Vol 19, No 2 (2019)

Аbstract. The paper presents the results of the research aimed at identifying changes in ethnic distance among the students of Serbia. The starting point of the study was the author’s belief that ethnic distance is a good indicator of inter-ethnic relations in multi-nation society and an indicator of conflict potential, and that ethnic distance is more stable provided social stability and open society. Ethnic distance was studied in the longitude project among Serbian students at the University in Kosovska Mitrovica five times in 2009-2016, twice - among the students in Belgrade (2010, 2014), and once among the Albanian students in Priština (December 2016 - January 2017) based on the modified Bogardus scale, a part of the questionnaire in the students’ native language and a number of surveys. The paper presents the results of the measurements of values constituting ethnic distance. The data reveal that the largest ethnic distance among Serbian students in Belgrade and in Kosovska Mitrovica was with the Albanians, while the smallest ethnic distance - with the Russians and Greeks. Among the Albanian students, the largest ethnic distance was with the Serbs, Romani and Russians, while the smallest -with the Americans and English. Certainly, the explanation should take into account the relations of these nations and official policies of their states including the self-proclamation of “Kosovo independence”, and also the positions of these nations in the period of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, wars in the former Yugoslav states and the NATO aggression on Serbia. At the same time, the ethnic distances are extremely large in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, however, with a tendency of decline among the Serbs. During the research in 2016 - the beginning of 2017, the values of ethnic distance of the Serbian students from Kosovska Mitrovica to the Albanians and of the Albanian students from Priština to the Serbs were practically the same, especially the leading values of ethnic distance. When explaining the large ethnic distance with the Romani, it is necessary to remember about their social marginalization.

The paper presents the opinions of students from two countries (Serbia and Macedonia) that strive to join the European Union and from one member country (Bulgaria) about the changes that brings the EU membership. These countries consider joining the European Union as a way out of the transition crisis, while the oldest member countries keep on talking about the decline in trust and euroscepticism. The research aims at identifying whether the students support the EU membership, believe in this community and in that the EU membership would contribute to changes in certain areas of social life; i.e. at identifying whether the students are euro-optimists or eurosceptics. The survey was conducted on a representative sample of 2,208 respondents in three university centers (Serbia - Niš, Macedonia - Bitola, and Bulgaria - Veliko Tarnovo). The data show that, despite accepting the European integration in general, students do not trust in the European Union and do not expect any substantial changes, which makes them eurosceptics. However, there are differences between the three student samples. Thus, Macedonian students expect improvements in the economic development, employment, living standards and social security, but do not expect any significant changes in the quality of life, in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor and in preserving national identity and culture. Serbian students believe in the future economic growth and improving quality of the environment but think that all other areas of social life will remain unchanged. Bulgarian students say that the EU membership has not led to any changes and contributed to the higher unemployment rate and the larger gap between the rich and the poor.

The article considers the possibilities of the public-private partnership (PPP) in solving social-economic problems of African countries. The authors analyze the features and perspectives of the PPP mechanism in Africa for solving urgent social problems primarily in the sphere of public services. PPP means state-business cooperation in the spheres that are important for the population’s living standards and has large potential for the social development. Some African counties has already recognized the high efficiency of PPP and use this method for solving such problems as lack of social infrastructure and social development, low quality of the public utilities and poverty. The authors argue that the main sphere of implementing the PPP projects in Africa is the sector of information and telecommunication (IT). The majority of PPP infrastructure projects are implemented in the power economy (especially in Morocco and Egypt). Today, the African governments expand the PPP projects to the power networks development and construction, and to the renewable energy sources exploitation. The article provides some recent examples of the PPP projects in different spheres such as the development of social infrastructure in Africa, including education, public health and maintenance of public order. Due to the global trend of the infrastructure services digitalization and extension of information accessibility, African states take steps for the creation of electronic information portals for the PPP-projects (for example, in Nigeria and Ghana - with the World Bank assistance). Moreover, there are all-regional programs introduced to support initiative projects with the electronic platforms.

Media is one of the most important social institutions that mediates the attitude of citizens to other institutions of society. Thus, one of the key features of the contemporary society is the trust of citizens in basic social institutions. The article considers the issue of public trust in the Russian media and focuses on the question to what extent the trust of Russian citizens in the mass media depends on the trust in other state and public institutions. The authors’ conclusions are based on the comparative empirical studies in the metropolitan region conducted in 2016-2018. The data show that people do not really trust in media: about a half of respondents do not trust this institution. This is a common trend for the post-Soviet period in general. The authors used binary logistic regression, and found out that distrust in media is significantly correlated with distrust in other institutions such as the president, State Duma, law enforcement agencies, political parties, church, banks and businesses. Moreover, according to the statistical model, the lack of trust in media is determined by social-economic problems, general dissatisfaction with political system, and negative attitudes to media content and its role in the society. When studying trust in media one should take into account the ongoing transformations of media landscape: today the most trusted media are Internet and television (practically the same level of trust). There is also a clear age differentiation: trust in media generally grows with age, although the situation is opposite considering trust in the Internet. The development of media technologies and online services and networks makes it increasingly difficult to assess the level of public trust in media and other institutions.

Researchers believe that in recent decades in Kazakhstan the religious situation has changed, which was manifested in an increase of the number of believers who follow religious precepts and build their lifestyle according to them. Kazakhstan is a multi-ethnic country, where representatives of different ethnic and religious groups live. It is important to study the level of tolerance and religious harmony between different social groups. The article presents the results of the sociological study of tolerance and religious views in Almaty - the most populated city of Kazakhstan - based on the method of individual standardized interview. The results of the survey show the prevalence of tolerant relations for the majority of respondents said that they had not experienced any problems or insult based on their religious views. At the same time, the refusal to accept a person of another religion or other religious views as a member of one’s family is more typical for Moslems, namely of Kazakh and Uzbek ethnicity, and also for people with a low level of education and low incomes of the household. On the one hand, there is a clear desire for religious harmony; on the other hand, there are transformations of religious practices based not so much on the phenomenon of faith but on national traditionalism. The results of the survey prove that level of religious harmony is influenced to a certain extent by social-economic conditions.

The article considers the long path of the development of sociology of culture as a special sociological theory within the system of Russian sociological knowledge. The author describes the fifty-year period of the empirical enrichment of sociology of culture; identifies main research issues within cultural and educational activities (clubs, museums, parks, groups of artistic and technical creativity in cities and villages); provides an overview of key achievements in the sociological study of theater, cinema and the media in the 1970-1980s. It was during this period that the basic directions of the sociological study of cultural life were formed and consolidated the efforts of sociologists: planning, forecasting and managing various types of cultural institutions; scientific planning of cultural development of the city, village, and region; forecasting the development of art and its different types; social indicators of the development and management of artistic culture; economy of culture - improvement of its material and technical base, pricing, efficiency; interaction of different types and forms of artistic culture, their relationship with art; analysis of the cultural life of different social-demographic groups; development of the theoretical-methodological foundations of sociology of culture, its self-determination as a special sociological theory. The author also considers such aspects of the spiritual life as musical culture and features of leisure activities and describes the multicultural state of the contemporary Russian society.

The success of the reform of the state control and inspection system depends significantly on taking into account the estimates of all stakeholders, i.e. business, government, and citizens as beneficiaries of the state control and inspection activities; and such estimates should be considered at the stages of planning, monitoring, and evaluating the achieved results. The priority project ‘Reforming State Control and Inspection System in the Russian Federation’ considers citizens’ estimates only if presented by statistical indicators that reflect the nature, frequency, and scale of harm often measured by the control bodies themselves, i.e. such data are prone to distortion. The authors suggest to supplement this system by indicators allowing the citizens to assess the state control and inspection activities and reform. These indicators can be measured in representative surveys, which would allow to balance the existing system of monitoring the state control and inspection activities. The article presents both international and Russian approaches to the sociological study of the efficiency of the state control and inspection system. The authors identify methodological rules of such surveys, such as that all adult citizens should be questioned regardless of their experience of interaction with control bodies. The article also describes the types of public legally protected values and the types of risks that should be part of sociological questionnaires; and suggests some key indicators for the assessment of the state control activities by the citizens: the frequency of facing the need to protect public values (the lower the frequency, the higher the effectiveness); the general estimate of the public values safety (by groups of risks); and the results of citizens’ interaction with the control bodies to protect public values including damage compensation.

The year 2019 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Sociology Department of the Saint-Petersburg State University. During all this period, there was the City Sociological Workshop with the meetings held several times in the academic semester to discuss the most relevant controversial issues related to both theoretical sociology (especially new approaches) and the Russian society social life. The initial idea of the Workshop was to ensure communication between scientists and researchers, and the development of intellectual activity, exchange of ideas and solidarity of sociologists of Saint Petersburg. Then the scope of discussions widened and covered a broader Russian context and even international topics. Thus, speakers of the Workshop today are from different Russian cities and other countries. Despite the changed format, the Workshop kept its name - City Sociological Workshop - as a well-known and recognizable brand for the sociological community. Today, there are several forms of its activities: methodological workshops, presentations, meetings and schools. As a small organizational form the Workshop has many advantages described by R. Collins. In particular, the analysis of the ‘network maps’ of interpersonal relationship allowed Collins to argue that the creation of ‘small groups of direct contact’ ensures a social space in which new ideas are developed and accumulated, and intellectual rituals, ‘rivalry for the space of attention’ and other basic elements of the evolution of the scientific thought are formed [1]. Despite different difficulties of thirty years under the changing social and technological realities of the information society, the City Sociological Workshop proves its necessity and importance at the beginning of the third decade of the twenty-first century.