Theoretical-Methodological Foundations and Practical Systematization of Sociological Discourse Analysis

ABSTRACT The objective of the paper is to present the theoretical and methodological foundations of sociological discourse analysis (SDA) and to demonstrate the practical application of its procedural basis by way of an exemplary case that has as its theme the culture of devotion to organizations. The development of a practical SDA plan is a constructive and incremental process and its paths are outlined as procedures under development. There is no general and/or rigid rule on what procedures are necessary for achieving the research objectives; the contextualizing interpretation of the discourses will determine the practice. The use of SDA as an analytical lens enabled us to explore the internal dimensions of the discourse, considering the social reality in which it is produced and providing an understanding of the culture of devotion through the senses and meanings that are constructed by the workers of the company we studied.

Informal Academic Entrepreneurship: Current State and Development Trends

The concept of academic capitalism appeared in the international sociological discourse in the 1990s. However, Russian academic capitalism has taken unconventional forms as it develops in the shadow informal environment of the academic labor market. It covers a wide range of academic activities, e.g. tutorship, extra classes, ghost-writing of essays, theses and graduation papers, etc. Quite often, federal universities and research centers order grant reports, state assignments papers, and manuscripts for top peer-reviewed journals from provincial academics. The Russian market of shadow academic entrepreneurship is closed, secretive, tough, and highly competitive. The COVID-19 pandemic gave it a new rise: it increased three times in 2020–2021. New forms of digital employment and shadow academic capitalism lead to new social trends, e.g. new priorities appear in the subject of scientific research as academic institutions lose their profile in favor of their shadow academic employers. New flexible informal academic structures demonstrate faceted over-connectivity, non-market mechanisms of academic competition, and new forms of digital and traditional academic exploitation. Other trends include shadow branding of universities, proletarization and feudalization of academic labor, conflict of interests in science and education, formation of demand for low-quality higher education, monopolization in the academic market, etc. As a result, the academic community in Russia is transforming into a closed estate with its digital academic elite, middle class of academic entrepreneurs, and digital academic proletarians.

A Struggle for Definition: Explanatory Models of Satanism in Sociology

Many terms used both in sociology and lay discourse have nonscientific origins. Therefore, it is important to clarify the meanings of these concepts to understand the heuristic capacities that they have for scientific research. The notion of satanism emerged in evangelical manuscripts, and it has since appeared repeatedly in political and juridical discussions. Moreover, there are conflicting opinions about the suitability of this notion for sociological study. In this paper, I use critical concept analysis and a critical perspective on religion to examine sociological discourse on satanism. I argue that to enhance sociology—and religious studies in general—among contemporary views of satanism, the naturalist model is the most promising, but it is not the only one that should be used to explain this notion.

Sociological Discourse Analysis of the Concept “One Belt, One Road” Context

From the standpoint of sociological discourse analysis and reflective sociology the article examines the context of the “One Belt, One Road” concept based on some of the speeches of the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping from 2013 to 2021. Since the first mention of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road by Li Keqiang in 2013, there has been some transformation of the concept, in particular, it was supplemented by an overland economic project, and the name “One Belt, One Road” (Belt and Road) was stuck behind it. The concept has come to be associated with the name of the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping as its initiator, in whose discourse it sounds quite often. Of particular interest is the analysis of the biographical data of Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, who is considered one of the authors of the concept under study and Xi Jinping’s advisers. The academic background, the experience of communicating with the American intellectual elite, as well as the scientific interest in the study of European philosophical concepts led to sociological reflection, which influenced not only the semantic content of the Belt and Road, but also the foreign policy of China as a whole, the priority of which is European.

Sociological Discourse-Analysis of the “Chinese Dream” Concept

Introduction. Today, China and its foreign policy priorities largely determine global international politics. The PRC is one of the main partners of Russia. The need to understand the meanings that the Chinese leadership lays in its main political concepts determines the relevance of this study. The intensification of foreign policy demanded from the Chinese leadership an appropriate discourse, formalized in foreign policy concepts of a global scale. One of these concepts is the “Chinese Dream”. Its semantic content, at a first approximation, is opposed to the “American Dream”. If in the “American Dream” the interests of the individual and his/her well-being are at the forefront, then in the case of the “Chinese Dream” , on the contrary, at the top of the pyramid of values are the interests of the state, then society, and only then the individual.Methodology and sources. The methodological basis is sociological discourse analysis, combined with reflexive sociology, through which the author aims to expand the interpretation of the “Chinese dream” and reveal its additional, not obvious meanings. The empirical base was a sample of direct speeches by the leaders of China (Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping) and their speeches at the CPC congresses. The works of Alvin Gouldner, Zygmunt Bauman, Michel Foucault were used as a theoretical basis. The author also analyzed some theoretical works of one of the main authors of the concept of the “Chinese dream” Li Junzhu, and in the context of the method of reflective sociology were studied and presented his biographical data.Results and discussion. From the standpoint of sociological discourse analysis and reflexive sociology, the article examines the context of the concept of the “Chinese dream” based on the publications of one of its authors Li Junzhu and the speeches of the PRC Presidents at the congresses of the Communist Party of China who used this formulation in their speeches. In the study, based on biographical facts, Li Junzhu shows socio -political reflection, as a result of which the concept under consideration was formulated. The academic background and experience of working with Chinese living abroad contributed to the theoretical development of the concept, which, as a first approximation, bears the load of an attractive national idea of the “American Dream” type.Conclusion. Discourse analysis also reveals a broader semantic content of the concept, which extends to China’s foreign policy and its vision of the system of international relations. When building a dialogue with China, it is useful to take into account this semantic construct, which is contained in the consedered concept.

The Working Class in the Service Sector: Outlining the Issue and Reviewing Current Sociological Discourse

This study focuses on reviewing and analyzing the current sociological discourse devoted to the problems of routine service labor. The article reveals such aspects as the specifics of interactive service work, methods for assessing the size and composition of the service portion of the working class, how the updated properties of labor relations influence the traditional methods used by researchers to conceptualize them, the specific qualities of class consciousness inherent to the service sphere. It has been established that in foreign discourse of sociology of labor, research in the service sphere is currently at the forefront. The focus is on such problems as the structure of the new post-industrial working class, the inclusion of the client into the traditional worker/employer dyad as a third element that reconfigures the stable structures of labor relations, the increased importance of “emotional labor”, physicality and the so-called “soft qualities” of workers, the ideology of consumer sovereignty and the problems that it generates, the precarization of labor that leads to the deprivation of interactive service workers, the class consciousness and resistance practices of routine services employees. In domestic science, this issue is considered mainly from the standpoint of economics and management. In Russian sociology, service research has not been fully updated, there is no theoretical foundation, and the concept of service workers as part of the working class has not yet taken form. The majority of Russian authors rely on the structural and functional paradigm in the study of the service sphere, which does not correlate with the problems relevant to international sociology and the methods of their analysis.

Popular cultural representations of postfeminist religiosity in the international christian fellowship: an analysis of the “Ladies Lounge 2021” webpage

Femininity and female gender roles in conservative religious environments are highly disputed topics both within communities of faith and in sociological discourse. In light of social transformations of gender perceptions in the past decades, conservative Christians have had to reevaluate traditional understandings of womanhood in societies that have become steeped in popular culture and thoroughly mediatized. Taking this development as a point of departure, this article examines how femininity is represented in the International Christian Fellowship, particularly on its “Ladies Lounge” webpage. Advertising an annual event geared exclusively towards women, the website’s landing page contains images and text that we examine by means of visual and textual sequence analysis. Our research results reveal that women are depicted as sensually attractive and self-confidently professional while at the same time being relegated to an exclusively female sphere within (but not beyond) which they wield authority and influence. As such, femininity is represented as self-empowering, but only within a specific, postfeminist framework. This ambivalent depiction of women’s agency challenges conservative Evangelical values at the same time as it affirms them. In this sense, the study contributes the growing body of literature on gender and Evangelicalism.

Discourse analysis of the concept of the Community of the Common Destiny and its reflexive component

The author attempts to comprehend, from the standpoint of sociological discourse analysis, the main modern foreign policy concept of China – the Community of the Common Destiny. In the context of the multi-vector confrontation between the United States and China, the main struggle is for the loyalty of Europeans, namely, citizens of the most economically developed countries of the European Union. In this context, Beijing views discursive power as one of the main tools, without the development and application of which it is impossible to naturally take its rightful place in the international arena. After analyzing Western philosophical theories, including those that were used to create the European Union (Bauer, Renan), the Chinese leadership put forward a global concept that was the result of corresponding sociological reflection. According to Habermas, discourse involves the involvement of the Other in the discussion and is aimed at achieving mutual understanding and agreement. Discourse analysis of the Community of the Common Destiny (based on the material of some speeches of the PRC Chairman Xi Jinping) confirms the following hypothesis: despite its global character and corresponding ambitions, it is formulated in such a way as to be understandable and acceptable, primarily for Europeans.

Political and Legal Experience of the Formation of New States in the Modern World: Sociological Discourse

The modern stage in the history of mankind is one of those rare time periods when the process of state formation is distinguished by a special intensity due to the formation of historical prerequisites and socio-political conditions for the emergence of new states in the world political space. As a result, the world community over the last quarter of a century has been observing various scenarios of the process of state formation, which has covered many regions of the world.