Social technologies as research field and instrument of social transformations

Abstract

This article attempts to represent social technologies as a research area of sociology and a practical field. Social technologies (as technology of government of social processes, agents, organizations, communities) are the complex social phenomenon. Nowadays — the days of radical technological changes (Internet of things, Big Data, virtual and augmented reality, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotization, transition to a shared economy), redefining a wide range of social fields and generating principally new social regimes ad configurations — the social technologies acquire almost universal character. The exploration and practices (design, implementation, modification) of social technologies mean the work with the widest possible range of social phenomena, deploying on very different spatial and time scales and in various social spheres. At the same time, there remains a need for conceptual and theoretical clarification of “social technologies” on the other hand, and for their institualization as research and practical fields (with its own standards, human and organizational resources and so on). The department of social technologies was opened in Moscow State University establishment on Faculty of Sociology in 2013 to address that need. The article outlines the whole number of research directions of this department since its establishment, through to the present day.