Vol 24, No 2 (2024)

The article aims at explaining the influence of the resource factor on differentiation in the early non-Western societies. The author uses extensive historical and anthropological data and analytical tools of classical and contemporary sociological theories to prove that scientific works consider the sufficiency of life support resources as a significant factor in sociogenesis. However, the direction and mechanism of this factor are interpreted differently due to the qualitative features of societies under study. An increase in the number of life support resources could play a stimulating role in the complication of those social structures that had relatively developed production technologies, which allowed to institutionalize private ownership of the means of production, i.e., the growth of wealth led to an increased exchange and, accordingly, to social inequality and, ultimately, to the state. Social differentiation developed differently in societies that were forced to significantly increase their economic efficiency but did not have developed production technologies or could not borrow them from their neighbors, i.e., the population growth, not supported by an increase in labor productivity, led to a shortage of life support resources. Thus, people were forced to look for more effective forms of labor organization, such as the involvement of large masses of community members in solving general economic problems, which was best ensured by a hierarchical socialeconomic system with elements of coercion and planning. In some areas, population mastered irrigation farming technologies which further accelerated social differentiation. Within this new social structure, clan relations were preserved for some time but only as a means of legitimizing the new order. As vertically integrated relations strengthened, they ceased to need justification due to achieving legitimation and dominance.

The last decades have been marked by an increasingly widespread presence of irregular warfare in both international and internal conflicts. The most sought-after theoretical framework for understanding the nature and activities of irregular formations remains Carl Schmitt’s Theory of the Partisan published in 1963. The article reconsiders Schmitt’s criteria of partisanship and presents irregular warfare as a social phenomenon outside the social order maintained by the state, which potentially threatens the state despite their initial convergence of interests. The criminalization of the irregular combatant, carried out by the occupying force of the international conflict, might be continued by his subsequent criminalization by the social order which he had previously helped to restore. Although the Theory of the Partisan implies such an explanation, it does not fully develop it. The author identifies a reverse relationship between the internal politicization of irregular formations and their external criminalization: the occupant disregards the partisan’s political motives, focusing on the criminal methods of armed struggle and considering the partisan as merely a flagrant disturber of order to be neutralized by police operations. On the other hand, the yesterday’s hero can be declared a criminal by the regularity that previously provided him with support, if he converts the high intensity of his political commitment into demands to the regularity. Although such initiatives might be considered as a continuation of the political struggle by the partisan, they can be interpreted as a direct threat to social order by the state, which leads to criminal prosecution. Thus, the encouragement of irregular warfare is an effective means of combating external aggression in the short term, but in the long term it becomes dangerous as threatening social order. The author makes a conclusion about the indistinguishability of the political and the criminal under the full-fledged civil conflict due to the mutual criminalization of its participants and to the politicization of their criminal means of violence, providing some historical examples to show various manifestations of the criminal-political ambivalence of irregular formations.

The rapid entry of artificial intelligence (hereinafter AI) into all spheres of social life determines the need to consider ongoing changes and to conduct systematic sociological research. Education and science are key resources that, on the one hand, develop and improve AI technologies, but, on the other hand, fully experience the pressure of contradictions caused by new technologies. It is important for both the higher education system and society as a whole to understand how students react to new opportunities and technologies, how involved they are in the use of AI in their educational activities, and how they evaluate their experience of applying new technologies in learning. The article presents data on the Russian university students’ assessment of their personal experience of using generative AI models (neural networks) in educational activities, highlights the most popular AI functions, and evaluates students’ satisfaction with their use. The article is based on the survey of Russian university students conducted in 2023-2024 (N = 52919), which showed that, despite the current massive fascination with digital technologies and the use of neural networks, Russian students assess quite ambiguously their use in studies, and in senior years, this assessment becomes more critical and balanced (concerning the opportunities provided by AI). The survey data allows to conclude that the use of generative AI models in education requires a set of decisions on the direct regulation of its application and ethical issues, the thorough revision of the students’ forms of independent work, including final certifications and test tasks, and a search for constructive approaches to the use of AI to improve the quality of education and the work of the higher education system. Moreover, AI assigns the higher education system a task of developing students’ critical assessment of the results of interaction between a human being and a neural network, focusing on the limitations and capabilities of the generated information, and acceptable formats for its use in research and learning.

More than forty years passed since the start of the reform and opening policy in China, which made millions of peasants move to the city. Urbanization has become one of the most important social processes in China, which helped the country gain a powerful economic potential based on the accelerated industrialization. Social-economic development is impossible without the expansion of cities and their populations. Until recently, cities have been centers for developing human capital and ensuring economic growth. However, urbanization has negative consequences as it leads to an outflow of workforce from rural areas, thus threating their social development. To confront such a threat, the Chinese government introduced a new type of urbanization for the simultaneous revival of rural areas. These two national strategies may seem opposite in terms of goals and objectives: the first stategy aims at developing cities and improving urban living conditions; the second strategy aims at developing rural infrastructure; but both strategies have a common goal - to ensure social modernization with Chinese specificity, which implies harmonious development and urban-rural balance. The article aims at identifying social, managerial and economic features of the new urbanization policy in China as a two-pronged strategy of the simultaneous development of urban and rural areas. The implementation of this new type of urbanization is to solve a number of problems of internal migration, since peasants who have not managed to arrange their lives in the city cannot return to the countryside for different reasons. Local authorities of both cities and villages struggle to increase the size of their population, which determines conflicts and ineffective management decisions in many Chinese regions. In many cases, there is a clear discrepancy between the interests of society as a whole and the interests of regional administrative bodies implementing social-economic policies. China needs to solve these problems to ensure sustainable urban development while improving living conditions in rural areas.

Since the very birth, the media has exerted a huge impact on masses, which only became more obvious in the contemporary information society, especially given the rapid development of technology and social networks. After a brief theoretical overview, the authors present the results of the sociological survey conducted in two public universities of the Republic of Srpska, which aimed at identifying student estimates of the mass media’s manipulative potential in general and student opinions towards the media coverage of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in particular. The authors designed the survey sample in such a way as to represent students of social sciences and humanities (different educational profiles within these two professional fields) due to the very nature of their studies and to the better knowledge of issues under study by definition (content of courses and requirements to competences in the future professional field). The survey was conducted online, the questionnaire was posted on the Google platform, which allowed not only to share the link but also to receive feedback. The authors wanted to get empirical data proving the fact that the media has a significant influence on the formation of attitudes and value systems of the wider public, including the younger generation represented by the student youth. Given that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has lasted for more than two years, it allows to get a deeper insight into the public perception of such critical issues as not just based on the media coverage or the first emotional reactions after the outbreak of the conflict. The authors wanted to know whether students feel/believe that the media (in general or specific media companies) tend to biased reporting, and what media channels students prefer to get much-needed information. The authors emphasize the need for objective reporting in crisis situations, including various conflicts. Crisis situations are always a great challenge for any media in the perspective of complying with ethical standards of reporting and the pressure of media owners and political forces. The article aims at revealing students’ attitudes towards the causes of such biased reporting and topics that the media is likely to cover in an objective manner.

Based on the results of focus groups with students of four Russian universities, the authors describe the psycho-emotional state and social position of the student youth, the range of problems that concern them, plans for the future, priority strategies for interaction with peers and the attitude towards such ideological traits as free-thinking and originality of thinking, tolerance to the uniqueness of others and following one’s own views, motivation and determination. The study showed that under the influence of the current media agenda (primarily on the Internet), emotions of anxiety, defenselessness and uncertainty dominate among students, while the traditional media are virtually of no interest for the focus group participants, and most informants do not watch TV, including for ideological reasons. The psychological state of young people is largely determined by the media content, which they do not trust and repeatedly double-check. For students graduating from university and having a large amount of academic work, the main source of anxiety is fear of an unknown future, uncertainty in choosing a career and life goals, including in the current geopolitical situation. Russian students consider the unique features of their generation to be internal freedom and open-mindedness, constant self-development and the desire for self-realization, a combination of individualism and empathy, and constant involvement in communication with friends through social media. Among the negative traits of the youth, informants named some immaturity and unwillingness to make responsible decisions. Among the most disturbing and painful social problems in the Russian society for the youth, students emphasized social inequality caused by differences in property and income, while they calmly perceive the diversity of opinions and life strategies.

The actualization of the issues of the youth’s religiosity and of its scientific interpretation on the example of students, representatives of generation Z (centennials, Gen Z), determined the research questions of the article which aims at identifying centennials’ estimates of various religious phenomena and their interpretation of knowledge about it. The theoretical basis of the article are the ideas of social constructionism, which help to understand how young people take part in the creation of such a social construct as religion. The article summarizes the results of the sociological study of ideas about religion among students of the large regional university - Ufa State Petroleum Technical University (Republic of Bashkortostan). The sample consisted of students born after 1995, aged 18 to 26 (N = 1900); the author used the questionnaire with closed questions, narrative interviews and focus groups with the Eastern Regional Studies’ students. Based on the results of the survey, the author considers the youth’s ideas about religion, religious traditions and practices, their spread in the regional community, and the origins of religious sentiments and attitudes reproduced and constructed by the youth. The author notes the lack of unity in various aspects of the youth’s attitude towards religion, which indicates the blurring and eclecticism of religious ideas among the generation Z. Although students declare a wide variety of manifestations of religiosity, the relationship between religion and the existential understanding of the world is clear. Images of the sacred go beyond students’ religious worldview, which is due to the way knowledge about reality is constructed and to the individual need to sacralize knowledge. The comparative analysis of the construction of the image of the sacred by Muslim and Orthodox centennials showed some differences: Muslims are more religious; religious tradition seems to be transmitted from generation to generation mainly by the Muslim part of the Gen Z, and, on the contrary, is constructed by Orthodox students in the current social context. However, there is a general trend - religious identity of the believer is not strictly based on a certain tradition but is constructed with available knowledge and changes with new information, which is a typical feature of the generation Z.

Even with the most “naked” eye it is difficult not to notice the growing prevalence of tattoos in the Russian society (beyond any generational, gender, professional or social boundaries), which makes tattooing an important object of sociological analysis and requires identifying its subject field, since tattooing is such an ancient social phenomenon that it has long been the focus of interdisciplinary research (historical, anthropological, philosophical, art-historical, cultural studies, etc.). The article outlines this subject field as consisting of several thematic blocks. First, these are reasons for the popularization of tattooing in the social history of recent centuries: the results of the colonial era; interest in other cultures; “labeling” of subcultures; expansion of the listed “niche” reasons beyond certain social/professional groups and subcultures (mass distribution of tattoos in the contemporary consumer culture). Second, the conceptual foundations of the sociological study of the functionalsymbolic features of tattooing: the “critical theory”; theories of subcultures; identity theories; gender approach within identity research; sociological theories of the body. Undoubtedly, the specificity of the sociological analysis of tattooing is the focus on its functions in a given social context, which today is set by the mass consumer culture of the information society and, in part, by various subcultural and “elite”-reference groups. Third, the possibility of empirical study of tattooing outside the socialanthropological (historical-visual or semiotic-symbolic) field - in the perspective of highlighting existing/sustainable social representations about tattooing. Sociologists have two main methodological tools: mass representative surveys and semi-formalized (expert in the broad sense of the word) interviews. The article presents the results of the all-Russian survey conducted by WCIOM in 2019 and of the small online survey supplemented by semi-structured interviews, which showed a clearly expressed trend of social ‘normalization’ of tattooing in the Russian society as mainly a widespread and a generally neutrally perceived method of (aesthetic and decorative) self-expression.

The relevance of the research is determined by the need to find ways for the consolidation and unification of the polycentric, multinational and multicultural Russian society under contemporary challenges. The author uses a complex theoretical-methodological approach combining the theory of social identity (H. Tajfel and J.C. Turner), the concepts of “self” (G. Mead) and “personality crisis” (E. Erikson), the phenomenological paradigm (A. Schutz) and the theory of cultural trauma (J. Alexander). The article presents a fourlevel structure of social identity, which includes individual, group, state and global (world) levels, and different types of social identity at each. Thus, the features of subjective and objective identities are shown at the individual level; regional, cultural, national, linguistic, professional and social-class identities - at the group level; state-civil, historical, territorial and political - at the state level; post-Soviet, Asian, European and cosmopolitan - at the global level. The author provides some empirical tools for identifying the affiliative component of social identity at the individual, group, state and global (world) levels and insists on the need to search for answers to research questions about the Russian identity in general, socialcultural differences between residents of Russia and other countries, territorial features of Russia as a state and its continent, the influence of the West and East on the Russian culture, and the impact of global openness and “liquid modernity” (Z. Bauman) on the Russian social identity. The article considers “triggers” for the transformation of social identity, which initially appear either at the individual or global level, depending on the context and social source. The author argues that the study of the social-cultural core of the heterogeneous Russian identity under the extremely dynamic and nonlinear social processes affecting the key areas of Russian life can contribute to the development of a strategy for improving social well-being in the Russian society and to the search for effective ways of its consolidation given its polycentricity and multiculturalism.

The digital singularity, positioned as a complex of sensational, sometimes paradoxical collaborations and innovations, is a stage in the new civilizational structure, which today is beyond human understanding. The contemporary generation becomes a builder and integrator of digital technologies of the sixth order that develops in combination with the metaverse and Web 4.0. Under the current political risks, post-pandemic recovery, sanction pressure, trade and information wars, increasing levels of cyber threats, and internal cosmopolitanization towards a multipolar world, leadership in the cyberspace development and the harmonious development of the information society become decisive for every country. Certainly, contemporary realities require a fundamentally new approach to developing the social-economic space and to ensuring the sovereignty of decisions. The study aims at identifying reasons for social polarization into network and digital segments and principles of the national trusted metaverse in the light of the social-economic space modifications. The authors conducted a study of the social perception of breakthrough innovations and the information and digital revolutions in Russia’s North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts (N= 21,348). The result of this survey is a polarization matrix of the information society and the concept of its digital transformation under the recursiveness and generativity of intensively complementary and successive innovations. The strategic guideline of this concept is the metaverse in the paradigm of the close connection between economic development and social regulation through the integration of digital space and physical world in the perspective of unique opportunities for the informationcommunication interaction in a single trusted environment based on high-tech solutions of the Web 4.0 era. In the new realities, the digital transformation of the social system is inevitable: the dissonance in the information society’s perception of breakthrough innovations and the results of the information and digital revolutions indicate the inevitability of future changes.