Vol 16, No 3 (2016)

Sociological theory at any stage of development requires permanent reflection and comprehension of its own conceptual bases including its terminological axiomatic, which incorporates both the antinomy “subject (action, agency) and structure” and concepts of order, norms and rules, standards, cultural patterns and values, institutions, social control, power and coercion, conformism, deviation, etc. Conceptual descriptions of the opposition “agency-structure”, the problems of social order and mechanisms of normative and institutional “morphogenesis” traditionally act as one of the main “paradigmatic” axes for the development of sociological theory, and their critical analysis and comparison clarify the general methodological basis of social knowledge as a whole and highlight the fundamental demarcation lines between different schools and branches of sociological thought. The author attempts to provide a preliminary reconstruction and revision of the general argumentation used in social theory to explain how normative orders emerge from the internal logic of social interaction that takes place at different levels including everyday life. The article aims to assist in producing a clear and prominent vision of the issues of the dualism of agency-structure in social relations and of their normative, “rule-oriented” nature.

The article examines forms and methods of public administration in the transitional society in terms of the adequacy of its arsenal to the goals and objectives of social modernization. The authors assess strategic and tactical capabilities of the established management practices to meet the challenges of organization and self-organization of social life; analyze the resources and legal sufficiency of the administrative-territorial unit of power for operational and creative management. The authors believe that there is a serious barrier for effective relations of the federal center and the subjects - uncertainty of the integrated system of uniform and permanent principles, which does not allow both levels to function as a single social institution and prevents establishing a stable and productive power “vertical”. It is difficult to increase the manageability of regions as administrative-territorial forms without establishing the whole complex of relations between different levels of administration. The author describe the main control mechanism at the current stage of Russian reforms - regulation, its nature, functions and technological basis; define the basis for implementing two leading principles of regulation in the social and economic life of the country and its regions - territorial and sectoral; underline the need for the subjects of management (authorities) to overcome the existing imbalances within their competence, or by the coordination of administrative nominality and reality.

The article considers contexts and contextuality as a means to analyze the contemporary immigration, which is defined as a factor of global competition in the framework of the first context. The typical research model of ‘donor-recipient’ is supplemented by a third actor - political and economic world centers, and the world’s multinational companies that invite migrants in order to redistribute the labor resources on the most important labor markets. Immigration is used as an instrument to regulate state social policies; immigration contributes to the social and cultural fragmentation of Europe. The second context is devoted to the study of the rationalization principle as a form of European expansion. Following the conception of A. Touraine, the author defines the rationalization as a form of expansion and as one of the European civilization features that destroys social and cultural constellations. Today Europe is divided into two parts in relation to immigration: the western part (or group of countries) reproduces the immigration model typical for the classic immigration in the past (it is open to immigration); the eastern group of countries reproduces the perception of immigration typical for the old Europe (it is closed to immigration). The determining factor of immigration is the force of attraction of economic and financial world centers; however, the new feature of immigration is that it becomes predominantly nonreturn. The third immigration context is based on the declaration of the priority of culture, traditions and values of the national community. Immigration here is undesirable, non-labor and unacceptable for local labor markets. Immigrants are refugees partly supported by the budgetary funds. Immigrants face high integration requirements such as the study of the language, culture and social norms of the host society.

Based on the existing scientific approaches, the article continues considering the ethnicization of the mass consciousness of Russian citizens, which takes place under the internal and international labor migration. The article presents the results of the situational analysis and humanitarian expertise of the Russian population’s ethnic identity formation in Moscow and the Moscow Region as Russia’s main attractors of international labor migrants. Based on the statistical data, public opinion survey data and expert assessments, the authors present an empirical model of ethnic identity with theoretical validation and interpretation provided. The study of ethnic identity is accompanied by an insight into the causes and factors of the Russians’ collective consciousness ethnicization, explication of the real content of this process with regard to specific conditions of its manifestation contributing to intensification or weakening of ethnicization. Then the ethnicization of consciousness is considered in the broad context of global ethnic-social dynamics: as a part and reflection of the overall civilizational process determining that the rise of ethnic self-awareness in various social groups and regional communities, not only in Russia, but also far abroad, is a forced response to the globalization as it is practiced in the contemporary world.

The article presents the results of the factor analysis applied to the data of mass survey on the value orientations of the students of secular and religious universities - Moscow Orthodox Theological Academy and Seminary, Lomonosov Moscow State University and Saint Petersburg State University. First, the authors provide a brief overview of the current state of sociological studies of values and value orientations of the youth and Russians with an emphasis on cross-cultural and other comparative contexts, which are so popular today. The article also considers different emphases in the sociological interpretation of the concepts of values and value orientations on the theoretical and empirical levels including the historical perspective. Since the research project consisted of several stages so as to solve a number of tasks and used different formats of the questionnaire for different samples (administration, professors and students), the article presents only a small part of the project designed to reveal the value orientations of students of secular and religious universities with the help of S. Schwartz and B. Bilski technique. The authors used this technique to identify similarities and differences in values and motives of students of secular and religious universities; suggest four factorial types of motivation; offer an interpretation of the observed factors and their manifestations in different student subsamples, such as the different circumstances of life of students in secular and religious universities and the more “expert” status of the latter in the (Christian, Orthodox) moral discourse, unlike the majority of students of secular universities, who can hardly be considered experts in secular ethics.

Sociology of professions focus on the role of interpersonal and intergroup communications in the professional communities as an element of professional culture. The article considers forms and features of professional communications of Russian engineers and technicians in the context of their professional culture defined as the constellation of ideology, values, beliefs, language, and forms of activity typical for the community, which rarely becomes an object of Russian sociologists’ studies. The author shows that interpersonal professional communications on the various aspects of professional activity is an important element of professional culture. The article is based on the results of online survey of Russian engineers and expert interviews with Russian technical specialists - they were questioned on the ways of updating their professional knowledge and on the role of various channels of communication in this process. At the beginning of the article, the author provides an overview of approaches to the study of professional culture in Russia and abroad, and underlines the significant role of the Internet and the declining role of literature as a source of new knowledge for the engineering and technical staff. The results of the study also revealed an important role of informal and direct communications in the transfer of professional knowledge within the engineering community, while organizational environment has a relatively low impact on the updating of professional knowledge, which can be explained by the lack of management attention to the professional development of specialists.

Based on the expert surveys conducted within the international project “Dialogue Partnership as a Factor of Stability and Integration” (“Bridge between East and West”) over ten years (2005-2014) and control interviews conducted in 2009 and 2015 in the longitude format (70% of experts were the same) the author provides a comprehensive analysis of the situation in the Asia-Pacific region with the help of highly qualified experts and VIP-persons - decision-makers from 16 Asian-Pacific countries: Brunei-Darussalam, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, the People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Russian Federation, Singapore, USA, Thailand, the Philippines and Japan. This study is not abstract or theoretical; it is a tool for informational and analytical support of the relevant state bodies of the Russian Federation responsible for the development of the situation in the Asia-Pacific region. The author analyzes the geopolitical balance of power and leadership in the region, its economic and energy situation, the level of security, risks and threats, the possibility of a military conflict so as to identify possible ways for the effective cooperation and coordination of interests of various countries in the region.

The author considers and compares several approaches to the concept of fatherhood in the Western sociological tradition: biological determinism, social constructivism and biosocial theory. The issue of fatherhood and men’s parental practices are marginalized in the Russian social studies of the family, which reinforces the traditional inequality in family relations when the father’s role is considered secondary compared to the mother’s. However, in the Western critical men’s studies there are several periods: development of “sex roles” paradigm (biological determinism), emergence of the hegemonic masculinity concept, inter-disciplinary stage (biosocial theory). According to the biological determinism, the role of a father is that of the patriarch, he continues the family line and serves as a behavioral model for his ascendants. Social constructivism considers man’s functions in the family from the point of view of masculine pressure and hegemony over the woman and children. Biosocial theory aims to unite the biological determinacy of fatherhood with its social, cultural and personal context. The article shows that these approaches are directly connected with the level of social development, perception of marriage and family institutions, and the level of gender order egalitality.

A small book about a big problem, or a macrolook at what we eat. Book review: Shagajda N.I., Uzun V.Ja. Prodovol'stvennaja bezopasnost' v Rossii: monitoring, tendentsii i ugrozy [Food Security in Russia: Monitoring, Trends, and Threats]. M.: Izdatel'skij dom «Delo» RANHiGS, 2015. 110 s

The article provides an overview of the key issues of the III International Conference “Spiritual and Moral Culture in the Higher Education” devoted to the discussion of the action plan to implement the National Strategy of Education Development until 2025. The authors consider the basic ideas of the key conference speakers’ presentations and present the results of the express-poll among the conference participants conducted to identify their expectations. The main leitmotif of all speakers’ presentations was as follows: the higher school is responsible for training the new generations of professionals - with high moral standards and responsibility for the fate of the country and one’s homeland. Young Russian citizens focused on fruitful activity can be raised only by joint efforts of the state, the church and society. It is extremely important to coordinate the efforts of the church and the state in the support and protection of the family, in combating extremism, and in forming high moral standards. ‘Christmas Readings’ is a good tradition established several years ago, which continues to bring together people interested in solving the most urgent problems in the educational sphere. The participants of the round tables discussed the issues of youth education and its impact on the country’s national security, the relationships of spiritual values and nation’s health, pedagogical aspects of spiritual and moral education of the youth, the impact of mass culture on the society, the student volunteer movement, spiritual and moral criteria of science.