2018. N 9

Introduction

 

Children, Family and Society

General Life Attitudes of Student Youth: Their Role in Family and Gender Views

The article examines results of the study of general life attitudes (dispositions) of student youth. It is established that these dispositions form certain types: active rationalists — passive antirationalists; hedonists — anti-hedonists; ego-oriented pragmatists — alter-oriented activists. The degree of prevalence of each of these types among the interviewed young men and women is identified. The paper shows that the general life attitudes correlate with gender and family views. The established connections are not homogenous, monotypic —they are heterogeneous. This means that each of the described syndrome of general attitudes is associated with both the traditionally patriarchal and the modern egalitarian views of today’s youth.

 

Dynamics of St. Petersburg Students Views on the Family and Intergenerational Relations (2007—2017)

The article analyzes the dynamics of St. Petersburg students on the family and intergenerational relations. The empirical base consists of the data of two studies-sociological surveys of students conducted in 2007 and 2017. The proposed methodology allows us to reflect changes in the theoretical and methodological foundations of the sociological study of family and intergenerational relations and consists in the application of new scientific categories that expand the understanding of the real diversity of existing types of family relations and reference to the theoretical construct that allows to measure the diversity of interactions between different generations of family members. The empirical analysis showed that while maintaining the core of significant family members (members of the nuclear family), significantly increased the importance of people who are not connected by blood and kinship. The greatest changes were in the lines of kinship and the structure of family ties. The proportion of families, including not only blood, but also named relatives, as well as people not connected by blood and kinship, has increased significantly. The trend towards symmetry and interdependence in intergenerational relations between parents and adult children has continued. The main functional dominant of all family interactions is their emotional orientation, and in everyday situations emotional support increases. The hierarchy of relationships between different generations of family members is situational and relative. The role context of social interaction is preserved, it becomes flexible and sensitive to the needs of different generations of the family.

 

Subjective Well-Being: the Potentialities of Biographical Research

The article represents the analysis of the potentialities of biographical research on people’s evaluation of own life’s quality. Subjective well-being that reflects an individual’s perception of his or her own life serves as the significant social indicator and highly demanded area of interdisciplinary research. The article also contains a brief review of modern sociological studies of subjective well-being based on qualitative methodology. It includes the review of heuristic potential of autobiographical materials for subjective well-being studies. The phenomenon of subjective well-being as the component of quality of life can be studied in the context of people’s notion of social benefits represented in autobiographical narrative. Biographical research also provides an opportunity to analyze the connection between individuals’ time perspective and how they evaluate the quality of their own life, considering that the given connection has been discovered due to several empirical studies. Qualitative biographic research of subjective wellbeing is aimed at the analysis of existential experience and sociocultural determinants that define one’s evaluation of his or her life. The proposed approach allows to elaborate and expand existing methodical solutions for subjective well-being research.

 

Sexual Exploitation of Russian Children

The article describes the results of a study aimed at describing current trends in sexual exploitation of Russian children in travel and tourism by Russian and foreign citizens. The study was conducted between October 2014 and March 2015. The research method is semi-structured interviews with representatives of state and public organizations working in the field of child protection. 48 experts from 28 Russian cities took part in the study. The article gives an assessment of the prevalence of exploitation of Russian children in sex tourism by Russian and foreign citizens, describes the circumstances of the commission of this crime, the characteristics of criminals and affected children, and proposes directions for developing work in countering the phenomenon of sex tourism.

 

Sociological analysis in the social transformation: retrospective and up-today life

Pragmatics or Romantics of Sociology: Fight Against an Entitler

This article presents the results of a sociological survey of appeals to applicants on the websites of sociological faculties and departments of Russian universities. The prevalence of sociological education in Russia is revealed, and a conclusion is drawn about the prevailing disciplinary pluralism in the organization of the departments and the professional universalism of the sociological profession. The results of the research revealed a split in the values of the sociological profession between higher education institutions, regional and metropolitan: if regions show mainly “materialistic” values, capitals are characterized by adherence to “post-materialistic” values.

 

Members of Environmental Groups in Social Media: Digital Participation and Interests

Recently, social media has become a serious factor in the social life of citizens of Russia. Our research is devoted to the analysis of members of virtual groups created in the course of environmental conflicts in St. Petersburg. The study analyzed both digital participation and the interest of environmental group members in environmental and political issues. Members of virtual environmental groups were compared both with members of other protest virtual city groups, and with members of territorial virtual groups. The study showed a serious difference, both in digital participation and interest in environmental and political issues among members of different protest groups (both environmental and non-environmental) on the one hand and members of territorial groups on the other.

 

Indicators of Social and Innovation Activity of the Population of the Regions of the Russian Federation from the Perspective of a Systems Approach

The article analyzes the role of informal institutions, including volunteer and other volunteer activities, in the life of society and, in particular, in innovative development. The results of studies showing that the actions of people involved in both public activity and innovation are often of the same motivation. The similarity of the dynamics of a number of innovative and social processes is revealed. Inventive activity of the population is analyzed on the basis of grouping of regions according to the level of social activity. The possibility of the existence of a relationship between the innovative and social activity of the population is justified from the standpoint of a systemic approach. In the final part of the article it is proposed to include indicators of social activity of the population in regional and municipal statistics.

 

The Making of Urban Anthropology in Leningrad/St. Petersburg

The paper deals with formation of urban anthropology in St. Petersburg. First paper on urban anthropology in St. Petersburg was published in 1926. Nevertheless a resolution of the Ethnographic conference of 1929 in St. Petersburg recommended Soviet ethnographers to investigate mainly pre-industrial groups of population. However there was at least one evident exception from this recommendation: in 1939, an exposition dedicated to Jewish culture in the Imperial Russia and the USSR opened in the State Museum for Ethnography. The SWW interrupted this line of development. A new interest towards urban groups of population began in 1950s when Moscow ethnographers launched a study of Ural laborers and then studies of cities in the Central Russia. A former member of this research group Natalia Yukhneva began to study ethnic statistics of St. Petersburg pre-revolutionary population and to investigate its ethnography. Due to political and economic changes on the edge of 1980s- 1990s, favorable conditions for urban anthropological studies formed which stimulated a creation of several groupings of urban anthropologists in St. Petersburg. The first of them appeared in the Center of Independent Sociological Research and consists mainly of sociologists by their training. The second group is Petersburg Judaica formed in the European University in St. Petersburg. The third grouping are students of Albert Baiburin. The use ethnographic semiotics for interpretation of their findings.

 

Civilizational Research in Sociology

The Relational Version of Contemporary Civilizational Analysis and Its Reception by Russian Sociologists

Civilizational analysis as a new paradigm of world historical sociology has been formed during the last two decades. The “relational” perspective represented by Johann Arnason can be singled out within this paradigm. The importance of intercivilizational encounters for the dynamics of traditional civilizations and different forms of modernity has been emphasized in his works. Arnason characterizes the relations of the West with other civilizations as interaction of local traditions, western traditions and interpretations of modernity. Particular attention is devoted to the dynamics of the Soviet model of modernity. The Soviet system defined itself as an alternative to western liberal modernity which it tried to transcend in the economic, political and cultural spheres. Arnason regards the Soviet system as a model of modernity rather than civilization. Nevertheless, he finds civilizational aspects in interaction between the USSR and the West. Arnason’s theory can be seen as an alternative to Stephen Kotkin’s analysis of “Stalinism as a civilization” and Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” thesis. On the basis of the Weberian tradition in historical sociology Arnason offers an original approach to intercivilizational encounters of the modern epoch. The interest in Arnason’s ideas has been growing in Russian sociology since early 2010s. An important step towards reception of his approach was made at the conference “Civilizational Dynamics of Modern Societies” that was held in 2011. At the present moment this perspective is used in comparative-historical studies, for example, in comparative analysis of civilizational dynamics of Russia and Latin America.

 

Scientific Life

Interregional Conference “Positive Parenting”: Contemporary Approaches to Social Services for Families with Children in St. Petersburg

 

X-th Sociological Readings in Memory ofValery Borisovich Golofast (1941-2004)