The paper deals with the analysis of one of the most important and always relevant social phenomena called social inequality, which is viewed through the prism of youth ideas about the forms of its manifestation and features. The authors present the results of a sociological study aimed at identifying the attitude of modern Russian youth to the problem of social inequality in general, as well as the diversification of its forms in the modern world and in Russia. The study was conducted in 2020 by professors of the Sociological Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University under the direction of Doctor of Sociological Sciences Professor N.G. Osipova and Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Professor S.O. Elishev with the Financial support of the RFBR, within the framework of the project No. 18-011-01106 “New forms of social inequality and the peculiarities of their manifestation in modern Russia”.

In the course of the study in the summer of 2020, 628 young people (aged 16 to 30) from different regions of Russia were interviewed using the online questionnaire survey method. The distribution of respondents by gender and occupation corresponds to the parameters of graduates of humanitarian universities. 28% of young people surveyed were males, and 72% were females. 9% of the respondents (that is, more than half of them) were young people aged 20 to 24 years, 24,84% — from 16 to 19 years old, 12,26% — from 25 to 30 years old.

The research methodology (which is based on the questionnaire) was in many ways similar to the methodology used by the authors in 2019 to analyze the value orientations and perceptions of student youth in Moscow universities. This  methodology was supplemented with new blocks of questions related to the peculiarities and specifics of the manifestation in Russia of such relatively new forms of social inequality as digital divide and inequality in health. The questions to which the answers were received were of both general and specific nature and, in general, reflected the key trends in the attitude of young people to the problem of social inequality in the conditions of the complex social situation that developed in 2020 in all respects. A detailed analysis of the answers to the questions presented in the questionnaire showed that, although social inequality is recognized by modern Russian youth as an urgent social problem, it does not occupy a key place among the topical problems for Russian youth.

The relevance of the work is due to the transformations of the modern system of social stratification and opportunities for social mobility, as well as the need to find relevant approaches for their study. The article is devoted to reconstruction in a holistic form of the main provisions of the theory of social stratification of P. Bourdieu. His vision of the social structure of modern society is original and based on numerous empirical studies. The article analyzes the methodological foundations and features of the theory of social stratification of the French sociologist. Heuristic potential of one of modern constructivist methodological approaches to analysis of social stratification and social mobility is considered. P. Bourdieu significantly contributed to the fact that the sociological explanation of the modern system of social stratification is being transformed. He described the main characteristics of the social structure of a post-industrial society, the main trends in its development, developed proposals for using some categories necessary to explain it. Developing his own theory of habitus and the theory of social capital, P. Bourdieu proposes to explore the position of the individual, which is represented through a lifestyle. Bourdieu’s theory of social stratification can be applied to the problems of modern social inequality. The author of the article made an attempt to trace the research logic of the French sociologist, as well as show the relationship of various blocks of the theory of social stratification.

This paper examines and explores in detail the key theoretical aspects and leading ideological and political trends of The black rights movement in the United States in the 1960s. As the main sources, the author uses the works and speeches of its most famous representatives, such as: Martin Luther king, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Huey Percy Newton, Robert Seal, Eldridge cleaver, highlighting the main trends and dominant trends. Materialistic dialectics is suggested as the main research method. This makes it possible to consider the process of formation of the Movement for the rights of african americans directly in development. The author not only conducts a comparative analysis of various trends and ideological and political views of the most prominent representatives of this movement, but also does it in dynamics, explaining the nature and mechanism of qualitative changes taking place using the laws of materialistic dialectics. In particular, the opposing classical concepts of integrationism and black nationalism, which underlie the definition of the notorious ambivalence of african-american consciousness, were replaced in the second half of the 1960s by revolutionary black nationalism and revolutionary socialism, which negate the previous two and are simultaneously closely related to them. As a conclusion, the concept of understanding the qualitative transformations of The black rights Movement in the United States is proposed, and parallels are drawn with the current rise of the socio-racial movement, taking place within the same discursive Reld, which was finally formed in the 1960s and continues to dominate the protest-minded part of the african-american population to this day. This gives the author the opportunity to make a forecast for the future development of the situation in the United States and the scenario of the Movement.

The discovery of America, which was in itself a fateful event in European history, coincided with the crucial transformations taking place in the religious sphere. The development of printing technology, the creation of national translations of the Bible, the rethinking of the established forms of religiosity — all these innovations contributed to the creation of a special religious and religio-political climate of the era. England, which became one of the most successful colonial powers, was at the same time a country experiencing these religious transformations in an especially profound manner. Having proclaimed its ecclesiastical independence from Rome earlier than many other countries, England became a space for an intensive search for a new religious identity and a melting pot of various proto-messianic concepts. In addition, the competition of these new religious doctrines, existing in the shadow of potential and actual state-sanctioned oppression of dissidents, has created a specific environment that makes the issue of political freedom especially relevant and pertinent to the context of Christianity. Having received additional development in America and combined with an increased spread of the anti-colonial nationalist message, all these ideological streams could give a start to one of the most remarkable aspects of early American socio-political thought and identity, within which liberalism, republicanism, providentialism, messianism, and Christian religiosity are woven into a single composition. The debate about the influence of this ideological complex on the development of American identity and statehood continues to this day, sometimes leading to conflicting assessments. However, it seems that this phenomenon is, in one way or another, a remarkable factor in American history, which, to some extent, remains a relevant topic of discussion for modern America.

The article aims to consider the possibilities of using the controlological (critical) perspective in the analysis of social control of crime. The author reveals the main provisions of the new sociology of social control, or, in other words, the controlology. These provisions have received support in modern concepts of social control. The article shows the difference between controlological representations from the classical legal discourse. This difference, first of all, concerns the perception of institutional violence of state institutions for combating crime and ensuring security. Discussions, which reflect a critical view of crime control, unfold along three main lines. The first one concerns the consideration of control not only as a tool for maintaining the order established by the state, but also in terms of its negative consequences for individuals and society. The issues related to the selective control of the activities of persons holding a certain status in power and influencing the design of the legal field are considered. The second direction is associated with the analysis of the goals of social control. The methods of segregation of persons against whom the indictment has been issued are presented. In relation to them, the principle of behavioral homogeneity, which manifests itself both in a certain professional “treatment” with prisoners, and in arousing a persistent negative attitude towards them among the population, is implemented. The issue of social and cultural victimization of prisoners is considered. In the third direction, a critical perception of the subject of the activity of crime control agents is traced. Here, the focus of researchers is on the concept of “reliability”, which is discussed in relation to the assessment of crime risks, security means and the legality of actions of control agents. The basic provisions and conclusions in the article are supported by statistical data and the results of various studies.

The article deals with the peculiarities of transformation of ideas and social attitudes of residents of post-Soviet countries concerning family life and close relationships. The article is based on the analysis of the results of the third and sixth waves of the international longitudinal study — World Values Survey. The authors substantiate the conclusion that traditional value orientations are widely spread in post-Soviet countries as an adaptation strategy of the state and society in response to big challenges. At the same time, the article concludes about ambivalence and asymmetry of transformations in the sphere of close relationships. There are four models of such relations in post-Soviet countries. According to the authors, state policy plays a special role in the transformation of close relations. It is pro-tanalistic in nature, does not take into account the peculiarities of different forms and types of relationships and is mainly focused on increasing childbearing. This undoubtedly reduces its potential as a mechanism for adapting the state to the situation of demographic transition.

Sport is a complex and contradictory phenomenon of our time. The relevance of this study is due to the need to answer a number of questions related to determining its place among the values of modern society and person, identifying the possibility of realizing the humanistic potential of modern sport, as well as the most significant problems of its development in the context of globalization. These questions are related to the study of the influence of sociocultural factors on the development of sport. The purpose of this article is to study the influence of national traditions, the social structure of society, as well as globalization processes on the development of sport. It is shown that sport is a reflection of the national systems within which it developed. It is noted that the essence and significance of sport changes under the influence of sociocultural factors. Sport not only reflects a certain value system of society, but also popularizes and strengthens it. It is able to form its own subculture, values that differ from the generally accepted ones, from the values of other components of the sociocultural system. It is shown that modern trends in the sport development such as individualization, massification, desacralization, rationalization, and universalization are consistent with the main provisions of the concept of global development of A. de Benoist. It is emphasized that in the context of globalization, the values of traditional sport are being transformed, which leads to the dehumanization of the sport movement, the dominance of a technocratic style of thinking, to the politicization, commercialization of modern sport, the use of doping to improve sports results, etc. The globalization of sport has become a kind of cultural intervention that encroaches on national traditions and foundations. The positive and negative impact of mass media on the sport development is noted. On the one hand, they promote popularization of sport, and on the other, turn it into a consumer product. The subject of sale and consumption now is not only a sport spectacle, sport equipment, but also the athletes themselves, their image, lifestyle, and moral principles. It is hoped that the formula “unity in diversity” will become a natural axiom not only for the development of sport, but also for the whole of humanity

The article examines the phenomenon of the religious factor in modern world politics, suggests taking into account the religious factor along with other factors of historical development (economic, political, social, natural and climatic, etc.). From the traditionalist point of view, the confrontation between the teachings of humanism and traditional religions is shown, as a spiritual confrontation of various religious teachings. The main spiritual and political processes in the modern world are revealed: the process of purposeful destruction of traditional values, religions and cultures and the process of reviving traditional values, religions and cultures in order to preserve the “blooming complexity”, i.e., the civilizational diversity of the world community. In the first process, on the basis of numerous data, shows the struggle of the supporters of the religious-philosophical doctrine of humanism with traditional religious teachings, especially Christianity, and the main task of this struggle provided dechristianization of man and society, because the Christian faith is the basis of the locomotive of world history, European civilization. The main goal of this struggle is to replace Christianity and the traditional world religions with the religion of man-God, i.e., humanism and rationalism. The author reveals the meaning of the concept of transhumanism: the creation of an artificial, unified, fully controlled world populated by biological objects without individuality or any personal characteristics at all. Thus, the ant-human essence of the religion of man-god is revealedthe destruction of the “natural man”. The article presents the main essential features of the second spiritual-political process, which is opposite to the first one. On the basis of numerous sociological studies, it is proved that in general, there is a noticeable increase in traditional religiosity and the importance of traditional religions in the world. The strengthening of the role of traditional religions and religious organizations in the life of society, especially Orthodoxy and the Russian Orthodox Church, is also recorded in Russia. At the same time, the article notes the contradictory nature of both processes, the confrontation of which is still far from complete. As a result of the analysis, three main conclusions are made. First, in the future, those peoples and civilizations whose spiritual roots will be the strongest will remain and will determine world politics, and traditional spiritual meanings and values will continue to be significant for the majority of members of a particular community. Second, those nations and civilizations that will continue to be in a state of spiritual impoverishment and, as a result, will finally lose their own spiritual sovereignty will be the losers, even to the point of complete disappearance. Third, the rejection of traditional religions, meanings and values in favor of the religion of man-god can lead humanity to the physical disappearance and replacement of “natural man” with “artificial intelligence”.

Over the last years, relations between Russia and the West have undergone a continuous deterioration in all major international scenarios, with Moscow playing a leading role from Eastern Europe to the Middle East. Western prejudices and lack of confindence toward Russia are not new and sink their roots well before the Revolution of 1917. They have been a constant of international relations for at least six centuries and still prevent true cooperation and understanding of the deepest motivations of Kremlin policies. In particular, western observers and policy makers seem to be unable to understand the peculiarities of the Russian identity and its eurasian dimension. This article proposes a brief analysis of the system of Russian-Western relations in the light of the so-called rusofobija, the Russian position in the Eurasian region with the geopolitical consequences of the USSR’s disintegration and the return to the role of great power under Vladimir Putin.

This article provides an applied analysis of the social network technologies used by Western IT-companies to exert a direct or indirect influence on political processes. The study focuses on a set of tools that were employed to shape the media landscape during the 2020 presidential election campaign in the United States. Overall, the empirical observations suggest that the largest networking services (such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, etc.) more or less contributed to the success of the Democratic candidate.

Having studied the relevant U.S. experience, the authors identify a set of manipulative techniques used by social network administrators to form specific electoral attitudes among users. These include blocking accounts; setting up search algorithms to produce pre-programmed results; labeling ideologically objectionable materials as “fake”, “untrustworthy”, “manipulative” and “potentially dangerous”; automatically recommending certain materials for viewing; and removing or pessimizing unwanted content.

Seeking to expand their own audience, social networks flood the media space with so-called “partisan” content, which is vigorously welcomed by one part of society and just as vigorously rejected by another. This leads to polarization and radicalization of the masses. The most destructive consequences of this process can be witnessed in the United States, where Democrat and Republican supporters become not just political opponents but real antagonists.

Social media, search engines and news aggregators, developing their capacity as political actors, pave the way to a qualitative change in the established electoral practices. The greatest concern is the ability of IT-companies to manipulate the political consciousness and behavior of citizens during crucial election campaigns. Considering this circumstance, the authors raise a question about the need to regulate the political and communication processes unfolding on the Internet platforms.

As you know, the study of the past, present and such a vague future of society (and its number of classes) still attracts the gaze of many representatives of the scientific academic society (including colleagues in the sociological workshop). This article is a review of the monograph of corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Zh.T. Toshchenko “Precariat: from the proto-class to the new class”, published in 2018 by “Nauka” publishing house. The monograph allows the reader to feel how rapidly the socio-class structure of foreign, Soviet, and then Russian society was changing. In it, Zh.T. Toshchenko clearly reflects the historical aspects of the development and functioning of a new social class — the “precariat”. The conclusion is proved that the precariat does not have a clear vision of its future, confidence in the security of its personal life and the guarantee of a quiet old age at the end of employment. An impressive number of foreign and domestic statistical data further confirms the conclusions of reasonable Zh.T. Toshchenko. In the future, the author of the monograph explores the consequences of the existence and functioning of this new social-class phenomenon.