Vol 22, No 3 (2022)

Theory, Methodology and History of Sociological Research

Challenges of ‘modern evil’ for the sustainable development: A request for cooperation of scientific and theological knowledge

Kravchenko S.A.

Abstract

The author considers the latest challenges for the sustainable development as determined by ‘modern evil’. Its essence is not limited to specific sanctions or war: it is multifaceted - expressed in simulacra and fakes, ‘non-events’ and post-truth; producing ‘moral blindness’, neonationalism, xenophobia and Russophobia, ‘cultural racism’, and ‘normal traumas’ in the society and nature. Actually, ‘modern evil’ embodies a parallel entity in the form of a new Antichrist acting among us on behalf of a ‘higher reason’ and ‘progressive humanity’, while introducing chaos and instability into people’s life worlds. The author uses interdisciplinary methods to examine specific manifestations of ‘modern evil’: temptations of novelty, hyper-consumption and ‘conspicuous consumption’, global, pragmatically oriented digitalization, which spreads destructive content. These manifestations of ‘modern evil’ should be replaced by the sharing of goods and services, movement towards the ethics of modesty and national-sovereign digitalization. The demand for cooperation of representatives of scientific and theological knowledge for the sake of new forms of sustainable development meets the requirements of the realities of global complexity and nonlinearity. Such cooperation can become a driver of the humanity’s active production of good and humanism - as the main factor of movement to the ‘sane society’ functioning in harmony with humanized scientific-technological innovations and authentic nature.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):477-488
pages 477-488 views

E. Durkheim’s concept of sacredness

Kapishin A.E.

Abstract

E. Durkheim’s concept of sacredness as formulated in The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life aims at explaining why and how an aggregate of people becomes ‘a single whole’ and reproduces itself. This concept is the logical foundation of Durkheim’s ‘sociological holism’ for it focuses, according to T. Parsons, on ‘the core of the social system’. The principles of this concept are opposite to the principles of ‘methodological nominalism and individualism’ of the British social anthropology as expressed in the theory of animism. Durkheim defines the sacred as an ‘impersonal force’, impersonal ‘collective being’, ‘collective soul’ created and reproduced on the religious cults. The individual principle is reduced by Durkheim to the animal and wild which can be understood only as a part of the ‘collective being’ in primitive societies. In defining the nature of religious rituals, Durkheim relied on the concept of ritual by W. Robertson-Smith, which defines the main meaning of cults as the ‘union’ of adepts with the deity and each other. By removing the deity as a transcendental principle, Durkheim reduced the meaning of religious rituals to the reproduction of social unity, solidarity. Durkheim’s theory of sacredness, like its opposite - the theory of animism, is based on the concepts of the philosophy of the Modern Time, which determined the anthropomorphization of consciousness and confusion of terms ‘person’ and ‘individuality’. The significance of Durkheim’s concept should not be identified in the positivist perspective - as an explanation of facts unexplained by alternative theories. In such an interpretation, this concept was criticized and rejected by most scholars. However, it is important as a part of ‘social engineering’ which changed the intellectual environment, including the scientific community, in a specific, ideologically leftist direction.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):489-502
pages 489-502 views

The police state as a symptom: German classical philosophy and modern biopolitics (Hegel vs Fichte)

Kildyushov O.V.

Abstract

The article considers a little-known topic in the history of the social thought, which has regained relevance under the pandemic - the discussion between the outstanding philosophers of the German idealism on the conceptual interpretation of police as an earlymodern form of biopolitical control. In the introductory part, the author argues that the critique of the science and practice of policing by the classics of the German idealism is paradigmatic for the present-day study of the new/old functions and powers of the sanitary-police state concerning the modern civil society’s self-reflection. In the first part, the author describes the tension between the Enlightenment philosophy and the ‘science of policing’ developed by the Cameralists of the 17th-18th centuries, and emphasizes the significant intellectual contribution of the Enlightenment thinkers, primarily Kant’s legal doctrine, to the radical innovations in the political semantics at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. Such innovations became the philosophical basis for the rule of law which questioned the discourse of the absolutist state control over its subjects’ welfare by means of police. In the second part, the article presents a brief reconstruction of Fichte’s attempts to combine the old Cameralist ideas with the new modern principles of individual freedoms at the end of the 18th-century era of the science of police - after Kant’s explicit criticism of the state care unauthorized from below. The third part of the article focuses on Hegel’s critique: in the history of the political thought he was often considered an apologist of the authoritarian Prussian state, but questioned the very possibility of the police-scientific idea of the total biopolitical control over social and economic activities of free modern-type individuals. The author reconstructs Hegel’s argumentation of the absurdity of the total sanitary-police regulation as suggested by Fichte, and insists on the relevance of these thinkers, concepts and thematic fields for reconsidering the failure of the Early-Modern biopolitical utopia under the current intersections of lockdowns and sovereignty.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):503-517
pages 503-517 views

Diagnostics of the students’ level of conformity (results of the methodological experiment)

Puzanova Z.V., Larina T.I., Gudkova Y.A.

Abstract

Students are the most socially influenced group due to being poorly protected from various risks, which is used by extremist and terrorist organizations. Such an impact on the younger generation can be ensured by various social-psychological mechanisms, such as suggestion, emotional contagion, imitation, persuasion, etc., which can be used for their involvement in extremist activities. Any influence can be effective under the high conformity; concerning involvement in extremist organizations, such influence can be dangerous for both person and society. The article presents the results of the study of the characteristics that can affect the level of students’ conformity. The authors conducted an experiment based on focus groups and methods for diagnosing suggestibility, emotional intelligence and psychotypes. The dependent variable was the level of conformity. The topic for discussion was attitudes to infidelity as the easiest and acceptable to discuss. All participants were women with a negative attitude to the topic. In the experiment, two groups participated - to influence the initial (negative) attitude with stimulus and special techniques. The groups were homogeneous in terms of emotional intelligence: one group was below average, the second group was above average. The experiment showed that students with an anxious and emotive radical tend to demonstrate a certain degree of conformity. There is no direct correlation between conformity and the level of emotional intelligence, but the authors suggest the influence of empathy on conformity. The results of the research can contribute to new forms of preventive work at universities, including monitoring of those student characteristics that can affect the level of conformity.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):518-530
pages 518-530 views

Contemporary society: the urgent issues and prospects for development

Belarusian society: From the values of survival to the values of development and self-expression

Belov A.A., Danilov A.N., Rotman D.G.

Abstract

The article considers new trends in the value system of the Belarusian society. Based on the data of the international sociological surveys conducted as waves of the European Values Study and World Values Study, the authors identify changes in the value orientations of the Belarusian society over the past thirty years. The authors use the methodological approach to identifying the system of value orientations that was developed by R. Inglehart and K. Welzel. The study of fundamental trends in the changing value world of the contemporary society is of practical importance for understanding internal factors of the current socialpolitical processes and for assessing prospects for the further sustainable development of socialpolitical institutions. The article aims at identifying the main directions in the transformation of the value orientations of the Belarusian society since the acquisition of state sovereignty. The authors conclude that the Belarusian society moves from the values of survival to the values of development and self-expression. In the project, the authors conducted an analysis of the demographic structure of the Belarusian society in terms of value priorities and found out that the demographic base of secular-individualistic and self-expression values consists of highly educated residents of large cities of younger (under 30) and middle (up to 49) age. Given the growth of the share of population with higher education and the second wave of urbanization (the outflow from small towns to large cities), we should expect an expansion of this demographic base and, accordingly, the further spread of these value orientations. In this situation, the education system acts as a source of the ongoing changes and develops the value matrix of the coming social reality.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):531-543
pages 531-543 views

The role of the digital diaspora in overcoming the vulnerabilities of migrants under the covid-19 pandemic (the case of Moldovan migrants)

Ryazantsev S.V., Volkova O.A., Ostavnaia A.N.

Abstract

Contemporary information-communication technologies contribute to the development of the quasi-institution ‘transnational migrant community’ in the form of digital diaspora. It has several functions: maintaining ties with the country of origin, ensuring transnational interaction, constructing the identity of migrants, consolidating their ethnic community and social adaptation, expressing the subjectivity of the diaspora in the public sphere, psycho-emotional support. The relevance of the study of the digital diaspora’s role in overcoming vulnerabilities of migrants under the pandemic is determined by the need to consider the adaptation of migrants in the context of the transformation of migrations and the use of contemporary information-communication technologies by migrants. The object of the study is the online groups of Moldovan migrants, which are characterized by the rapid institutionalization of diaspora organizations. The authors focus on the mechanisms of social adaptation of Moldovan migrants, which serve to overcome their vulnerabilities and risks under the pandemic with information-communication technologies. The study is based on the concept “digital diaspora” and the secondary analysis of the data from the Representative Office of the International Organization for Migration in Moldova on the Internet practices of Moldovan migrants (2017) and on the situation of migrants under the pandemic (2020). The main research method is the analysis of the content of the largest Internet groups of Moldovan migrants in the social network with the techniques “problem tree” and “decision tree”. The study showed that during the pandemic, the Internet groups of Moldovan migrants became a platform for their self-organization and overcoming vulnerabilities, and also performed informational, organizational, representative, mobilization and recreational functions. The authors believe that the experience of the Internet groups of Moldovan migrants can be extrapolated to other migrant communities and other contexts supporting the political, economic and social-cultural subjectivity of migrants.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):544-556
pages 544-556 views

Starting positions of university applicants and features of their further education: A sociological analysis

Aleshkovski I.A., Gasparishvili A.T., Krukhmaleva O.V., Narbut N.P., Savina N.E.

Abstract

The article considers the features of students’ educational trajectories as depending on how they entered the university. A distinctive feature of the Russian system of higher education is various grounds for the educational transition “school-university”: the results of the Unified State Exam, school Academic Olympics in key subjects, employer-sponsored education, and quotas. These grounds seem to affect the further education of students and the quality of training and professional trajectories. At the same time, the resistance of the higher education system to external challenges, its sustainable competitiveness, modernization and the search for new forms and models of work with the talented youth are priority development tasks of the national higher education system. The article presents the results of the comparative analysis of the students’ motivation for learning, educational achievements, ideas about possible professional and educational trajectories. The analysis is based on the data of the Russian students survey conducted by the Center for Educational Development Strategy of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and RUDN University in November-December 2021 (N = 37457). The research findings show that at the stage of the transition from school to university, there is a very heterogeneous student inflow by quality and forms of training, individual abilities and inclinations, motivation and requests to the higher education. There is a special group - prize-winners of school Academic Olympics - of the most talented and promising applicants. The admission companies show that variable grounds for entering universities lead to certain conflicts and contradictions in the higher education system.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):557-571
pages 557-571 views

The information field of the concept ‘Russian power reputation’ in the expert and public opinion

Rozanova N.N.

Abstract

The article presents the results of the research project on the reputation of the Russian power, which aimed at identifying and explaining the content of the concepts ‘Russian power reputation’ (state and municipal power) and ‘reputation of the levels and branches of the Russian power’ (on the example of the regional executive power), and at assessing their closeness in the conceptual field. The author developed and empirically tested (expert and public opinion polls were conducted in the regions of Central Russia in August - November 2021) a theoretical model of the ‘Russian power reputation’, which has not been independently studied before. The article presents the structure and content of the information field of this concept, which (with a certain degree of convention) is defined as twocored. The basic core is a semantic field of the category ‘reputation’, the substantive core includes characteristics of the concept ‘Russian power reputation’. The author identifies key characteristics constituting the basis of the substantive core or the near periphery of the basic core, and characteristics of the far and extremely far periphery. The content of the concept ‘Russian power reputation’ consists of two main blocks - institutional and activity - in their integrating characteristics (service to the people and effectiveness/efficiency of power). The institutional block characteristics prevail (especially in public opinion), which indicates the priority of the value content of reputation over the pragmatic one. Thus, a new concept is introduced into the scientific discourse - ‘Russian power reputation’, which means a complex national phenomenon of the historically determined social and political reality - it represents a value perception and relatively stable opinion of citizens about the authorities as based on certain experience of communication and estimates of their real actions which determine a sense of trust and embody the purpose of government - to serve the people - in a productive, effective way; and it reflects the system of citizens’ expectations and perceptions of a proper power (honest, responsible, fair, caring and protective).

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):572-589
pages 572-589 views

The field of legal translation: Organizational structures and forms of capital

Maslovskaya E.V.

Abstract

The author conducts the analysis of the field of legal translation in contemporary Russia and focuses on translation agencies specializing in the languages of the peoples of the postSoviet states. The theoretical framework of the research is the sociological approach to the study of legal interpreters and Bourdieu’s theory including his analysis of the juridical field. Today some concepts of Bourdieu’s sociology can be found in the studies of the activities of legal interpreters, but his theory is still insufficiently applied. The main empirical method of the research is semistructured interviews with legal interpreters, heads of translation agencies, investigators and lawyers. The relational and dynamic perspective of Bourdieu’s theory allowed the author to analyze the formation and transformation of the boundaries of the professional group of legal interpreters as a result of competition between actors with different forms of capital. The article reveals the role of ethnic capital in the functioning of translation agencies. The author makes a conclusion that the recruitment of legal interpreters largely depends on the requirements of institutional actors of the juridical field; identifies factors affecting the working conditions of court interpreters - the rarity of their language, ability to establish reciprocal relationships with the head of a translation agency, and permanent working relationships with the law enforcement bodies personnel. The article proves the advantages of Bourdieu’s approach in the study of the translation agencies structure, and shows how the changes in interpreters’ habitus and formal position influence the development dynamics of translation agencies and the field of legal translation as a whole. The research results allow to make a conclusion that actors of the juridical field exert a decisive influence on positional struggle within the field of legal translation.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):590-604
pages 590-604 views

Socially significant information and issues of the Kazakhstanis’ trust in the media

Shabdenova A.B., Alimbekova G.T., Lifanov S.A.

Abstract

This article presents the results of the sociological survey of the Kazakhstan society on the issues of the information society and mass communication, which was a part of the programtargeted-funded project of the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Development of information technologies and systems for the sustainable personal development as a foundation for the development of digital Kazakhstan”. The study aimed at identifying preferences of various social categories in the choice of news and socially significant topics in the media space, and at assessing the influence of news of different thematic focus on the personal sustainable development (psychological/emotional, social and intellectual stability). The comprehensive analysis of the media as a channel of social influence has become more urgent under the pandemic, which is reflected in the wide use of the term ‘infodemic’ to assess information processes since the first half of 2020. The article considers the information agenda when choosing and assessing the importance of news content in the Kazakhstan media. Based on the postulate about significant differences in the information agenda of different social groups, the authors focus on the main factors of trust in information channels. The empirical data showed a correlation between the social significance of news information and the level of social trust in media. The study is based on the theoretical model combining two complementary factors: on the one hand, the influence of the media as possessing if not a monopoly (P. Bourdieu) then significant preferences in affecting public opinion and value orientations of various groups; on the other hand, the media dependence as determined by supply and demand. Based on various theories of the information agenda setting, the authors confirmed the need to take into account the social-demographic characteristics when forming the media content - when it is necessary to convey some specific information to different social groups.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):605-615
pages 605-615 views

Monitoring of the population health and health risk factors (research methodology)

Nazarova I.B.

Abstract

The article considers the dynamics of health indicators and health risk factors in Russia, including in comparison to the OECD countries. The study is based on the Russian statistical data, OECD data, and Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE). The key public health indicator - the life expectancy (years of life at birth) - shows the negative dynamics in 2020 (71.54), while some other health indicators, on the contrary, show the positive dynamics, such as the self-rated health (the share of population aged 15+ in poor health deceased). 10.8 % of Russian adults consider themselves to be in poor health, which is higher than in the OECD countries. The share of people who assess their health as good and very good has increased over the 25 years of the study: the share of women has doubled (17.5 % in 1994 and 35.1 % in 2020); the share of men has increased by 13.2 % (34.4 % and 47.6 %). The share of people who drink alcohol and of men who smoke has decreased. However, there are negative trends that accompany risk factors: early initiation of smoking (8.5 % started smoking at 13 years and earlier, the majority (78.3 %) started smoking at puberty - at 18 and earlier; half of smokers smoke more than 15 cigarettes a day). The majority (66 %) of the RLMS participants at least occasionally drink alcoholic beverages, including beer (69.6 % of men and 55.3 % of women); never drink alcohol 34 % (30.4 % and 44.7 %). Every tenth respondent (11.9 %) tried an alcohol for the first time at the age of 14 or earlier; 77.9 % - at 18 and earlier. Over 25 years, the share of people with normal weight has decreased: 57.3 % of men and 43.4 % of women in 1994; 43.8 % and 40.5 % - in 2020. The share of overweight people has increased from 40 % of men and 51.9 % of women in 1994 to 53.5 % and 55.7 % in 2020.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):616-629
pages 616-629 views

Adaptive practices of healthcare workers under the reforms

Temnova L.V., Bapinaeva E.G.

Abstract

The theory of high modernism and the concept ‘metis’ by J. Scott identify one of the reasons for unsuccessful state reform in various areas: when preparing changes, local practical experience is often neglected, but the success of the reform as a whole may depend exactly on such knowledge. The system ignores the possible strategies of workers’ resistance to the coming changes, many of which are unconscious. The reforms in the field of healthcare, including in Russia, have shown that doctors remain the most vulnerable group affected by changes. A side effect of the ongoing reforms is the development by the professional community of doctors of certain adaptive practices aimed at adaptation to changes with the least losses for the individual and professional activity. To identify the adaptive practices of medical workers in response to the reforms and their consequences, the authors examined the available data and conducted interviews with doctors of various specialties. As a result, adaptive practices of doctors in their professional activities were systematized, and their classification was proposed: deviant/non-deviant and active/passive. Active adaptive practices prevail and are implemented in three subsystems: doctor-administration, doctor-doctor and doctor-patient. Most doctors tend to accept changes that involve adding new practices rather than changes removing traditional practices. All respondents positively assessed new technologies, but negatively assessed rigid standards that limit their professional freedom. The development of adaptive practices depends on various factors - gender, age, length of service, specialization, position. Such practices help doctors to keep the habitual way of professional life and to adapt to new working conditions.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):630-645
pages 630-645 views

Human development, satisfaction with human capital and security in the Siberian and Far Eastern border regions

Maximova S.G., Omelchenko D.A., Noyanzina O.E.

Abstract

The development of human capital in Russia is rather controversial and is characterized by both significant achievements and serious challenges. Russian regions differ in terms of the accumulated human capital, and many Siberian and Far Eastern territories are the most vulnerable in this perspective. Based on the analysis of the statistical indicators (more than 40) and the results of sociological research, the authors present a model of the main dimensions of social security in their relationship with the development of human potential in the border regions of Russia, with a focus on the regions of the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts. According to the statistical data, the human development index is closely related to security in the labor sphere and the characteristics of the social-economic development, which determine, among other things, the features of the functioning of the social security system. The authors identified the statistically significant but less strong links of the human development index with the level of the social infrastructure development and environmental security. The results of sociological studies in five border regions (Altai Region, Amur Region, Khabarovsk Region, Omsk Region, and Altai Republic: N = 2802) show a subjective assessment of the efficiency of human capital and its relationship with social-structural factors, institutional environment and quality of social relations. The authors conclude that human capital in the border regions depends not only on economic factors, but also on broader social conditions: the human capital estimates depend on the institutional and generalized trust, social representations, and perceived discrimination. The development of human capital varies by region, which reflects the specifics of its accumulation and functioning in different contexts and conditions.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):646-660
pages 646-660 views

Food supply in the Arctic: Municipal authorities’ opinion

Neustroeva A.B., Shishigina A.N.

Abstract

The UN experts rightly point out that “inequality between different regions of a particular country is often more significant than inequality between countries”. The article considers the issues of food provision for the hard-to-reach areas of the Yakut Arctic based on the survey of the municipal authorities in the Arctic regions of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) on the current situation and problems of food supply. In general, the issues of ‘northern delivery’ are most acute for the hard-to-reach territories of Russia. The article is based on the results of the expert survey - representatives of the municipal authorities in 10 out of 13 Arctic regions of Yakutia. According to the empirical data, in most settlements and villages of the Arctic regions of Yakutia, there are such problems as a shortage and a narrow list of provided products, their low quality and high prices, lack of food control, insufficient number of vegetable stores and warehouses. Due to the high food prices, the most vulnerable groups are poor citizens, among whom families with children prevail. Despite the average indicators of the economic access of food, the transport access to food in the Arctic regions of Yakutia is critically low. In these areas, the cost of a food basket in the consumer basket, on average for a five-year period, turned out to be significantly higher than the average for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The food market of the Yakut Arctic is very specific, primarily due to the peripheral geographic location and the underdevelopment of the transport infrastructure. Significant volumes of food deliveries with the participation of the regional budget can only affect the minimum prices of products. The situation is aggravated by the lack of a unified legal framework and organizational structure for hard-to-reach territories; therefore, ensuring their food security requires additional research and special management decisions.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):661-671
pages 661-671 views

Social functions of rural farmers (on the example of the Altai Region)

Popov E.A.

Abstract

The article focuses on the social functions of rural farmers. The significance of this perspective is determined by the possibilities of revaluating social processes in the contemporary Russian countryside. Features of rural life predetermine various options for rural farmers to support villagers. The article aims at identifying those social groups and communities that can take an active part in everyday rural life, thus, changing the value system of the village and affecting the consequences of alienation and disunity. The theoretical analysis allowed the author to define rural farmers are a social-professional group with specific value priorities which lead to its active participation in the life of rural society. Such an involvement in solving the problems of rural settlements is of both social-economic and moral nature (help, support, responsibility). The article considers the heuristic potential of the concept ‘social function’ in assessing the role of farmers in the daily life of Russian villages. The author conducted semi-structured interviews with farmers in the Altai Region - to identify the key social functions associated with the activities of the representatives of this social-professional group. The author interviewed 66 male farmers of different age to assess their actions for consolidating the villagers, supporting people in difficult life situations, and expanding cooperation with the local government to solve the most important tasks of rural settlements. Based on the empirical data, the author identifies a number of social functions of farmers, which explain the features and directions of their activities in the development of Russian villages.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):672-686
pages 672-686 views

Sociological lectures

Idea of justice as a social trap for Russia

Chernyak A.Z., Ivleva M.L., Orekhov A.M.

Abstract

This article is a result of its authors’ participation in the round table “Justice and Lawmaking” of the subproject “Ethics and Law: Mechanisms of Mutual Influence” of the HSE project “Applied Ethics” in the State Duma on December 1, 2021. The article considers social issues associated with the justice institutions, which are conditionally named institutional traps (an economic term). The authors focus on how these ‘traps’ work in contemporary Russia and how it is possible to get out of them. The article presents the contemporary discourse on social justice, which is characterized by a variety of concepts and a wide thematic field, and provides a definition of the institutional trap modified for the article’s tasks - a combination of social institutions, which being implemented leads to the results radically different or even opposite to the expected when designing such institutions. The authors argue that a trap is a result of the institution or a combination of institutions created to ensure justice of a certain kind or in accordance with a certain idea, when such an institution or combination leads to both justice (or other comparable public good) and clear injustice. This is a trap for society, because its expectations are deceived, and for the state, because it gets new social problems to be solved. The authors believe that what makes institutions an institutional trap is not only the fact that they do not cope with their tasks, but also do not meet social expectations determined by the system of previous values or inherited from it. The authors conclude that institutional solutions (creation of new institutions, modernization of existing ones) do not guarantee the desired result; we need a single educational program for promoting justice and mercy (taking into account cultural differences), which would explain their fundamental importance for society and its every member.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):687-706
pages 687-706 views

Exploratory research as a method for making a people-metric panel in the media study of the television audience

Postalovskiy A.V.

Abstract

The article considers methodological approaches and practical use of the exploratory research for making a people-metric panel for the measurement of television ranking indicators. The main task of the exploratory research is to design a social-demographic portrait of the audience, to assess the contribution to the television viewing of different age groups, and to identify control parameters for the selection of permanent participants in such studies. In 2020, in the Republic of Belarus, the practice for establishing a single national television and radio ranking measuring company was tested. The MediaIzmeritel company entered the media advertising market as using international standards (GGTAM) and research technologies (Kantar, UK). To make a panel of studies’ participants equipped with technical devices for the passive measurement of television ranking (people meters), an exploratory research and a subsequent multivariate analysis of the data obtained are necessary. The article describes the innovative for Belarus practice of creating a single national media measurement company under the few works on exploratory research of the television audience. The author explains the design of such an exploratory study conducted in July-December 2020 with the face-to-face interview and CATI telephone survey; methodological aspects of making a television panel with a multivariate analysis of empirical data; theoretical approaches to the interpretation of the concept ‘audience’, and the design of the panel matrix - the empirical structure of the peoplemetric panel.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):707-719
pages 707-719 views

Social strategies for urban management and urban-environment development in the works of T. M. Dridze and in contemporary Russia

Kiyanenko K.V.

Abstract

In the pre- and early post-reform Russian urban sociology, the works of T.M. Dridze, a prominent Russian sociologist and psychologist, are of a great importance. Her concepts of urban development, social participation and urban environment reflect the democratic approach to urban development and urban social management. Under the dominant liberal, market-oriented urban regulation, this approach was considered almost marginal. However, after the adoption in 2016 of the federal project for developing a ‘comfortable urban environment’, the rhetoric of ‘environment’ and ‘participation’ started to prevail in both society and urban social sciences. The question is whether the ideas and theoretical models of the democratic urban planning started to determine the contemporary urban development. To answer this question, the author clarifies the content of the basic terms used by T.M. Dridze and her interpretation of the relationships between the environment, society and participatory technologies; reveals the methodological role of social participation and defines it as a scale of social practices - from the grassroot ‘activism’ to the ‘participation from above’ initiated by the authorities. The author conducts a conceptualterminological analysis to compare three strategies of urban development: urban construction, urban regulation and urban arrangement, and only the last one seems to be consistently democratic. The analysis of the texts and methods of the federal project allows the author to make conclusions about the certain qualities of this project. Thus, the project replaces the democratic socialenvironmental type of social participation in urban development - planning, implementation, assessment of results - by the improvement of urban areas as controlled by the authorities. This means that the works of T.M. Dridze are still relevant for the democratic urban studies and urban development.

RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2022;22(3):720-731
pages 720-731 views

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