scholarly journals The Social Activity of the Subjective Middle Class of the Russian Region: Results of Qualitative Sociological Research

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-81
Author(s):  
Svetlana Martynova ◽  
Polina Sazonova
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Manifestation Determination ◽  
Russian Region ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post Industrial

The article presents the results of a study of the middle class of the Russian region in terms of the manifestation of various types of social activity by actors. The emphasis on the analysis of social activity is motivated by the consideration of this attribute as a criterion for the allocation of the middle class in the post-industrial period. The research method – an in-depth focused interview through which two tasks are solved: identifying the degree of significance for informants of social activity and examples of its manifestation; determination of the degree of readiness to participate in the implementation of the innovation development strategy of the Tomsk Region and thereby act as a “driver” of social changes. Representatives of the middle class are included in the sample based on self-identification. It was revealed that the middle class of the Russian region is active in realising personal, but not social goals. Such a characteristic of the post-industrial middle class as the willingness to act as a driver of social development is not observed. Options are proposed for solving this problem related to the mechanisms of involving the middle class in regional planning and decision-making regarding generally significant issues.

scholarly journals Social representations and ideology: Theories of common sense about COVID-19 among middle-class Brazilians and their ideological implications

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza ◽  
Emma O’Dwyer ◽  
Sabrine Mantuan dos Santos Coutinho ◽  
Sharmistha Chaudhuri ◽  
Laila Lilargem Rocha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Psychological Analysis ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
The Social

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of billions of people worldwide. Individuals and groups were compelled to construct theories of common sense about the disease to communicate and guide practices. The theory of social representations provides powerful concepts to analyse the psychosocial construction of COVID-19. This study aimed to understand the social representations of COVID-19 constructed by middle-class Brazilian adults and their ideological implications, providing a social-psychological analysis of these phenomena while the pandemic is still ongoing. We adopted a qualitative approach based on semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted online in April-May 2020. Participants were 13 middle-class Brazilians living in urban areas. We analysed the interviews with thematic analysis and a phenomenological approach. The social representations were organised around three themes: 1) a virus originated in human actions and with anthropocentric meanings (e.g., a punishment for the human-led destruction of the environment); 2) a dramatic disease that attacks the lungs and kills people perceived to have “low immunity”; and 3) a disturbing pandemic that was also conceived as a correction event with positive consequences. The social representations included beliefs about the individualistic determination of immunity, the attribution of divine causes to the pandemic, and the need for the moral reformation of humankind. The discussion highlights the ideological implications of these theories of common sense. Socially underprivileged groups are at greater COVID-19-related risk, which the investigated social representations may contribute to conceal and naturalise.

Understanding Social Change

2005 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
British Society ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rapid Changes

These chapters not only describe the major changes in British society in recent years, but seek to understand and explain what is happening in British society. One of the themes running through this book is that, while there have been rapid changes in overall levels, there have been slower changes in relativities, and this analytical distinction is absolutely fundamental to a proper understanding of contemporary society. The book also considers the wide variety of mechanisms that underlie these changes, in particular processes of social interaction. The complex and often ill-understood nature of these mechanisms may be a major reason why so much social reform has proved ineffective. The verdict on social reforms in education, gender inequalities and ethnic inequalities is rather negative; and sociologists have long been concerned about the unintended consequences of social action, and in the policy field these are frequent. By highlighting the complexities of the causal mechanisms, sociological research can make a major contribution to policy and public debate. While these chapters do not claim that sociology will provide all the answers, they demonstrate that it has made real progress in understanding the social changes that Britain has experienced in recent decades.

scholarly journals Methodology of studying art: sociology, culturology, and art history

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-53
Author(s):  
Evgenii Aleksandrovich Popov
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Comprehensive Approach ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scientific Fields

This article describes the capabilities of methodology of studying art in the three interrelated scientific fields – sociology, culturology, and art history. Emphasis is placed on determination of the key criteria of comprehensive approach towards the analysis of art: each of the three scientific fields may have its own unique criteria for such analysis, but there also universal criteria that allow most fully assessing the essence and purpose of art, considering the general trends of its development in modern reality. The subject of this research is the methodology of comprehensive analysis of art using the instruments of sociology, culturology, and art history. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) disclosure of the content of the methodology of studying art; 2) determination of various criteria for comprehensive analysis of art within the framework of sociology, culturology, and art history; 3) demonstration of capabilities of using certain criteria in analyzing the essence of art and artworks; 4) focus on the social dimension of art, touching upon the heuristic value of the methods of applied sociological research; 5) characteristics of the capabilities of studying the symbolic nature of art in the context of culturology; 6) assessment of the development trends of the methodology of modern art history.

scholarly journals FACTORS OF FORMATION OF LIFE STRATEGIES OF STUDENTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 60-65
Author(s):  
N.Y. Lapkin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Life Strategies ◽  
Mechanism Of Formation ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Social ◽  
Family And Household ◽  
Regional Settlement

The article deals with the actual problems of forming life strategies of students. The student youth is considered as a certain part of the human resources and represents a certain part of the youth, which has both common and specific features with its youth. The formation of life strategies of students is influenced by various factors. These factors include: educational, socio-cultural, material and property, family and household, regional settlement. The degree of influence of these factors has not been fully investigated. They require specific details and in-depth sociological research. The article presents the mechanism of formation of life strategies of students as a complex contradictory process that determines the purposeful construction of their future, is revealed in specific life situations related to choice and is implemented through identification mechanisms. The analysis of life strategies of students shows that the leading role in their construction belongs to external factors that affect the social behaviour of young people. The definition and formation of life strategies of the student youth in many respects depends on a set of resources that are owned by young people. The article shows that the basis for constructing life strategies are value orientations, which are currently subject to significant transformation. This greatly complicates the process of value self-determination of modern students. Research on this issue allows us to conclude that students strive for their own responsible design of their lives, but for most students, the main priority and leading motive in the formation of life strategies is not their own individuality, but the social environment with its own values and guidelines.

scholarly journals Peculiarities of the mechanism of addressing the needs of modern youth

2020 ◽  
pp. 56-68
Author(s):  
Yuliya Viktorovna Karavaeva ◽  
Svetlana Viktorovna Litvinova
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
The State ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Probability Assessment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Major Attention

This article presents the results of research of individual needs from the perspective of determination of the peculiarities of mechanism for their fulfillment. The author reviews needs of the youth as a complex dynamically changing social group. In analyzing the intentions of young people, major attention is given to the level of tension in the state of young people, probability assessment of accomplishment of desires and aspirations, dynamicity and elasticity of the needs. The research is conducted on the levels of person’s knowledge on how to achieve the goals, estimation of previous activity aimed at fulfilling the needs, frequency and degree of fulfilling the needs. The article presents sociological survey reflecting the desires and aspiration of youth of Lipetsk through determination of their currently relevant needs; it involved 451 persons aged from 16 to 35, for the period from December 2019 to February 2020. The key characteristic of intention and potential for fulfilling the needs of young people were identified. The acquired data were compared with the results of other sociological research. It is underlined that all characteristics are directly related to the living conditions and interconnected with each other. The author determine the external aspect, which manifests in the importance of actions oriented towards satisfaction of personal need and needs of others, as well as correspondence of the process of fulfilling the need to the social norms and traditions.

scholarly journals Interpretation of M. Weber’s theory of ideal types in application to empirical sociological research

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 248-253
Author(s):  
Aminet M. Siiukhova ◽  
◽  
Ella M. Kueva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Graphical Model ◽  
Professional Community ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
The Ideal

The article analyzes the problems of interpretation of Max Weber’s theory of «ideal types» in empirical sociological studies. The theory of «ideal types» is effective for studying the systemic qualities of universal socio-cultural institutions, local social groups and individuals. The concept of «ideal» is differentiated in everyday consciousness and in scientific and sociological discourses. In sociology, the «ideal» is understood as referring to the sphere of consciousness, regardless of the positive or negative assessment of a social phenomenon. The examples of possible applications of Weber’s theory for the analysis of modern social spheres of health care and education are shown. In the conditions of industrial and post-industrial society, one of the important statuses in the social structure is the profession, and the typifying factor of the professional community is the professional culture. The scientific operation of the ideal type category within the framework of an empirical sociological study of the professional community/personal cultural level of an individual will be most effectively implemented by means the modeling method, when the essential qualities of the object under study are structured in a graphical model.

Divergent Narratives in the Imagining of the Home amongst Middle-Class Consumers

2003 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Design Features ◽  
Cultural Boundaries ◽  
The Social ◽  
Class And Status ◽  
A Site ◽  
Work Done

Sociological research on consumption has typically emphasized the social ‘work’ done by consuming things, showing how consumption expresses social identities, symbolizes class and status, and assists in delineating cultural boundaries and networks. In contrast, there are relatively few studies that explore consumption from the viewpoint of actors, seeking to expose the strategies, narratives and accounts that literally constitute the consumption act. Using interview data collected from a sample of middle-class Australian householders on practices of home decoration, this article explores the way consumption practice is linked to imagination and narrative. While the style and design features of the home have been a site for frenetic commodification within Australia, these data demonstrate that people’s desires with regard to how their home is presented and understood differ markedly, with some respondents emphasizing conspicuousness and style, and others comfort and relaxation. These narratives are interpreted as markers that socially mediate symbolic boundaries of self.

scholarly journals The Role of the Social Capital of an Individual in the Formation of the Quality of Life

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-53
Author(s):  
Valentina A. Sushko ◽  
Gennadi B. Pronchev
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Individual

The article examines the influence of social capital on the quality of life of the Russian population and its particular components. The authors point to the problem associated with the social capital of the individual and determine the levels, namely the micro-level (interaction of individuals), meso-level (interaction with organizations), and macro-level (interaction with government bodies, etc.), which form the social capital. In the course of the analysis, the authors reveal the theoretical and methodological approaches of foreign and Russian scientists to the concept of social capital and its components. Based on empirical data from sociological research conducted in 2019, the article analyzes the structure of values of the adult population of Russia, highlights the characteristics of social capital and the degree of their influence on the formation of the quality of life. In the course of the research, the authors focus on the micro-level of the formation and influence of social capital, highlighting such components as a social activity and material security of an individual. In the course of the study, it was found that the social capital of a person affects the quality of a person's life, to a certain extent, forming the circle of his/her interests and values, as well as providing real opportunities for the realization of the interests of the individual and meeting his/her needs. The obtained results of the analysis can be useful for further study of the quality of life.

scholarly journals MANAGERIAL MODELS OF YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN A RUSSIAN REGION: THE CASE OF THE SVERDLOVSK REGION

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 8-28
Author(s):  
Galina V. Talalaeva ◽  
Maria V. Pevnaya
Keyword(s):  
Social Activity ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Municipal Service ◽  
The Third ◽  
Municipal Employees ◽  
Russian Region ◽  
The Social ◽  
Model Of Management ◽  
Non Profit Organizations

This article examines the management problem associated with creating conditions for the implementation of social activity of the population in municipalities of a large Russian region. The authors argue that an important role in the development of the non-profit sector — non-profit organizations, the social projects and programs of which involve the local population, including young volunteers — is played by municipal employees. Having different experience of work in the system of state and municipal administration, municipal employees with different experience can implement their functions in different ways, for example, by introducing the federal standard of state assistance to volunteering. The methodology is based on the sociological theory of volunteerism infrastructure. According to it, the authors consider the professional activities of officials, who are supposed to promote social initiatives of the population in the framework of a normatively defined course of public policy, as a factor of the institutional environment that determines the variability of social activity management within local territories. The purpose of this work is to analyze the institutional characteristics of managing the social activity of the population of the Sverdlovsk Region and to identify the features of the models of managing the social activity of youth, due to the specifics of the activities of municipalities, whose employees have different length of service and practical experience in municipal service. This article analyzes the data of an expert survey of municipal employees of the Sverdlovsk Region responsible for interaction with socially oriented non-profit organizations (SO NPOs), interaction with children, teens, and youth public associations, whose powers are to create conditions for the development of volunteer activity of the population in municipalities (2018; n = 95). The authors have used correlation, comparative and chronological analysis to formalize the results obtained. Based on the research data, three models of managing social participation of the population, including youth volunteering, are identified and described, which are implemented in various administrative districts of the region. The first model of management is inherent in territories where a generation of municipal employees, who began their careers no more than 12 years ago, are responsible for this direction. Based on the totality of the revealed characteristics, the model was identified as youth-centric. The second model of management is implemented in administrative districts, where a large proportion of officials responsible for the analyzed area have more than 12 years of municipal service; it is focused on maintaining hierarchical relations with regional bodies and is designated as an institutional model. The third management model is distinguished by the orientation of municipal employees to interact with local social institutions, especially socially oriented non-profit organizations and to maintain their activity through subsidies from the regional budget. The third model of governance is designated as a paternalistic model.

scholarly journals ORGANISATIONAL APPROACHES TO THE FORMATION OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN THE MARKET OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

Management ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-121
Author(s):  
Valentyna Yatsenko
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Educational Services ◽  
Higher Education Institution ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
The Social

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES. Social responsibility is a system of innovative working relationships that acts as an essential technology that enhances the effectiveness of a higher education institution with employees, partners, customers and the community, and ultimately contributes to its prosperity and civil society. Social responsibility should focus on enhancing the image of the higher education institution, recognising its successes in society by civil institutions and individual citizens. This will increase the social value of the higher education institution, its competitiveness, sustainability and efficiency, allowing society to use the resource voluntarily provided by the higher education institution to balance organisational and social interests.METHODS. The methods used to conduct the research were: interview, expert. The questions selected for this study were taken either from the literature or from individual interviews. The literature helped to identify important dimensions of the concept of social responsibility. The interviews helped to identify new points and possible dimensions to contextualise organisational approaches to shaping the social responsibility of higher education institutions.FINDINGS. Organizational approaches to the formation of social responsibility of higher education institutions in the market of educational services are proposed. Mechanisms to increase socio-commercial value of socially responsible higher education institutions are argued: creation of public institutions to identify, formulate public interests and present them to corporations; selection of social projects taking into account stakeholder expectations.CONCLUSION. In order to increase the efficiency of using the principles of social responsibility in HEIs, to improve their ratings, students' competitiveness in the labour market and their involvement in the task-setting and decision-making process, it is necessary to develop a programme of corporate social activity, which can become the basis for developing the HEIs' development strategy. The formation and adoption of such a strategy should be based on the interests of all stakeholders, based on the core values of the university to achieve the indicators at micro-, meso- and macrolevels.

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