Vol 17, No 4 (2017)

Theory, Methodology and History of Sociological Research

“NEW CATASTROPHISM” AND THE FUTURE: THE DEMAND FOR NON-LINEAR KNOWLEDGE

Kravchenko S.A., Perova A.E.

Abstract

The article analyzes the phenomenon of ‘new’ catastrophes determined by the specifics of contemporary vulnerabilities, i.e. the growing structural dysfunction of the complex system of society and/or techno-natural system. The authors show that this dysfunctionality is caused by both human activities and the system’s internal reflexivity; it depends on system’s ability to bear external and internal burdens of emergent and turbulent nature, which implies the uncertainty of catastrophes. The article emphasizes that the majority of ‘new’ disasters manifest in ‘liquid’ forms, which leads to the growth of permanent uncertainties in all spheres of life, while there are obvious limitations in the use of modern scientific knowledge for managing complex vulnerabilities. Many scientific innovations within the paradigm of ‘new catastrophism’ aim to study the emerging social-natural realities to find ways to minimize vulnerabilities. The authors show such ways on the example of new sociological approaches to the analysis of climate changes, ‘dead land’, ‘dead water’, and ‘normal accidents’. The efficiency of such approaches is determined by the integration of social and natural sciences achievements and by interdisciplinary efforts to develop principles of non-linear knowledge. However, the weakness of these approaches is determined by the focus on principles of formalism and pragmatism that limit the potential of the humanities. The authors call for a humanistic turn that would combine scientific, social and humanitarian knowledge, and allow to over-come ideology and practices of anthropocentrism so as to ensure a new humanism necessary to minimize consequences of ‘new’ catastrophes and to develop the humanistic strategy for the future.
RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):449-459
pages 449-459 views

UNLEARNED LESSONS OF CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Danilov A.N.

Abstract

The article considers the complex geopolitical situation in the global world at the end of the second decade of the 21st century as determined by the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union and by the new world order. The author seeks to answer the questions who will define the current geopolitical situation, whose aims it will reflect, what will become the basis of new geopolitical realities, the basis of moral solidarity of humankind, and the spiritual basis of future civilizations. The new challenges give rise to a desperate struggle for different scenarios for building a happy life. Moreover, it is not clear which ideal of the future world will be widely supported as a development guideline. The recognition as such of the standard of living and development of the strongest ones becomes a real threat to the new civilization for it leads to the loss of national interests of sovereign states, and to the loss of an independent future. Today, there is an active search for new theories and concepts that will adequately explain con-temporary global processes. In this thematic context, the author identifies main lessons not learned by the world political elites. The first lesson: new states are not born in an empty place, their common history is a great advantage ensuring prospects for the further development of interstate cooperation. The second lesson: the widespread falsification of history has a negative impact on national, cultural and social-group identity in transforming societies. The third lesson: after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the post-war balance of power was destroyed together with the system of checks and balances in world politics (a bipolar model of the world). The fourth lesson: under radical social transformations, the moral system of the population devaluates with numerous crisis consequences.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):460-467
pages 460-467 views

COLLECTIVE FARMS IN THE WORKS OF A.N. CHELINTSEV AND N.P. MAKAROV (1951-1966)

Nikulin A.M., Trotsuk I.V.

Abstract

The article presents a part of the intellectual legacy of the Chayanov’s school that is often con-sidered as consisting exclusively of the studies of peasant economy and its cooperative development. Such an interpretation overlooks the school’s contribution to the study of large-scale agrarian production within the establishing soviet system of collective farms. The authors provide another interpretation of the intellectual legacy of Chayanov and his colleagues, and focus on the works of A.N. Chelintsev (1874-1962) and N.P. Makarov (1888-1980), who survived the repressions of the 1930s and since the 1940s returned to the studies of economic organization of collective farms, which had become the main insti-tutional form of the soviet agrarian system. Chelintsev studied lagging collective farms, which were un-popular and even dangerous subject in the soviet agrarian science. Chelintsev’s recommendations were not followed in the collective farms’ economy of the 1950s. However, today they help to understand some system features of weak collective farms. Makarov summarized the results of his collective farms studies at the rise of the Kosygin’s reforms in the monograph published in 1966; it emphasized both the importance of collective farms in the soviet agriculture and alternative strategies of collective farms develop-ment by granting them more independence and involving in inter-farm cooperation. With such works, Chelintsev and Makarov ensured the highest methodological level of social-economic research typical for the 1920s’ soviet agrarian science, thus confirming that the Chayanov’s school introduced many original ideas in the study of peculiarities of the economic organization of both peasant households and large-scale collective farms, which determines the necessity of reevaluating the intellectual legacy of the organizational-production school to understand better the phenomenon of Russian collective farming in the XX century.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):468-480
pages 468-480 views

Contemporary society: the urgent issues and prospects for development

MODELS OF STATE REFORMS IN AGRICULTURE: PAST AND PRESENT

Kiselev A.G., Shilina S.A.

Abstract

The article outlines social and economic consequences of collectivization to compare this state policy with the changes in agriculture in the 1990s, and to estimate chances of the Russian agriculture to overcome the current crisis. The article is based on archive data on collectivization and on the program developed by the Academy of High Ecotechnologies. The authors believe that at the time of collectivization, it was a way to optimize agriculture: largely due to collectivization, though with all its losses and ‘extremes’, the soviet agriculture was partially industrialized and provided the country with food in the hardest years of the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period, thus ensuring the food security of the Soviet state. The ‘emergency’ model of the so-called ‘return to civilization’ that was adopted under the reforms of the 1990s aimed at turning the collective farmer into an individual farmer or a rural wageworker, but such a social ‘migration’ strategy imposed ‘from above’ deformed the rural social stratum and determined serious economic problems. Today the authors consider the neo-collective farms as a promising perspec-tive. They also support the program developed by the Academy of High Ecotechnologies for intensification of agricultural production on the basis of progressive domestic and foreign technologies, which will allow to increase the agricultural production in the next three to five years by several times. In particular, for more effective use of agricultural technologies and processing industries, the program suggests develop-ing the enlarged organizational-economic structures - ‘agropromkhozes’.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):481-490
pages 481-490 views

TYPES OF POLITICAL REGIMES IN THE IRKUTSK REGION

Orlova I.V., Perfilyev I.S.

Abstract

The authors consider contemporary western and Russian classifications of regional political regimes and their applicability for Russia. Based on the analysis of political theories, the authors chose the traditional typology of regional political regimes focusing on the minimalist interpretation of democracy (electoral competition) and methods for identifying regional scenarios introduced by V.Ya. Gelman. The authors study the case of the Irkutsk Region as a region with conflicting elites, in which in a short period several regional heads were replaced. Based on the contemporary political history, the authors analyze the regional political regime using the following criteria: democracy/autocracy, consolidation/oligo-poly, compromise/conflict relations within the ruling elite. The results of the analysis prove the existence of checks and balances in the political system of the Irkutsk Region. Such a system restrains strong politicians attempts to monopolize the political power in the region. When any political player gains too much influence, other centers of power unite against him and together return the situation to the status quo. The political regime of the Irkutsk Region ensures a relatively high level of political competition, at the same time it is a part of the uncompetitive political regime of the Russian Federation, therefore it is a ‘hybrid democracy’. The authors’ analysis of intra-elite relations in the region revealed a high predisposition to conflicts with the dominant scenario of ‘war of all against all’.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):491-502
pages 491-502 views

CULTURE AS A BASIS OF CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN IDEOLOGY: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

Marshak A.L.

Abstract

The author accepts the inevitability of the complex nature of contemporary Russian culture, and identifies four relatively distinctive social-cultural groups in the Russian society: (1) the most numerous layer of adherents of the past and, thus, nostalgic for the Soviet culture; it consists of representatives of all social-demographic groups that adhere to traditionalist patterns and norms; (2) proponents of the so-called ‘liberal views’ attracted by the principles of commercialization of culture in today’s consumer society though in general the western liberal culture failed to form a stable social basis in Russia and is still highly heterogeneous; (3) the conservatives oppose the on-going social-cultural modernization of the Russian society in its nowadays interpretation, and call for preservation of traditional and even archaic components of the Russian cultural identity; (4) finally, there are representatives of religious culture, which is becoming increasingly popular due to the active position of religious figures and open state support to religious initiatives. The author emphasizes that the social-cultural situation in Russia is complex and dynamic, it can-not be explained only by confrontation of the above mentioned groups, it is also influenced by subcultures and, in its turn, determines the ideological views of social strata. The second part of the article is devoted to the analysis of ‘ideology’ as a contemporary concept, mainly in its geopolitical dimension that reflects a complex combination of elements of different geopolitical models, both foreign and specific Russian (former Soviet and current, reflecting the position of Russia in the globalizing world and its aspirations in domestic and foreign policy). The author believes that the Russian geopolitical strategy under the current social-cultural changes has not been finalized yet, and insists on its urgent development in the format that takes into account interests of all citizens of the country, its geographical diversity and social-cultural features so as to consolidate the Russian society on the basis of the best samples of the Russian culture.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):503-512
pages 503-512 views

SOUTH SUDAN STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE, AND IT’S IMPLICATIONS FOR AFRICA

Kumsa A.

Abstract

Sudan survived different external rules, at least starting from 1821, when it became a part of the Egyptian Ottomans. Egypt played an important role in the colonial expansion as an agent of the Otto-mans. The rulers of Egypt were Turkish-speaking governing bodies that dominated Egypt since the medieval period. The Arab-Islamic movement known as Mahdist Movement at first was considered a liberator, but turned out to be a political machine of Arabization, Islamization and slavery during its brutal rule in 1881-1889. The Mahdist government of this Islamic theocratic rule was defeated by the Anglo-Egyptian army in 1889. The Anglo-Egyptians rule in Sudan lasted from 1898 to 1956, and was known as a condominium. The colonial rulers, without any consultations with the Southern Sudan peoples, handover power to the Northern Sudanese political elite, which kindled an atrocious conflict between the Southerners and the new rulers from the north. The refusal of the Southerners to be ruled by their Northern neighbors unleashed the first Sudan war (1955-1972). This violent conflict ended with the signing of the agreement, according to which South Sudan gained autonomy to administer its own affairs within the Sudan state. The autonomy was abrogated unilaterally by the central government in 1983 due to the discovery of the oil deposits in the south of the country in 1978 by a Canadian company, and the central government of Sudan did not wish to share profits with the South. The second Sudan war (1983-2005) ended with the independence of South Sudan (2011), which opened doors for changing the colonial borders of Africa. Thus, the article consid-ers regional and international role of the South Sudanese struggle for independence and its implications for the liberation of other countries of the continent.
RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):513-523
pages 513-523 views

Surveys, experiments, case studies

CHALLENGES FOR TODAY’S RUSSIAN POLITICAL ELITE, AND WAYS TO ADDRESS THEM

Sharkov F.I., Ponedelkov A.V., Vorontsov S.A.

Abstract

The authors aimed to conduct a study of the current state and prospects for the development of elitology in Russia, and to identify the public perception of political leaders, which is necessary for federal and regional elites and for improving the efficiency of the state personnel policy, mechanisms for interaction of elites in the social-political space and, thus, for increasing the transparency of power. The authors rely on the political, historical-legal, formal-legal, and structural-functional analytical approaches. Based on the results of the panel expert surveys conducted during the First All-Russian Elitological Congress “Elitology of Russia: The Current State and Prospects for the Development” (2013, Rostov-on-Don) and the Second All-Russian Elitological Congress “Elitology and Strategies for the Development of Contemporary Russia” (2016, Rostov-on-Don), the authors reconstruct the general perception of Russian elites by the expert com-munity, and the dynamics of changes in the elite group; identify the public estimates of today’s regional political elites, and a discrepancy between elitism in the traditional sense and the real political power. The comparison of the results of the panel surveys conducted in 2013 and 2016 allowed to combine the findings in the groups: general perception of the Russian elites and the reliability of information about them; estimates of the dynamics of qualitative changes in the elites; measures to promote the development of inter-elite interaction and leadership. The authors made the following conclusions: both public and expert opinions underestimate the elite capital of the ruling groups; there are system symptoms of oligarchization of the elites that tend to use non-democratic means of holding power; there is an obvious task of changing the approaches to assessing and recruiting elites in the current social-political situation in Russia; in 2017, the Russian society is at the crossroads, and the choice of the direction for further development is com-plicated by the destructive impact of the aggressive global elites pursuing their own interests that con-tradict Russia’s national interests.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):524-541
pages 524-541 views

PRIORITY VALUE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOVERNOR’S PERSONAL BRAND (on the example of the Smolensk Region)

Rozanova N.N.

Abstract

The contemporary model of social development presupposes a high level of public confi-dence to state institutions, which determines the need to address categories of reputation and brand. Power as a value implies a high level of recognition, acceptance and identification (“my power”, “our power”). The article presents the results of the sociological study of the personal brand of the Smolensk Region governor (in December 2016); the author’s definition of the personal brand of the governor based on his image and representing a specific aspect of reputation, its most significant and stable features; the value characteristics of real and ideal (desired) personal brand of the governor; key features that determine the strength of the brand - integrity, distinctiveness and significance. The author comes to the conclusion about the predominantly positive real personal brand of the governor of the Smolensk Region despite its low degree of uniqueness and mosaic nature, which indicates ineffective steps of the government to form a personal brand of the governor. The desired personal brand of the governor, though more pronounced than the real one, also does not possess integrity or uniqueness. The significance, or identity of the governor’s brand, in the perception of the population is high enough in terms of its content, but its ‘directions’ (positive/negative) differ. The relatively high level of identity of the personal brand of the governor to some extent compensates the weakness of its distinctiveness and integrity for they are not important for the population.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):542-554
pages 542-554 views

REPRODUCTIVE ATTITUDES OF THE STUDENT YOUTH (a review of empirical studies)

Nazarova I.B., Zelenskaya M.P.

Abstract

The article summarizes the results of the studies of reproductive attitudes of the Russian students (born in 1982-2000) published in 2000-2017. Students lack life experience, thus, they make moral choices under conflicting media information and sometimes even propaganda of certain values or anti-values concerning family, marriage, and motherhood (paternity). A low level of students’ awareness of the main issues in planning and creating a family, giving birth to children, taking care of their health is accompanied by an early start of active and risky sexual life. Despite the unconditional authority and positive example of parents, most young people independently search for information about sexual relations and sometimes get negative and painful experience. There are three types of young people: (1) the majority respect traditional family values, try (or wish) to follow them and to some extent succeed; (2) a significant part respect traditional family values but cannot or do not want to follow them (including approving and practicing cohabitation); (3) about a tenth do not respect and do not follow traditional values concerning marriage and family, refuse and oppose them; marriage does not matter for such students, they have no desire to give birth and raise a child, do not think about the morality of relationships between sexes, po-lygamy, abandonment of the child or abortion. Students indicate factors influencing their family plans and reproductive behavior: social-psychological (own beliefs, opinion of the closest people, limitation of the time resource; unplanned pregnancy and perception of abortion; availability and quality of the partner; social-psychological maturity; perceptions of the future - confidence in it); religiosity; experience (example of the parents’ family); social-demographic (age; structure of the parents’ family); economic (availability and quality of housing; financial situation); physical (health status); institutional (state family policy, influence of the church and media, values and traditions of society). Thus, the young people reproductive attitudes and the idea of a family are determined by various factors including values and traditions of the closest social circle and society in general.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):555-567
pages 555-567 views

COUCHSURFING AS A SOCIAL PRACTICE

Akulich M.M., Batyreva M.V., Golovanova Y.I.

Abstract

The article presents the results of the study of a new tourist practice in Russia - the so-called ‘couchsurfing’. The members of the social network Couchsurfing.com travel around the world and stay at other members’ homes for free if they use their homes in the same way. There is an obvious lack of data about this social phenomenon, which does not allow to define clearly its functions and to estimate its possible transformations in the future. Therefore, the authors conducted an analysis of publications on hospitality network and in-depth interviews with couchsurfers to define the features of the couchsurfing as a social practice. It is a set of actions and interactions of individuals, groups and communities, which perform important social functions. The couchsurfing possesses all features of social practices: reproduci-bility, generality, stability and normativity. Thus, common values of couchsurfers contribute to the solidarity within the community, to the high level of interpersonal trust and generalized trust. The main motives for participating in couchsurfing are search for self-identification and social ties (belonging), learning a foreign language, seeking for help and saving money. Despite the risks, the researchers and informants positively evaluate the couchsurfing practices, especially for the ways to ensure couchsurfers’ safety are improving, and the couchsurfing changes the lives of its participants by positively affecting their values and worldview. The couchsurfing constitutes an essential element of a new global system of hospitality that allows people to visit and socialize anywhere in the world.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):568-577
pages 568-577 views

CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERIMENTS AS AN ADAPTATION STRATEGY

Podoynitsyna I.I., Petrov S.G., Fedorova A.A., Yakovlev P.I.

Abstract

The article considers methodological and empirical aspects of cross-cultural communica-tions under the economic and cultural globalization that determined the free movement of labor migrants around the world though this process is accompanied by certain difficulties. The authors believe that even a theoretically prepared person that knows about the influence of cultural differences on the organizational management in different countries will experience a cultural shock when working abroad. The cultural shock is a discomfort, frustration and even depression caused by getting into an unfamiliar environment. At the applied level, the authors analyze the so-called ‘cross-cultural experiments’ - attempts of an individual (a working specialist of a certain nation) to test one’s strength, skills, and professional competencies in a foreign company. The authors’ sociological study of a cultural benchmarking type consisted of two stages. At the first stage, foreigners working in the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) were inter-viewed; at the second stage, the Russians working abroad, mainly in the USA, were interviewed. The migra-tion flows from China have recently intensified in Yakutia, but the overwhelming majority of labor migrants are still from West and Central Asia, mainly from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia. The foreigners working in Yakutia and Russians working abroad experience same difficulties of adaptation in a new col-lective. Friends, relatives, members of the ethnic community, but not specially trained cross-cultural coaches and mentors, help them with adaptation. Such a personnel technology as selection, recruitment and headhunt-ing works reasonably well, while other HR technologies of cross-cultural management (motivation, feedback, etc.) are still lagging behind. The authors insist on introducing courses on cross-cultural adaptation in interna-tional groups both in Russia and abroad together with a system of the so-called ‘budding’.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):578-591
pages 578-591 views

Reviews

pages 613-627 views

“FREEDOM IN THE CHOIR”, OR FROM TWO EVILS... REVIEW OF THE BOOK: Ableev S.R., Zolkin A.L., Kuzminskaja S.I., Marchenya P.P. TSYVILIZATSYONNYI SUVERENITET ROSSII: PROBLEMY I DISKUSSII [CIVILIZATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY OF RUSSIA: CHALLENGES AND DEBATES]. Moscow: IPL; 2017. 192 p

Babashkin V.V.

Abstract

REVIEW OF THE BOOK: Ableev S.R., Zolkin A.L., Kuzminskaja S.I.,
Marchenya P.P. TSYVILIZATSYONNYI SUVERENITET ROSSII:
PROBLEMY I DISKUSSII [CIVILIZATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY OF RUSSIA: CHALLENGES AND DEBATES]. Moscow: IPL; 2017. 192 p.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):628-635
pages 628-635 views

THE IMAGE OF A FREE MAN IN THE RUSSIAN SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE XIX - EARLY XX CENTURY: SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE COSTUME

Pankova A.V.

Abstract

The article considers the possibilities of the sociological analysis of freedom by decod-ing meanings hidden in various elements of clothing. The author admits that it is extremely difficult to work with the concept of freedom in sociology due to both its elusiveness (empirical indicators are un-clear and ambiguous) and universality (everyone has his own idea of freedom and ways to define it). The author does not claim to develop a model of the sociological evaluation of freedom through its ex-ternal manifestations in the costume - just to outline the general sociological reasoning on the issue. First, the article considers some common interpretations of relations between freedom and causality, approaches to the study of freedom (its external and internal projections), analytical ‘optics’ to reveal the ways of self-expression in clothing (emphasis is made on the value-activity approach), and ‘ele-ments’ of freedom (possibilities and limitations, liberation and enslavement as coded in the correspond-ing clothing systems). The main part of the article considers the embodiment of these elements reflect-ing a certain degree of individual/collective freedom in the Russian costume in 1861-1905, in the so-called ‘post-reform period’ that provided some opportunities for the democratization of society and its capitalist development. The author underlines the social-political differences of two stages: the eve of bourgeois reforms and first years after the abolition of serfdom; and the 1880s and beyond. The article focuses on the specific changes of the costume in the Russian society in general (for example, adoption and adaptation of the European urban costume) and in different (urban) strata (petty bourgeois, nobility, merchants, etc.) including generational, gender and other features of costume transformations.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):592-612
pages 592-612 views

Scientific life

IT’S TIME FOR SUBURBAN STUDIES

Breslavsky A.S.

Abstract

The sector of sociology of the Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences organized the All-Russian scientific seminar “What do We Know about Contemporary Russian Suburbs?” on June 2-3, 2017. Based on the seminar results, the collection of papers with the same title was published. The idea of the meeting was to allow the experts to discuss the regional diversity of the suburbs of Russian cities, the scale, sources, directions and conse-quences of the Russian suburbanization. Despite considerable prospects for theoretical and empirical analysis, this field of social research is still ignored by Russian scientists, which determines serious problems in con-ducting comparative and generalizing studies to ensure a broader understanding of the nature of the Russian suburbanization. Developing a common research field, setting research aims and hypotheses, summarizing international discussions on suburban studies, search for optimal concepts and approaches to the analysis of the Russian suburbanization, developing new methods for studying suburbs and adaptation of the existing ones, critical analysis of sources, collecting and systematization of regional data, generalization, typologies and comparative analysis of regional cases, discussing the results of today’s studies - these are just some issues set by the experts in the suburban studies.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2017;17(4):636-644
pages 636-644 views

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