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Moscow State University Bulletin. Series 18. Sociology and Political Science

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Vol 26, No 3 (2020)
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https://doi.org/10.24290/1029-3736-2017-0-4

SOCIAL INEQUALITY

7-23 1262
Abstract

This paper deals with an analysis of the results of a sociological research aimed at studying the students’ perceptions of the nature and various forms of social inequality that occur in Russia as well as the modern world.
The study was conducted in 2019 at the sociology faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, in the framework of regular monitoring (since 2013) of Moscow student youth’ perception of socio-political processes, institutions of socialization and subjects of youth policy. A sociological study was conducted. During the study, 811 students of 50 “humanitarian” and 50 “natural” faculties of higher educational institutions in Moscow were interviewed.
45,6% of young people interviewed were males, and 54,4% were females. 60,4% of the respondents were young people aged 18 to 22 years, 18,9% — from 23 to 26 years old, 13,3% — from 14 to 18 years old, 7,4% — from 27 to 30 years old.
The article analyzes the students’ answers to the following questions: Do you think that acute social inequality occurs in the modern world? What reasons underlie social inequality? What, in your opinion, is the cause of social inequality? What types of social inequality are most common in the modern world? What forms and types of social inequality are most common in modern Russian society? How often do you encounter the following manifestations of social inequality? How do you feel about the problem of global social inequality? and a number of others.
A detailed analysis of the answers to these and other questions presented in the article showed that social inequality is recognized by students as an urgent social problem, which, unfortunately, the authorities do not pay enough attention to.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE, SOCIAL INSTITUTES AND PROCESSES

24-42 1358
Abstract

The article analyzes the features of the social well-being of the residents of the Russian province, examines the relevant factors that influence its level and direction.
The author points out that the socio-cultural features of the periphery are essential for people’s subjective perception of the success of their lives. The article concludes that the social well-being of residents of the Russian province is largely determined by the age of the respondents. Middle-aged and older Russians are much less likely to perceive their social status as high, rarely have high self-esteem, and see opportunities for self-realization in the future.
The social well-being of residents of the Russian province is also significantly influenced by the level of education, readiness for continuous self-development and education throughout life, subjective assessment of their own material well-being, as well as the degree of social integration of a person and support from the immediate environment and the local community.
Based on the analysis, the author concludes that the social policy of the Russian state and society is not very effective, and that it is necessary to develop social institutions that focus on the formation of “self-care” competencies for Russian residents throughout their lives.

43-65 3555
Abstract

This article examines the features of the interaction of social institutions of medicine and health care in modern Russian society at the micro level — within the social system “doctor — patient”. Sufficient space is given to a comparative analysis of traditional (paternalistic and collegial) and modern (informational and contractual) models of social relations between doctors and patients. Ne author highlights the factors under which the widespread use of information and contractual models in Russian realities contribute to the transformation of traditionally solidary social relations in the system under consideration into conflict ones.
The article, based on the original author’s sociological research, examines the features of the conflict confrontation between doctors and patients, identifies their specific differences from traditional social conflicts. On the one hand, the conflicts that unfold in the social system “doctor — patient” are precisely social conflicts, since the interaction in this system embraces both all representatives of the medical community and practically all members of society, each of which, one way or another, becomes patient. On the other hand, if the prerequisite and then the basis of the usual conflict interaction is the presence of a single indivisible object, then in the case of a social conflict in the “doctor — patient” system, health can hardly be considered “a single and indivisible object”. Health for the subjects of this conflict is indeed an important spiritual value, but much more often the conflict arises over the rights and obligations, as well as the distribution of power among the interacting parties.
Enough attention is paid to the analysis of the macro-, meso- and micro- causes of this conflict, as well as to the problem of the influence of the media on the genesis of this type of conflict relationship; tendencies that are especially characteristic in the relationship between the patient audience and the media in recent times are highlighted and revealed.

POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

66-87 1290
Abstract

The article deals with theoretical approaches to the formation of the civic culture in nowadays Russia. As a particular type of political culture, it acts as a part of the mechanism, which serves to implement social demands, maintaining democratic principles, and ensuring social unity.
The author outlines the major features of the civic culture: connection with social needs of the community; involvement in regulating its vital activity on the basis of state institutions; responsibility and obedience to law; orientation towards political order and stability; the citizens’ active political participation, etc. The civic culture contributes to controllability of the society promoting to political order and democracy. The article reveals the role of the state in the formation of civil society and the civic political culture. Considerable attention is paid to the bearers of political civic culture, as well as the role of civic and patriotic education of Russian citizens.

88-105 1022
Abstract

People from century to century tried to determine the degree of its independence from external circumstances. And every time he found himself in front of a fact that changed the world raises the question of freedom in new ways. All the historically important battles of the twentieth century can be reduced to a confrontation over what it means to be free. The rationalistic understanding of human life that prevailed in the previous few centuries gave rise to the illusion that the world can be well organized if its structure is properly explained. Practice has shown that not everything is so simple and a rationalistic approach that suggests considering freedom as a known necessity does not allow us to liberate and make humanity happy. The statistical laws prevailing in society give rise to so many manifestations of necessity that it sometimes occurs to us that there is nothing in social life but chance. The collapse of the Soviet Union, and the usual gap relationships and the imbalance of social and political forces have forced the Europeans to search for ways to preserve their own cultural identity. Violation of ideological balance as a result of the falling interest of people towards communism creates a situation in which only the religious consciousness can become a pillar of modern embarrassed man. However, in this circumstance, there is another side: the flight into the illusory world of thoughts, in the area of supposed freedom. Today in the beginning of the third Millennium, we have to admit that so far from the final solution to the problem of freedom as thinkers of the past centuries.

106-126 1594
Abstract

This paper is devoted to the study of the role international sporting events in
forming image of state. The goal of research is to study the role of the FIFA World Cup
in forming Russia’s image. The front-end content analysis is used, which is focused on
drawing up the most detailed idea of the information Vow over a certain period in
order to identify meaningful dynamics and is of an applied nature. The physical unit
of content analysis was the article number (release date), and the text publication was
the unit of analysis. Texts for processing were searched in English using a Google search
for the period from May 1, 2018 to August 1, 2018. Ne articles should simultaneously
contain the words “Russia” and “World cup”. In a generalized form, the search query
looked like this: site: [publication site] Russia and World cup. Ne sample population
includes the most popular Google search queries. Articles containing only a summary of
sports indicators were excluded from the texts found, since the research objectives were
satisfied with articles affecting the social, political and economic aspects of the 2018
World Cup. The information priorities of different foreign media are different. For the
American and British media, it is important, in particular, to respect human rights in
Russia, and for the Chinese media, the opportunity to profit from the supply of our own
products. However, after the end of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, negative rhetoric gave
way to positive. Ne results of the study indicate the positive role of the 2018 World Cup
in shaping the image of the Russian state.

SOCIOLOGY OF COMMUNICATION

127-148 3298
Abstract

The relationship between language and culture has long been the subject of fierce debates among philosophers, linguists and social scientists. In spite of Chomsky’s theory about an innate biological basis for language and Steven Pinker’s concept of language instinct, language use, however, is social, so the idea of a biological language instinct seems to be controversial from the perspective of sociolinguistics. The concept of “linguistic worldview” refers to the cognitive function of language. Human beings have the ability to communicate with one another by means of a system of conventional signs, which refers to classes of phenomena in an extra-linguistic reality. Thus, a certain cognitive view of the world, its categorisation and conceptualisation of the identified phenomena are encoded in the human mind. People who identify themselves as members of a social group acquire common ways of viewing the world through their interactions with other members of that same group. Common attitudes, beliefs and values are reflected in the way all members of the group use language, i.e. what they choose to say or not to say and how they say it. The view of the world, established in a language, is not identical to any encyclopaedic knowledge of the world.
The present paper is a general overview of stereotypes as part and parcel of the linguistic worldview that influence on cross-cultural communication. Most definitions characterize a stereotype as a schematic, standardized, constant, conventional, nationally dependant phenomenon and the last feature is especially important for cross-cultural communication. Some claim that stereotypes can cause problems in cross-cultural communication as they concentrate on generalized simplified perceptions about a certain nation. Others consider that stereotypes can play a positive role in cross-cultural communication since they help people to acquire basic knowledge about another nation. The ongoing cultural globalization, however, determines certain changes in the principles of interaction of different types of intertextual encyclopediae and reveals the necessity to reconsider the kind of cultural and sociological competence required nowadays.
The author hypothesized that stereotypes of consciousness, being psychological phenomena, correlate with sociolinguistic phenomena — language cliches, linguistic specific words and expressions that manifest themselves in communication through different associations. The experiment conducted in Russia and in Italy among bilinguals clearly showed the dominance in the communicative behavior of native encyclopedic code that may be the main cause of misunderstanding in cross-icultural communication.

SOCIOLOGY OF MANAGEMENT

149-172 1155
Abstract

The scientific approach presented in this article is based on the understanding of social capital and corporate culture as intersecting organizational phenomena however irreducible to each other. At the same time corporate culture is understood instrumentally and it is considered as a factor in the social capital formation, development and using process mediating its organizational and managerial effects. This does not negate the fact of complex iterative relations between them but allows to place the emphasis correctly both theoretical and practical, emphasizing the more fundamental and comprehensive nature of social capital directly arising from the laws of social interaction and developing regardless of the purposeful management efforts to form a single corporate culture.
The analysis of various studies of social capital in Russia and abroad characterizing the level of generalized trust in Russia as low and noting the multidirectional dynamics between different types of social capital which are not typical for developed countries. These differences are interpreted in terms of differences in social relations types underlying social capital: affiliation, hierarchy and exchange. From this point of view the high level of declared institutional trust (with a certain degree of assumption) can be interpreted as a manifestation of the rational (“calculation”) mechanism of social capital construction in modern Russian society. The conclusion about insufficient account in foreign scientists of social, cultural and spiritual components researches is made.
The analysis of the problems that have a negative impact on modern Russian society in the process of social capital formation at the micro, meso- and macrolevels is made. The main problems are the lack of social unity and the spread of the Russian version of individualism associated with severe problems of survival and increasing the level of interpersonal and institutional distrust.

CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY IN CHINA

173-181 1020
Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study the process of migration of peasants to the cities of modern China.
As a result of the economic reform and the increase in the material well-being of the Chinese, the mobility of the country’s population has increased significantly. By its nature, migration in China is divided into permanent, seasonal and temporary (of two types — “pendulum” and “shuttle”). In terms of directions, migration in China is divided into migration from a village to a city, migration from a suburb to a city, and migration from one city to another city. An example of “pendulum” and “shuttle” (up to three months) migration can be the movement of workers freed from the agricultural sector in search of other forms and options for agricultural activity.

FROM THE SOCIOLOGIST’S DESK

182-199 1131
Abstract

The article presents a comparative study on collective perceptions in gender attitudes and marriage strategies approved by the representatives of the Russian ethnic group. The empirical basis for comparison combines obtrusive and unobtrusive methods. In 2014– 2015 we conducted a questionnaire survey among Russian residents of St. Petersburg (the sample was quoted by sex and age, it included 503 participants). Later, in 2017–2019, we performed a non-reactive analysis on the Russian communities in VKontakte network (sample was divided by value orientations, the total number of individual users included 1.051 million people). Big data analytics services, digital Ethnography methods and projective techniques helped us to answer the following questions:
– What features does a “just Russian woman” and a “just Russian man” have in the collective consciousness?
– What are the structural differences in these perceptions?
– How are gender and marriage stereotypes manifested in the “real world” and in cyberspace?
Thus, we obtained the conclusion that gendered patterns in both studies changed much more slowly than the models of the marital relationship. In both studies, the content of Russian women portrait was more detailed than the image of a Russian man. Russian social media users have demonstrated a commitment to the Patriarchal model, which was less evident in the questionnaire. In addition, the high level of radicalism and obvious religious values were the reason why women were more consistent with gender and marriage attitudes in the virtual environment.

200-213 1300
Abstract

The article presents gender inequality in the sphere of work in Moscow city. The purpose of this work is to determine the acuteness of discrimination men and women in matters of employment, and to understand how the gender aspect is relevant in the Moscow labor market. People from other regions come to the capital to get a job, and therefore the city of Moscow is the center of employment of Russian citizens from all over the country. It is important to monitor how equal are the opportunities for men and women in the capital to find the desired job, what difficulties candidates face in finding and choosing a job with. I provide a legislative framework designed to ensure the equality of all citizens before the law, and show how the principle of equality is implemented in practice. For this I present the results of the author’s survey of HR experts-managers who specialize in studying the labor market and the processes taking place on it, as well as research conducted by the Headhunter, Superjob job sites, the Hays recruitment agency. As a result, it has been determined that in the labor market both men and women experience discrimination, and this is connected with the opinion of the candidates, they define, where can more realize themselves, and what salary should be for them. At the same time, gender inequality loses its sharpness against the background of other problems, and experts predict a growing decrease in the difference between the positions of men and women in the labor market.

214-226 1185
Abstract

This article discusses the influence of religion on the personality and activities of an athlete. The first part of the article presents the author’s approaches to the study of religiosity, a questionnaire developed by the author with the participation of sports experts and coaches of national teams, adjusted in accordance with the specifics of the sociological selection — professional athletes of Russia, and the typology of religious and non-religious individuals (1 type — religious with dominant religious orientation, type 2 — hesitant-A with unstable religious orientation, tending to religiosity, type 3 — hesitant-B with unstable religion orientation, although tending to the irreligious, type 4 — undecided, 5 type — non-religious), established on the basis of fixed criteria, which are mainly signs of consciousness, behavior, involvement in religious attitudes. The second part contains the results of a series of concrete sociological studies conducted in 2015–2017, among 89 professional athletes with qualifications not lower than the candidate for master of sports of Russia, representatives of various sports clubs and teams in Moscow, to identify the relationship between the individual level of religiosity and the results of sports activities. The article confirms, based on the collected data, the hypothesis formulated by the author that religious faith contributes to the achievement of a high result in sports activities, providing a compensatory and mobilization effect on the individual. In addition, personal qualities are determined that are shaped by the practice of religious athletes in sports, as well as the statistically recorded view that bodily development contributes to spiritual growth. Demonstrating a high level of religiosity, representatives of different sports have their own specific characteristics, rituals, omens, rites of verbal and non-verbal characters. Not every athlete connects traditional religious practice with sports activities, even being deeply religious. Personal god, direct appeal to him in an improvised form in moments of special need (competition, as an example), personal signs — these are the characteristic features of this social category.

SCIENTIFIC CONTROVERSY

227-246 1983
Abstract

In the West, there is a total substitution of concepts, expressed in the idea of tolerance, according to which humanism manifests itself in respect for any system of values. The criteria for good and evil are neutralized, and the Weld of what is permitted is expanded. Values and life practices that were traditionally considered unacceptable and marginal in the culture receive the status of normal and even necessary. When the boundaries of tolerance are not defined, the idea itself becomes dehumanizing. But the dehumanizing meaning of the ongoing cultural transformations is hidden behind emotionally attractive names like human rights and democracy. Socially harmful ideology and the life practices it absolutizes are given a lot of emotionally euphonious names, which are simulacra that hide the true essence of the phenomena being signified. Ne protection of minority rights under the banner of democracy and human rights is usually an attack on the rights of the majority, and human rights are wrongly identified with the rights of the minority. The absolutization of the rights of social minorities (and the most radical ones in relation to traditional culture) is at the same time an infringement of the rights of the majority. The social majority becomes oppressed. Ne idea of tolerance implanted anti-democratic, without taking into account the views of the public. In the West, it is necessary to show tolerance both to different practices and points of view, and to the very fact of planting this tolerant line. That is, a mandatory tolerance for tolerance is instilled. The common idea of postmodern relativization of values is not entirely correct. The sick, the evil, and the unreasonable are given more right to exist than the healthy, the good, and the reasonable. But instead of equating the worthy and the unworthy, a “sociocultural inflection” is carried out towards the unworthy. Criticism of homosexuality is presented as reprehensible intolerant homophobia, and parents who are negative about gay propaganda risk becoming clients for juvenile services. Even schools began to reorient themselves under the apologia of sexual perversion, which is a reversal to the de-intellectualization and dehumanization of children’s minds. Trends that are referred to as ways to protect human rights, freedom, and democracy actually lead to social dehumanization.



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ISSN 1029-3736 (Print)
ISSN 2541-8769 (Online)