Sociology as a resource of “intelligent power” in the globalization era

Abstract

The current state of the global social system assumes a compulsory external impact on the national communities of a complex of factors defined in social science as “globalization”. Together with the creation of the general economic, social, cultural space that intensifies the international interaction, globalization increases vulnerability of separate social systems. In recent decades, the strategies of J. Nye have become the most popular paradigms of the international competition: hard, soft, smart and intelligent power. The essence of the theoretical conceptualization of the “intelligent power” is that it is based mainly on internal resources and allows to focus on developing the national worldview platform consolidating basic meanings of social system and goals of its development. The possibilities of sociology as a resource of “intelligent power” are in its expert, scientific-educational, innovative and discursive potential. Unfortunately, despite its extensive and powerful network of the scientific-educational institutions financed from the budgetary funds, sociology still does not work in national interests. Sociology is the only social science with a full set of theoretical and methodological tools to gather and analyze social information, to predict social processes, and to work for the following spheres of “intelligent power”: think tanks with the participation of sociologists can provide authorities with necessary information, consult them on important decisions, stimulate interest in obtaining new data and starting new studies, serve as a platform for the interaction with professional researchers of social life; introducing educational programs competitive at the international level and based on the production of new knowledge and its effective use in the educational process; critical evaluation of foreign ideologies and conceptions with the subsequent development of one’s own ideas and new social paradigms taking into account national interests.