2023. N 22
History of Sociology
Socio-Political Studies / Sociology of Religion
Mediators of Age Inequalities in Electoral Participation: Interest in Politics and Party Identification
The study examines the age inequalities of voter participation in the elections of the State Duma. According to a pattern common to many democracies, electoral activity in our country is much higher in older ages and lower in younger ones. It is recognized that when moving through the stages of the life cycle, a person becomes interested in solving a number of problems that depend on the political decisions taken, which encourages him to vote. At the same time, the question of which political attitudes mediate the relationship between the age of individuals and their participation in elections remains insufficiently studied. In our country there is also a strong correlation between participation in elections and age. The study suggests that age differences in electoral participation in State Duma elections are explained to a certain extent by the mediating influences of the variables of interest in politics and party identification. The data of the Russian survey conducted by the European Social Research Project (ESS, Round 8) are analyzed using regression modeling, which allows evaluating parallel and sequential mediation. The results show that with age, interest in politics increases and party identification is formed, which motivate participation in State Duma elections. Distinct indirect effects of age determination of this activity were discovered, which indicate the most pronounced mediating influence of party identification, a noticeable influence of interest in politics, and also, although less strong, of their sequence — through this interest, and then identification.
Social Research on Aging
The Mythology of “Delayed Aging” in the Practice and Theory of Accompanying Human Development During Adulthood
Refusal to grow up and the absence of markers of maturation are described as more or less normative “delays” of mental and other development, and refusal of aging and the absence of corresponding markers are described as a certain, also temporary, partly desirable, but still “risky” phenomenon. In exploring this question, we are faced with another question: what kind of risks are meant, what and for whom appears and is (if it is) risky? The purpose of the study is to understand the mythology of “delayed aging” in the practice and theory of accompanying human development during adulthood. The research method is a theoretical analysis of the problems of “delayed aging” in the practice and theory of accompanying human development during adulthood. The mythology of “delayed aging” also plays a positive role in the practice and theory of accompanying human development during adulthood, and a negative role, like the well-known phenomenon of “vitauct”, which allows, on the one hand, to explain phenomena that do not fit into the normative scheme of aging, and, on the other hand, reflects the general reluctance of specialists to reconsider the very concept of aging and old age, its mechanisms and boundaries. This is manifested both in biomedical and socio-psychological and age-pedagogical studies. At the same time, a complex of data is ignored that aging, like growing up, is socioculturally normalized and, thus, “programmed” at the level of socio-psychological scenarios transmitted during upbringing and training, as well as subsequent human life through all existing channels and spheres of human relations. The mythology of “delayed aging” in modern practice and theory of accompanying human development during adulthood is one of the simulacra that makes it possible to describe the attempts of aging people to remain human and solve the problems of self-actualization as self-realization, despite the compulsion surrounding them to die after completing, to varying degrees, successful attempts at self-realization.
The «Digital Divide» Problem and the Sociology of the «Third Age». Resource Potential of the University of the Third Age Portal for Sociological Research
The article analyzes the digital divide problem and the possibility of overcoming the grey digital divide by eliminating the existing system structural gap of universities of the third age (U3A). The main focus is on factors reducing social deprivation through the use of digital technologies. It is proposed to supplement the existing discourse on active longevity through expert and analytical activities on the digital platform of the University of the Third Age (U3A) portal. The main conclusion is that the expert and analytical platform acts as a center for consolidation and selforganization of stakeholders for the further development of U3A.
Methods of data analysis
Narrative vs Social Network Theories in Context of Scientific Methodology
The article treats narrative as a generally accepted tool of describing social processes and as an analytical procedure. Modern narrative provides the researcher with informal and formal opportunities to operate with his knowledge. The informal side of the narrative is interpreted as researcher’s meanings, the understanding of which determines human’s privilege to express and use his latent knowledge. The formal side, called “plain text” in informatics, makes the analyst to operate with the meanings of his story telling by means of the textual stream. The network approach in sociology (NAS1) is presented as one of the sociological ideas that arise because of sociologists’ dissatisfaction with modern narrative as the main tool for describing social processes. NAS is interpreted as a “methodological guideline” that allows us to understand the need for an epistemological shift in sociology from traditional narrative to discrete knowledge models as tools for describing society. The article substantiates that NAS should be implemented as an analytical procedure that replaces textual stream as a formal component of the narrative. The advantage of this procedure is the powerful structural possibilities for expressing the researcher’s latent knowledge. As the main requirements for the claimed procedure are formulated as: correlating theoretical conclusions with facts based on the semantic coherence of research statements; expressing the complexity of social phenomena through instrumental tracking of semantic connections without restrictions on their volume; overcoming the conceptual disunity of social scientists by means of teamwork methods developed in modern computer science. The discussion section uses the example of applied sociological research to show how the proposed structural narrative can influence the conceptual actions of researchers engaged in applied sociology.
Individual, Family, Society
The «fathers and sons» phenomenon: clarifying current ideas
It is generally accepted that the phenomenon of “generational change” characterizes precisely the “modern” type of society. For a “traditional” society, “generational change” does not exist. The ontological approach allows us, however, to understand that “Modernity” in “modern societies” is not at all achieved by a formal “change of generations”. Generations may change, but society may still remain far from “modern.” Why? The ontological approach contains the answer to this question.
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