Volume 13, Nº 3 (2025)
Articles
To the reader: presentation of the issue
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2025;13(3):7-9
7-9
SOCIOLOGY OF SOCIAL GROUPS
On the methodology of the community and generational university structure research
Resumo
The article discusses methodological issues of the study of the social structure of the university, which are of interest and relevant for the current stage of development of Russian higher education. There are two sets of university problems that require consideration at the methodological level. The first one draws attention to the conceptual framework, differentiation of the structure, its various elements, subsystems, and contradictions. The second set includes consideration of various methodological approaches necessary to characterize the social structure of the university, primarily community-based and generational. The article characterizes the provisions of the theory of social community of F. Tennis and the views of K. Mannheim as the founder of the theory of generations in the context of the application of community and generational approaches to the consideration of the social structure of the university. The purpose of the article is to analyze the methodological problems of sociological research of the social structure of the university separately and in their interaction. The logic of the article presupposes the formulation of research questions, the characterization of types of social structure, the interpretation of community and generational structures, and further their interaction. At the same time, special attention is paid to the contradictions in the inter-community and intergenerational relations of representatives of different university communities. It is argued that they are inevitable and that in the processes of their emergence and overcoming, some relationships and contradictions overlap with others: generational communities with educational ones and vice versa, younger generations with middle and older ones and vice versa, some educational communities – scientific and pedagogical workers with others – students and administrative and managerial workers and vice versa. Attention is drawn to the role of university management structures in regulating educational and generational interactions. The task of sociologists in emerging situations is determined by the need to monitor and investigate them, as well as to look for ways to solve emerging problems.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2025;13(3):10-34
10-34
Personal safety of young people in a million-plus city: analysis of behavioral patterns
Resumo
The relevance of the study is due to the social demand for the analysis of behavioral preferences of young people in the field of personal safety in cities with a population of over one million in order to justify the feasibility of including this aspect in government programs. The empirical basis of the study is the data of a formalized survey conducted in 2025 among young people aged 18–35 living in Perm, Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk. It was found that young people have a moderately high subjective level of security and their own capabilities to resist threats. Based on the factor analysis, 8 behavioral models of ensuring personal security were identified, which were typologized into three groups: 1) proactive models with the manifestation of personal efforts and responsibility in ensuring their own safety – 59% of respondents in this group; 2) adaptive models with a focus on external systems, i. e. transfer of responsibility for ensuring their safety to other subjects of the risky space – 62% of respondents; 3) passive models, implying avoidance or ignoring threats in their perception – 45% of respondents. It was revealed that young people have a set of universal protective measures related to control of the physical environment, which are implemented even when ignoring other rules. In addition, young people actively combine models: ignoring threats in personal perception is enhanced by shifting responsibility for ensuring security to social institutions. It was found that passive models, although they determine an increased sense of security, but this feeling is rather illusory. Reliance of young people on social mechanisms indicates a demand for increased attention and the role of social institutions and the public in the field of youth safety in modern large cities. There are differences depending on gender and level of education: women and respondents with higher education tend to use a wider range of protective measures, while men have a much narrower set. The obtained results allow us to substantiate the need to revise the state approach to the formation of a culture of youth safety, paying attention to socio-demographic characteristics, illusory attitudes and the integration of social capital into protection mechanisms.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2025;13(3):35-52
35-52
Social Processes and Social Dynamics
Formation of individual optimism in working population of Russia in connection with traditional and innovative attitudes
Resumo
The paper provides a rationale and diagnostics of the approach to the formation of individual optimism in Russian workers in connection with their traditional and innovative value systems. History examples prove that optimism of social sentiment based on trust in new ideas and political programs is unstable. The study of the phenomenon of individual optimism, which is most often associated by researchers with assessments of potential changes in financial situation, is referred to as economic optimism; other types of optimism included into the analysis are emotional and civic optimism. The research problem is formulated by posing the main research question: Can traditional attitudes of the working population in Russia be thought effective and reliable factors in the formation of optimism in comparison with innovative attitudes, provided that they are interconnected with signs of self-sufficiency in workers? To answer the question posed empirically, we used the database of the monitoring surveys conducted by the Federal Scientific and Research Center of Sociology under the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2011, 2017, 2021 and 2023. The methodological solution to the posed problem is based on the calculation of typological categories of workers, revealing features of the relationships between traditional/innovative attitudes and attitudes towards self-sufficiency/dependence on the government. The results of the analysis demonstrated that the essential contribution to the formation of optimism is made by assessments of potential changes in one’s financial situation. Assessments of emotional mood in relation to the present time cannot be viewed as an independent factor in the formation of optimism, since they largely depend on the financial situation and potential improvements thereof in the future. Civic optimism measured by the indicator of the ability to express one’s political views is the collective result of multiple types of influence that workers are able to exert in their daily lives. Economic optimism of workers, whom we call self-sufficient traditionalists, is in no way inferior to that of innovators and clearly outperforms theirs in terms of emotional and civic optimism, which became most noticeable according to the 2023 survey. This makes it possible for us to assert with a high degree of probability that traditional attitudes of the working population in Russia play a constructive role in the process of forming optimism, provided that they are supplemented by signs of self-sufficiency.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2025;13(3):53-76
53-76
Unrealized geographic mobility in the life path of Russians: motives, obstacles consequences
Resumo
Modern research shows that every fourth Russian aged 18 and over wants to be geographically mobile, but the motives, barriers to its implementation and consequences of this decision for life – failure to implement geographical mobility – remain poorly understood. The empirical basis of the study is an all-Russian survey of a random probability sample of the population aged 50 and older, conducted by CESSI in 2023–2024 as part of the project “Life Path of the Generation Who Came of Age in the 1990s”. The study data allow us to conclude that the unrealized potential of geographical mobility of the population aged 50 and older is slightly lower than that of the population aged 18 and older – 10%. The group with unrealized potential differs from respondents who deliberately did not implement geographical mobility and from the group implementing geographical mobility by age. The greatest unrealized geographic mobility was found in the age group born in 1964–1973. The motives for unrealized mobility differ from the motives for realized mobility. Realized mobility is most often associated with family motives: moving when starting a new family, when separating from the parental family without forming one’s own family, reuniting a multi-generational family, moving due to professional tasks or interests of family members, their health and other circumstances. Unrealized mobility is associated with the quality of life: respondents wanted to move in order to improve the climatic/ecological and infrastructural living conditions and would also like to simply change their lives and try to live differently. The main barriers to moving for the group of “unrealized geographic mobility” are lack of material resources and family responsibilities, psychological reasons (indecision). The results of the regression analysis showed that unrealized geographic mobility demonstrates a connection with negative consequences for the life course: downward intergenerational occupational mobility, lack of fulfilment in life, low self-esteem of social status and lack of life satisfaction.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2025;13(3):77-95
77-95
Reducing the access of foreign children to Russian schooling: likely consequences for integration policy
Resumo
Children born in the host country or brought in at preschool/school age represent a special contingent of migrants with increased integration potential compared to firstgeneration migrants. At the same time, education plays a key role in the process of integrating such children into the host society. In recent years, migrant children’s access to Russian schooling has improved, and the educational environment has become more and more friendly towards non-native children. Despite the difficulties faced by foreign students in Russian educational institutions, by the senior grades they managed to overcome them and achieve high integration rates in the socio-economic, cultural and identification spheres. However, the Federal Law of 12/28/2024 No. 544-FZ, as well as legislative initiatives in 2025 aimed at completely or partially closing the access of foreign children to Russian schooling, are capable of negating these achievements. The article, based on an analysis of scientific literature, data from mass surveys of foreign citizens conducted in 2011, 2017 and 2020, draft laws of 2024–2025, statistical information on Russian language testing of foreign children wishing to enroll in Russian general education institutions, examines the indicators of integration of children of foreign citizens, their access to Russian school education before and after 2025. The possible consequences of the partial or complete abolition of the right of such children to free school education in Russia for them, local host societies and the destination country as a whole are considered. It is concluded that the deprivation or restriction of the right to receive free schooling for foreign children will not solve the problem of admission to general education institutions for students who do not speak Russian well enough. To effectively solve this problem, measures are needed to expand the access of such students to preschool education, socio-cultural and language adaptation courses, and professional development of teachers working with them.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2025;13(3):96-114
96-114
SOCIOLOGY OF THE FAMILY
Dynamics of marriage development indicators
Resumo
One of the main objectives of the National Family Project, which will last until 2030, is to strengthen family values. To solve this problem it is important to analyze new trends in the development of the institution of marriage in Russia. The theoretical basis is the statement about the difference between evolutionary and transformational changes in social institutions. The empirical basis is a database of a representative sample of individuals from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE-2023 and information on the number of married people by gender, age and marital status in the period 2011–2023, provided by the Department of Population and Health Statistics of Rosstat. The trend of increasing premarital cohabitation is shown. Only 10.6% of married couples who registered marriage in 1955–1980 lived together for more than three months before marriage, and 67,3% of married couples who registered marriage in 2011–2023. Urban rather than rural spouses cohabited before marriage, regardless of their level of education. It was found that from 2011 to 2023, the proportion of brides and grooms registering marriage for the first time decreased in younger ages. There are more young brides in villages, in republics, the titular peoples of which profess Islam. In remarriage, the proportion of men increased from 26,2% in 2011 to 36,4% in 2023, and the proportion of women increased from 25,4% to 38,2%, which can be explained by the world’s highest divorce rate in Russia and an increase in life expectancy. The differences between urban and rural residents are negligible. The average number of children among women in remarriages is higher than in the first. Remarriages were more than twice as likely to be preceded by cohabitation, among them there are more heterogeneous couples in terms of age and with an average level of education compared to the first marriages. The dynamics of the proportion of couples with different levels of education of spouses is presented. Among couples with minor children, there are twice as many hypogamous couples in terms of education (22,5%) as there are hypergamous couples (9,8%). The proportion of hypogamous couples by age is also increasing. Premarital cohabitation, remarriage, and couples who are hypogamous in terms of educational level can be considered as deviations in the development of the institution of marriage, in the long term as normative practices, hypogamous in terms of age as a variation, it is unlikely that the proportion of such couples will increase significantly. It is promising to study the dynamics of heterogeneity according to the criteria of ethnicity, religious affiliation, migrant/indigenous status. So far, there are not enough representative databases for such an analysis.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2025;13(3):115-131
115-131
SOCIAL COMMUNICATION
Hero of the future of Russia: the choice of contemporaties – Progressor, Demiurg or Superman?
Resumo
The article presents an analysis of the data of the All-Russian online survey conducted in 2024 among readers and non-readers of science fiction (n=1244). The aim of the study was to identify readers’ preferences for science fiction and, as a result, what is in the reader’s “visibility zone” today, and what in this sense can guide him in terms of the formation of consciousness. In part, this is an attempt to discern the “sociotechnical imaginary” in the support of which literature participates. This paper considers one of the aspects of the study related to the phenomenon of the hero and heroism. In this sense, science fiction literature, as a fusion of the imaginary and the real, allows us to identify deep, often unconscious, habitual and therefore unspoken meanings. The study is multimethod, using quantitative and qualitative methodologies: a mass online survey and a method of deep immersion in the environment – included observation were used. In the latter case, this is communication with professional science fiction writers, participation in meetings (conventions), correspondence with leading authors of both online science fiction literature and masters from the group of all-Russian famous writers, registration and active work on fandom sites. The work analyzes in detail the data from several open questions, makes a comparative analysis related to which heroes of science fiction respondents call as close to themselves in spirit and way of thinking, and which heroes they consider necessary for modern Russia. As a result, we come to the following result: close are the heroes described in modern science fiction literature by contemporary writers, with all the ensuing features of character, action, and the heroes necessary for Russia, according to the respondents, are those who are presented in the science fiction of the Soviet past. At the same time, there is a need for a hero-progressor, who is not devoid of ethical principles, but acts and transforms reality carefully, without taking risks, often unable to withstand the onslaught of the “imperfect” environment and involuntarily changing his principles after it.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2025;13(3):132-155
132-155
METHODOLOGY AND METHODS OF SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Social types of Russian workers: on theory and practice of study
Resumo
The article is devoted to the actualization of theoretical and methodological problems in typological analysis procedure of Russian workers. The authors rely on a functional approach to the “social type of employee” concept interpretation as an initial theoretical premise, the essence of which is to distinguish two connotations: social types as means of social cognition, the known in sociology of labor conceptual (theoretical) typologies which used as basis for preliminary typification (a priori typology) of the studied group of objects; Social types as a goal of social cognition when their existence requires empirical confirmation. The article introduces a basis for comparison of typological analysis research practices wherein various typological models are implemented. The core and periphery in the structure of the group of practices are distinguished. The accumulated experience is described via linguistic constructs, including the so-called basic concepts of typological analysis: a priori typology, the basis of typology, type-forming features, etc. It is via these concepts that serve as a “bridge” for the transition from theoretical models to empirical constructions. Their content and logic of formation determine the various kinds of research practices existence which allows us to summarize the theoretical and methodological problems in typological models implementation and the most promising areas identification for the development of typological research in the field of labor.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2025;13(3):156-177
156-177
Cosine similarity measure to process the unfinished sentences (using the example of studying the image of a patriot)
Resumo
In the context of the intensive development of natural language processing methods, the question arises about the integration of innovative technologies into the work processes of sociologists. Social scientists often face the need to process text data obtained both as part of their own research projects and on the Internet. Obviously, using available online sources as a database places increased demands on the techniques and procedures for processing a huge corpus of documents, often exceeding several hundred thousand lines. However, it is not beyond the scope of attention to work with the materials of author’s sociological research of a much smaller volume, which often require significant labor and time resources if they are processed manually. In this case, the consistency of collective coding and the role of the subjective opinion of experts in the generalization or grouping of data raises questions. The purpose of the article is to show the possibilities and limitations of using the cosine similarity measure to process the results of the unfinished sentences method. The empirical basis of the study was the materials obtained during the study of the image of a patriot in one of the Moscow universities in March 2025. A total of 70 students participated in the study. The article processed responses to a stimulus sentence, which the respondents had to complete in their own words: “A patriot always...” The results of calculating the cosine similarity measure have shown that this metric can be a useful tool in the initial search for statements that are similar in content. In case of doubt and the need to verify their conclusions or solve the problem of consistency of collective coding, the use of a measure of semantic proximity can act as a significant additional quantitative indicator to determine the thematic focus of each respondent’s utterance. Thus, using the cosine similarity assessment, it is possible to group the texts that are closest in semantic load, thereby bringing closer to understanding the general structure of the studied image and the thesaurus of the study participants. In conclusion, a conclusion is drawn about the modern requirements for the training of specialists in the social and humanitarian fields, which raises new methodological questions and opens up discussions about the optimal integration of technological advances in natural language processing into the analytical practices of social scientists and researchers.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2025;13(3):178-196
178-196