Abstract
The paper traces the interdisciplinary sources of sociological metatheorizing that in sociology (as in other social sciences) was a reaction to a kind of crisis of grounds, namely the hypothetical incompatibility of known models of explanation and research programs, attempts of philosophical interpretation of T. Kun’s views on the development of social sciences and dynamics of social knowledge, as well as doubts as to the possibility of supplementing knowledge through theories and laws similar to laws of natural sciences. Authors explore some factors contributing to the growth of interest in this realm during the post-Soviet era and provide a detailed overview of metatheoretical strategies established in contemporary sociology and describe the main types of metatheorizing. Furthermore, they examine opportunities offered by metatheorizing for the analysis of non-formalized data in a specific subject area or field of research. Particular attention is given to trends that characterize a shift from discourse on paradigm crisis to metatheorizing, which has been observed within the sociological community. According to the authors, to understand and study the trends of the globalized humanity and its civilizations and countries (in particular the post-Soviet ones), we need the bases of the typology of communities - not separate spheres, but the community as a whole. The authors highlight three strategies of metatheorizing in modern sociology. Integrative metatheorizing reveals general theoretical logic, to standardize the language of description and / or to develop the integrated theory. Evolutionary metatheorizing searches for trends and perspectives of sociology in a changing social world. Prospective metatheorizing is aimed at defining internally ordered, independent and relatively hermetic configurations - paradigms, research programs, models of explanation, etc. These meta-theorizing strategies help to address the problem of disciplinary fragmentation.
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