological research conducted in 2024 by the BRIF Research Group at the request of the Institute of Philosophy, Political Science and Religious Studies with the methods of mass survey (standardized interview, N=2000, sampling error - 2.19 %) and expert interviews (N=102 - managers, employees, IT specialists of government bodies, local authorities and various organizations, employees of research institutes and university professors in social, humanitarian and information technology disciplines, bloggers and journalists). The article describes the following key aspects and main directions of the influence of informatization and digitalization on the everyday life in Kazakhstan: impact of digital technologies on the Kazakhstani society and contexts of its sociological analysis; global megatrends in the development of the information society and its features in Kazakhstan; impact of digital technologies on intercultural interactions; qualitative changes in the subject of transformation of the social environment under digitalization. The study summarizes positive and negative assessments of various areas and aspects of informatization of everyday life in Kazakhstan by the public and experts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Dunaev V.Y., Kurganskaya V.D., Sagikyzy A., Shaukenova Z.K. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Social-economic determinants of women’s reproductive health in Almaty (Kazakhstan)
In the Almaty metropolitan area with the significant social-economic stratification, the relevance of the study is determined by the need to understand how household income affects women’s reproductive strategies and identity. The article aims at identifying the relationship between subjective well-being, financial difficulties, family plans and reproductive health symptoms of 18-49-year-old women in Almaty. The authors conducted a cross-sectional quantitative survey on a multi-layered random sample with face-to-face interviews (N=320 women from eight districts of the city. Descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation analysis, regressions, factor and cluster analyses revealed a positive correlation between financial difficulties and postponing a childbirth in the next 3-5 years, a negative correlation between well-being and physical discomfort, and a positive correlation between family plans and seeking medical help. Women with children are significantly more likely to report reproductive symptoms, which indicates the need for a better postnatal care. Household income is a key determinant of both specific reproductive decisions (timing and planning of childbirth, seeking medical care) and reproductive identity formation. The study combined quantitative methods with an emphasis on subjective assessments of well-being and analysis of health symptoms, which allows for assessing the targeted support measures: development of free and mobile services for low-income women, postnatal monitoring programs and educational campaigns on reproductive health under the social inequality in Almaty.
Copyright (c) 2025 Bakytzhanova A.A., Alimbekova G.T., Toikko T. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Transformation path of China’s cities in industrial decline: The case of Changchun
Since the mid-20th century, many industrial cities have fallen into decline. Traditional industrial areas in many developed countries, such as the Great Lakes region in the northeastern United States, the Ruhr area in Germany, Birmingham and Manchester in the UK, and the Ural industrial zone in Russia, experience industrial decline, weak economic growth and urban decay as a manifestation of regional decline - a “reverse development phenomenon”. Today, economic, social, environmental and other factors made large-scale cross-regional migration almost a social norm, while regions with population outflow inevitably fall into decline due to labor shortage and brain drain. The primary cause of industrial city decline is the unbalanced industrial structure which determined production, resource and capital dependence, reducing flexibility and sustainability of the urban economy. Once an economic crisis affects the urban pillar industry, a vicious cycle of economic weakness and population loss arises and ultimately leads the city into a development trap: economic shocks caused by industrial structure imbalance, demographic shocks from massive loss of labor force, political shocks from urban growth and spatial shocks from suburbanization have led to qualitative changes in the urban spatial pattern, leading to urban decline. The development crisis of industrial cities triggers the collapse of the urban system, resulting in the loss of urban development elements and a decline. China is currently in a transition from industrialization to post-industrialization, and industrial cities face the risk of urban decline. As the capital of the Jilin Province, Changchun is a famous center of heavy industry, and since the mid-20th century the city has faced many development difficulties due to such factors as industrial crisis, population loss and environmental degradation. The decline of Changchun is explained in the article by multiple reasons, including the imbalance of industrial structure, the degradation of urban space and the decline of urban culture. Therefore, Changchun’s revival should also take place in three dimensions: economy, space and culture. The economic dimension implies development of Industry 4.0 and diversified urban economy, networking, informatization and digitalization, optimization of the industrial structure with the focus on service industry and innovation (new industries, new products, new technologies, new business forms and new models of the urban economy) in order to increase the economic resilience of the city and overcome potential economic risks. The spatial dimension implies the regional development thinking to create a new metropolitan area by breaking the traditional urban-rural opposition - Changchun as both a hub city for transportation, economy, scientific and technological innovation in the Jilin Province and even Northeast China and a model and core of the rural revitalization in the Jilin Province’s “hinterland”. The cultural dimension implies the focus on changing the city’s image and spirit by using its “soft power” - cultural influence: on the one hand, historical heritage of Changchun as a city with a long history; on the other hand, its potential of keeping up with the times and innovation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Zhang X., Li M. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Polarization of rural space in Southern Russia: The Crimean case
In the post-Soviet period, social-economic differentiation in Russia has intensified, which is reflected in the concentration of population, capital and infrastructure in agglomerations and resort areas, while peripheral territories lose opportunities for development. This process has particularly affected small and medium-sized rural communities experiencing depopulation, declining employment and limited access to basic services. Thus, there is a system of uneven development, which consolidates differences between the center and the periphery. The Crimean Peninsula is a concentrated manifestation of such trends: differentiation of spatial development is reinforced by a combination of tourism and recreational specialization, differences in naturalresource conditions, and political-administrative transformations in the post-Soviet period. The contrast between coastal areas and large agglomerations, which concentrate investment and jobs, and rural settlements in the center of the peninsula, which experience population outflow and a lack of resources, makes the region illustrative for the analysis of territorial imbalances. The article identifies social mechanisms that determine differences in the dynamics of rural areas in Crimea. The case study is based on historical, geographical and social-economic analysis, statistical and archival materials, mapping and field observations. Spatial differentiation is considered as both a result of economic processes and a form of social inequality, which affects life strategies of rural communities and structure of local livelihood practices. The author shows that the transformation of settlement patterns in Crimea is accompanied by a reduction in the number of small villages, concentration of resources in a limited number of centers, and deepening rural-urban asymmetries. At the same time, there are compensatory mechanisms based on informal economy, horizontal mobility and local forms of mutual assistance, which explain the specifics of the Crimean rural transformation and the mechanisms of territorial differentiation in post-Soviet rural areas.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gusakov T.Y. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
“Classical” anomie and its conceptual “clarifications”
The concept of “anomie” is fundamental to sociology for at least two reasons, in addition to its well-known application for constructing models of the social, which have retained their heuristic potential to this day. First, anomie is an integral and fundamentally important part of the categorical apparatus that ensured the development and “legitimization” of sociology as a new field of social inquiry with its own subject field and “rhetoric”. Second, unlike many other sociological terms (“social fact”, “social action”, “charisma”, “marginal”, “social type”, “deviation”, etc.), which lost their original sociological “sterility” due to everyday use, “anomie” still provides sociologists (and representatives of other disciplines) with a sense of belonging to a community of “initiates” in the meaning of categories that are incomprehensible for the average person. The article presents: the classical sociological interpretation of anomie by E. Durkheim; the generally accepted definition of anomie as a certain transitional state of society with no single or understandable system of moral principles and norms, no hierarchy of social positions and values; two conditional directions of the development of the concept of anomie after Durkheim - a description of the situation of “normlessness” and of the state of “normative tension” in a specific culture (R. Merton is considered the founder of the latter); another vector in the development of the theory of anomie, based on its two “dimensions” - macro-social (classical Durkheimian approach) and micro-social (Merton’s concept is considered more social-psychological); an attempt to group theories that developed on the basis of two classical concepts of anomie into six approaches - three sociological (structural-functional, social-cultural and communicativeinformational), criminological, psychological and managerial, or to clarify specific forms of manifestation of anomie in certain spheres of life of contemporary society (for example, political anomie).
Copyright (c) 2025 Trotsuk I.V. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The article continues a series of articles on the NEET youth published in the journal in 2020-2022. The article aims at summarizing the results of scientific research on NEETs and identifying new trends in the study of this special group, whose representatives are poorly integrated into society because they do not work, do not receive an education, and do not care about developing their personal qualities. The author selected forty-five scientific articles on NEET issues in different countries and regions, published on the ResearchGate platform in 2022-2025, and information on hikikomori in the academic databases Scopus and Web of Science for 2021-2025. The articles were sorted according to their headings: typology and nature of NEETs; hikikomori as a specific identity of NEETs; factors of the NEET group growth; search for new approaches to study the NEET youth. The author identified the following new trends: recognition of the need for interdisciplinary research on the NEET youth (by sociologists, psychologists, economists, psychiatrists and biologists); clarification of the typology of NEET by studying its heterogeneous strata; identification of the youth with the NEET group; spread of the hikikomori phenomenon beyond Japan; deepening understanding of the biological roots of NEET (discovery of hikikomori biomarkers); expansion of the NEET group beyond the age limits of the youth (adult NEETs); study of NEET problems in relation to social disintegration and isolation. The article concludes with issues for further research and the author’s position that a unified concept of the NEET youth is possible if such unifying features as a dependent mindset and a consumer attitude toward society are recognized.
Copyright (c) 2025 Bulanova M.B. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Russian way: Horizons of the future in the context of civilizational confrontation
The authors conduct a sociological analysis of the development prospects of the Russian society, focusing on the characteristics of Russian strategies for creating the future in the context of opposition to the Western model of social-historical development. The article considers the theoretical foundations of the sociology of the future, introducing the concept of dynamic lines leading from the past to the future; various types of ideas about the future, including its rationalistic concept as an object of purposeful, constructive activity (a project-based type of social thinking) and Russian ideas about the future in connection with the so-called Russian idea; transformation of the logic of creating the future in the context of Russians’ changing attitudes toward the Western model of development and their history (rejection of the reproductive method of creating the future); Russian style of social development in recent decades and accepted method of creating the future as a traditionalist modernization. The authors believe that it is fundamentally impossible to manage the creation of the future but admit that it is possible to manage our movement towards the future. Based on the sociological research of recent decades, the authors identify the key semantic components of the attractive future for Russia, including the Russian understanding of democracy. When assessing the recent trends, the authors note the changing global civilizational landscape, which creates conditions for a new Russian idea combining notions of “good society” inherent in the Russian cultural-historical tradition with the current global agenda.
Copyright (c) 2025 Andreev A.L., Andreev I.A. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
2020 census-based comparative estimations of infant and child mortality in Tajikistan
The article aims at estimating and analyzing with an indirect method the infant mortality and under-five years child mortality in urban and rural areas of one of the poorest countries in the post-Soviet space of Central Asia - the Republic of Tajikistan. Demographic data collected by the 2020 Population and Housing Census was used to estimate the child mortality by focusing on the data on children ever born and children still alive, and the number of married women at that time. By today, the estimated infant and child mortality in 2005-2019 has significantly declined. At the same time, in recent years, both infant and child mortality in urban areas has become much higher than in rural districts. Despite the gradually declining general child mortality rate in Tajikistan, the state authorities at all levels have to continue implementing different target national and local measures in urban and rural areas in order to significantly improve and even develop medical health care and service systems, providing access to them for the wider population, adopt new housing and other social policies to ensure for women, children and families in general better social, economic and medical environment and support.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ryazantsev S.V., Ryazantsev N.S., Rakhmonov A.K. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Ideological-political education as a key component of university management in China (based on the textbook series “Understanding Contemporary China”)
The development prospects of the state and society largely depend on the quality of training highly qualified specialists in the higher education system. One aspect of such training is the development of values and ideological-political education, which provides the moral foundation for future social development. To strengthen the “four aspects of self-confidence” (in one’s path, theory, system, and culture), the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have implemented Xi Jinping’s ideas of socialism with Chinese characteristics in university education and training. In addition to strengthening educational work, a unique challenge for social sciences and humanities is the study and teaching of foreign languages. Knowledge of language and of other cultures facilitates international contacts; therefore, since the fall of 2022, Chinese universities have introduced foreign language classes based on the textbook series “Understanding Contemporary China”. This series aims at developing such students’ communication skills that would help to “hear the voice of China” all around the world and would allow people in other countries to understand better social realities of today’s China. Given the unprecedented level of relations between China and Russia, teaching Russian with the new textbook series would promote mutual understanding between the peoples of two countries, although introduction of highly complex materials into the university curriculum would require significant efforts of all parties involved.
Copyright (c) 2025 Xiong L., Wang B. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The article is a review of the book edited by M.K. Gorshkov and N.E. Tikhonova Russian Society and Challenges of the Time . Book 8 (Moscow: Ves Mir, 2025, 352 p.). This book by the scholars from the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences is based on many years of sociological research (2014-2024) and presents a comprehensive in-depth analysis of the changes in the Russian society under the influence of both external and internal risks and challenges. The book considers the features of public perception of the situation at the global, national, and local levels; factors determining social well-being and psychological state of different strata; different value and ideological groups; subjective well-being of Russians and causes of the persistent level of poverty; material and non-material forms of inequality. Under growing tensions with Western countries and new social-cultural challenges, the book focuses on life guidelines, normative-value attitudes and behavioral strategies of Russians. Therefore, the book can be recommended to researchers - sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, historians, economists, lawyers, and others.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kozin S.V., Zhidyaeva T.P. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Strength and weakness of self-­organization in its utopian-­idealistic description
The article is a review of Johann Rittermann’s book The Power of Unity. Politics and Economics through the Lens of Cooperation (Moscow: Publishing House “Picture of the World”, 2025). In its abstract, the book is presented as “more than a theory — a guide to action for those who want to change the world around them”, and such positioning could not but affect the “quality” of this “research on cooperation in a world of growing polarization and crises”. Despite its numerous conceptual positions, historical reviews, discourse-­analytical descriptions of economic and political realities, which are certainly useful for social researchers for conducting theoretical and empirical studies of grassroots solidarity, including in the contemporary Russian society, the book is still popular-­scientific (lacks references even when citing specific authors) and even of positive-­slogan character (calls for joint humanistic action).
Copyright (c) 2025 Ishmukhametov R.R. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Humanistic interpretation of urban space in postmodernism
The article is a review of Richard Sennett’s The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities (Moscow: New Literary Observer, 2024. 328 p.), which aims at identifying the place of Sennett’s book in the intellectual context of urban sociology in the late 20th century and showing how Sennett develops the humanistic line of urban studies by rethinking this line through the visual approach. The author emphasizes the significance of the book due to its original central idea - a shift from the analysis of structures and institutions to the study of visual practices, forms of visibility, and moral aspects of perception. At the same time, the author notes the metaphorical nature of Sennett’s argumentation and the limited empirical basis of his research as close to philosophy of culture. However, the book is presented in the article as an important stage in the evolution of a postmodernist approach to the study of urban everyday life and a sociological reflection on visuality as a form of social interaction.
Copyright (c) 2025 Polyakov F.D. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
A short glossary for diagnosing the digital age
The article is a review of Byung-Chul Han’s Infocracy: Digitalization and the Crisis of Democracy (translated from German by S.O. Mukhamedzhanova, Moscow: AST Publishing House, 2025. 160 p.). According to the annotation, this is a “laconic, conceptually rich essay” in which the author “examines the transformation of democracy in the digital age - when information, not ideology or economics, becomes the main instrument of power” (P. 4). One may disagree with the author’s radical separation of information, on the one hand, and ideology and economics, on the other (after all, information presupposes an ideological component, and its dissemination requires economic investments), but one cannot help but admit that the book offers the reader a brief glossary (a system of concepts for analytical work) for “diagnosing” the current digital age from. The author’s “diagnosis” is disappointing, but the reader can argue with it based on the author’s categorical apparatus in his own “diagnosis”.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nimensky A.V., Gerasimov A.D. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
In Memoriam: Mikhail Konstantinovich Gorshkov
Copyright (c) 2025 - -. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0