2012. N 4

Introduction

 

Civilizational Research in Sociology

Autonomy of Human Reason: First Project on Civilization Studies

The paper examines the formation of the first project of the civilization studies that is the General history of civilization at the second half of the XVIII century. The discovery of the historical-cultural dimension of a human existence is the main novelty introduced by the notion of civilization.

 

Integrative Perspective in Civilization Analysis

The main purpose of the article is to explore the integrative perspective in civilizational analysis. Attention is mainly focused on the ‘micro-macro link’ as a crucial theoretical and methodological issue in sociology. Civilizational theories of N. Elias, S. Eisenstadt and R. Collins have an explicitly integrative character and demonstrate a rejection of the micro- or macrolevel determinism, which is now replaced by the principle of interdependency between the macrolevel of institutions, large-scale structures and long-term processes and the microlevel of individual actions, small-scale structures and face-to-face interactions. The contemporary civilizational analysis is also developing other integrative lines — theoretical synthesis as well as integrative analysis of culture, structure and agency and also culture, economy and power as dimensions of civilizational complexes.

 

The Civilization Theory of Norbert Elias Today

In The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations (1939) Norbert Elias formulated a theory to explain the long-term process of continuous change that led to the emergence of modern society. His theory encompasses both the development of human personality structures and behaviour (psychogenetic research) and the development of the social structures of inequality, power, and order (sociogenetic research). Violence and its control are central themes of the theory of the civilizing process. On the question of why the de-civilization processes occur, Elias failed to answer satisfactorily. For his students and followers this omission is a motivation to consider furthering Elias’s thinking.

 

Personality and Family

Values and Attitudes in Lifeworld Structure

The article analyzes the structure of one’s lifeworld as an individual model of reality, self-evident knowledge, providing the possibility for a person to live and act. Internalized and externalized intentionality of interaction between a person and external world is a parameter allowing to differentiate two dimensions: the structure of meaning and the value-attitude structure. Values and attitudes as components of a person’s lifeworld act as a resource and limitation for development, solution, and evaluation of actual situations faced by the actors. In conclusion, author denotes the possibility of biographical research on the structure of the lifeworld.

 

Family and Gender Relations in Women’s Biographical Narratives

The paper presents some results of qualitative analysis of the Biographical collection obtained by Sociological Institute of the RAS. On the basis of biographical narratives of two generations the author examines how women’s everyday views on family and gender relations have been changed in the post-Soviet period.

 

The Reality of Aging in the Social Indicators

The article consists of some results of “unceasing observation” (Igor I. Travin) and sociological monitoring of public mood about the pressing issues of our life (2008—2011). This time, author focuses on elderly people — the residents of St.-Petersburg and also other countries. This text is an essay and as well an analytical review of sociological studies on the social trends in citizens’ everyday life.

 

Education and Innovation Development

Innovation Active Enterprises

The factors of innovation activity in Russia are considered. The leaderships of directors and top-manages are emphasised. The positive examples of borrowing of innovation activity by Russian manufacturing enterprises are discussed.

 

“IT-Workers Enjoy Their Job More Often”: Towards Discussion of the Research Results

The article invites to discuss some results of the conducted research on information technology workers as a professional community. Empirical base of the research is in-depth interviews with IT-sphere representatives. There are key topics for the defining of IT-workers as an independent community, namely: language and communication, experience and qualification, structure and hierarchy, and stereotyped images.

 

About Significant Fault of Education Standards of Higher School in the Field of Social Studies

The paper is devoted to the problem of educational modernization in Russia. Today, education in the higher school is a social institution, which formed a large part of the task that confronts the 21st century in Russia. It is about modernization and innovation. The author discusses how the school is responding to this call, in particular, what “ideology” professed reformers face the imperative of higher education modernization innivation orientation of contemporary society. There is the unpleasant fact that focus on a new type of knowledge (“technoznanie”) begins to dominate. The article argues the use in educational programs of Russian universities such basic concepts as “civilization/civility” with a high social value.

 

Social Control

Community Initiatives in the Control of Deviance as a Contemporary Social Institution

The paper focuses on community initiatives in the field of social control of deviance, which updated as an alternative informal institution of social control on the background of so called “crisis of punishment”. Community initiatives have specific features of social institution and contribute significantly to the expansion of the boundaries of concepts “norm”/“deviation”. They are involved in communication on public arenas, and that makes commonplace ideas and practices of social control of deviance wider.

 

Perspectives of Investigation of Social Control of Adolescence Deviance from the Social Constructivism Point of View

This is preparatory paper for our cycle of research works on social control of adolescent deviance from the position of social constructivism. It demonstrates necessity of search for alternatives to wide-spread structural-functional approach for investigation on social control of adolescent deviance. The paper gives an account of basic ideas of investigated phenomena in behavioral sciences. The macro-micro-macro model of social control of deviance by T.V. Shipunova, which has been offered in the framework of social constructivism, is inspected as an investigation alternative. It seems that this model is not quite suitable for the investigation of adolescent deviance.

 

Problems of Methodology

Model of Social Determinants as the Basis for Multilevel Methodology in Health Studies

In the present article the relevance of the multilevel approach in health is studied. The analysis of the model of social determinants of health serves as the methodology basis of the research. The model of the social determinants of health reveals the nature of social impacts on physical, mental and social wellbeing of an individual, considering the hierarchy of these impacts on health on both societal and individual levels. The model comprises three key blocks: a social-political context, structural determinants, generating social stratification, and individual characteristics of the population. Such an approach to understanding the influence of various factors on health requires the application of the multilevel methodology, as of one of the most thorough and prospective research designs in studying health determinants.

 

Qualitative Data Analysis as Scientific Method

The paper continues the theory and methodology laboratory’s investigations on the constructive methods of social research. The contemporary approaches to formulating criteria for qualitative data analysis are considered. It is argued that CAQDAS methods lack any tool that allow estimating analytically results of conceptualization carried out with help of coding and retrieval functions. The context-oriented models of CAQDAS proposed by the author in earlier publications are considered as a structural basis which allows aggregating results of qualitative data conceptualization by virtue of their compilation. Such compilation is analyzed as a method of estimating analytically results of qualitative data conceptualization. The basic features of the method are examined as compared with mathematical methods in social study and textual tools widely used in qualitative research.

 

Context-oriented Conceptualization of Terms

The paper describes basic methodological principles of context-oriented data analysis. It contains the comparison between two procedures of computer data analysis: one with the help of Atlas.ti software, and another with the help of the software based on context-oriented algorithms. Also basic methods of context-oriented data analysis are described on the example of the abstract of an interview, which was analyzed with the help of the context-oriented methods. The investigation of the software working on context-oriented algorithms has been held. In the paper the role of the terminological graph as an instrument which provides the control of the links between terms has been analyzed.