Социологический журнал 2-2009

Sociological Journal #2 (2009)

SUMMARIES 

Merton R.K. The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action

Methodological difficulties in researching unanticipated consequences of purposive action are exposed, while focusing on deviations from rationality of social action.

Keywords: purposive social action, unanticipated consequences, causality, rationality, inadequacies of knowledge.

 

Nikolaev V.G. Multidimensional and reductionist strategies in Chicagoan sociologу: The case of human ecology

The author considers development of human ecology as one of important components in the Chicagoan sociological tradition. Its different versions are analyzed in terms of their presuppositional foundations. The general sociological frame of reference offered by R.E. Park is treated as a multidimensional presuppositional matrix and is taken as a point of departure for analysis of the later versions of human ecology. Two main lines in a development of human ecology are separated. The first (L. Wirth, E.C. Hughes) is characterized by maintaining the original Park’s frame of reference and by incorporation of human ecology as one of perspectives into multidimensional sociology. The second (R.D. McKenzie, J.A. Quinn, A.H. Hawley) is characterized by a gradual transformation of human ecology into a separate discipline and then into a sociological paradigm. The author demonstrates how this development is secured by reduction of multidimensionality contained in Park’s original frame of reference.

Keywords: Chicagoan sociological tradition, human ecology, frame of reference, presuppositions, multidimensionality, reduction.

 

Romanovich N.A. The hierarchy principle in public views on power structures

The hierarchical structure of power is reproduced in Russia despite the democratic reforms. Social research both on country and regional levels denotes the hierarchy principles in public views on power structures. The reasons for transformation of democratic system of administration are not to be found in authoritarian ambitions of certain leaders, but in public vision that has the traditional image of power with the “hierarchy principle”.

Keywords. Hierarchy, power structure, governance model, relations of power, democratic concept, traditional world-view

 

Karakhanova T.M. The time-budget of employed townsmen, 1986‑2008s

The 2007/08 research was aimed on parameters of employed city inhabitants’ time-use in various spheres of daily activity: labour sphere (paid and unpaid work), spheres of physical restoration and self-development. The comparison of 1986–2007/08 parameters was also carried out. The article is designed for sociologists and experts in other disciplines, who study daily activity and time-budget.

Keywords: time-budget, leisure time, time for housekeeping

 

 

Eletskaya M.A. The attitude of people in modern Russia to wealth and poverty

In the article on the basis of Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey data (2006) a classification of modern Russian population is represented. The classification is grounded on differences in attitude towards wealth and poverty. Four types of Russians’ attitude on that subject are found. An analysis of these four groups based on their social-demographic characteristics, social self-appraisal, views on democratic values, tolerance to inequalities, etc is given.

Keywords: justice, equality, inequality, wealth, poverty, legitimacy of wealth/poverty, illegitimacy of wealth/poverty, values, tolerance to inequalities.

 

Kutsenko O.D. The society and sociological intervention: From functional roles to subject-object inversion

The strategies of sociological intervention to the society by means of changing research and teaching programmes are considered. The return to practice as the core sociological concept as well as the dialectics of relationship between a cognition subject and a cognizing actor are taken as the basic methodological principles of such strategies.

Keywords: sociological intervention, strategies of sociological expansion, social responsibility of science

 

Okamoto Yu. The social fields of everyday exchanges in a Latvian village

This paper is based on works on social and economic transformations in Post-Soviet societies and field materials, collected in a Latvian village in 2005–2006, and proposes a classification of typical social fields with corresponding forms of everyday exchanges (relationships) and interpretative categories. This classification is built upon the roles, which alcohol plays in different fields of everyday exchanges. Indefiniteness of interaction situations, produced by superimposition of a new social and economic order on the social fields, inherited from the Soviet history, it is shown, tends to be resolved via redefining the situation by reinterpreting the borders between habitual social fields. The Russian obscenities serve as a powerful interpretative facilitator, permitting negotiating parties to start a search for an acceptable form of exchange on a preconceptual level.

Keywords: fields of everyday interactions, transformations of the Post-Soviet societies, redefinition of the situations of interaction.

 

Chesnokov S.V. Integer in sociological interrogation

How an integer appears in sociological interrogation? Having received the answer by means of elementary examples, it is possible to specify bases on which the mathematics arises and applies in sociology. Scaling phenomenology and the phenomenology of integer counting are compared with the help of simple examples from practice of interrogations.

Keywords: phenomenology, scaling, integer counting, mathematical methods, sociological interrogations.