Vol 23, No 4 (2023)

The increasing significance of transnational and global phenomena determines the need in a new social theory that, while considering the particularity and unique characteristics of social phenomena, makes them scientifically meaningful on a transnational and global scale and in relation to each other. The fluid, indeterminate and multi-dimensional nature of global phenomena, which has become the basis for deep uncertainty and insecurity throughout the world, has increased the need to understand transnational and global phenomena. This made social and global studies revisit and reformulate social theory in relation to globalization and ever-increasing global interconnectedness [1; 33]. In general, there are two approaches: the revisionist approach seeks to reformulate and modify social sciences based on the new ontology of the contemporary world and referring to the roots and foundations of social sciences, especially sociology, to be reconstructed and restored [2; 17; 30; 34]; radical approaches argue that, given the historical-social background of social sciences and their epistemological-theoretical characteristics, it is impossible to modify and adapt them to the contemporary world; thereby, they strive to substitute these sciences [1; 4; 18; 23; 35-37]. The paper presents an attempt to find a balance between these two extremes, criticizing the epistemological foundations of social sciences and retrieving them from post-foundationalist philosophy, in order to develop a cosmopolitan social theory. Global cosmopolitanization and the increasing role of indeterminacy, mutual communication and interdependence of social phenomena, determine the need in a social theory that takes into account singularity and conceptualizes it in relation to transnational and global trends through concepts of fluidity and indeterminacy. The author argues that social sciences and theories are based on three epistemes - modern, national, and imperial - as the epistemological-historical foundations. Any cosmopolitan social theory needs primarily to criticize and go beyond these epistemes, which the author shows by interrogating two epistemological antinomies - universalism/singularism and essentialism/relativism. Postfoundationalism and the idea of social configurations are presented as the cores of cosmopolitan social theory, which can overcome the predicaments imposed by three epistemes and provide a solution for the above-mentioned antinomies. .

Civil identity is one of the key resources for uniting Russian society. It is based on the historical self-awareness, common historical memory, joint commemoration of significant historical events and achievements of the state and society. Civil identity of the Russian nation is concentrated around the Soviet legacy: Russian reality is filled with Soviet reminiscences and markers of historical memory, many of which act as ‘links’ for the differentiated social space. However, the Soviet period is becoming increasingly distant, full of myths and simplified interpretations. Therefore, the increased attention to the interpretation of ambiguous events of the Soviet history may cause a critical revision of the Soviet value paradigm in relation to the historical heritage and the policy of memory and become a catalyst for centrifugal sentiments, creating threats to the state security and integrity. The efficiency of state institutions and prospects of civil society structures depend on the dominant identity markers in the mass consciousness and on the most important reference groups for self-identification. Thus, the study of the historical consciousness and memory of Russians as the basic principles of national consensus and the analysis of the features of the post-crisis historical worldview of different groups in the Russian society are of particular relevance. Based on the monitoring research data from the IS FCTAS RAS surveys (conducted in 2020-2023 on the representative all-Russian regionalized quota sample; N = 2000) and an integrated approach, the authors assess the historical and value consciousness of Russians under contemporary challenges: interest in history and historical facts, perception of historical periods and leading historical figures; attitude to national history, formation of the all-Russian identity and the role of family memory in this process; a ‘new vision’ of Russia and its future, a trend to rethink the idea of change and the path of national development, understood in the mass consciousness through the original model of the world order and civilizational sovereignty; ideas about key social groups that contribute to or hinder national development, and about the tasks to be solved on the path to creating future Russia. The main conclusions of the research are presented in the article in the form of postulates.

The failed catch-up development of Russia, which implied joining the ranks of developed, modernized countries, again raised the question of how much civilizational type determines either Western or one’s own path of development, and for Russia the latter means the values of collectivism and strong power. Under the confrontation between these two paths, the issues of identity (as a field of political aspirations of the elites and masses) become especially important and relevant for most post-Soviet countries which show a complex interaction of group interests and identities due to the spread of individualistic, market, predominantly rational (mostly materially interpreted) meanings of life. For Russia, this interaction has become a challenge - to continue development according to the Western model or to find one’s own path, which means a return to traditional values and collectivist ideology and a rejection of liberal ideology. The article considers the features of the Russian civilizational identity and the possibilities of studying them based on the empirical data. The author emphasizes the civilizational heterogeneity of the Russian society as deeply differentiated by most economic, social and cultural criteria, which divides society into groups with specific lifestyles and value systems. Russian civilization is a heterogeneous, not fully formed and still developing multi-subject entity united by the state preserving cultural, national, religious and linguistic diversity. The article is based on the results of the representative all-Russian sociological survey conducted in 2023 and regional surveys in frontier regions - in the Northwestern, Southern and North Caucasus Federal Districts. This data helps to identify the civilizational vector of the country’s development, proving the complementarity of the ideas of the elites and the rest of society, age and settlement cohorts, residents of central and frontier, mononational and multiethnic regions.

The article considers the specifics and role of risk reflections in the adaptation to new threats and dangers in the contemporary realities. The authors argue that traditional risk-analysis strategies partially reflect the qualitative changes in the impact of the perception of threats by risk consumers, risk producers, risk beneficiaries and risk outsiders on their behavior. The authors emphasize the importance of analyzing the ‘dominant narrative’ of risks for assessing their social acceptability/ unacceptability for various interest groups. The initial methodological provisions of the article are the distinction between “positive and negative privilege” proposed by M. Weber, theoretical and practical explications of the contemporary concepts of choosing reflexive strategies for adapting to threats as a criterion for success or failure in life, and promising strategies for the formation of a positive or negative ‘risk’ identity. The empirical section of the article presents the results of the applied research conducted by the authors on the equipment of the Resource Center of the Science Park of the Saint Petersburg State University “Sociological and Internet Studies” (all-Russian telephone survey and focus groups). The authors conducted qualitative analysis to identify factors affecting the attitudes towards main threats and their influence on the ability to control and prevent risks and on the processes of adaptation and self-preservation. The article stresses the importance of P. Sztompka research program of trust as a means of reducing uncertainty and neutralizing risks (grounds for classifying reflexive strategies for avoiding uncertainty, influence of individual social-demographic characteristics of risk consumers on their choice). The analysis of the empirical data showed that the spread of one or another model of behavior in the risk society is a mobilization resource for strengthening political positions. Therefore, ‘failures’ in risk management determine a special type of social stratification - relationship of risk beneficiaries and risk outsiders, who have specific interests, opportunities and limitations of their adaptation strategies in a situation of threat.

Improving the quality of life is one of the priority tasks of Russia’s social-economic development, which requires solving the housing problem, since housing is one of the basic human needs. Based on the generalization of various approaches to ensuring housing affordability, the article shows that, in addition to the study of social-political and economic aspects, a kind of sociology of housing develops. Based on the results of sociological surveys, the authors identify the preferences of different groups (parents with children and youth) in housing. Thus, 70 % of Russians are ready to use mortgage lending to solve the housing problem. There is a paradox: on the one hand, 66 % of multi-apartment houses cannot be sold; on the other hand, there is a low level of housing supply (lower than in Eastern Europe and some CIS countries) and a high level of dilapidated housing stock and communal infrastructure. Previously, housing conditions were improved mainly at the expense of the state, now the purchase or construction of housing is ensured mainly by the population’s savings and borrowed funds, primarily mortgage lending. However, despite the growth in the volume of mortgages and their improved conditions, the housing affordability coefficient for 2000-2022 indicates a deterioration in housing possibilities. This is explained, first, by the low level of incomes and their significant differentiation - only a small share of Russians can take advantage of mortgage lending; second, housing prices grow much faster than incomes and wages. In addition, the low quality of new housing and social infrastructure, a high share of dilapidated housing and of families in need of relocation, and a number of other factors must be taken into account when implementing housing policy and solving the housing problem. The empirical basis of the article is the data of the Federal State Statistics Service, Bank of Russia, National Bureau of Credit Histories and Accounts Chamber.

The paper considers specific factors related to suicide and the influence of general, social-cultural factors on suicide in a typical post-war society - Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH). Many researchers focus on the life history of a person that committed suicide in order to get a better understanding of its social-psychological and other factors. However, the authors consider the social-economic factors of suicide based on the survey on social-cultural characteristics of suicide in BH. Part of the sample consisted of respondents that were friends or neighbours of the suicider. BH is a multicultural society that suffered war events not so long ago, which determined social-economic devastation and misery. The consequences are post-traumatic syndrome, high unemployment, social disorders, and social-pathological phenomena, including suicide. In BH, suicide is largely determined by the social circumstances, while certain social-psychological factors seem to be less important (individual pain and suffering caused by accidents or discomforts). Therefore, to understand the causes of increased suicide rates in certain periods and societies, we need to analyse the very nature of the particular society. The suicide rate in BH was considered through the social-cultural determinants of suicide. The ten-year timeframe does not exclude the impact of the previous turbulent period, including a decade of great political turmoil and economic crisis in the post-war society. Thus, the authors studied the statistical data collected by the relevant public institutions and the survey data collected with three questionnaires. Based on that data, the authors analysed in detail the causes of suicide in BH and the effects of specific social-cultural factors in the society trying to overcome the consequences of war after two decades of interethnic conflicts and strong international involvement. By considering the biography, interpersonal relationships, physical and mental health, lifestyle and other aspects of life of the person that committed suicide, the authors identify the most significant risk factors of suicidal behaviour, which may influence a personal decision to commit suicide (including ‘triggers’ and the level of suicidal intent). The social-cultural aspects of suicide prove that this phenomenon has a historical, cultural, religious and global social dimension, which means the need in its multidisciplinary study.

Sociology studies society and the patterns of its development, social processes, institutions, relations, structures, communities and certain cultural values which determine its development. Sociology also studies human behavior - how it affects society, and how people behave in social groups. There are many understandings of sovereignty in academic circles but mainly as absolute and hierarchical. As time passes, the concept of sovereignty, which prioritizes territory, has begun to lose relevance due to massive technological developments. In the context of technology and national security, territorial rules are irrelevant for three reasons: technology makes consistent and predictable territorial definitions difficult, data often moves in ways unrelated to the interests of users and legislators, and technology makes it easier for public and private actors to circumvent territorial rules, often without detection [12]. Another consequence of technological development is new actors with strong international influence due to globalization, free markets, and technological developments. Of all these actors, the most interesting are multinational companies. They do not operate on a territorial basis, which creates problems of jurisdictional asymmetry, overlap and control rather than of sovereignty in its formal sense [40]. Is sovereignty still relevant for the state? Since the advent of the Internet, the relevance of the nation-state concept has been questioned, and state actors have gradually lost their dominance. The Internet supports many international actors, and technology companies are the most significant. Their domination creates economic, legal, political, and social challenges; thereby, the state tries to regulate technology companies. The authors argue that the state sovereignty is still relevant despite many arguments saying otherwise. The paper explains the relevancy of the state sovereignty by presenting two cases: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the New Media Bargaining Code (NMBC). The nation-state demonstrates its sovereignty by the law affecting national companies; thus, showing that the state can restrain the power of technology companies, i.e., state sovereignty is still relevant in the contemporary era.

The requirements for the professional and personal qualities of teachers are presented in the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”. However, the article focuses on the “ideal portrait of the head of the educational complex” as both a leader and a teacher. The analysis of the results of studies conducted in recent years has revealed a number of requirements for the personal and business qualities of leaders-teacher, and two problems. First, many authors consider ideal portraits, on which the research is theoretically based, to be “ideal types” (according to M. Weber), i.e. “utopian by nature”, “models that cannot be verified” [1], since they “cannot be found in everyday life” [2. P. 207]. Second, the pressing methodological issue of ways to identify and measure ideal qualities of real workers remains unresolved. The article aims at identifying the professionally important personal qualities of leaders-teachers, at developing an ideal portrait of the head of the educational complex, and at proposing a mathematical model for assessing the strength of personal qualities. Therefore, the following tasks were set: to identify the degree of compliance of the leaders-teachers’ personal qualities with the author’s “ideal model”; to form an empirical database for the subsequent development of a model of the effective leader-teacher of the educational complex, and to successfully solve functional problems of educational organizations. The author presents a method for identifying personal qualities of the leader-teacher, which correspond to the results of sociological surveys of employees of state educational complexes and parents; ways and methods to verify the selected requirements; and an applied empirical model of the “ideal portrait of the head of the educational complex”. This ideal portrait has some unique features: out of 16 possible personal qualities, 11 became distinctive and dominant, which is significantly more than that of the “average person”, including representatives of other professional groups.

The article considers the current state of municipal service as a special type of professional activity with a specific ethical complex. The increased interest in the development of local self-government in Russia is determined by a new stage in the reform of municipal service as a social-legal institution and one of the most important types of professional activity in the contemporary society. The efficiency of local self-government directly depends on the level of the local population involvement, on the one hand, and on the municipal employees’ moral awareness of their activities, on the other. Professional ethics, due to its applied nature, performs an important task - specifies the general ethical principles of practical activity in relation to a particular profession. Ethical complex of municipal service as a regulator of the officials’ work ensures the efficiency of management activities, contributing to its increase. High requirements of professional ethics are mandatory for all employees; their fulfillment is the main condition for professionalism. In the contemporary society, professionalism, together with the corresponding knowledge, skills and abilities, forms the value-normative, ethical priorities of the individual, allowing to choose optimal formats for fulfilling one’s professional duties. Based on the analysis of legislative documents and the code of ethics, the article examines the criteria of professionalism and competence of the municipal employee, which are to increase the efficiency of their professional activities. Knowledge and compliance with the provisions of the Code is one of the criteria for assessing the quality of professional activity and official behavior. Professional culture is closely related to professional ethics; therefore, the development of professional culture helps to become a professional. The development of professional culture of municipal employees is ensured, on the one hand, by the legislative requirements; on the other hand, by the subjective perception of certain knowledge, abilities, values and norms of the code of ethics.

The article is a review of the book by P.A. Vodopyanov At the Turning Point of the Epochs: In Search of a Strategy for Creating the Future (Minsk: Belorussian Science; 2023. 469 p.). The monograph is of great theoretical and practical significance and outlines new horizons for the future sufficient development. The author argues that the humans’ embedment in nature and subordination to the laws of nature, the search for ways to overcome new challenges and risks caused by the negative consequences of scientific and technological achievements determine the new main directions of the coevolutionary strategy for sufficient development, which are associated with the extraordinary and unpopular measures: demographic regulation; reduction of industrial pressure on the biosphere through the introduction of nature-like technologies; economical use of natural resources and their replacement with artificial ones; increasing resource productivity through the introduction of new technologies; the use of alternative energy sources instead of hydrocarbon fuels; the changing vector of the social-economic development based on the laws of nature; a new type of morality and a new humanism; transition to the era of ‘new Enlightenment’ based on the ecological consciousness and thinking. The book identifies the main factors of maintaining the stability of natural ecosystems and the biosphere, which explain the need to use the laws of the biosphere organization to choose a strategy for a secure future. The author presents the key directions for ensuring the future based on bio-anthropocentrism as the main condition for preserving the biosphere and focuses on the main factors of human life under global instability and the need in appropriate ideological universals.

The article is a review of two books that differently assess the processes and results of informatization, networkization and digitalization of the mass society, which have given rise to many phenomena that are antinomic in nature, primarily due to the interweaving positive and negative consequences for social interaction. In the first book - Post-Truth or Fake: The Issue of Truth in Social Media (Saint Petersburg: Vladimir Dal; 2023. 303 p.) - N.A. Rhodossky conducts a ‘retrospective analysis’ of the concept and role of the media in “the development of philosophy of cyberculture”; the book is a ‘compendium’ of categories and conceptual approaches to the study of social media. The second book by A. Bruns Are Filter Bubbles Real? (Transl. from English by A. Arkhipova; ed. by A. Pavlov. Moscow: HSE Publishing House; 2023. 120 p.) focuses on one aspect in the functioning of social media - “the influence of the ideologically biased echo chambers and filter bubbles on the nature of public discussions”, and also systematizes the conflicting assessments of the consequences of the ever-increasing digitalization of our everyday life.