“Lifeworld” in the coordinates of modern existential sociology

Abstract

The aim is to study the possibilities and limitations of the definition of the "life world" in the content and semantic coordinates of modern existential sociology. Relevance: in the humanities, there is a "turn" — a turn towards "new existentialism", which is associated with the processes of "ontologization" of sociological science. In view of this, the definition of the "life world" acquires a special, non-trivial status for explaining and understanding the features of the modern existence of the individual and community. Objectives: the articles reinterpret the key ideas of existential sociology from the perspective of the difference between its subject and the subjects of other existential sciences — anthropology, psychology, philosophy, ethnography. Methodology — analysis of the principles, prerequisites, approaches, ideas of the leading representatives of the existential direction. Results: the author’s program has been developed, identifying the key parameters of the existential human model in sociology based on interpretations of the meanings of social reality considered through the prism of the coordinates of the social ontology of everyday life: individualism — collectivism; rational — irrational, using the conceptual and categorical apparatus: authenticity; situation; choice; actions; experience; feelings and emotions; self; body; structure; culture; religion, freedom, space and time; social changes, manifestations of being ("existentials"), massification, leveling. Theoretical and practical significance — the development of research algorithms that reflect individual and collective actions in the paradigm of the "life world", the presentation of a set of concepts in the chosen logic of presentation, which explains how and why existential sociology can be structured at macro-, micro- and meso- levels, can be presented in the middle range theories, in non-standard formats of visual, relational and sensory sociology; stated in negative and positive terms. The main methods are based on typical techniques of critical discourse analysis and frame analysis. Scientific novelty: despite the presence of various parameters of the life world and the corresponding modes of existence of individuals and communities, both these constructs themselves and their relationships have not yet been studied at sufficiently deep levels in the scientific community. The main conclusions of the article are the discovery of new conceptual spaces by existential sociological theory in the study of social mechanisms of synthesis of "soft" and "hard" versions of "structural bias", which explain the formation and determination of individual and group decisions by certain structural forces. The authors’ scientific contributions are in the fact that new possibilities of the definition of the "life world" are indicated to be presented in the coordinate framework of various sociological theories, including modern existential sociology.