Vol 15, No 4 (2015)

To date, the Sociological Laboratory of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia has accumulated a vast experience in the field of cross-cultural studies reflected in the publications based on the results of mass surveys conducted in Moscow, Maikop, Beijing, Guangzhou, Prague, Belgrade, and Pristina. However, these publications mainly focus on the comparisons of the empirical data rather than methodological and technical issues, that is why the aim of this article is to identify key problems of the comparative analysis in cross-cultural studies that become evident only if you conduct an empirical research yourself - from the first step of setting the problem and approving it by all the sides (countries) involved to the last step of interpreting and comparing the data obtained. The authors are sure that no sociologist would ever doubt the necessity and importance of comparative analysis in the broadest sense of the word, but at the same time very few are ready to discuss its key methodological challenges and prefer to ignore them completely. We summarize problems of the comparative analysis in sociology as follows: (1) applying research techniques to the sample in another country - both in translating and adapting them to different social realities and worldview (in particular, the problematic status of standardization and qualitative approach); (2) choosing “right” respondents to question and relevant cases (cultures) to study; (3) designing the research scheme, i.e. justifying the sequence of steps (what should go first - methodology or techniques); (4) accepting the procedures that are correct within one country for cross-cultural work (whether or not that is an appropriate choice).

The article analyzes the current state of the television’s functions and effects under the social changes caused by the intensive development of information and communication technologies that determines the emergence of a new information society, which is characterized by the transformation of intangible resources, i.e. information, into economic and political resources of society. The system-forming potential of the rapidly developing information and communication sector manifests in the formation of the network structure of social communications, its distribution all over the socio-cultural field, promotion of the horizontal communication model in all spheres of social life, and the growing role of virtuality, interactivity and individualization. The authors conducted sociological analysis of the television’s functions and impact based on the current changes in social structures and classical and modern sociological concepts, and show that the adaptation of the social field of television can be explained by openness of the system, its involvement in social processes of higher order, and its own regulating mechanisms. The television possesses a number of significant features that allow to describe and study it as a social field: a complex communication and production system with specific functions, activities and organizational structure; a system of audio-visual, linguistic and metalinguistic communication; a form of knowledge embodied in the production and accumulation of symbolic material; a complex system of social practices.

On the basis of empirical data (a number of representative nationwide opinion polls and expert estimates) the article presented a detailed overview of the Russians’ and experts’ perception of the results and prospects of the Eurasian integration, and an analytical evaluation of their opinions, hopes and expectations taking into account the potential of the labor movement in the new integrated socio-economic and geopolitical space. The author explains the role and meaning of the social interaction of members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in ensuring the effectiveness of integration, and proposes methodological foundations for the development of the social model of the Eurasian Union with an emphasis on its social dimension. The article reveals the essence of the today supranational model of social policy and its influence on social policies of the members of EEU. Thus, the author explains the primary need to harmonize social actions of the members of EEU in employment policies, and proposes a number of measures for social policy in Russia to ensure free movement of labor in the Eurasian economic space as a key host state and society.

The article considers the urgent issues of assessing the development of the higher education institutions under the significant changes in the higher education system. The author analyzes the situation in the Russian society to identify factors that determine the directions of universities development under difficult market relations and constant competition. The mechanisms of university changes, although based on different criteria, generally aim at achieving the strategic guideline of innovative development to help the university to take its rightful place in the educational market and to become financially independent, for which it is necessary to design the future of universities according to the chosen path of the development. The author describes some probable scenarios for the development of the higher education system, based on the events and reforms in the scientific and educational fields, taking into account the current socio-economic and political situation. The author makes an analogy between the predicted vectors of the development of the higher education institutions and new types of universities as a basis of the proposed scenarios implementation. Thus, the general scenario of the higher education system development on the basis of research universities is complemented by alternative scenarios based on new types of universities - entrepreneurial, innovative, network, and virtual. Such scenarios are relevant as indicators of understanding the state of the higher education system and can help to find new ways of university management and optimal forms of university functioning.

The contemporary world brings the problems of international relations that have reached the global scale to the forefront, because political actions inevitably affect relations between peoples of the countries involved. The article presents the results of the sociological research aimed to identify mutual perception and concepts of the contemporary world among citizens of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine on the example of Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. Belarus, Ukraine and Russia are Slavic countries with common history, united by the Russian language, and forming the basis of the “Russian World”. However, the tragic events of 2013-2014 in Ukraine and global political processes raise the question of how close the peoples of these countries are now and how similar their concepts of the contemporary world are. The authors used the semantic differential method, method of associations and projective questions and focused on the categories «attitude towards countries» (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the global leaders), «attitude towards peoples of the countries» and «attitude towards the language», which formed the basis of the matrix showing the key concepts of the contemporary world among Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian students of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia.

The article analyzes the subject field of the so-called “suburban studies” in contemporary Russia. In the first part of the article, the author shows that, despite the obvious potential of the relevant empirical data, the analytical work of Russian scientists, and the ample opportunities to join the current international debates, Russians scientists are still not interested in this area of research, which is, apparently, is a consequence of the general deep crisis of the urban studies in the country. Nowadays Russian suburbs are growing, new forms of suburb relations and household arrangements emerge and develop; however, the number of publications and studies on these processes does not grow. In the second part of the article, the author presents the results of the suburban studies he conducted in one of the largest cities in Siberia - Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia. The author shows how this case reflects the general model of suburban development not only in Russia, but also in the post-soviet urban space. In particular, the article focuses on the development of squatter (unauthorized) settlements, the growth and transformations of suburban villages, reconstruction of urban and suburban dachas, construction of cottage settlements, and the development of non-residential infrastructure near cities.

The article presents an attempt to identify the current status of the comparative (or cross-cultural) studies in the sociological tradition by indicating basic contexts of discussing relevant issues in the sociological discourse. First, there is a quite ambiguous categorical apparatus of the comparative analysis even at the level of the key nominations of the subject of cross-cultural studies (the ratio of in-country and cross-country comparisons, of regional, socio-cultural, socio-economic and other aspects in the structure and size of the population, samples and sub-samples, survey techniques, etc.). Second, the history of comparative studies is highly fragmented due to the lack of a coherent tradition and a variety of bright methodological principles and techniques, which experienced modifications at the stages of collection and analysis of empirical data (especially due to the need to take into account differences in the subsamples’ worldviews and to avoid systematic biases that generate differences in data instead of measuring the existing ones). Third, there is a variety of attempts to structure the field of comparative studies on various grounds, which often leads to the opposite result - even more confusion in nominations. Finally, there are recognized since the formation of the comparative research orientation in sociology but still unresolved (partly non-resolvable in principle) problems of ensuring the equivalence of data, primarily with the standardized conceptualization and operationalization of the basic concepts of the project and use of a single method of sampling, data collection and analysis.