Editor-in-chief's opening remarks

.

Online interaction of Olympic volunteers after the Games

The article is devoted to the community of Olympic volunteers after the event through the study of their online activity in social network “Vkontakte”. Olympic volunteering refers to the event-oriented direction of volunteering, which is characterized by a limited period of time for the implementation of volunteering practices, but a long period of training volunteers and the opportunity for volunteers to acquire unique work experience during the organization and holding of a major sports event. At the moment, there is a lack of research on the impact of events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games on the volunteer community.The legacy of the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games for the volunteer community is studied in the article. In the course of the study, an attempt was made to find answers to the following research questions: do volunteers maintain social online interactions five or more years after the event; if volunteers continue online interactions, what topics are the most popular for discussion in the volunteer community. It is proved that volunteering at major sporting events contributes to the development of the social capital of volunteers, including by expanding the circle of acquaintances, that is, social interactions. At the same time, social networks have a great influence on the reproduction of social capital, so the indicators of online interactions of volunteers can indicate whether the volunteers support the circles of social interactions acquired while working at the games, and, thus, whether the volunteers support and use the social capital acquired while working at the event. During the entire period of time considered by us, the highest indicators of volunteer activity in the online community were noted from 2014 to 2016. The most relevant topics among the participants of the online community are the topics of volunteering: both memories of working at the games, as well as information about other volunteer programs and other topics, for example, tourism, etc.

Demarcation of the public and private in the interaction of the state and citizens on digital network platforms

Digital network platforms are built on sociotechnical interaction between actors and actors. The creation and development of new public services based on digital platforms inevitably leads to the transformation of the relationship between the state and citizens. The attractiveness of state digital platforms for citizens increases when resolving the contradiction between the possibilities of new forms of social interaction and the threat of misuse of personal data, the risk of harm or persecution.The article presents the results of the analysis of the boundaries of the public and private in the interaction of the state with citizens on digital network platforms. The research method is a comparative analysis, which is based on the dichotomy of public and private, reflected in the concept of private and public X. Arendt, concepts of the public sphere J. Habermas, regulatory and legal concepts of privacy by R. Gavison. The empirical base was made up of a sociological study conducted to obtain information about the boundaries of privacy and publicity of personal data in the digital network space (n = 1 000 among the population over 18 years old living in metropolitan megacities and median regions by the level of informatization, 2020) and the results of Kaspersky Lab surveys conducted in 2019–2020.The conducted research allows us to assert that almost 2/3 of citizens have faced the misuse of confidential information on the Internet. Most of the respondents are aware that websites, social networks and search engines can collect data for web analytics. At the same time, citizens consider it possible to transfer personal data to the authorities in a generalized form for making managerial decisions. Half of the surveyed population does not object to the implementation of digital control over the actions and movements of citizens. Thus, despite the existing negative experience, it is unlikely that there will be any obvious resistance to organizing the collection of personal information on digital network platforms.

Digitalization: new risks for people with disabilities. Problem statement

The philosophy of independent living implies the possibilities of leading a life independent of third parties for people with disabilities. Digitalization of the most important spheres of activity: education, employment and employment, health care, public administration is considered, among other things, as the most important tool for solving this problem. But, as empirical studies show, the secondary analysis of the results of which is carried out in this article, at the moment, digitalization creates additional social barriers, increasing segregation and exacerbating the inequality of this social community. The availability of modern information and communication technologies and the ability to use them are influenced by both independent factors common for the population (age, education, income, type of settlement), and specific ones inherent only in this social community (nosology and severity of a functional defect). Inattention within the framework of digitalization programs to the fact that disability has an individual trajectory and for the full use of modern information and communication technologies, people with disabilities need assistive technologies, the costs for them, the compatibility of auxiliary software with the design of websites is one of the main reasons for the emergence of digital inequality in this category of the population.To minimize digital barriers, depending on the individual needs of disabled people, it is proposed:1) to expand the functions, competencies and technical capabilities of social workers and / or organize technological support of life activities by volunteers;2) to develop programs of additional information education;3) to calculate the costs of assistive technologies for individual nosologies to provide targeted social assistance;4) to encourage and subsidize the development of assistive technologies within the framework of state financial assistance to high-tech developments;5) to take into account the special needs of people with disabilities in digitalization programs.

Digital literacy as a basis for a dialogue between the authorities and the population in the context of a pandemic

In the conditions of self-isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a significant reduction in the number of physical contacts, interaction in an online format through numerous social networks and platforms has become the main communication tool for citizens. It is they who provide the conditions for solidarity, dialogue and partnership. A serious change has affected the sphere of interaction between the population and the authorities: information and communication technologies, due to an increase in the number of citizens with a basic and primary level of education, have become the main help in the processes of building a dialogue between the authorities and the population.The purpose of this study is to analyse digital literacy, which is a key indicator that allows you to adequately assess the situation of interaction between the authorities and the population in the context of a pandemic and determine the directions for the development of dialogue. The main effects of such interaction are: increased activity due to the accessibility and ease of contacting the authorities; increased involvement of citizens in solving urgent problems of the local community and specific territories; increased trust as a result of active conscious joint activity of the population and authorities. Digital literacy has largely helped to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic, and the associated circumstances of the new reality. Citizens have the opportunity to receive services, submit appeals, applications, complaints to various authorities and other authorities in electronic format. Tools that ensure the involvement of public participation in management processes in a digital environment (as infrastructure components) have been created and are actively developing, and the presence of a basic level of digital competence of citizens allows you to include a large part of the population in these processes. One of the urgent tasks today is the further development of digital literacy, including the expansion of social groups of the population (socio-demographic, professional) that have an increased level of it.

Digitalization of public governance in the EAEU countries

Various aspects of digitalization of public administration in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union are considered. It is noted that digitalization is spontaneous and comprehensive, and also affects almost all spheres of public relations, including the system of public administration. In this regard, there is a need to develop a joint interstate policy in the field of institutionalization of the processes of digitalization of society. Digitalization is defined as a set of digital transformation of the processes of economic entities and the creation of digital products and services, and not just as digitization - the transfer of data from analog form to digital. In turn, the definition of the term “public administration” can be formulated as a set of mechanisms, processes, relationships and institutions through which citizens of the state, their associations express their interests, exercise their rights and obligations and settle differences. The analysis of the practice of institutionalization of the processes of digitalization of public administration demonstrates the fact that the main regulatory norms and practices in this sphere are fixed within the framework of national target programs.This article analyses the program and target documents of all the member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, affecting the digitalization regulation processes, the need to institutionalize the processes of digitalization of government and society, as well as the introduction of modern technologies in the practice of public administration. At the same time, the common element of all strategies, concepts and programs is only the digitalization of the process of providing public services, and the other parameters of the target documents are largely different. In this regard, it is required to form a unified model of digitalization of public administration of the Eurasian Economic Union on the basis of a unified strategy.

Digital breakthrough: will public administration be smart enough in a digital state and how smart are the elite and citizens

The digital society is considered as a superintelligent society of a hybrid type, corresponding to the sixth technological order, in which the transgression of virtual relations into the real socio-cultural world is carried out, the hybrid collective mind is accumulated and intelligently used. The article raises the question – is it possible for subject-subject smart public administration in Russia, whether the subjects of management are smart and qualified enough in the context of digitalization, whether they will be able to effectively use smart technologies and smart services. To do this, the author discusses, first, the problem of what is a smart subject of management and how to measure the degree of smartness. In the discourse of digital society, the measurement of the degree of smartness of the subject of management is based on: the ability of an individual to perform managerial functions and on the possession of digital competencies. Secondly, the issue of assessing the current situation in Russia is investigated, i.e. to what extent digitalization creates conditions for the functioning of smart governance in Russia. The model of a centralized ecosystem of an IT-state of a service nature in Russia is implemented on a single architecture with the inclusion of components of state remote control of the objects of supervision, as well as on the principles of “human independence” and interdepartmental interaction. The model includes a set of public services of a consumer nature with multichannel access and the use of “intelligent agents”. Thirdly, to what extent the subjects of government, acting on behalf of the state, use the provided opportunities. It is concluded that modern official documents regulating the processes of building a digital state do not consider digitalization as a mechanism that ensures the humanization and democratization of relations between government and society. Fourthly, discussing the presence of subjects of government acting on behalf of citizens, the author emphasized that the state has provided for the availability of a barrier-free information environment that provides high-quality public, medical and social services, but the issue of citizens as subjects of governance in digitalization processes is not provided. They act as clients and a source of information. The signs of the subject of management among citizens in modern management practice are revealed in terms of the possibilities of expressing their position, recognizing the need for joint actions in collecting critical information and exercising control over the implementation of decisions, the presence of some partnership in the interaction of authorities with the public. It is shown that these processes are at the beginning of their development today, the underdevelopment of services for public participation in managerial decision-making processes is emphasized, while the results of the digitalization are disputable and contradictory both at the theoretical and practical levels.

Sustainability of the state system in the context of digital transformation

The digital transformation of the structural components of the state system forms new socio-organizational forms and practices of political interaction. The transformation process is based on the dialectical overcoming of existing elements of the old order, the development of new goals and the formation of new specific ways to achieve them. As a result of the digital transformation of the structural components of the state system, new socio-organizational forms and practices of political interaction are being formed. Before our eyes, the transition of initially networked social formations into political offline processes is unfolding, new power resources and mechanisms of influence on the political organization as a whole are emerging in society. These processes relate to social self-organization and are characteristic of the adaptive algorithm of social changes. At the same time, changes in system parameters do not violate the contours of the existing state system. However, in the conditions of deliberate stimulation by the authorities of the digital transformation of all spheres of society’s life, the limited ability of the political system and the state to ensure the manageability of social and political processes is more clearly manifested.The article considers the process of deformation of the state system caused by the digitalization of public relations, analyses changes in theoretical models of explaining social reality and related changes in the organization of the political system and political practices.The multi-component nature of the impact of the global ICT paradigm on the sphere of public administration of a particular state is noted. In the era of the diversity of broadcast information, the dominance of the mass media and social networks, the public becomes a mass / crowd and an object of manipulation. The impact of information and communication technologies on the functioning of society is manifested in maintaining the gap between formal and informal institutions, intensive introduction of innovations, launching new mechanisms of social inequality, and the like, as a result, the integrity of the social system is violated. The risk of loss of manageability of social processes increases due to the fact that the recommendations for authorities on digital transformation, as well as most scientific publications on the topic of digitalization of public administration do not contain a critical assessment of the ICT paradigm itself and the concepts, concepts and practices formed on its basis.

Digital society: theoretical outlines of the emerging paradigm

The large-scale changes in the life of modern society caused by digitalization, as well as numerous studies of various manifestations and aspects of this process, give rise to the need to develop a concept of a digital society. The attempt to solve this research problem, implemented in the article, represents one of its possible models.In the proposed model, the digital society is considered as the next stage of post-industrial development and an element of modern global technogenic civilization. The implementation of the plan is based on the institutionalization of digital public relations. The basis of the process is the construct “human – knowledge – communication networks – computer technology”. Its elements in the course of interaction give rise to digital formal and informal institutions in the economy, politics, culture, and social life; form a new structural element of society – the digital information sphere; develop into a whole as a digital society. Digital institutions and the digital sphere, acting as mechanisms for the emergence of society, rely on their own type of activity, have a new type of personality as a subject – “information person”.The analysis, undertaken within the framework of the neo-institutional approach, the features of the socialization of e-Homo Sapiens are revealed, based on the need for presence and activity in the information space, taking into account the impact of modern information technologies, which ultimately contribute to the inconsistency of the emerging typological properties. The decisive role of the human factor in the emergence of the digital society as a knowledge society made it necessary to rely on the principle of social determinism for the entire research structure. This technique allowed us to substantiate the conclusion about the human creator, the subject of social existence as the main characteristic and source of development of the digital society. Any changes in the indicators of subjectivity will serve as factors for the appearance of components of a future civilization based on this society, the contours of which are not transparent today.

Research of migration processes in electronic social networks

The article сarries out an analysis of the practices of using electronic social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, etc.) in the study of migration processes. The paper shows how alternative to traditional sources (administrative, surveys) data allow us to form an up-to-date idea of the spatial-temporal and socio-demographic characteristics of migration. The authors study the integration of migrants in destination countries, including difficulties of assimilation and identity preservation, geography of migration flows, migration due to natural disasters and political reasons, intellectual and labour migration. The specificity of the data generated by social networks is that they cover the entire population and are produced in real time.The paper highlights the search for the necessary information using the means of platforms – advertising plugins, geolocation in posts and information directly collected from users, the functioning of certain communities, published comments. The study also gives important methodological features, the success of the results of any research conducted through the analysis of electronic social networks depends on the consideration of which. The problem of the information obtained with their help lies in such limitations as accessibility (technical features of specific platforms), representativeness (insufficient development of statistical techniques for evaluation) and variability of user preferences. In conclusion, the authors conclude about the prospects of using digital mass communication media in the study of migration processes.The scientific and practical significance of the research paper lies in the fact that it complements the literature on the topic under consideration, being the first systematic review of it in the Russian language, and also provides recommendations on the use of the information obtained.