Vol 21, No 1 (2021)

The article considers challenges for man, society and nature, which appeared under the new types of rationality and bring not only the desired achievements but also unintended consequences in the form of side-effects, ambivalences, and vulnerabilities that become more complex. Thus, formal rationality became a factor of transition from traditional societies to industrial ones, which facilitated the establishment of high standards of living, but at the same time had side-effects such as the ‘iron cage’ of bureaucratization that made social relationships impersonal and without binding values. The growing formal rationality produced more complex side-effects such as ‘legitimation crisis’, ‘colonization’ of the essential functions of people’s life-worlds, and dependence on legal and administrative bureaucracies. Formal rationality led to ambivalences: rationalization helped people to adapt to the dynamics of social life but also had irrational consequences - achievements in scientific knowledge and technologies advanced beyond moral limits. Formal rationality gave birth to ‘society of normalization’ and biopower which generated the system of total control in the form of the Panapticon spreading its influence throughout the whole society. McDonaldization as a form of modern formal rationality worsened the situation by producing globally dehumanized nothings. Digital rationality creates objective conditions for complex vulnerabilities to society and nature in the form of ‘normal accidents’ and ‘collateral damage’. The author argues that digital rationality acquires two basic types that are culturally determined: pragmatic type - hybrid rationality rooted in the principles of practical, formal, instrumental rationality and McDonaldization; substantive digital type with an emphasis on human needs and ontological safety. To minimize the vulnerabilities of the pragmatic digital rationality and to avoid the digital ‘iron cage’, the author suggests: rejection of radicalism and pragmatism in relation to digital technologies and artificial intelligence; humanistic modernization; eco-digital policy; interdisciplinary research of complex nonlinear vulnerabilities.

In recent years, the increase in general interest in methods for measuring cognitive load and subjectively perceived mental effort when solving various tasks and in the interpersonal communication was accompanied by an increase in the specific interest of social researchers in the multimodal assessment of the cognitive load of interviewers and respondents based on objective and subjective indicators, including paradata and webcam data, in order to control this load’s impact on the quality of survey data. The authors argue that the possibilities of relatively new approaches to measuring cognitive load with neurophysiological methods (such as the use of wearable devices for oculography - eye tracking and pupillometry - which do not disrupt the natural course of respondents and interviewers activity) are still underestimated, although they allow an accurate time linkage of measured parameters’ dynamics (primarily the size of the pupil) to the question format, mode and phase of survey completion, external influences localized in time, etc. As a rule, quantitative studies of surveys’ cognitive load and its possible impact on the quality of survey data focus on computer-assisted (CAPI) or paper-based (PAPI) interviewing, while the specificity of the cognitive load in the self-completed computerized (CASI) and paper (P&PSI) surveys was not studied. The article presents the results of the methodological experiment based on a modified version of the multimodal approach to the comparative assessment of the cognitive load of interviewers working with paper and computerized questionnaire. We expanded the range of methods for assessing cognitive load by using a wearable oculographic device (eye tracker) to measure the dynamics of pupil size when answering different survey questions. The results of the experiment confirmed the hypothesis about the approximate equivalence of the two modes of survey completion in terms of their cognitive load for younger respondents with a high level of functional computer literacy, and allowed an initial assessment of the technical and metrological capabilities and limitations of the use of pupil dynamics’ indicators, measured with a wearable oculographic device, to study the respondents’ cognitive load.

The authors conducted a comparative analysis of the household consumption in Russia and China on the basis of the reputable empirical information sources. The article focuses on the main trends and peculiarities in how households from each country differed in terms of the structure and level of consumption under dramatic transformations associated with market reforms. Inequality in consumption in Russia and China, which can be characterized as high or excessive, largely determines the overall situation with social inequality and significantly influences the development of state social policy in various fields. As for the most differentiating items of expenditure for both countries, those are groceries, durable goods, public utility payments, cultural activities and entertainment. After noting the effect that income has on consumption, which is undeniable, though differs in nature and degree, the authors focus on other factors of this type of inequality, in particular, on the territorial, regional and settlement-specific characteristics of consumption inequality in both countries. The authors argue that in Russia, there is significant regional inequality in consumption, while in China such inequality is more settlement-specific; there are also differences in consumption inequality between urban and rural areas, which contribute to the overall situation with social inequality. In China, urban household expenditures are growing much faster than those of rural households, while in Russia the difference is not that pronounced. That said, the share of spending on groceries in the structure of expenditures is decreasing more rapidly in urban China, and compared to Russia, there is a smaller gap between urban and rural areas. At the same time in China, consumption inequality as a result of age and class differences is a much more acute issue, while in Russia, the differences caused by intensifying economic stratification seem to be a more important factor of inequality.

Employment conditions (form of labor relations, social security, (un)stability of wages, informal payments, etc.) are a key factor of the social-economic differentiation in the contemporary Russian society, which determines the need to clarify the relationship between the worker’s position in the labor market and one’s earnings. There are many empirical assessments of wage losses for various types of non-standard employment (informal, temporary, part-time, casual, etc.); however, each type is just one manifestation of precarization (as non-guaranteed and unstable employment), which does not present this phenomenon in general. The author considers the relationship between precarization and wages. Based on the data of the all-Russian survey of the working population (2018), the author argues that not all but some features of precarization (lack of indefinite term employment agreement, sick leave and vacation pay) are associated with a lower salary; only a high level of precarization (three or more its features together) significantly reduces wages. Despite the fact that this relationship is partly mediated by the level of education of the employee, precarization still has an independent negative impact on wages. Groups of workers with a high and low level of precarization are heterogeneous in wages which can compensate for the disadvantages of the unstable and non-guaranteed employment situation. Thus, workers can be divided into four groups according to their employment precarization and salaries, which determine their social well-being. The ‘unstable group with wages below average’ shows the lowest level of subjective well-being and social optimism both in life in general and in assessing the labor sphere. The ‘unstable group with wages above the average’ declares a lower level of social well-being than the ‘stable group with wages below the average’, i.e., higher wages do not compensate for the negative consequences of precarious employment which worsens social well-being even provided wages ‘above the average’.

Today the Internet has become an integral part of the everyday life of the younger generation, and the YouTube video hosting is one of the most visited sites among Russians aged 18 to 34. Therefore, the analysis of content, structure, and dynamics of video preferences is an important area of sociological analysis of the Russian youth’s interests on YouTube. The research aims at identification and description of the Russian youth’s interests on the basis of the analysis of their video preferences on SHAPE \* MERGEFORMAT YouTube. The authors conducted content analysis of Google’s annual reports on the most popular videos on YouTube in Russia, of the content of these videos and their comments, and the analysis of quantitative indicators (likes, dislikes and views). 26 Muscovites were questioned in the format of the semi-structured interview; and two online surveys (in 2019 and 2020) were conducted, in which 340 respondents participated. The authors identified three groups of factors to analyze the dynamics of video preferences: micro-social (social-psychological, status-role and needs factors); macro-social (institutional - social, political, economic, cultural - and environmental); random. The analysis of all types of research data on the most popular video clips allowed to describe the dynamics of the youth’s video preferences in 2008- 2020, to show the relationship of social factors with the dynamics of the youths’ YouTube preferences, and that these video preferences are largely determined by individual characteristics, because the significant events in the Russian social-cultural space have little influence on the youth’s video preferences.

Negative trends of the global social-economic development enhanced by the covid-19 pandemic explain the theoretical and practical relevance of the study of perspectives for structural transformations and their possible sources. In education, this means the need to improve the existing models of institutional practice and to contribute to the development of ‘agency’ that would support positive transformations in all domains of social life. The scientific attention to ‘agency’ and its transformative potential in relation to ‘structures’ is still limited compared to the issues of structures’ reproduction. The so-called ‘new institutionalists’ in sociology (including primarily J.W. Meyer and his followers) provide a promising basis for new theoretical models and empirical studies of the content, factors and effects of ‘transformative agency’. Meyer’s core idea is that social structures can both suppress and support the initiative formation of new social entities and the corresponding new values and modes of action. Further research in education should refer to the concepts of ‘institutional entrepreneurship’, ‘institutional work’ and ‘expanded actorhood’, when using the proposed theoretical framework to empirically study (1) globally and nationally promoted initiatives in entrepreneurship education in universities, and (2) processes of transformation of institutional contexts in education under the continuing global pandemic with an emphasis on the proactive role of students.

The article considers directions of the agrarian modernization as presented in the four editions of the Soviet agricultural encyclopedia from the mid-1920s to the mid-1950s. On the basis of some historical examples and theoretical concepts, the author explains the scientific, ideological and political significance of encyclopedias in the formation of social knowledge and ideology; shows how during the Stalinist period, the Soviet agricultural encyclopedias passed through several successive ‘great leaps’ in the representation of agrarian knowledge under the accelerated Soviet modernization; stresses the manipulative way of managing agrarian knowledge and human capital in agriculture - on behalf of the leader and ruling party. The article describes the transition from the first Soviet encyclopedia of the 1920s, which focused on the modernization of peasant Russia, to the encyclopedia of the early 1930s, which denied the importance of the peasantry and praised the projects of large-scale industrial-agricultural production; many authors of the first peasant encyclopedia were repressed. The encyclopedia of the late 1930s reflects the fight against the authors of the previous encyclopedia of the ‘great leap’ and the purges in the name of the ideology of the planning-management approach in the further modernization of Soviet agriculture. The encyclopedia of the late 1940s - early 1950s reflects the victory of the technocratic-bureaucratic worldview and personnel approach to the agrarian sphere, which prevailed in the agriculture of the USSR until the very end of the Soviet era. The author focuses on the influence of the subjective factor (political leaders, editors-in-chief and anonymous authors) on the ideology, topics and style of encyclopedic articles. In conclusion, the author notes that the strong ideological control and volatile political situation distorted knowledge in the Soviet agrarian encyclopedias, which negatively affected the quality of rural human capital and largely predetermined the stagnation of rural development in the late USSR.

The article presents the results of a review of the data of Russian and international research of social-urban development as presented at the scientific events in the Saratov region. In contemporary urbanism, there is a number of trends: temporal, of universal design, and social-cultural. The Russian urban development follows agglomeration trends that are increasingly evident in the processes of settlement, which means active development of suburban areas, changes in their landscape characteristics, cultural spaces, and mobility of citizens. The covid-19 pandemic had a complex impact on the social-urban features of cities in Russia and the world by transforming the structure and functionality of many urban locations, creating conditions for the emergence of a post-coronavirus city. The empirical data show that such a city is the most socially sensitive to negative and positive aspects of social life and to manifestations of inclusive practices that unite people. Under the low, fragmented accessibility of social, cultural and other infrastructure of cities that are designed for healthy people, there is a synchronization of urban infrastructure elements in the context of inclusion due to the social demand for a ‘coronavirus transformation’ of the architectural and urban environment in terms of social distancing. Based on the research data from different regions of Russia, the authors identify priority directions of the inclusive development of social urbanism: models of the inclusive culture of urban communities; monitoring of the city accessible environment for citizens of different age and mobility (in particular, with the ‘tracing’ and ‘walk along’ approaches); model of participatory urban planning and social expertise of the inclusiveness of the urban space; educational model of professional training in the field of social urbanism and universal design.