This article is devoted to the actual problems of the organization and implementation of the educational process during the new coronavirus infection COVID-19. The authors consider two aspects of digital transformation in Russian education – from the point of view of the use of digital technologies to automate various processes of educational organizations and from the point of view of the introduction of a complex of digital technologies in order to build a learning model that will be based on the effective use of these technologies to solve professional tasks.

The article emphasizes that the process of digitalization of society in our country developed evenly, without any special jumps, but the pandemic served as a catalyst for the development of digital technologies, and the process of digitalization itself was divided into “before” and “after” the beginning of the pandemic. During the pandemic, the younger generation artificially fell out of the mainstream not only of full-fledged socialization, which takes place within educational institutions and in the circle of teachers and peers, but also found themselves facing numerous problems related to the violation of the traditional educational process. In many ways, teachers and staff of the Faculty of Sociology of Lomonosov Moscow State University were able to overcome this problem by quickly and effectively rebuilding the educational process so that it did not lose its traditionally high quality.

The authors of the article share their experience in organizing the educational process at the Faculty of Sociology of Lomonosov Moscow State University, which took place in the so-called mixed format for almost two years and was accompanied by the active introduction of the latest educational technologies, including synchronous (video conferences, video consultations and feedback online, chat rooms, Skype communication, virtual classes) and asynchronous e-learning, as well as project-based learning and the so-called “inverted classroom”. The results of educational monitoring are presented, which showed the high efficiency of the educational process at the Faculty of Sociology in difficult conditions.

The authors also considered the key trends of digitalization of education, identified its positive aspects and analyzed in detail the negative aspects, a special place among which is occupied by the virtualization of education as a social institution.

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on many areas of society, and the education sector is no exception. The article is devoted to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education. It examines the positive trends in the development of educational models (BYOD, Blended Learning) and technologies (e-learning, m-learning), Russian software (iSpring Suite, iSpring Suite Max, iSpring Space, EV Toolbox Advanced 9), educational services (Convenience, eTreniki, Learnis, Zoom, Skype, Yandex services: Teleconference, Workshop, School, Textbook, Lessons, Teacher, Tutor, Forms) and platforms (Core, Stepik, Russian Electronic School, Moscow Electronic School, “Yaklass”, “Uchi.ru”, “Lecta.rosuchebnik.ru”, “Enlightenment”), mobile applications (“Walking Museum”). This work contains an analysis of not only the positive, but also the negative impact of the pandemic on secondary and higher education; the results of surveys are given. The article shows that digital and information technologies are becoming one of the leading ones in the field of education. The large-scale development of new information tools, including Internet services, has led to the modification of the digital educational environment. The conditions of the pandemic revealed the need to adapt and make changes in improving the methods of teaching and the use of distance learning technologies that implement the principles of open education (freedom in choosing the time, place and pace of learning, free development of individuality, freedom to draw up an individual training program, etc.). Practice, adequately responding to the current situation, led to an understanding of the need to quickly create designers of electronic courses (iSpring Suite Max, iSpring Space). The pandemic has led to the urgent need to improve the competence of teachers in the field of ICT, and therefore in the development of appropriate training courses.

The article discusses the main stages of urbanization, which are distinguished on the basis of Soja’s concept of urban revolutions. The specificity of the spatial organization of each of the stages is analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the features of the current stage of urbanization, in which there are not only cities, but also more complex spatial formations, such as agglomerations. The article focuses on the postmetropolis as the main contemporary spatial form, according to Soja, which is replacing the traditional metropolis. This process is a result of the development of information and communication technologies. The transformation of the suburbs is also considered; the suburbs are turning from homogeneous residential areas into multifunctional “edge cities” and even “edgeless cities”, which are extremely difficult to map due to their dispersal over vast territories. Modern urbanization demonstrates a spatial morphology that reflects the changes caused by the formation of a postindustrial society, globalization and scientific and technological progress.

The article analyzes the role of innovative mass media, in particular Internet in the process of political socialization of the Russian youth, taking place in the context of deep socioeconomic and political transformations, globalization and digitalization. The transformational potential of Internet technologies is undeniable today. Political news aggregators, online bloggers, anonymous Telegraph channels present a broad range of political information and opinion. Considering the Internet as a revolutionary means of communication, the authors carried out an analysis of its main characteristics, research of virtual communities as a space of political socialization, the processes of hybridization, which implies the actual consolidation of the properties of real and virtual communities. The importance of an adequate assessment of the role of innovative media in the political socialization of young people, in shaping the political subjectivity of young Russian citizens is obvious.

The relevance of the work is due to the transformations of the system of social stratification and opportunities for social mobility, as well as the need to search for relevant approaches for their study in Europe and the United States in the 30–40s of the XX century. The article is devoted to the analysis of studies of the class structure of the American sociologist and social anthropologist William Lloyd Warner. His vision of the social structure of American society is original and based on extensive empirical research. The article analyzes the methodological foundations and features of Warner’s empirical research. One of the tasks set by the author of the article is to consider the heuristic potential of one of the most well-known approaches to the study of social stratification in world sociology. W.L. Warner was instrumental in transforming the sociological explanation of the system of social stratification in the first half of the twentieth century. He described the main characteristics of the social structure of society in the 30–40s of the XX century, for the first time showing it in a new light, as consisting of six classes. Warner is credited with introducing the method of participatory observation into sociology in the study of the system of social stratification, as well as updating the categorical apparatus introduced by the sociologist from his own experience in anthropological research. Warner's research group developed the standard index of status characteristics, well-known in world sociology, which simplifies complex quantitative calculations, which is still used in empirical sociology. The author of the article made an attempt to trace the research logic of the American sociologist, as well as to show the relationship between various methodological components of the theory of social stratification and innovative methods of empirical sociology.

The article deals with the transfer of business by senior generation to the younger members of the family.

The reproduction of entrepreneurial dynasties is an important factor stabilizing the national economy. The family business is distinguished by a higher efficiency of entrepreneurial activity. It cannot be argued that the reproduction of entrepreneurial dynasties is a widespread social practice. In recent decades, the pattern “One business, three generations” has been replaced by the pattern “One generation, three businesses”. Parents’ participation in business is a priority factor in children’s choice of entrepreneurship as a direction of professional activity. Parental entrepreneurship increases the probability of including children in the business sphere several times. Family traditions and business experience make it possible to transfer social capital to young successors at a lower cost, to broadcast and adopt informal business experience and business connections. Intergenerational continuity is ensured by the formation and translation of the family culture of a business dynasty with special value-identification meanings, including a special professional ethos of family business representatives.

A business dynasty can be implemented as a family company. In such a company, business and family relationships are closely intertwined. Interpersonal relationships are the most important factor in the effective functioning of a family business. It is intra-family conflicts that most often cause the collapse of the family business.

The older generation of family business has not only to make over the property and power to the young, but also to ensure the continuity of the business, the implementation of mentoring, the transfer of family entrepreneurial traditions and values.

The most serious threats to family business in Russia are: the difficult macroeconomic situation, compliance with the requirements of domestic legislation, competition in the domestic market, the need to implement innovations in order to preserve the competitive stability of the business.

The article discusses approaches to rethinking the ideology of health care in the context of the COVID–19 pandemic. The transformation of ideas about the role of the state in health protection is investigated, the existing social practices in the field of health protection during the pandemic are analyzed. Historical-sociological, ideological-legal, communicative-technological, socio-psychological, legal-conscious-behavioral aspects of the implementation of strategies to combat the consequences of the pandemic are analyzed. The issue of the transition from pandemic to endemic status of the fight against COVID–19 coronavirus infection and various aspects of such a transition are being considered. Based on the experience of a number of foreign countries and regions of Russia in combating the pandemic, conclusions are drawn about the need for social solidarity by achieving a normative consensus in choosing strategies and tactics for such a struggle at the level of the individual, society and the state. The universality of the value of the right to life and health protection during the pandemic was noted.

The article deals with the features of sociological analysis of religion in Russia during the imperial period of its history. The national sociological tradition of studying religion as a socio-cultural phenomenon and a social institution, which was developed during this period, had its own unique and peculiar appearance and was just begun to revive again in post-Soviet Russia, contrasts with the tradition that took place in the West. In this context, the appeal to unfortunately undeservedly forgotten works of classics of Russian religious and socio-political though is very promising area of modern sociological research.

When studying this problem, the author emphasizes the study of the works of representatives of three ideological areas of Russian religious and socio-political thought: conservatism, liberalism and socialism, as well as the peculiarities of the historical development of Russian society and the state and those events that had a significant impact on the formation and development of scientific understanding of religion in Russia. Among such features, the author, in particular, refers to the formation of an “antisystem” (systemic integrity of people who take a dim view of their homeland, hate their own nation, its values and culture, history, traditional religious, political and social systems) among the Russian intelligentsia, bureaucracy and part of the elite of Russian society, under a certain influence of Westernism, as a consequence of the spiritual schism of the 18th century, which occurred in the educated strata and elite of Russian society.

When studying the features of understanding religious issues by representatives of Russian conservatism, the author of the article analyzes the views of N.Ya. Danilevsky, K.N. Leontiev, F.M. Dostoevsky, M.N. Katkov, K.P. Pobedonostsev, L.A. Tikhomirov. He notes the fact that judgment of this perspective was carried out by these authors from “Slavophile”, traditionalist (pochvennichesky and guarding) positions, in the context of judgment of features and an originality of a way of development of Russia as the center of east Christian (orthodox) culture and also empires successors of orthodox Byzantium – defenders Pravoslaviya, Orthodox church and belief, the orthodox people, values and the culture of Christianity “keeping” the world from approach of the evil and arrival of the power of Antichrist.

The article presents the results of a descriptive and analytical study of scientific works by Chinese authors on the social consequences of COVID-2019 in China. Using the methods of content analysis, classification and systematization, the author of the article identified the role of the COVID-2019 pandemic in Chinese society, identified the main directions for studying its impact in sociological science. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the social impact of the COVID-2019 pandemic is reduced to the formation of a new type of risk society, changes in the social spheres of education and healthcare, the socio-psychological state of Chinese society, the formation of new social trends in consumption, the aggravation of the unemployment problem in the country, the transformation values ​​of student youth, as well as an increase in the gap in the social well-being of rural and urban areas. The identified social consequences of COVID-2019 serve as the basis for the subsequent development of a social policy for the socio-economic recovery of the country in the post-pandemic period.

In the last decade, research in the field of smart cities has expanded from purely technological aspects to include the areas of management development, urban planning and social sciences. In general, the discussion focuses on how the use of technology contributes to the development of the city, urban space and improving the quality of decisions[1].

The article offers a tool to enrich the urban development management system. It is argued that by developing appropriate scales, subjective views and perceptions of the citizen can be objectivized and, therefore, are very useful for managers and politicians.

In this paper, the development process is carried out in several stages, using inductive and deductive methods. Following focus groups and interviewing representatives of the city authorities, a survey was conducted with the participation of almost a thousand city inhabitants from all Kazakhstan regions.  The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 24 and AMOS 20 tools.

The study proposes a scale that includes statements structured in five identified dimensions: willingness to interact, expectation of improvements, willingness to use, concern about efficiency, concern about abuse. As the methodology is disclosed, important theoretical and managerial implications are discussed, the need for information flow management in the interests of participants in the implementation of Smart City is justified.

The article is devoted to the methodological and methodological foundations of the study of the personal qualities of managers and ordinary employees of organizations. In contrast to the author’s previous works devoted to the study of the personal qualities of leaders, including civil servants, in the works of Plato, Aristotle and M. Weber, where empirical models of the structure of the personal qualities of leaders of goal-rational, value-rational, affective and traditional types of social action were presented (according to M Weber), this publication presents the combined results of research conducted at different times in different organizations on empirical models of the structure of personal qualities of managers and ordinary workers of the “radicalist type of social action”, which expands the understanding of the conceptual approach about the four types of social action by M. Weber. And the empirical models themselves can be useful for solving applied problems in the field of organization management.

   The more the work of collecting empirical data continued, the more interesting the theoretical and practical question became. How common are people of the radicalist type of social action? In what types of social institutions, in what professions is the radicalist type represented most vividly? What in the structure of personal qualities distinguishes the radicalist behavior of representatives of peaceful professions (civil servants, doctors, teachers, etc.) from certain categories of professional military personnel? If radicalist behavior is a professionally important quality of workers, then how to measure the propensity of an individual to engage in radicalist behavior?

   The analysis showed that on this scale, conservatism–radicalism, the features are located at different, opposite “poles of the same coordinate axis”. Therefore, as in the study of traditional behavior, the following areas of sociological research of radicalist behavior are distinguished. Within the framework of the first direction, the main attention in the structure of personal qualities is paid to the traditional component, fidelity to “following the habit” (according to M. Weber); in the structure of this type of personality, conservative traits are dominant in comparison with those who are inclined to a radical, radical change and breakdown of established orders and traditions. Within the framework of the second direction, the main attention in the structure of personal qualities is paid to adherence to traditions, which is equally combined with a radicalist attitude, a willingness to innovate. Within the framework of the third direction, which is important for the tasks of our new study, in the structure of personality traits, radicalistic traits dominate over conservative ones; Distrust of authorities, a tendency to break habits, a willingness to innovate, and a radicalist attitude towards change are clearly manifested.

The reviewed monograph is devoted to a comprehensive and versatile sociological study of the phenomenon of health, assessment of its state in the Russian population, analysis of factors that have a significant impact on it, the study of the value of health, its declarativeness, and representation primarily in normative ideas, but not in the minds of the population, description of the practices of a healthy lifestyle and their prevalence in modern Russian society.

The relevance of this study is due to both the general goals of the socio-demographic policy of the Russian Federation, aimed at saving the population by improving its health, and the current agenda for combating the COVID–19 pandemic and the need to assess its impact not only on the actual state of public health but also on health-saving people practices.

The monograph traces, analyses in detail, and comprehensively the revealed contradiction between the declarative high value of health and the intransitivity of the real practices of the population, which often do not correspond to the lines of self-preserving behavior. Based on a large array of empirical studies, the significant role of the family institution in shaping healthy lifestyle practices, educating future generations in line with a conscious attitude to one’s health is shown. At the same time, the high potential of the family in the transmission of behavioral patterns of unhealthy behavior is emphasized, which is noted by the author as the dual nature of the family influences adherence to healthy lifestyle practices.

Special attention is paid to the urgent problem of combating the COVID-19 pandemic: based on the latest most relevant research data, an analysis is made of changes in attitudes towards health and hygiene practices, and an assessment is made of the impact of the pandemic and the restrictive measures being introduced on the mental health of the population.