Ideas and Ideals

The article analyses the origin and development of social topology as well as the reasons for choosing the paths of its further development. Taking into account the directions in mathematical topological thought which are defined as theoretical multiple and algebraic topology, we distinguish two main vectors in devising socio-topological views: the topology of space and the topology of form. The first is based on the works of Kurt Lewin and Pierre Bourdieu and represented as a configuration of units located in social space. The second originates from the works of Rene Tohm, which conceptualize the forms of objects and urge the research in isomorphic processes, figurativeness and equivalence of their models in a social reality context. The authors analyse the methods of applying the topology of space to modern sociological research ranging from visual physical understanding of place to abstract logical representation of the role and meaning of a social object.  They also reveal the reasons why sociologists and social philosophers have mastered and actively made use of space-topology methodology tools. The paper explains the origin of difficulty in realizing the ideas and theoretical methodological capacities of the topology of form in human and social sciences. The authors suggest and prove the conclusion that a one-sided attitude towards topology is non-productive and greatly weakens our sociological understanding, procedures and the results of topological studies of social objects

The author considers the formation and development of the “public sphere”, the construction of its theoretical image, prospects and threats in the epoch of IT prevalence. The author analyzes different concepts of “public sphere” and reveals its substantial similarities and differences. He also gives a thorough analysis of the most popular approaches (terms, ideas, concepts) to the definition of "public sphere" in scientific literature. The author comes to the conclusion, that the result of the long-run discussion is the understanding of the fact, that the rational and fair space for discussions, which was mentioned by J. Habernas, needs the new forms of its implementation. It is quite possible and logical to put it into action in the Internet. At the same time, the problem of threats and the limits of the virtual public sphere are still unsolved. Therefore, the society needs support and coordination of people in the interaction with the new embodiment of “the public sphere”. The concept of "public sphere" is used rather often, but being highly controversial it gives rise to the need for careful consideration of its content for systematizing ideas and concepts that relate to it and predict further ways of its development or transformation to the virtual public sphere in the space of the Internet.

The article presents the problems of critical discursive studies in political communication. In particular, the authors demonstrate the methods and strategies of administration through constructing authoritative metanarrative. Media institutions of linguistic (cultural) domination, according to the authors, ensure the stability of the existing hierarchical order and express the fundamental "will to power" in practice of public relations. The nature of domination is manifested in the tightening of control and regulation of communicative actions of citizens almost at the level of generation text and speech. The power authorities (the linguistic ones) in the modern context are not satisfied with the control of discourse as a social practice; they are increasingly interested in the process of subjectification (individualization) of the perception experience. Power wants to control texts and speech products in the media space, and also it sees itself as a generator of the subject's inner experience. The transformation of people into subjects is in essence a special way of representing them in the modern public legal space. The authors believe, that turning to the verbal technique of parresia, allows you to see alternative ways of self-constitution and self-presentation that existed in the traditional consciousness. The socio-cognitive nature of symbolic politics is considered in the general context of the development of the sociology of knowledge as a promising area of social humanitaristics. The authors carried out an analysis of the forms and mechanisms of the discursive reproduction of the elite power taking into account rich research experience of the Western theory of political communication.

The research is devoted to philosophical reflection on the impact of socio-cultural factors on the modern theory of communication development. The source of the observed diversity of the disunity of modern communication research primarily contains in the multidimensional nature of the phenomenon. Multidirectionality of communication studies is also a consequence of the researchers’ aptitude to the influence of certain socio-cultural factors. The article offers the challenge to outline a number of socio-cultural determinants that caused the dynamics of communication studies of the XX – the beginning of the XXI centuries and to clarify the mechanisms, procedures of their influence on the formation of the theory of communication. As a result of linguistic and chronological approach to modern communication research in the article the author traces the genesis of certain intentions of the communicative theory generated by the state of social and cultural backgrounds of the implemented communication studies. There is a revealed number of significant socio-cultural determinants based on the analysis conducted by the author, such as: a high level of internal autonomy of researchers and research dissonance of cultural and linguistic chronotopes. The impact of social and cultural events from the outside (especially in cases when the events affect the deep layers of society) is located in the same row. Actually, the purpose of the article is a factual verification of generally known terms of the socio-cultural determination of modern communication studies. As a result, we plan to designate a number of socio-cultural factors behind a range of the research intentions in the framework of the theory of communication.

The article poses the problem of differentiation of sociology and social sciences. Though sociology refers to the social sciences, but now, it has become unclear what its specificity as a social science is. The traditional understanding of the subject of sociology as a social science has been criticized, and the new proposals are clearly unsatisfactory. In order to consider the stated problem, the author analyzes the works of Zygmunt Bauman and Bruno Latour, discussing this topic, he also considers the stages in the development of sociology, provides a methodological reconstruction of sociological thinking. In particular, the author shows that Bauman in his methodology implements three important principles. First, epistemic status of sociological knowledge, the second provision is, that social forms of life are multiple (populyativny) and sociology in its terms must seize this moment. Finally, the third, the sociologist considers human actions and relationships from the perspective of freedom (svoboda). The author tries to show that sociological knowledge and concepts are based on schemes and models; and then, on their basis ideal objects and concepts of sociology are formed. It is stated in the article, that a social phenomenon is not an object, but a process, a cycle beginning as an act of freedom and ending with the formation of social knowledge and creating the machine (usually a social institution), in which the freedom has been already limited by social norms. Sociological schemes and the based on them sociological concepts and theories are developed by different sociological schools and directions of sociology as a reflection of social experience that is plural, because different forms of social life are behind that experience. Sociological knowledge should not create additional frustration and anomie in the society. Therefore sociological creativity and thinking must pass the "test on the road", which is provided by methodological criticism, analysis of the possible consequences of sociological knowledge application in human life and society, and discussions involving the main interested users (sociologists, population, representatives of various social institutions).

  The article is devoted to the role of self-organization as an independent fact of the ethno-social stabilization in Siberia in the XVII-th century. As a methodological basis of research the authors propose a synthesis of structural and phenomenological paradigms, which allows using such concepts as social order, management and self-organization of local Siberian ethnic communities to describe their interethnic nature. In the authors’ opinion each local community forms up in the interaction between the institutes of social organization and self-organization. Due to the fact that the central government was at a distance and Siberian population was small, the social distance between the central government and local authorities, and, in general, between the government and the local community was not that important. Many problems had to be solved on the spot and the center only legitimized the decisions and orders. The local community solved the problems in the provinces and the central authority just legitimated the decisions and orders which had been made at the local level. The situation encouraged the actors (the participants of the processes) to play their roles freely depending not only on their formal duties but also using their personal and group interests, taking into consideration practical needs and welfare of the local communities. The authors suggest a hypothesis of the importance of horizontal relations, personal status in the formation of a new social order, which was not less important than the vertical power structure.

The article investigates the characteristics of socio-cultural manifestations of theoretical knowledge about socialization. The author identifies these manifestations with the theoretical images, which have three attributes. First, theoretical images are the results of (re-)construction of theoretical discourse which appropriately represents the main traits of reality. Second, the mentioned images correspond with the types of scientific and philosophic rationality, i. e. classical, non-classical, post-nonclassical rationality. Third, theoretical images rely on different versions of normative, interpretative or normative-interpretative methodological perspectives. The author argues that the listed attributes should be given a high priority while studying knowledge about socialization as phenomena of socio-cultural reality.

In the article the author suggests a new approach to the problem of anomie, which manifests itself in the form of deviant behavior. In his opinion inconsistence is a prerequisite for social anomie. The main social viability criterion of an individual is the official recognition of the value and necessity of his/her activities and functions which the person performs within social institutions. The main criterion of the social inability of an individual is non-recognition of activities and functions resulting from the imbalance between the consumed and produced products of his/her activities (labor) with the disbalance in favor of the consumed. It does not matter whether the individual produces more goods required from him/her or less. The very presence of the disbalance in the amount of the products of labor generates anomie. As the result of this imbalance the individual is first gradually alienated from the labor process by the society and then from people as the subjects of social life because of that disproportion in the produced and consumed goods, which doesn’t meet socially accepted norms. The alienation of the individual causes inadequate forms of adaptive reactions in the form of deviant behavior, with the aim of social adaptation, which guarantees safety. The author singles out an individual as the subject of anomie, who is a source of deviant behavior and social institutions in which the individual is not able to socialize. Planning his further work the author outlines the plan of his investigations: to define the socio-historical stages of social institutions development, as well as to determine the involvement of individuals in the activities of those institutions.

The article considers the problem of social adaptation of personality. The author investigates social thinking from the resource approach perspective as an individual social capital of a person. The introduction presents different opinions on the theme of investigations, highlights the main problems concerning human capital in modern science and defines the methodological foundation of the research. The main part of the article is devoted to the consideration of the adaptive function of social thinking as a vital ability of a person to improve the quality of his /her life. The author presents an overview of different interpretations of the issue given by outstanding scholars S.L. Rubinsteyn, K. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, E. Fromm. They view social thinking as a functional mechanism of consciousness. Thinking can be adaptive or ineffective. This is due to the individual interpretation of certain situations. These authors have noted a greater role of consciousness and social thinking in the identification and resolution of conflicts of personality and society. The rest of the article analyses the adaptive model of social thinking, which the author calls "socio-productive thinking," the main human resource, social capital of a person. The position of the author is based on humanistic values. The author’s contribution into the development of the problem consists in investigation of the less developed aspects of the problem of human capital and interpretation of the adaptive model of social thinking as a resource of a person.

Within the concept of post-industrial society the accumulation of human capital is considered to be a major factor of accelerated economic development. Since the advent of the theory of "human capital" has been more than half a century. On the subject of many papers published. However, researchers still do not have a single point of view on the economic content of the concept of "human capital". Appeal to the essence of the category of "capital" leads to the conclusion about the illegality of the use of the term in the strict scientific terminology "human capital". The article reviews the definitions, that researchers offer to disclose the content of the concept. Analysis of the content presented definitions leads to the conclusion that in this case, refers to the human potential and the degree of its development. Within the framework of the theory of "human capital" great attention is paid to the measurement of its cost. However, the value of human potential is difficult to keep exclusively to the valuation, since the possibilities of direct measuring method does not exist in principle. In connection with this conclusion about the need for further research to develop methods to a greater extent based on qualitative rather than quantitative analysis of human potential.