Novye idei v sotsiologii ed. by Zhan Terent'evich Toshchenko

Abstract

Reviewed by: Novye idei v sotsiologii ed. by Zhan Terent'evich Toshchenko Larissa G. Titarenko (bio) Zhan Terent'evich Toshchenko, ed. Novye idei v sotsiologii. 479 pp. Moscow: IUNITI-DANA, 2013. ISBN 978-5-238-02420-2. The title of this monograph is symbolic: in 1913–14 Maksim Maksimovich Kovalevskii and Evgenii Valentinovich De Roberti, who were among the first Russian sociologists, edited four collections of works with the same title.1 These volumes, published in St. Petersburg, included innovative articles by foreign and Russian scholars and significantly influenced Russian sociological thought by providing new and different methodological approaches to major topics of research. Likewise, the new monograph introduces the reader to ideas and theories in present-day Russian sociology. The book demonstrates that methodological issues in Russian sociology are as acute today as they were one hundred years ago. As the editor stresses, this book brings out "new facets of social consciousness, the processes of its development, in close connection with phenomena that contribute to, or complicate or hamper understanding, and reveal trends in the development of modern Russian society" (8). The book presents some modern Western ideas adopted by Russian sociologists to interpret and explain Russian realities, such as neurosociology, cellular globalization, and creative society: although well known at the world level of research, such concepts are innovative in the context of Russian sociology. The book makes these ideas available to a broad Russian audience that still lacks easy access to foreign sociological primary sources. The 27 articles by renowned Russian sociologists collected in this monograph outline these sociological innovations to explain "what is qualitatively changing our ideas about social reality in its manifold manifestations" (6). These articles describe and reassess new social phenomena in post-Communist Russia and the role of sociology in social knowledge production. Some of these articles enhance the theory of post-Communist transformation, while others provide empirical ground for an analysis of developments in the spheres of work, education, and the economy. The major focus of the book is on how Russia is currently changing: what the forms and levels of its modernization are, what kind of innovations are taking place in society, what new social conflicts arise in civil society, and why new types of alienation are appearing in cities and villages. According to the editor, this book describes the major characteristics of contemporary Russian society and gives examples on how to produce new social knowledge by researching social processes, social groups, and spheres of life. [End Page 149] This is not a "basic book" for those who wish to get an idea of present-day Russia and compare it with other countries experiencing transformation. Some preliminary knowledge of Russian society, including stratification, the political and economic system, and intellectual life is required. The authors focus on the Russian specifics of such processes as globalization, stagnation of social structure, in-country migration, the role of media in the construction of a new mythology, and the present and future of sociology. For example, they explain how specific forms of globalization affect the Russian North, causing the life of locals to be wholly different, and how the new socioeconomic reality predetermines the new identities of young people in the Russian South, where many ethnic groups live together. As the authors note, some new phenomena arise spontaneously and unexpectedly (for example, the precariat), while other phenomena are deeply rooted in the Russian past (negative mobilization of people experiencing economic and political crises and the effects of bureaucracy and social inequality). Most of the authors represent various research institutions in Moscow: The Institute of Sociology, the Higher School of Economics, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and the like. Their research is mostly based on the national monitoring or other national surveys conducted by their institutions, which makes findings empirically well grounded and applicable to the country as a whole. Based on national surveys, the authors have developed a new concept of young people who differ from previous generations, and describe the spread of the so-called trash culture, and the growth of income inequality. The book is divided into two parts: the first is devoted to methodological issues in sociology. Three programmatic articles in...