This article reflects the achievements of the Sociology Faculty of Moscow State University, which has been a recognized leader in the Russian sociological education system for over 35 years and trains professional sociologists who are in great demand in the modern labor market. Over the past 5 years, 1,287 Russian students (816 bachelors and 471 masters), as well as 368 foreign students, whose influx is constantly growing, have received a start in professional life. The author notes that the feature of learning is a harmonious combination of fundamental and applied knowledge, theoretical and empirical skills, which is typical for classical university education. In its educational and scientific activities, the Faculty of Sociology of Moscow State University relies on a combination of fundamental scientific knowledge and empirical skills that allow students to be not only practitioners capable of processing and analyzing data, but also theorists who understand deep social processes. The education system of the Faculty of Sociology is constantly being modernized to meet the challenges and requirements of modernity. In this regard, special attention is paid at the Faculty of Sociology to the introduction of new educational technologies, including the network form of educational programs, project-based learning, distance learning technologies, and e-learning. The article presents in a systematic form the achievements of the departments of the Faculty of Sociology, as well as the results of the scientific activities of the entire faculty, which are reflected in numerous monographic publications, publications of articles, as well as in reports at international and all-Russian conferences. Many monographs published by faculty members have become bestsellers. Among them: a monograph by N.G. Osipova and S.O. Elishev “Revolutions and coups d’etat: theory, history and practice”, a monograph by N.G. Osipova and S.O. Elishev “Historical Russia: territories and prospects”, monographs by S.O. Elisheva “Sociology of Religion in Imperial Russia” and “Imperial Statehood — the fate and mission of Russia”, a collective monograph by the staff of the Department of Modern Sociology “Social inequality in the modern world: new forms  and features of their manifestation in Russia”, collective monographs of the Department of Economic Sociology and Management “The older generation in post-industrial realities” and “Artifacts of organizational culture”. The Faculty of Sociology of Lomonosov Moscow State University takes an active part in the joint development of the Innovative Scientific and Technological Center of Moscow State University “Vorobyovy Gory”, contributed to the launch of negotiations between the INTC of Moscow State University and major representatives of the real sector of the economy. He pays great attention to the preservation of the cultural and historical heritage of Russia, the popularization of     traditional values for the Russian mentality. A landmark platform for the implementation of this direction was the Vvedensky Stavropol Monastery “Optina Pustyn”, in the spiritual and educational center of which professors of the faculty N.G. Osipova and S.O. Elishev gave public lectures. The author highlights in detail the directions of international cooperation of the Faculty of Sociology and activities that help attract applicants.

Sociological education in Russia continues to develop under the conditions of constant changes occurring both on its external contour and within the sociological educational community. Statistical data allow us to assert that the decline in SCC and the number of students has stopped in the last five years; moreover, there has been an increase in the contingent of sociology students. There has been a sharp decline in sociological education in non-state universities, the share of students studying on a part-time and contractual basis. The ratio of full-time and part-time education in Bachelor’s degree amounted to 86 and 14%, respectively, in Master’s degree 88 and 12%. Special attention is paid to the most acute problem related to the development of draft FSES HE 4 and the probable transition to it in the near future. In the most unfavorable forecasts, sociology education is seriously threatened by the loss of identity. In order to understand the most acute problems that prevent sociological education from being positioned as an integral, established educational process, the curricula of 49 universities that implement sociology training programs were studied. The sample included universities from the RAEX ratings — the subject rating for sociology and the top-100 best universities in Russia, as well as from the Interfax rating of the top-100 universities in Russia. Correlation of the profiles declared by universities with their subject content, as well as blocks of general sociological and special sociological disciplines with blocks of selected instrumental disciplines, practices, socio-humanities and general professional disciplines allowed us to identify a number of features and trends in the implementation of educational programs for training sociologists. As a result, two tendencies were revealed: one is the emergence of signs of the emerging unification of educational programs in sociology, which occurs in the implementation     of the profile “Sociology” in classical universities, and the other is the mass implementation of unbalanced educational programs that contain obvious bias towards a certain block of disciplines and do not provide a full-fledged implementation of the declared profile.

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of public policy as a scientific and academic category. Public policy is one of the fastest growing scientific and educational areas in the 21st century. This trend should not be considered solely as a tribute to fashion; with the right approach, public policy can become the cornerstone in the study of the political process and in training a new generation of experts in the field of political management and decision-making. Moscow University is one of the leaders in the development of this area, introducing public policy at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The article examines the history of public policy, shows the main theoretical and methodological prerequisites for its study, and the reasons for its institutionalization in different countries of the world. It is shown that public policy is a multifaceted category, the understanding of which varies depending on theoretical, managerial and ideological perspectives. At the same time, it is the most important educational and research area, which is associated with the fundamental principles of the functioning of the state, issues of increasing the efficiency of public administration, and harmonizing the interests of the state and society. The author proves the point of view that universities involved in organizing the training of public policy experts are today at the forefront of the processes of modernization and increasing the efficiency of the entire political and administrative apparatus. Public policy experts trained by Russian universities in general and Moscow University in particular are future multidisciplinary professionals capable of managing complex socio-political processes, increasing the efficiency of the state apparatus, and building a competent balance between state and public interests.

The article is a generalized analysis of students’ opinions about Moscow University, which they expressed within the study “Moscow State University through the Eyes of Students at the Faculty of Sociology” conducted at the Faculty of Sociology. This study was dedicated to the 270th anniversary of Moscow University. The purpose of the study was to create a holistic view of students’ attitudes to Moscow University, its mission in the development of Russia and Russian science, as well as their own life trajectories, based on the analysis of students’ opinions on the criteria for choosing a university, on various aspects of the educational process and employment prospects. The responses analyzed in the article are a vivid demonstration of the fact that Moscow University has played and continues to play a special role in the lives of students. It is the students who are the main characters of this article. Young people expressed their opinions on why they chose Moscow State University, what factors influenced their choice, how their education is conducted, and how their alma mater influences their life strategies. Instead of a conclusion, the article includes two extraordinary essays that describe the students’ path to admission, their   impressions of their studies, as well as their expectations, aspirations, and hopes.

The article examines the features of the current stage of urbanization, in particular, the increasing complexity of spatial organization associated with cities overcoming their administrative boundaries, which led to the emergence of agglomerations and urban regions. New urban forms are considered as a result of the formation of a post-industrial society, where the labor market demonstrates greater flexibility than in the industrial one. In addition, the modern transport system makes it possible to easily cover significant distances in a short time and thereby changes the idea of space. Digital technologies have made it possible to transfer a number of interactions (both personal and business) to a remote format, which also contributed to the expansion of urban entities and complicated their management. The author also points out the ambiguous nature of the social consequences of digitalization and algorithmization of urban space. It is noted that smart city technologies, which are positioned as an effective opportunity to counteract uncertainty and manage it, create new vulnerabilities and threats. Special attention is paid to new challenges that modern cities face due to climate change. Thus, the author demonstrates a wide range of social problems relevant to modern urban entities that are becoming in creasingly complex. The article emphasizes that today urban studies is an interdisciplinary field for which sociology is of great importance, allowing us to get an answer to the question of how to improve the quality of life of the population of all spatial forms existing today.

The article deals with the study of health maintaining among Russian youth. Based on data from all-Russian surveys and presented in relevant studies, the contradictions between the value perception of health and destructive health practices among young people were found. In this regard, based on the understanding of health conservation as a purposeful activity, in the structure of which the cognitive component plays a significant role, the author underlines to study young people’s ideas about health and health caring in order to realise the reasons of differences between the state of health and the attitude of Russian youth. In this regard, the author conducted a study of the structure of social ideas of young Russians. The theoretical basis of the study was the key provisions of the concept of social representations by S. Moscovici. The empirical basis was the data of the author’s empirical study “Health Saving of Modern Russian Youth: Ideas and Practices”. Based on the results of the study, it was established that the core of modern youth’s social ideas about health conservation are traditional images and ideas that reflect the most characteristic of Russian society and its health conservation culture, but in a limited format. The peripheral zone includes components such as breaking bad habits, well-being, and maintaining emotional stability. The least characteristic of young Russians is the connection between ideas about health and health preservation with institutional practices of clinical examination and preventive examinations, which suggests a decrease in the role of the medical institute as an agent of social control in relation to health in the ideas of the younger generation. Thus, the social ideas of young Russians about health and the practices of its preservation, along with traditional ideas, are distinguished by features, the formation of which, according to the author, is due to the influence of new agents of healthy lifestyle socialization and the online-sources

The article considers new forms of social inequality, interest in which emerged mainly in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Special attention is paid to the analysis of global, digital and environmental inequality. The reasons of sociological interest to these problems are considered, the most important of which are the technological progress, changes in the ways of assessing the level of social inequality, as well as the transformation of research optics and tools of cognition, including the emergence of artificial intelligence technologies.

The main characteristics of the new forms of social inequality, their interrelation, levels and measurement criteria are presented. The article describes several perspectives of studying global social inequality. In sociological literature, most of them are related to the transition from the study of the nation-state as a key unit of analysis to the study of global social space. The analysis of digital inequality and the problem of the social divide now appears as a combination of several levels of research and is related to the consideration of access to technology, possession of digital skills, and the life chances and opportunities. Environmental pollution and climate change have led to research interest in socio-environmental inequalities, which are related to the unequal distribution of environmental risks. Environmental neo-colonialism is examined in the context of analyzing environmental inequalities as a factor that rein forces social inequalities.

The article concludes that further sociological study of social inequality issues is necessary, analyzes the role of sociology in addressing these issues and actualizing the data.

The article analyzes the impact of digitalization on sociology and the professional trajectories of a sociologist. The main stages of the “digitalization” of sociology are highlighted, within which not only the amount of data used changes, but also the methods of their processing and analysis. Speaking about the transformation of modern sociology, the author describes several projects of its “digitization”, defining the key features of each. The “digitalization” of sociology is considered as an ambivalent process, which, on the one hand, opens up a whole range of opportunities for the researcher, on the other, actualizes a number of serious problems. The development of computing technologies leads to the expansion of opportunities for rethinking and verification of individual classical theories, the widespread introduction of non-reactive methods of sociological research, to increase their evidence and reproducibility. At the same time, the problems of digitalization are: an increase in the “black box” effect, bias and opacity of artificial intelligence algorithms, a decrease in the interpretability of the results obtained by a sociologist working in the “big data” paradigm. This leads to the need to rethink the model of Russian sociological education, the development of educational technologies that integrate classical sociological thinking and new digital technologies.

The article attempts to characterize the problem field of scientific research of the Department of Social Technologies of the Sociological Faculty of Moscow State University as part of the study of social technologies in the management of modern Russian society, with an emphasis on the technology of modernization of the Russian society and transformation of management practices in the context of new external challenges (primarily related to the active introduction of digital information and communication technologies).

Modern Russian society is developing in the context of external and internal challenges requiring the transformation of management practices and the development of new social technologies. In connection with the need to implement the task set by the authorities of choosing a way of further development and rethinking the system of spiritual and moral values, the problem of the development, selection and application of social technologies of socio-cultural, economic and political modernization of Russian society has been actualized. Looking retrospectively at the process of modernization of Russia, one can clearly see the “pendulum” of development — in the direction of borrowing “Western” experience and implementing reforms by western standards or, on the contrary, “return to the roots” and implementing counter-reforms. In the current geopolitical situation, we can state that there has been a demand not only for a return to traditional values and conservative ideology, but also for a rethinking of Russia as a “distinct civilization”.

Serious challenges (socio-demographic changes, digitalization, algorithmization, robotization, development of artificial intelligence, machine learning, shering economy, etc.) facing society and its social institutions today, require rethinking management practices and social technologies. The digitalization of social management is increasingly challenging the identification and analysis of the social consequences of introducing artificial intelligence, replacing human labor with machine and algorithms. When we talk about changing the nature of management in a digitalized society, we see an increasing penetration of artificial intelligence technologies into the field of management and the development of algorithmic control. Algorithms are now used in public administration, social services and social services, education, health. The autonomy and autonomization of algorithmic solutions raise serious questions about reducing the role of the human factor in management, which is alarming, especially in spheres that have traditionally been built around the human being. In addition, machines do not just study a person, they try to push him to make certain decisions, to a given behavioral response to a given stimulus, open new possibilities for manipulation. With the active introduction of digital technologies in all spheres of public life and in the management system, there are fears of total digital control. As digital platforms gain more instrumental power and access to personal data, so does the resistance of users of digital platforms due to a lack of control over the “fate” of the data provided. All this can lead to an increase in social tensions, which cannot be ignored when implementing management practices and choosing modern social technologies of management of society.

The article analyzes the data of sociological research conducted by the Department of Sociology of Family and Demography of the Faculty of Sociology of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, whose employees adhere to the familistic paradigm. The data from these studies are used for social design and forecasting of family and demographic behavior of the bulk of the population, as well as to develop recommendations for improving family and demographic policy aimed at increasing the birth rate and overcoming the crisis of the family as a social institution. Analysis of these data showed that effective policies in the field of family and demography should be aimed not only at changing the attitude towards family life and the birth of children on the part of those people who are now in active reproductive age, but also at creating a positive attitude of adolescents and young people towards based on a strong legal marriage and a close connection between three generations of a family with three or more children. A social atmosphere that encourages the formation and maintenance of families of this type should be considered as a necessary condition for the prosperity of the country.

The article is devoted to the radical transformation of the structure of knowledge in modern economic sociology and managerial theory, to the transition from slender hierarchies of ideas (the top of which consists of a small number of axioms, and the base of which consists of multiple specific recommendations) to the postmodern market of concepts. The authors made a comparative analysis of such transformation in economic sociology and managerial theory, revealed general regularities and specific factors that determined the difference between the scientific fields of these science. The latter include: 1) subjects conducting scientific research (in managerial theory, along with scientists, managers, consultants, people somehow connected with business were engaged in such practice), 2) a terminology of sciences (in managerial theory, a specific language for communication between managers and employees was actively created), 3) the use of marketing and PR-technologies to promote ideas. The totality of these factors determined a special “landscape” of the subject areas of economic sociology and managerial theory.

The article concludes that despite the existing problems caused by multiparadigmality, the emerging “flexible” format of socio-humanitarian knowledge opens new opportunities for creativity in rapid changes of social reality, obsolescence of classical approaches to its cognition, as well as the realization of the variety of phenomena and processes in the field of economics and management.

In such situation, each scientific team should choose its own special place in the exhibition of ideas, create its own “exhibits” attractive to the scientific community and the general public. Among the variety of topical and demanded research directions, the article identifies three key thematic blocks reflecting the scientific priorities of the Department of Economic Sociology and Management of Moscow University: 1) institutional changes and institutional context of socio-economic and managerial processes, 2) aging population and digitalization as key factors of economic and management transformation, 3) socio-economic processes and phenomena in the mirror of digital communication.

This article was prepared by a team of authors of the sociological faculty of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov as part of a series of events dedicated to      the 270th anniversary of Moscow University. The article was based on the processed and analyzed data of the sociological study “Social Communication in Modern Society: Essence and Features”, conducted by employees of the Sociological Faculty of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov under the guidance of the Dean of the Sociological Faculty of Moscow State University, Professor N.G. Osipova in April–May 2024. As part of the study, a total of 401 students of the sociological faculty of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. Particular emphasis in the study was placed on the study of the features of the understanding by students of the sociological faculty of the very fact of the transition of mankind in its development to a new stage for it — the electronic-digital era, as well as the features of social communication and the opportunities that they acquired, thanks to the onset of this era. The study revealed a generally positive attitude of students to the process of the formation of an electronic-digital society, the active introduction of digital technologies into the daily life of a modern person, without which young people can no longer imagine their existence. At the same time, their active immersion in virtual reality, which is provided and actually created by new media, especially social networks and instant messengers, naturally led to the emergence of Internet addiction, gadget addiction, as well as to uncritical comprehension of the information that they receive from these sources. Naturally, this has a very negative effect on the formation of their life attitudes, landmarks, which are largely consumer in nature, and also makes them a very convenient object for destructive propaganda and manipulative influence.

This article is devoted to the comparison and analysis of a number of results of sociological studies conducted at the sociological faculty of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov in February 2024 and in April–May 2024. As part of a February 2024 pilot study conducted by standardized interview method, 42 under graduate (48%) and graduate (52%) students of the Faculty of Sociology were selected. The age of 36% of respondents was in the range of 17–18 years, 52% from 19 to 22 years, 12% — from 23 to 26 years. As part of a sociological study conducted at the Faculty of Sociology of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov in April–May 2024, a sociological study “Social communication in modern society: essence and features” a total of 401 students of the sociological faculty of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. The study was conducted by questionnaire. 401 students of the sociological faculty of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, of which 73,32% of bachelors and 26,68% of masters, which corresponds to the structure of the student body of the sociological faculty. Among the surveyed students, 70,07% were female, and 29,93% were male, which generally corresponds to the overall gender composition of the faculty students. 65,75% of respondents (i.e. almost two thirds of respondents) were young people aged 19 to 22 years, 19,5% — from 23 to 26 years, 14,75% — from 14 to 18 years. As part of these studies, students were asked a number of questions, including those aimed at identifying their ideas about the essence of the phenomenon of propaganda, types of propaganda, perception of propaganda, destructive and constructive propaganda. Research results have shown that in the student environment as a whole, incorrect and vague ideas about the essence of the phenomenon of propaganda, its various types and methods, as well as the negative attitude of respondents to the phenomenon of propaganda itself prevail, which is clearly visible in a number of detailed definitions of this phenomenon given by them. A significant part of students primarily associates the concept of propaganda with the concepts of “imposition”, “manipulation”, primarily because of the prevailing neoliberal ideologies in social networks and instant messengers, popular among young people, that young people themselves are not particularly aware of. Nevertheless, they state the fact that there is an acute ideological struggle in the Russian Federation and an active neoliberal ideology in modern Russia.

In this article, based on the results of empirical research conducted by employees of the Faculty of Sociology, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Associate Professor T.V. Semina and graduate student A.A. Belov, the destructive influence of electronic and digital media on the health of Russian citizens is considered. In fact, we are talking about the “mediatization of medicine”, which is understood as “the process caused by the emergence of digital communication tools, as a result of which the masses have free access to medical information, and all issues related to human and social health are somehow mediated by electronic media”. The author emphasizes that quite often the media practices uncontrolled submission of quasi-medical information, signs of economic bias present in the media are expressed in the fact that the main source of income for the media is advertising, especially medicines and pharmaceuticals. At the same time, commercials advertising medicines on television are the most effective in influencing the audience. In 2019, T.V. Semina, Doctor of Sociology, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Sociology at Lomonosov Moscow State University, proved the destructive role of the media in the genesis of social conflict in the doctor–patient system. In April–July 2024, the author also undertook an empirical sociological study on the problems of constructing public health in the Russian Federation, in particular, the effectiveness of the impact of advertising materials placed in the media on the health-saving attitudes of Russians, he results of which are presented in the article. In general, the results of empirical studies conducted by T.V. Semina and confirmed by the author’s research convincingly prove the dysfunctionality of the media in relation to the health of Russian citizens, their negative impact on the consciousness of both healthy and sick people. The author emphasizes that it is not so difficult to protect health, but, unfortunately, many people do not even try to do this, guided by certain stereotypes imposed by the media. For example, that after a certain age, absolutely everyone has high blood pressure, overweight, hormonal and other disorders and should regularly take appropriate (widely advertised) medications or dietary supplements, the benefits of which have not been scientifically proven. Most importantly, the author notes, changes are needed in the development of self-preservation behavior among the population. The main task of the state is not only to develop an effective health care system, but also to promote a responsible attitude of citizens to their own health, which implies regular medical examinations, giving up bad habits, leading a healthy lifestyle involving “life on the move”, full sleep and cognitive activity.

The article is devoted to the topical issues of China's digital transformation and the role of digital trust in it. Digital transformation is a long — term comprehensive and rapid process, accompanied by rapid development of digital technologies, institutional changes and appropriate adaptation of people to new conditions. At the same time, it is emphasized that the drastic changes caused by digital transformation bring a lot of uncertainty and risks to society, which, without proper government response, can lead to social unrest and social unrest, and reduce confidence in this process. In the process of digital transformation, high trust between people can reduce suspicions, doubts and reduce social tension in society. In this regard, digital trust comes to the fore of sociological analysis — a new complex social phenomenon that combines sufficient confidence in the reliability of individuals, processes and technologies related to the security and benefits of the digital world. The author shows that the structure of digital trust is multifaceted and sets various objects for research: they can be technologies, processes, individuals, etc., therefore, those factors that affect these three components of the trust structure can be considered as factors affecting digital trust as a whole. However, the topic of digital trust has not been studied much, both from a theoretical and practical point of view, and its valid empirical studies are clearly insufficient. Indeed, some scientists have used factor analysis in their research to study the elements that affect digital trust. However, due to the lack of a well-developed theoretical framework, the mechanism of interaction between influencing factors and characteristics of digital trust cannot be reliably described. The article presents an original methodology for the sociological analysis of digital trust, based on the methodology of factor analysis. As a result of its testing, factors affecting the level of digital trust have been identified, which are of theoretical and practical importance.