Vol 17, No 2 (2017)

Postmulticulturalism is a way to conceptualize social and cultural diversity under the globalization. Unlike multiculturalism that developed as a nation-state project postmulticulturalism considers the tendencies of fluidity, processuality, and overcoming institutional constellations and national boundaries. Postmulticulturalism allows a specific vision of contemporary problems, thus contributing to the understanding of the role and functions of the nation state under the globalization, to the redefining of integration in national and transnational contexts, and to the transition to dialogue forms of maintaining social and political unity within the nation. Thereafter the authors consider a ‘postmulticultural turn’ in social sciences, which is associated with managing cultural diversity and allows the nation state to rethink itself in the postmulticultural perspective. Postmulticulturalism contributes to the development of new conceptual and discursive spaces, and to the practical explications of the changing reality under the recurrent transitions between old and new, the past and the future. Postmulticulturalism is a stage in the development of a multicultural ideology aimed at deessentialization of ethnicity and overcoming cultural discrimination. However, it does not deny multiculturalism as a way to conceptualize new social and cultural realities and migration situation in nation states that are supported by various multicultural policies and provide the postmulticultural approach with the impulses for social and cultural dynamics relevant for the contemporary society.

The article considers reasons for radical mass forms of social protest in the context of the ‘Malthusian trap’ and structural-demographic theory of Jack Goldstone, which have become popular in the last two decades. The author critically evaluates these two conceptions and comes to the conclusion that the principles they underline are just concomitant factors, i.e. additional risk factors for political systems and regimes, rather than causes of radical mass forms of social protest. The author suggests a method of analysis that consists of studying the circumstances, i.e. the wide historical context, in which mass forms of social protest usually emerge, and provides a large number of illustrative examples. The scientific approach to the identification of social-historical determinants of radical forms of social protest implies that if something is a reason/cause of an event, then this reason/cause must be present whenever there is such an event both alone or within a complex of concomitant factors. The ‘Malthusian trap’ and demographic factors cannot be traced in all manifestations of radical mass forms of social protest in modern and contemporary history. Moreover, the ‘Malthusian trap’ and demographic pressure on the economy and social system do not always lead to mass forms of social protest. The wave of radical forms of social protest in the last decade, i.e. the so-called ‘color revolutions’, ‘Arab spring’, protest actions in France, England and the USA, once again confirms the relevance of the author’s approach and the importance of critical study of the traditional conceptions.

The article considers Moscow Sociological School of the 1960s - 1970s, which originated on the basis of the research project “Social Organization” developed by talented Moscow sociologists and philosophers. Under the leadership of N.I. Lapin, they made a methodological breakthrough that was not correctly understood at that time and is still underestimated. The concept “labor collective” used by the overwhelming majority of Soviet scientists to describe personnel of an industrial enterprise or a working team had a huge ideological potential and was politically engaged. This concept helped not to explain the empirical data, but rather to demonstrate the high socialist morality of the working class and its solidarity with the leading party cell. The sector for the study of labor collectives was established in 1968, and in 1969 it was transformed into a department focusing on the world science achievements. Due to the thorough study of such innovations, the concept “labor collective” gradually evolved into a more fruitful and promising concept “social organization”. Such a methodological move allowed to use the system approach that was popular at that period, to rely on the findings of Western sociology, mainly on the structural-functional analysis, and on the motivational models of social interaction developed in management. In just five years, participants of the project conducted 28 empirical studies of 100 objects. The total number of respondents was about 25 thousand. The list of publications of the project participants consists of 35 monographs, 10 thematic collections and more than 50 articles (more than 600 publications in total). The team of scientists was dismissed for political reasons.

The article considers the formation of the patriotic mood of school youth in polyethnic regions of the Russian Federation based on the data of large-scale longitude generational studies that have been conducted since 1998 and are unprecedented in scale for both Russian and Western research tradition. The surveys have been conducted in twelve regions: Astrakhan and the Astrakhan region, Groznyy, Ivanovo, Krasnodar, Maikop, Makhachkala, Moscow, Nazran, Nalchik, Pskov and Stavropol. The project focuses on the views and values of the younger generations, on their conflict and tolerance potential. The main goal of the project is to support the younger generations capable of confronting and overcoming life difficulties, of suppressing one’s negative and conflict reactions, of protecting one’s interests and respecting the interests of others, which would lead to the development of culture of tolerance and consent and to preventing xenophobia manifestations. For the study of ethnic-social attitudes, for the identification of conflict potential, for the prevention of conflicts and manifestations of xenophobia and extremism, the researchers developed an ethnic-conflict monitoring in the framework of the international project “Dialogue Partnership as a Factor of Stability and Integration” (“Bridge between East and West”) and the program “Youth of Polyethnic Regions: Views, Attitudes, Values” (the author is the founder and the head of the project and the program). The monitoring has been conducted for 29 years in the form of generational studies that aim to reveal the development of the youth ethnic consciousness in different regions, and to ensure a timely influence in order to reduce conflict potential and to support the culture of tolerance.