No 3 (2024)

The text is devoted to the formulation of a research problem in an article for a sociological journal. The purpose of the article is didactic in nature and is aimed at improving the culture of writing academic text through the articulation of a research problem. The text presents all stages of pre-research practice: searching for a topic, reviewing the literature, fixing a problem situation, formulating a research problem and research questions. The peculiarity of the article is that it is based on many years of experience as a reviewer for the journal “Sociological research”, and the examples are manuscripts and publications sent to the journal. The articles are randomly selected and do not serve as a template for writing good articles, but rather to demonstrate some possible options.

An important place in the work is given to the creative process of problematization. Problematization is perhaps the most difficult pre-research procedure, since a significant part of it is located in the “black box” of the researcher’s thought process. The essence of problematization is the process of deriving a new problem from existing knowledge. It acts as a way of relating knowledge and ignorance at the level of initial ideas. These are peculiar “game” manipulations of true and false, knowledge and non-knowledge.

The rules presented in the text for formulating a scientific problem in an article for a sociological journal are universal. Knowing the rules means knowing the boundaries of creative freedom. The author claims that playing by the rules does not guarantee, but increases the likelihood that the article will be published, and their violation is not a force majeure obstacle to publication in the journal “Sociological studies”.

The article examines the views of N. A. Berdyaev. The author relies on the publications of the historian of Russian sociology V.V. Sapov, problemicizing on nature of thinking and style of Berdyaev’s philosophizing, of how sociological is his methodology, as well as the assessment of his so-called “apophatic sociology”. The author shows that Berdyaev’s social philosophy is based on the doctrine of man (philosophical anthropology), the core of which is religious and philosophical concept of personality (personalism). Parallels are drawn with the views of V.l. Solovyov, S. N. Bulgakov, S. L. Frank, M. Scheler. The ideological and value meaning of Berdyaev’s “Christian sociology” is shown to be based on the ideal of “personalistic socialism”, which he considered “true communism”, and is crowned by eschatology, calling for an “active understanding of the apocalypse”. In conclusion, the author emphasizes the relevance of Berdyaev’s views for our time – the epoch of the dominance of digital techniques, social technologies, and a decline of human spiritual potential.

The paper deals with the problem of uncovering the motivation structure of Russian scientists’ research, assessing the role learning and self-fulfillment motives play in it and the way those motives are connected to their performance indicators. In order to do that, we propose a model of connection between needs and priority motives characteristic for scientists, uncover a hierarchy of research motives and the level of their fulfillment on the job, define a motivational core and explain its factor structure. We used data from an online survey of Russian scientists (N = 551) taken in the second half of 2022 as a database for our study. We have discovered two main motives for doing research: pleasure gained from one’s work and work independence. They are typical for more than a half of scientists. We found that the work independence motive had a substantial impact on performance. We estimated that out of independent variables used for the analysis, the variations in the academic degree, research field and organization type where scientists were employed had the most differentiating effect on the motivation structure. The factor analysis of motives manifesting in research enabled us to find a single factor propped up by learning values per se, unrelated to tangible, pragmatic or prestige concerns. Links to that factor yielded characteristics typical for increased productivity. Our conclusion is that motivation has a chance to remain a reliable element of scientific human capital only when intangible motives clearly dominate tangible ones.

In recent years, Russia has seen a turn towards conservative values reflected in the presidential decree on year 2022 about the Fundamentals of state policy for the preservation and strengthening traditional Russian spiritual and moral values. We assess the level of expression of some “traditional values” in Russian society. Data from federal statistical observation and departmental (including judicial) statistics were used, and secondary data from representative surveys of leading Russian sociological centers from the early 1990s to 2022, as well as individual results of international surveys (for example, World Values Survey). None indicator fully characterizes values, so the consistent dynamics of groups of indicators was assessed. The hypothesis that the values are indeed traditionales partially confirmed, that is, they recorded objectively and strengthen over time. The most positive trends noted in the implementation of the values of life, humanism and mercy. The situation is contradictory with the values of dignity, human rights and freedoms, high moral ideals, the priority of the spiritual over the material, and justice.

This paper assesses the prevalence of street and hidden homelessness in Russia. Based on the representative survey “Person, Family, Society – 2023” (N = 9508 people) it was revealed that 4.6% of the adult population had experienced street homelessness, while 13.5% had faced hidden homelessness. 4.8% of respondents reported about suffering from homelessness for more than 1 year, including 2.5% with experience of more than 3 years of homelessness. Street homelessness problem is primarily for males, however the prevalence of hidden homelessness is high among women too. Factors such as male gender, low median income, and smoking increase the likelihood of homelessness in the past 10 years, while marriage, higher education, and children under the age of 18 in the household decrease this likelihood. Federal district of residence and type of settlement are not correlated with the experience of homelessness. Frequent alcohol consumption significantly increases the likelihood of street homelessness. Those who have experienced homelessness have unstable housing conditions with the expectation of ones future deterioration. They are more likely to live in communal apartments, hostels, and rented housing. The experience of homelessness is associated with lack of housing owned by the person. The experience of homelessness is closely related to feelings of loneliness and conflicts in the family. Homelessness is correlated with life dissatisfaction. Compared to several countries (Australia, Canada, European countries), Russia has a higher life-time prevalence of homelessness and longer average duration of homelessness. All this emphasizes the importance of housing market policies development and social protection of people vulnerable to homelessness.

The article examines the main quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the university social community of research and pedagogical stuff (RPS) from the point of view of both the trends that took place at the beginning of the XXI century and the current trends, as well as the ways of long-term development of this category of intellectual labor specialists. It is proved that further improvement of higher education in the country is impossible without the active participation in this process of the flagship of university progress – RPS. In order to identify the prospects of this community, the solution of the fundamental tasks of developing its potential is considered. The article proposes a Pyramid of factors of influence on the RPS, driven by four social actors – the presidential administration (level of megafactors), the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russian Federation (level of macrofactors), regional authorities and local governments (level of mesofactors), university administration (level of microfactors). All the considered solutions of the regulators of different levels, in the author’s opinion, have a strategic importance for the development of the RPS potential.

Based on the analysis of historical sources, the authors present the history of cooperation between two outstanding scientists of the early 20th century – Vladimir M. Bekhterev and Pitirim A. Sorokin – who had the common goal of establishing sociology as a new science in Russia. Courage and conviction of V. M. Bekhterev helped him open Russia’s first department of sociology as part of the Psychoneurological Institute, where a young scientist, P. A. Sorokin, successfully took his first steps into science. Throughout this creative partnership, Vladimir M. Bekhterev not only made an institutional contribution but also shaped the direction of empirical research. He examined pressing social issues such as famine, war, epidemics and crime from a psychiatric and physiological perspective. Pitirim A. Sorokin, on the other hand, conducted comprehensive sociological analyses of these phenomena, which later became an integral part of his scientific legacy. Bekhterev and Sorokin shared a deep and trusting friendship, and their collaboration faced challenges during turbulent historical periods. However, they remained steadfast in their commitment to defend sociology as a science and an academic discipline. Their work also emphasized the impact of famine on human behavior and society. Bekhterev and Sorokin’s research remained dedicated to human values, understanding the human condition, and social justice, continuing to inspire future generations of scholars and serving as a guiding light through various historical epochs.

Prospects for the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies are discussed through the prism of human and societal imperfection. It is emphasized that artificial intelligence should be considered an essential reason for a kind of full-fledged self-audit by civilization and personality. The reasons for the pessimistic attitude to the possibilities of qualitative social transformations are evaluated, despite the vivid developments in the field of artificial intelligence. Fears of artificial intelligence reveal absurdity of many “basic” mechanisms of society’s existence up to now, including the standard ideas about prime importance of mercantile values. It is stated that there is a constant slip in the use of all without exception overtechnologies with maximum public benefit. Attention is focused on the expediency to implement a social revolution in its personally transformative dimension. At the same time it is noted that human improvement projects are almost unambiguously met with anxiety, distrust and reasonable skepticism.

The article examines the concept of the “society of singularities” by Andreas Reckwitz. According to the German sociologist, in the post-industrial society of late modernity, the “logic of the general” is inferior to the “logic of the individual” – the singular: the greatest value is not mass goods and services, but those that have unique cultural and symbolic value. Representatives of the highly educated “new middle class” who have succeeded in the “singularity” era value creative individualism most of all and strive for self-realization, openness and cultural diversity. This combines well with neoliberalism and globalization, which, in turn, contributed to growing socio-economic inequality and growing cultural contradictions. Accordingly, Reckwitz seeks to point out the problem of excessive “particularization” of society and the loss of the “generality”. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that Reckwitz himself underestimates the problems he writes about and overestimates the positive aspects of “singularization”. The article shows that Reckwitz’s ideas about the “society of individuals”, the “new middle class” and the meritocratic nature of the new elites are extremely controversial. In the most “singular” (creative, associated with individual creativity) areas of activity, the middle class is extremely small, and in modern Western countries the dominant cultural and political position is occupied not by the smartest meritocrats, but by those who are able to attract the attention of the broadest masses and meet their aspirations.