Health as a value and a result of activity: problems and contradictions

According to multiple studies, health holds a key place in the system of life values. Health is the foundation of a happy life and self-realization of the individual. The lack of health bring in serious restrictions on the possibilities of normal life functioning. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the entire global population faces risks to their health, values of health and life become ever more important. In contemporary Russia there is a contradiction between the high importance of health and the real behavior aimed at preserving it. The level of awareness of the population about various aspects of their own health and healthy lifestyle is low. The population underestimates the importance of behavioral risk factors, especially those whose lifestyle is far from healthy. The article is based on the analysis of the literature and the latest statistical data. It makes an attempt to comprehend the above-described contradiction, its causes and consequences. It is concluded that the formation of a self-preserving ideology, education of a culture of health and “reload” of the value system in such a way that the value of health becomes more real and is embodied in certain strategies of health-preserving behavior is one of the main tasks facing the state and society today. The methodological basis of the work is the study of the Department of Sociology of Family and Demography of the Faculty of Sociology, Lomonosov Moscow State University “Interregional sociological and demographic study of the values of family and children lifestyle (SEDOZH-2019)” conducted in 2018–2019 and supplemented by data from the Public Opinion Foundation, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, Rosstat and WHO.

Dynamics of territorial identity and perception of the status of the region by residents of the Kaliningrad region in 2016–2020

The article deals with the specific of the territorial identity’s perception and status of the region by residents of the Kaliningrad region. Special attention was paid to 2016–2020 as a period characterized by geopolitical instability and militarization in the Baltic Sea region. +e research method is mass surveys of residents of the Kaliningrad region with subsequent statistical analysis of the data. Ideological types of respondents were used as a predictor calculated in accordance with the method of D. Nolan. On this basis two main hypotheses (H1 and H2) and two particular hypotheses were formulated: Liberal Democrats are in favor of giving the region a special economic status (H1a) and feel more like residents of Europe and the planet Earth (H2a); Social Etatist would like to see the region as an ordinary region (H1b), their identification has a pronounced pro-Russian character (H2b). It was found that among residents of the Kaliningrad region the pro-Russian identification options remain the absolute dominant, and there is a distance from the Eurocosmopolitan categories. +e most attractive status for the region for majority of residents is an area with a special economic status within the Russian Federation. The ideological type as a whole did not have a significant impact on the assessment of territorial identity and the perception of the administrative status of the region. The first hypothesis was not supported: only Liberal Democrats prefer to choose the actual area (the rest — the area with a special economic status). +e second hypothesis was partially confirmed: Social Democrats and Social Etatist consider themselves mainly as residents of the city or village where they now live; Liberal Democrats and Liberal Etatist define themselves more as a citizen of the world, a resident of the planet Earth.

Empirical models of the structure of personal qualities of leaders: traditional type of social action M. Weber (results of applied research)

The article is devoted to the methodological foundations of the study of personal qualities of managers. In contrast to previous works devoted to the study of personal qualities of leaders, including public servants in the works of Plato, Aristotle, and M. Weber, which was shown to the empirical model of the structure of the personal qualities of leaders celebrationing, value-rational and affective types of social action (by M. Weber), this paper presents an empirical model of the structure of the personal qualities of the leaders of the traditional type of social action (by M. Weber), so the concept of Weber’s social action gets another approach to verification in practice. As well as the possibility of applying a conceptual approach to the study of traditional behavior to solve applied problems in the Keld of organization management. The following areas of sociological research of traditional behavior are distinguished. In the first part the focus in the structure of personal qualities focuses on conventional component, fidelity to “follow the habit” (by M. Weber), a conservative traits are dominant in nature, compared to those who are attuned to the radical, radical change and breaking the established order and traditions. In the second direction, the main focus in the structure of personal qualities is the following of traditions, which is equally combined with a radical attitude and a willingness to innovate. In the third direction, in the structure of personal qualities, radicalist traits dominate over conservative ones; distrust of authority, a tendency to break habits, a willingness to innovate, and a radical attitude to change are clearly manifested.

Social aspects of main religious doctrines: Buddhism

The article examines in detail the problems associated with the development of Buddhism, which introduced a personal aspect to religion and embodied the idea of the need for compassion for all living beings. A special place is occupied by the analysis of the moral and social component of this religion. Buddhism is seen as a protest movement that originated in India and is directed against the frozen hierarchy, mechanical ritualism and greed of the Brahmins. This religion challenged the Brahmin hierarchy, appealing primarily to warriors, kings, and the mass of the free population. The Buddhist community was a brotherhood of mendicant monks who did not perform any rituals, but only showed people the way to salvation by the example of their lives. Buddhism is also one of the radical reformist teachings, not only intellectually, but also socially. He called people, first of all, to inner perfection, the last stage of which can be achieved only through kindness and benevolence to all living beings. The central point of this article is devoted to the debate about the reality of the Buddha’s existence, his teaching and the transformations of this teaching. A significant place is given to the description of the way of life of Buddhist monks, the relationship within the Buddhist community and with the laity. The reasons for the attractiveness of Buddhism and its easy adaptability to other religious doctrines are substantiated. The possibilities of transformation of Buddhism, including within the framework of syncretic creeds, as well as in the activities of totalitarian and pseudo-religious sects, are shown. Examples of the politicization of this religion and its inclusion in the activities of fundamentalist organizations are given.

Social inequality and youth: key trends of 2020

The paper deals with the analysis of one of the most important and always relevant social phenomena called social inequality, which is viewed through the prism of youth ideas about the forms of its manifestation and features. +e authors present the results of a sociological study aimed at identifying the attitude of modern Russian youth to the problem of social inequality in general, as well as the diversification of its forms in the modern world and in Russia. +e study was conducted in 2020 by professors of the Sociological Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University under the direction of Doctor of Sociological Sciences Professor N.G. Osipova and Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Professor S.O. Elishev with the financial support of the RFBR, within the framework of the project No. 18-011-01106 “New forms of social inequality and the peculiarities of their manifestation in modern Russia”. In the course of the study in the summer of 2020, 628 young people (aged 16 to 30) from different regions of Russia were interviewed using the online questionnaire survey method. +e distribution of respondents by gender and occupation corresponds to the parameters of graduates of humanitarian universities. 28% of young people surveyed were males, and 72% were females. 9% of the respondents were young people aged 20 to 24 years, 24,84% — from 16 to 19 years old, 12,26% — from 25 to 30 years old. +e research methodology (which is based on the questionnaire) was in many ways similar to the methodology used by the authors in 2019 to analyze the value orientations and perceptions of student youth in Moscow universities. +is methodology was supplemented with new blocks of questions related to the peculiarities and specifics of the manifestation in Russia of such relatively new forms of social inequality as digital divide and inequality in health. +e questions to which the answers were received were of both general and specific nature and, in general, reflected the key trends in the attitude of young people to the problem of social inequality in the conditions of the complex social situation that developed in 2020 in all respects. A detailed analysis of the answers to the questions presented in the questionnaire showed that, although social inequality is recognized by modern Russian youth as an urgent social problem, it does not occupy a key place among the topical problems for Russian youth.

Deconstruction of cultural space: death of the text

Starting from the understanding of the “death” of the text as a process of its deconstruction, fragmentation, simplification, when the text becomes a signal instead of a message, we will also consider more modern transformations of its role and system organization, leading to symbolic “death” through complication and transition to hypertext. The reasons for converting the text of a message into a narrative and into a participant in intertextual relations. The final departure to the pragmatic aspect of information exchange in various fields (interpersonal communication, advertising, journalism, didactics). Without death, a ritualized act, with the dominance of network forms of communication, its inclusion in the space of network content is impossible. Now, after the publication of the text, it has by and large only two ways: either it is interpreted and retransmitted in such a way that inevitably leads to the inflation of the content, or it is archived, which is equivalent to a “funeral”. In any of the variants, this is the “death” of the original author’s text, the fate of which we are considering. Speaking of the “death of the text”, we mean the transformation of the very general concept (communicative intention) that defines the functionality of modern textual activity. The leading characteristics of relevant information as a unit of communication are its trigger (motivating) potential and the ability to act as network content (liquidity). The features that characterize the text in the traditional sense: coherence, integrity, i.e. the ability to demonstrate the qualities of the “system”, gradually lose their significance in social practice.

Research activities of graduate students of Russian universities: problems and solutions

At present, a new stage of reforming postgraduate studies as the third stage of higher education has been identified. All measures taken by the state are aimed at increasing the number of defenses of dissertations for the degree of candidate of sciences at the end of graduate school. However, the percentage of PhD graduates who have defended their dissertations has been steadily declining every year. +e purpose of the study is to identify the problems of research activities of graduate students of Russian universities and propose ways to solve them. +e following methods were used to collect data: analysis of official documents, online survey and free interview. 386 postgraduate students from 42 Russian universities took part in the survey. As a result of the study, the main problems of research activities of postgraduate students of Russian universities were identified: low performance of postgraduate studies (in 2019, only 10,5% of graduate students defended their dissertations); lack of necessary resources (financial, material and technical, etc.) for conducting empirical research, experiment, this problem is especially relevant for representatives of technical specialties; low publication activity of graduate students; insufficient support of the research activities of graduate students by the scientific supervisor, the graduate department and other structures of the university; the need to combine work with graduate school; insufficient level of financial support for research activities of graduate students from the state and the university; lack of the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities among postgraduates to carry out research activities and write a dissertation for the degree of candidate of sciences; problems in the organization of the educational process in graduate school. Based on the results of the study, proposals were made that can contribute to solving the identified problems in the selection of graduate students, the development of the educational component of postgraduate programs, state final attestation, publication activity and financial support for graduate students.

Chinese urban emotional Slm — a Taste of life in lyrics

The Chinese film industry began in the early twentieth century. Chinese urban emotional film has become more and more popular with the Chinese people in recent years, so urban working youth emotional film also appears more and more often on the screen. An urban emotional film takes the city as a theme, takes urban life as a backdrop, takes urban family, friendship and love as the main clue for plot development, and takes the artistic expression of emotions as the main point of note. The combination of cinema and music is an independent cultural product generated by the film industry. Music plays a leading role in the film, especially in order to emphasize the theme and convey the inner connection of the characters. Je combination of cinematography and music is an essential element in the development of cinema. Chinese people love Chinese urban emotional movies, and most of them depend on processing good songs from movies. Therefore, a good movie and a good episode of the movie, in the audience’s understanding and expectation, are equally important things. Successful Chinese urban emotional films often have more than one popular song that can be passed on to the general public as their cinematic song, and the song’s value orientation is determined by the connotation of the text. Therefore, the creation of song lyrics can be described as the pursuit of excellence, which should not be underestimated.

Analysis of children’s toys as a method for predicting the future generation

This research analyses social and generational theories by sociologists and economists, the patterns of development of society that they identified, and also traces the correlation between the portrait of a particular generation and toys for children under 7–11 years old, prevalent during the formation of this generation. An overview of modern popular toys is given and a forecast is made about what features and values of a generation can form their distribution. At the beginning of the research, the author discusses the connection between N. Kondratyev’s wave theory, which reflects the economic situation influencing the formation of a generation, and the Hove-Strauss theory of generations, as well as sociological works that supplement the modern understanding of generations: A.M. Rykiel’s generational values hierarchy, classification of generations by Yu.M. Levada. Further, attention is paid to the history of toys from the 1920s to 2020s and an analysis of the influence of toys on the formation of a generation is carried out. Some patterns are found between the values of a generation and toys widespread in the appropriate historical period, the result of the influence of modern toys on the portrait of a generation is predicted, and the reasons for such modern trend as gamification are also discussed. The search for patterns by which society is changing and the description of different generations and the historical and economic factors that determined their formation give the opportunity for the scientists to predict the image of the next generations. This perspective is relevant for the future as it has the prospect of development at the junction of social and exact sciences, may be used to predict scenarios of the future development of society. Revealing causal relationships and their subsequent expression by methods of mathematics will allow companies and government agencies to be more ready for new challenges, adapt to changes in society’s needs and trends in its development. At this stage, the research partially forecast the face of the generation born in 2000- 2020, and asks questions for further research1.

We motif of social violence in the space of cinematic communication

Social violence traditionally has been a constituent in the information flow of artistic communication, of the cinematic one especially. With the language specific to cinema it is easier, than with the languages of other arts, to attract and command the attention of a broad public with the spectacle of violence. Also, as a rule, it is more economical because of the relatively low cost of embodying violence on the screen considering the overall expensiveness of film production. In the West, the filming of practices of violence aimed at entertaining the public, as well as the public concern at the possibility of their negative impact on the rising generation, has a long history. Within the concept of “the audience as the victim” there were thousands of studies conducted, especially in USA. In the USSR cinema of the entertainment orientation was under the ideological ban which put the representation of violence within certain boundaries. In the 1990s the situation of cinema changed drastically. Je escalation of entertainment violence on the screen caused a public concern. Sociologists began to study its perception by and impact on spectators. In this regard, the article considers the experience of conceptualizing the reformatting of its representation after, consequent upon the impact of the last century’s revolutionary violence, cinema had obtained the status of “the most important of all the arts” and “the social significance” of the violence became the cultural code of its representation. But with the transition of Russian cinema to the market, foreign entertainment movies were granted open access to the nation’s film screens. Entertainment violence reached the status of a commercially important communicative attraction. Its effectiveness in this function is viewed in the article based on the materials of sociological surveys conducted among filmgoers of the cities of Kirov and Ekaterinburg. Another side of the issue considered as well is the sociocultural effects of violent images on the rising generation in whose midst there is a “risk group” that merits careful research and preventive acknowledgment in the process of social control.