This article is devoted to an urgent problem — social management of personal behavior, in which a significant role is assigned to social stereotypes, which are based on the real psychological phenomenon of generalization, generalization, and schematization of data from individual and social experience. The author analyzes the origin of the word stereotype, which originally referred to a flat or cylindrical metal plate representing an exact reproduction of a typographic set, substantiates the reasons for its metaphorization of our ideas about the world, ourselves and other people. In everyday speech, the word stereotype means a generalized, simplified and sometimes biased idea of a group of people or a phenomenon that is formed on the basis of life experience or transmitted through the cultural environment and various media, which emphasizes its widespread impact on social processes and phenomena. In social sciences, the concept of a “social stereotype” is increasingly common — “a schematized, standardized image or representation of a social object, usually emotionally colored and highly stable”. This concept was introduced into wide scientific use by W. Lippman in his work “Public Opinion”. In the article, the concept of stereotypes by W. Lippman is revealed in a systematic and consistent way, as well as modern research on stereotypes is differentiated, which is based on several diverse approaches. Representatives of the first approach emphasize the negative aspects of stereotypes. Within the framework of this approach, a stereotype is often identified with preconceived judgments, prejudices, and even pathological phenomena in the public consciousness. Proponents of the second approach emphasize the importance of constructive cognitive properties and aspects of stereotypes and give the latter a functional meaning.

According to the author, the inconsistency of such approaches is based on the ambivalent nature of both the stereotype itself and the process of stereotype formation — stereotyping, which is consistently justified in the article. The mechanism of stereotyping is based on a human trait, which consists in the fact that a phenomenon is subject to preliminary categorization, after which it is observed directly. In fact, this mechanism differs significantly from scientific schemes for ordering the world, which are expressed, for example, in the processes of “typing” or “modeling” — stereotyping always involves an assessment, often emotional, of an object or phenomenon. This assessment, in turn, depends on a number of factors, is biased, and has the property of unambiguity. On the one hand, stereotypes perform certain social and psychological functions, helping people quickly navigate the social world and save cognitive resources. On the other hand, they not only contribute to a distorted, incomplete perception of reality, but can actually influence individual behavior towards representatives of certain social groups, and ultimately significantly determine social behavior.

This article is devoted to understanding the features of manipulative influence on modern youth by various subjects of social life, testing the most diverse range of political, socio-psychological and social technologies on it. Various subjects of social manipulation (individuals, their groups in the form of anti-systems, oligarchic structures, political parties and movements, as well as public associations and NGOs, totalitarian religious sects and destructive cults, special services of foreign states and international organizations) for centuries perceived young people as a resource to achieve their selfish political goals.

The result of this kind of manipulative influence was various kinds of “youth riots”, “youth”, “sexual”, “subcultural”, “countercultural”, “velvet”, “color” revolutions and coups d’état.

To successfully launch the mechanism of social manipulation of youth by the manipulators of the original, a kind of “cult of youth” was created (“spiritual pedocracy” — in the terminology of S.N. Syromyatnikov and S.N. Bulgakov). Then, they instilled in young people a protest style of behavior, using this technology to direct the energy of young people against the systems of traditional spiritual and moral values, traditional religious, social, political systems, traditional institutions of socialization and relations, thereby causing irreparable harm to the process of spiritual and social development of young people.

The article is devoted to the historical origins of Russophobia in Europe, which began to form in the 15th century. The article examines the complexity of the processes of the emergence of Russophobic sentiments, reveals their roots in long-term historical contacts between Russia and Western Europe, changes in the political and religious spheres. The article reveals the specifics of Russophobia, which was formed in different Western countries. After the Mongol invasion and the period of the Horde yoke, Russia lost its ties with Western Europe, which during the “rediscovery” Russia has contributed to the formation of negative stereotypes about Russians. In addition, attention is focused on the consequences of political events such as the Union of Kreva and the relationship between Moscow and Lithuania (and later Poland), which deepened the gap between Russia and Western Europe. The complex dynastic and religious policies of Lithuania and Polandled to additional conflicts with Russia, which shaped the views of Western authors on Russia through the prism of the existential Russian-Polish confrontation. With the arrival of European travelers to Russia, negative myths about Russians began to arise, such as rudeness, drunkenness and the “slave nature” of the people. These myths were often based on the foreigners’ superficial perception of Russian culture and customs.

The article is devoted to the concept of the sociology of power by Professor Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zakharov (1883–1937), as set out in his study “The System of Russian State Power” (1912). N.A. Zakharov defended the state’s right to uniqueness, dissimilarity, and originality. In his eyes, it is the individual characteristics of the state that generate political independence and the vitality of these states. From this position, for him, there followed the need to study the state system of states in connection with history. He saw the peculiarities of the formation of the Russian system of power in the influence of the Byzantine idea of the power of the emperor, the idea of religious autocracy, and the private law nature of the power of the great princes from the Rurik dynasty, who viewed their possessions as their inalienable patrimony, passed on by inheritance in their family. The influence of Westernizing ideas was replaced by state reforms of 1905-1906, which N.A. Zakharov perceived it as both a correction of some of the excesses of absolutism and the establishment of an order that restored the traditional principles of Russian power.

The demographic situation in Russia is critical and is characterized by an extremely low birth rate, high mortality, aging population and a decrease in the number of working-age citizens. One of the main strategies for overcoming the demographic crisis is to increase the birth rate. To implement this strategy, a whole range of political, economic, legal, social, scientific and medical measures is required. Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are effective methods of treating infertility and not only solve the problem of a specific family, but can also help solve demographic problems. The author realizes that the share of births after overcoming infertility with the help of ART in the total number of births in Russia is 2,9% (2022) and these technologies do not lead to a significant increase in the birth rate, but this share is constantly increasing (in 2000 it was 0,07%) and in the context of an increasing prevalence of late marriages and aging birth rates, this technology may be increasingly in demand in the future and contribute to an increase in the birth rate. The author concludes that, along with other measures, ART can be included in the socio-political measures of response to the demographic crisis.

The article analyzes the main approaches and features of defining health as a social phenomenon. The author notes that despite the stable discourse on health as a social phenomenon, the most common justification is its definition through the characteristics of social factors of influence. However, it is necessary to take into account other significant characteristics. In this regard, the work proposes an analysis of health as a social phenomenon through such significant aspects as: 1) health is a product of social development, and the definition of health reflects the features of the worldview and the level of development of societies at each of the historical stages; 2) health as a social phenomenon is distinguished by dynamism, which is due to its relationship with the life of an individual, group, society as a whole; 3) the essence of health as a social phenomenon is manifested in its assessment as a socially significant indicator of the development of society, group, individual; 4) health, acting as a part of social reality, is a social construct; 5) analyzing the construction of the social phenomenon of health on the basis of these essential features of the social process, we can define it as a purposeful activity.

The specificity of national business culture is determined by the historical context of its formation, the dominant value system in society, the mentality of residents, the features of managerial culture and organizational behavior. If we highlight the factors of the development of Russian business culture, then the most important of them are religious, geographical, natural and climatic factors. Also the identity and uniqueness of Russian culture are defined by the country’s multinational composition, long traditions of peaceful coexistence of people of different religious and ethnic groups, as well as the special mentality of Russians with the characteristic duality of the so-called “Russian character” (militancy — peace, hard work — laziness, fear of change — revolutionary mood, unity and desire to live in peace with all — isolation and mistrust of “strangers”, collectivity — individualism, caution — the desire to risk, rationality — irrationality etc.).

Duality can be considered as a striking characteristic of modern Russian business culture, successfully combining in itself incongruous — “East” and “West”, reforms and return to socio-cultural “roots”, collectivism and individualism, masculinity and femininity, polyactivity and monoactivity, orientation to preservation of traditions and modernity, “community ethics” and “autonomy ethics” etc. Today, the duality is reinforced by the change of generations of workers, as young people are beginning to play an increasingly active role in the labor market, bringing their own view of the world, their work attitudes and value systems into the work processes and management. The values of staff define both the overall picture of the world and organizational and business culture. In this regard, the article pays special attention to the identification of the influence of values of workers of different ages on their organizational behavior and Russian business culture in general.

The article deals with organisational and managerial aspects of conducting empirical research. As a rule, the scientific literature places more emphasis on the substantive and semantic achievement of the research goal. The management of a research project is often not covered or separate procedures are listed. And the role of the field supervisor and manager is not distinguished. The importance of research project management is not separately emphasised. A great deal of attention is nowadays paid to project management, where the management of almost any type of work that has to be managed by the team realising it is considered. Therefore, it is important to summarise the available data and show the specifics of field management. It is noted that Russian research companies and individual researchers are selective about the existing international standards on management. Additionally, the data of parameter research and evaluation by performers of their customers are given. The article considers the algorithm and project management of a research (sociological, social, marketing) project. The recommendations on field management published in the fundamental Russian (Soviet) books are considered, as well as the provisions of national and international standards GOST R ISO — 20252:2014 (ISO 20252:2012) and ISO 20252:2019 are given. On the basis of practical developments, typical stages of the project and requirements for their implementation, criteria for assessing the quality of individual types of work and the whole project are given. The given algorithm of research project management includes preparation and signing of the programme (goals, objectives, methods), research tools and its pretest, sample construction, preparation of executors, processing methods, conducting the research itself, field quality assessment, preparation of reporting documentation, financial and time (time) management and general quality analysis of the project.

Institutional management, the essence of which lies in the introduction of new norms and rules of behavior into public life, expands the boundaries of its use in the postmodern era. The aim of the article is to create a typology of methods and strategies of institutional management, based on the identification of various types of institutional changes.

With the use of formal logical procedures of typology and classification, as well as the application of synchronous and diachronic analysis, criteria of institutional changes are identified, in relation to which the most effective strategies and methods of management are determined.

A typology of institutional changes has been created, strategies and methods of management and communication impact on the object of management for each type of change have been determined. The typology uses two criteria: 1) the scale and targeting of changes and 2) the radicality and resource-intensiveness of changes. Four types of changes are identified: 1) targeted change with a clear benefit and insignificant resource costs for a person; 2) change with a depersonalized effect that does not require significant costs from a person; 3) targeted and resource-intensive change for a person; 4) a change with an abstract benefit that requires significant efforts from a person. For these changes, 5 possible strategies have been identified, differing in the strength of the information impact and content focus: an informative strategy, a persuasive strategy, an incentive stimulating strategy, a personalization strategy, and a comprehensive motivating strategy.

The proposed typology is aimed at operationalizing the choice of institutional management methods. Its use can increase the effectiveness of introducing new norms and rules into society by subjects of institutional management: states, companies, and non-profit organizations.

This article raises the problem of the formation of life guidelines and values of modern Russian students in the context of the formation of an electronic-digital civilization. The author states that non-traditional media based on Internet technologies are extremely popular among young people, especially students. At the same time, it is obvious that trust in traditional media is gradually but steadily giving way to trust in non-traditional media (the blogosphere, social networks, virtual communities and other Web resources). At the same time, these media are actively used by various destructive entities to influence modern students in order to distort information, transform life meanings and values. The author cites the results of studies by various authors related to the dynamics of life orientations of modern youth, which he compares with the results of his own study “Social Communication in Modern Society” conducted among students of the Sociology Faculty of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov. Such a comparison allows us to conclude that although some trends unfavorable for society are traced among a certain part of student youth, they are not expressed as clearly and unambiguously as various authors state.

According to the author, it is hardly possible to deduce stable trends, much less patterns, only from students’ answers to one or two, not always correctly formulated questions. In fact, their understanding of the essence of things behind each specific question is much deeper.

There is no consistent tendency to destructive thinking, destructive life orientations in the middle of student youth. At the same time, the thinking of students is sufficiently chaotic, which in many respects can be explained by the virtualization and mediatization of their knowledge, which is explained by the enormous occupation in different social groups and the expansion of new media. Not less, this chaos can serve as a drinking medium for various kinds of destructive activity. It has been proved in the article that in the majority of its forms the student community is oriented on traditional for our side traditions and institutions, in the first place, on bold seminal relations and voluntary work. A high level of morality and legal knowledge is also characteristic of nearly three quarters of Russian students. A sufficiently positive majority of students have a positive attitude to patriotism. This, without a doubt, requires systematic, thorough, active and systematic educational work with students. In the first place, it is necessary to develop a normative base, which regulates the use of children from the standpoint of various, above all, destructive subjects.

The article provides a detailed excursion into the history of communicative culture, the features of which can be explored with the help of such open and mysterious source as inscriptions. Starting from the huge array of inscriptions of the Indus civilization, humanity, on the one hand, broadcast valuable information for itself, and, on the other, tried to hide the essence of the message behind the graphics of the inscription, making it accessible only to the initiated. The authors trace the development of the communicative culture using examples of geoglyphs, engravings, state symbols, advertising, banners, graffiti, monumental art, etc. Each new period has not only brought a different content to the art of inscriptions but also actively expanded its tools for transformation making it consonant with the demands of the changed information field.

At the same time, the widest range of meanings of such inscriptions, which can reflect political, social, spiritual ideas comes down to two main functions which inscriptions have carried for thousands of years: signaling and magical ones. They are also typical of modern inscriptions, regardless of their personal or public manifestation, socio-political or economic purpose, the tool and the surface used to make an inscription. This gives a reason to see in the communicative culture of the 21st century successor to the ancient “Inscription Civilization” which was transformed. The destruction of its earlier fragments is enlightening in a sense that it might have resulted from the inability and unwillingness of people to understand the form and content of the messages hidden behind the intricate graphics of the inscriptions.

The article is devoted to the possibility of exploring communities in electronic social networks, which in a broad sense represent social groups. According to the author, such studies play a significant role in understanding the dynamics of modern society. This analysis helps to identify new trends and patterns, as well as to develop recommendations for the optimal use of social networks in educational, cultural and other contexts. Social networks also influence the formation of public opinion and political processes. They provide an opportunity to quickly disseminate information and interact with a large number of people, which can lead to a change in the behavior and values of society.

The author attempts to consider the factors of joining groups in social networks:

- the social need for belonging;

- the individual ‘s desire to reduce the feeling of loneliness;

- the social appeal of anonymity;

- functionality and development of electronic social platforms for interaction between people;

- visualization of remote communication;

- the opportunity to create an image of your “I” for a certain community.

The article examines the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of social groups from the point of view of their relationship with electronic social networks, classification from the point of view of sociological science, and also assesses the possibility of applying classical methods of sociology to the study of the modern embodiment of a social group — a community in an electronic social network. In addition, the author of the article suggests the possibility of using social media communities as a source of sociological information to solve a wide range of public issues.