Qualitative Sociological Methods Research Articles

Качественные методы социологического исследования в рамках сенситивных тематик

The aim of this work is to describe the existing qualitative sociological research methods with a focus on maximizing their potential within the context of sensitive topics. The article explores the functions of qualitative methods, the historical background of their development and implementation in sociology. Furthermore, it delves into the concept of sensitive topics and their specifics, providing a list of suitable methodologies for studying such sociological issues. The study involves the processing of theoretical concepts from a range of authors – both domestic and foreign – who have contributed to the development of qualitative sociological methods in the context of sensitive topics. It is noted that the method of in-depth interviewing has gained recognition as the most effective when applied to sensitive topics. However, it is emphasized that its use is fraught with difficulties not only for respondents but also for researchers, as it exerts significant emotional pressure on both parties. It is concluded that qualitative methods of sociological research demand a high level of expertise from the researcher-practitioner, particularly within sensitive topics. While in-depth interviewing remains a cornerstone approach, its implementation requires sensitivity and skill to navigate complex emotional dynamics. Understanding the nuances of qualitative methods is essential for effectively addressing sensitive sociological issues.

Factors of Moscow Youth’s Separation from Their Parental Families

The process of separation from the parental family is an integral part of the socialization process, during which the individual learns to process and reproduce previously learned social practices. Moreover, the result of such a socio-psychological process directly affects the degree of maturity and independence of the individual. The article analyzes the process of separation of Moscow youth from their parental families. The purpose of the study is, on the one hand, to reveal the concept of “separation” in a sociological manner, and on the other, to discover factors influencing the process of separation of the younger generation. The work also formulates the division of separation factors from the parental family into macro and micro levels. As part of the theoretical review, sociological works studying the socialization of youth and family socialization are analyzed; psychological works that reveal the essence of the process of separation from the parental family. Key aspects of the external and intrafamily environment that determine the acquisition of autonomy and adulthood are highlighted. A hypothesis is put forward about the influence of the family, its financial situation, living conditions and the nature of relationships, as well as the gender and age of young people on the acquisition of autonomy. Internal separation is studied separately as a process of acquiring emotional autonomy, and external, the essence of which is a change in role set and the formation of behavioral independence. To test the proposed relationships, the authors conduct an empirical study of Moscow youth using an online survey with a sample of 324 people, as a result of which factors of internal separation are identified: family composition (presence of a mother), warmth of family relationships. The latter aspect especially influences the development of personality, but at the same time prevents young people from developing their own life goals. External separation is determined by the financial situation of the family, gender, age of the respondent, and whether he or she has a job. In general, both internal and external separation are somewhat more pronounced among men aged 26 to 30 years: they are more often employed, have independence of judgment and are more adapted to everyday self-care. At the same time, women experience difficulties in acquiring emotional autonomy: they are less likely to feel confident in the decisions they make, more often they are afraid of disappointing their parents and consult with them. The results obtained during the study can be used by scientists studying the process of growing up, psychologists for private and family therapy, and government officials as part of planning youth and demographic policy. The research topic has the prospect of additional study using qualitative sociological methods, allowing us to reveal in more detail the essence of the relationship between the parent family and their growing children.

УКРАЇНСЬКІ ОБ’ЄКТИ ПРИРОДО-ЗАПОВІДНОГО ФОНДУ В УМОВАХ ВІЙНИ ТА РОСІЙСЬКОЇ ОКУПАЦІЇ

In the article, the team of authors conducted a study of the threats to the nature conservation objects of Ukraine that have arisen due to the Russian military invasion, the consequences of the war, and proposed a number of measures for the effective preservation of protected objects in the future. A characteristic feature of the work is the use of qualitative sociological methods. In order to analyze security measures, the interaction of nature protection zone teams with the government and the public, the problem of collaborationism, damage assessment methods and other related issues, the authors conducted a series of in-depth interviews with employees of 12 Ukrainian nature reserves, national nature parks and other natural objects - a reserve fund that was directly affected by the war and occupation in 2014-2022 with an emphasis on the consequences of the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine. The authors proposed recommendations for nature conservation facilities on how to make the work of nature protection facility teams more efficient, safe and effective in the restoration of damaged ecosystems in protected areas. A lot of attention is paid to current and prospective methods of assessing damage caused to nature. This is especially important in the context of Ukraine’s lawsuits in international courts against the aggressor state in order to prepare a legally convincing argument for compensation for environmental damages. New principles of care for nature conservation areas are also being considered. In particular, instead of artificial ecosystems that require constant human intervention, a return to a natural landscape that reproduces itself is proposed.

The Human Dimension of Security: Subjective Assessments and Personal

The social context of modernity is characterized by systemic transformations, constant changes, the fundamental feature of which is uncertainty, the fundamental possibility of negative consequences and outcomes of processes, events, phenomena, decisions.Subjective feeling, personal assessment of risk and one's own vulnerability, and, consequently, the degree of security become a factor in designing a strategy for interacting with a risky environment. The identification and selection of adequate methods for measuring factors that are involved in the subjective assessment of risk and vulnerability, the interpretation of the meanings that respondents put into understanding the phenomenon of security, are an interesting scientific problem and a significant task for social practice.The article attempts to demonstrate the complementarity of sociological data obtained by methods of quantitative and qualitative empirical sociology, both at the stage of designing and piloting tools, and when interpreting the results. The discourse is carried out in relation to the currently relevant problem of human security.The empirical section of the article demonstrates the perspective of the approach to measuring the subjective assessment of security in mass surveys through the indicator of sufficiency of the sense of security and the factors associated with it. Thus, a statistically significant relationship of the feeling of security with gender, age, type of settlement, education, with subjectivity, that is, with responsibility for risk, was revealed Nevertheless, there was a clear insufficiency of the semantic component to ensure the reliability of the interpretation of the result obtained, a request for additional information, for which the use of methods of qualitative sociology, working just with the semantic level of consciousness, is indispensable.The result of applying the methods of qualitative sociology (interview, focus discussion) the following typology became established: when responding, respondents correlated their safety assessments mainly with the presence/absence of threats to the physiological state and material and property status of the personal and immediate environment.The positions of comparing personal security assessments with non-material factors are also revealed: with the presence of relatives and friends, with instability and uncertainty that threaten the social and life prospects of one's own and the immediate environment. In the older age group, security is understood as having a strong authority that ensures order.The complementarity of quantitative and qualitative sociological methods increases the reliability and completeness of the interpretation of mass survey data regarding the phenomena and processes under study.

Образовательный и профессиональный выбор рабочей молодежи сервисных отраслей

The relationship between education, profession and social status in the modern global world is not obvious. A high level of education does not guarantee a professional career. The discrepancy between professional education and occupation is especially acute in the field of customer service. On the one hand, it reduces the quality of services provided and, on the other hand, causes tension among workers of this industry. The aim of the research is to study educational values, the choice of an educational trajectory and professional self-determination of modern working-class youth in the service industry. The article is based on the materials of an empirical study using quantitative and qualitative sociological methods: a mass survey of working-class youth in the Ural Federal District and a biographical interview, the informants of which are employed in the real sector of the economy and the service sector. The contradictory attitude of young service workers to education was revealed: not seeing the connection between the level and quality of education and the characteristics of their own life, young people are confident in the value of education and maintain a respectful attitude towards educated people. The personal significance of education for the new generation of working-class youth is small; the social prestige of education does not in any way affect personal life plans, including the professional choice. The established relationships between the educational and professional choice of working-class youth - the basic layer of the social structure of any society - can be used to organize vocational guidance work in secondary school, and can be in demand by the state and regional authorities of vocational education.

Axiological Foundations of Eco-Spiritual Values of Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic

Covering one sixth of the planet's surface and experiencing global climate change, the Arctic is a place where indigenous peoples' lifestyles, eco-spiritual values and unique flora and fauna species are reproduced. Planetary humanitarian thought centres around the Arctic Ocean, metaphorically referred to as the modern Mediterranean. The challenge is to recognise the spiritual and intellectual heritage of Arctic indigenous peoples in the modern development of Arctic resources and to introduce their eco-spiritual values into the educational process. Ecospiritual values are based on a worldview that recognises the spiritual interconnectedness of man and nature, and promotes the sustainability of the ecosystem in all its diversity of natural and human spheres. The aim of our study is to identify and reveal the axiological foundations of the ecospiritual values of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic that are significant for intercultural and intercountry communication in the northern circumpolar zone of the planet. The work uses Indigenous Methodology, the method of system analysis and synthesis, and empirical research in the Khatango-Anabar region was carried out using a combination of quantitative and qualitative sociological methods (standardised questionnaire survey, non-formalised interview, psycholinguistic experiment). Ecospiritual values have been identified, based on the ethno-cultural model of the relationship with Mother Earth, co-synchrony with natural and climatic features and co-spatiality of ecospiritual connections in the habitat, geopsychic and spiritual connections with sacred places, where there is inter-conjunction of cosmic, earthly and natural phenomena with ecospiritual values of man.

METHODS FOR REPRESENTATION OF RADICAL CONTENT UNDER STATE ANTI-EXTREMIST CENSORSHIP ON THE MATERIAL OF VKONTAKTE SOCIAL NETWORK

The study aims to identify the forms and ways of representing the radical content of the ideologies of right-wing radicalism, Islamic radicalism and left-wing radicalism in conditions of state anti-extremist censorship on the material of the social network VKontakte. The research object is the radical texts and visual content of the studied ideologies posted on the Vkontakte. The research subject is the forms and methods of representation of this radical content under the conditions of state anti-extremist censorship. Content identification methods are structural links search, automatic content analysis, and natural language processing. To identify the forms and ways of implementing the representation of radical content, a combination of qualitative sociological methods and technologies for automatic analysis of texts are used. As a result of the identification of radical content, a list of 169 communities is compiled with a total number of 1,378,717 profiles. Communities of supporters of the right-wing radical are formed on the basis of rejection and protest against certain phenomena and processes of modern society. The difference from the resources, sharing the view and value system of traditional Islam, for radical Salafi communities is a pronounced emphasis on topics that separate “true believers” from the rest of the social world, mired in atheism, sins and social problems. The discourse of Russian left-wing radicals in VKontakte is associated with support for political protest actions and the propaganda of forms of self-organization of the population and production collectives in opposition to the bureaucratic tardiness of the authorities and the arbitrariness of corporate management. The general conspiracy frame of the left-wing radicals is the participation of the government in a conspiracy of world elites to destroy the productive forces, science, culture and social sphere of Russia and the exposure of liberals as agents of imperialism.

FACTORS IN THE FORMATION OF SOCIAL NETWORKS OF DELINQUENT ADOLESCENTS SERVING TIME IN A JUVENILE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

The article presents the results of a sociological study of the factors of formation of social networks of delinquent adolescents serving time in a juvenile correctional facility. The research was carried out using a constellation of quantitative and qualitative sociological methods, and was implemented based on socionetwork analysis. Analysis of materials and results of the study confirms the feasibility and effectiveness of the network methodology in the analysis of social structures of closed type. The conclusion of the work contains the main conclusions and results of the study.

Dying at work. Work-related suicide – how does the UK regulatory context measure up?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how work-related suicides are monitored, investigated and regulated in the UK, examining a small selection of cases and drawing on international comparison with other countries. Effective data collection and regulation are the cornerstone of suicide prevention, and this paper aims to consider whether the UK’s current regulatory framework provides an effective basis for preventing work-related suicides.Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on qualitative sociological methods and is based on an in-depth analysis of 12 suicide cases occurring between 2015 and 2020. In each case, work-related causal factors had been previously identified by at least one official source (police enquiry, coroner or employer’s investigation). This study analysed multiple sources of documentation and undertook interviews with individuals close to each suicide case. The aim of this study was to consider the organisational response of three stakeholder organisations to the suicides: the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the coroner and the employer.FindingsThe study points to serious shortcomings in the UK’s regulatory response to work-related suicides. Suicides are currently not recorded, investigated or regulated. Whereas the fracture of an arm or leg in the workplace needs to be reported to the HSE for further investigation, a suicide occurring in the workplace or that is work-related does not need to be reported to any public agency. Employers are not required to investigate an employee suicide or make any changes to workplace policies and practices in the aftermath of a suicide. The work-related factors that may have caused one suicide may, therefore, continue to pose health and safety risks to other employees.Originality/valueWhereas some recent studies have examined work-related suicides within specific occupations in the UK, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to analyse the UK’s regulatory framework for work-related suicides. The study on which the paper is based produced a set of recommendations that were targeted at key stakeholder organisations.

WHERE AND WHY ARE THE FAR EASTERNERS GOING (BASED ON MATERIALS FROM PRIMORYE TERRITORY)

The paper presents the main aspects of the formation of migration attitudes and the implementation of migration strategies of residents of the Primorsky Territory. The research was carried out using quantitative and qualitative sociological methods. The analysis of official statistics data was supplemented by the results of interviews. The main data collection method is informal interviews; fieldwork was carried out in the spring of 2021. Our research has shown that the migration outflow from Primorye continues. The main centers of attraction are the cities of central Russia, which are capable of providing a higher level and quality of life and having a more developed infrastructure. Further development of Primorye, which could stimulate return migration, should be associated with the functioning of large enterprises, the availability of jobs with decent wages, and the development of a recreational complex.

UNDERSTANDING OUTCOMES OF THE PANDEMIC: SAFETY ETHICS

Summing up the interim results in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic determines a multidisciplinary approach to studying the problem of security for all spheres of society. The analysis of the priority of scientific publications carried out on the platform of the information resource CyberLeninka showed that the main interest of researchers is medical and information security. Taking into account the tendency for legal norms to lag behind ethical ones, and the specifics of the legal support of these spheres of social life, a working hypothesis was developed based on the assumption that the explication of ethical challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic will determine the strategy of social policy in these priority areas. Quantitative and qualitative sociological methods (content analysis, case study, survey) were used in the work. Fragments of sociological research carried out in collaboration based on the Volgograd and Gomel State Medical Universities are used. The results obtained demonstrate ethical deformations in the medical and, in general, in the social sphere. In the context of the pandemic, the problem of the vulnerability of socially unprotected groups has become more acute. The basic moral tenets of the ethics of care are violated in relation to patients with severe concomitant diseases and patients with limited mobility. The extreme conditions which the national health care system found itself began to be perceived in the professional group of medical specialists as "extenuating circumstances" allowing, in conditions of survival, to neglect not only medical ethics, but also the law. These tendencies are reflected in the minds of future doctors, which requires strengthening the positions of the humanitarian block of disciplines in the curricula of professional education. The tendencies noted have an international nature, which determines the possible implementation of the approaches developed in the process of international collaboration into the practice of humanitarian national professional education.

Class solidarity of working youth in the service sector

The purpose of this article is to show the peculiarities of the class self-awareness and solidarity formation among the new working class youth occupied in the service sector of the economy. The main tasks include revealing the correlation between the traditional content and forms of class solidarity of workers and their manifestations among the new working class youth; substantiating the use of a class approach to the analysis of the problems of young people employed in the service sector of the economy; and revealing the contradictions between the class interests and corporate habitus of the young customer service workers. The research methodology is grounded in the traditional institutional approach adopted in Russian sociology. This article is based on the materials of an empirical study using quantitative and qualitative sociological methods: a mass survey of working-class youth in the Ural Federal District (a target multistage sample model according to four objective criteria: age, gender, place of residence, and employment). Additionally, a biographical interview was conducted, the informants of which are employed in the real sector of the economy and the service sector. The results have revealed that a new working class is being formed in modern Russia, a significant part of which is employed in the service sector of the economy. The active formation of the sphere of customer service reflects the global patterns of the traditional working class tranformation. In the service sector, in contrast to the traditional working class, a significant proportion of young people lack the experience of the class solidarity of previous generations. A new generation of young workers is shaping their own experience of class solidarity in the face of conflicting demands of corporate culture and social status.

Сохранение здоровья детей: поиск путей решения актуальных проблем

Changed social reality, caused by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), made attention to population's health, its risks, and defining factors relevant. Nowadays, an individual's personal responsibility for own health and coherence of various social institutions' activities in the formation of children's health are of particular importance. The article is devoted to an analysis of children's health and search for the ways of its improvement. The authors explore the issues of availability and quality of medical services, safeguard of children's health and discuss the barriers to inter-institutional cooperation in this field, as well as ways of overcoming them. To achieve these objectives, we used quantitative and qualitative sociological methods: a sociological survey of families with children aged 3-17 years, monitoring observation of cohorts of families with children, focus group studies of parents of children aged 3-17 years, an expert survey of specialists of the regional health system and members of government authorities. The authors reveal several issues: decline of children's health potential in growing;insufficient awareness of parents about the state, forms, and methods of preserving and strengthening children's health, discrepancy between parents' ideas about their own competence in this matter with reality;lack of narrow-profile specialists in children's medical institutions;absence of medical workers among fulltime staff of educational organizations;queues and complexity of making appointments with specialists;low availability of free and high cost of paid medical services;insufficient information interaction between medical, educational organizations and parents in the prevention of diseases;lack of parents' knowledge of full information about objectives of professional examinations and insufficient awareness of the importance of further actions to restore and strengthen health of children. Based on the analysis, we stated the areas of solving these problems. They may include the development and implementation of specific management tools to preserve children's health potential.

Soviet Nostalgia of the Post-Soviet Digital Generation

The processes of formation and transformation of collective memory are complex and multifaceted. Research on this phenomenon is carried out in various fields of scientific knowledge and on different planes — from epistemological procedures to specific phenomena, such as nostalgia. This article is devoted to identifying the place and role of nostalgic processes in the collective memory of the digital generation of Russian students. This type of nostalgia can be denoted as “somebody else’s nostalgia”, nostalgia for the times unlived-in, etc. And it requires special study, because of some paradoxicality. From the methodological point of view, the study is based on a combination of analytical and qualitative sociological methods (in-depth interviews). The results of the study showed that nostalgia for the Soviet past is a real phenomenon of today’s collective memory of Russian society, affecting all its social strata and age groups. The reason for this massive spread of the phenomenon is rooted in the general unstable social conditions of human existence in the post­Soviet world, in the loss of confidence in the general idea of progressive course of history, and in progressiste liberation rhetoric in the absence of real socio-­political projects. In the digital generation of Russian students «nostalgia for things Soviet» takes the form of “nostalgia without memory”, in that it is a way of psychological protection from the present by reconstructing the memory of the great past. The space of this memory represents another deformation of the nostalgic phenomenon since it is not formed on the basis of personal emotional experience, which includes longing for childhood and the life lived, but is nourished by the memory of previous generations and by the media.

Video blog as a new channel of socialization of children: the question of the interpretation of the concept

The aim of the article is to address the socialization processes of modern children and adolescents, in the context of the characteristics of the information society and the constant presence of the Internet in their lives. A new but emerging phenomenon is emerging, video blogging, which is part of Internet socialization. The main characteristic of this phenomenon is the potential opportunity that children and adolescents have to create an independent video blogging process, which affects the socialization process in general. The empirical data were collected using quantitative and qualitative sociological methods: survey and interview with children. The combination of these methods provides more complete information to understand the problem. The main result of this study is the evidence that around 30% of children and adolescents are not only viewers of videoblogs, they not only consume the information disseminated by this part of the global network, but also become independent authors of videoblogs. The study results reflect the fact that many children's authors try to imitate their favorite video bloggers. Young Internet users perceive the process of creating a video blog as a certain type of creativity.

Transport Connectivity and Development of Russia’s Eastern Regions

The article analyzes the internal and external connectivity of passenger transport systems in Russian regions with vast peripheral areas based on a case study of three key regions with average and low development levels—Krasnoyarsk krai, the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), and Magadan oblast. These regions differ from each other by their position in the country’s transport system and are characterized by significant intraregional differences in the level and nature of transport connectivity. To solve this problem, the authors use an integrated methodology to analyze transport connectivity and isolation. This approach includes not only analysis of statistics on transport networks, frequency, time expenditures, and fares for all modes of passenger transport in regions, but also qualitative sociological methods: in-depth interviews with passengers and employees of transport terminals. Differences in the accessibility of the main regional settlements are determined, and transport areas differing from each other in terms of transport reliability are distinguished. The public transport systems of the studied regions are notable for the low regularity of connections, the absence of alternatives along many routes, occasional and insufficient reliability of transportation due to the pronounced seasonal nature, as well as the important role of implicit (shadow) transport services.

Transport сonnection and development of the eastern regions of Russia

Paper analyzes the internal and external connection of passenger transport systems in the Eastern regions of Russia. Key regions with medium and low levels of development are Krasnoyarsk krai, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), and Magadan oblast. These regions differ from each other by the situation in the State Transport System and are characterized by significant intra-regional differences in the level and nature of transport connection. Analysis of transport connection and isolation is based on the authors methodology. The proposed approach includes not only analysis of statistics, frequency, time costs and tariffs for all types of passenger transport in the regions, but also qualitative sociological methods in-depth interviews with passengers and employees of transport terminals. The differences in accessibility of the main settlements of the regions are determined. Low regularity of communication, absence of alternatives along many routes, episodic and insufficient reliability of transport due to seasonality, and important role of shadow forms of transport services were revealed in public transport systems of studied regions.

Forest policy issues in modern Russia

The article is devoted to the study of the institutional arrangements for the development of forest-covered territories of Russia. The subject of the research is the current institutional system that regulates economic relations in forest management in Russia. The structural institutional elements of this system are the ownership of forest resources; forest certification and formation of forest payments. The purpose of the study is to assess the state of the institutional arrangements governing the forest management system and the economic relations in this institutional system; substantiation of the mechanisms for establishing effective models of forestry development. The methodology is based on the provisions of the institutional theory, sustainable development and the theory of rent. Research tools include institutional analysis, quantitative and qualitative sociological methods. The empirical footing is formed by the results of many years of comprehensive economic and sociological research of forest areas of the Republic of Karelia in 1998-2018 (public opinion polls; interviews with forest service specialists, local and regional authorities, heads of forest companies), research materials from Russian and foreign scientific schools and official websites. A descriptive analysis of the problems encountered by various forest policy stakeholders relations is offered.

Senior management in Moscow healthcare: search for answers to urgent questions

The article is devoted to the topical issues of formation and postgraduate training of senior management in Moscow healthcare. The authors conducted an expert survey based on developed research methodology, which included qualitative sociological methods. It was done in the form of a series of in-depth structured interviews with heads of Moscow healthcare medical organizations (adult and children outpatient clinics, hospitals), as well as with top executives of the institutions of postgraduate professional training. Research results allowed the authors to postulate the following key questions: 1) Who should head a medical institution - a clinician or a manager?; 2) What management skills should a top executive of a medical organization possess?; 3) What advantages and disadvantages does a postgraduate training system of senior management have?; 4) What is the procedure of a top management pool formation? Results analysis showed that the key problems are still acute. Problems revealed in 2016-2017 are still to be solved in 2019. They concern formation of manager competencies for healthcare top executives, forms and topics of postgraduate professional training. The article defines the competences which medical managers miss and possibilities of their obtaining by means of postgraduate professional training and professional requalification.

New wave of intellectual emigration from Russia: motives, channels and mechanisms

The papers analyzing modern emigration intentions of Russians and their fulfillment are not numerous. One of the reasons behind that is the lack of reliable statistical data concerning persons who leave their home country and do not notify the registration body of their departure for the new place of residence. However they are great in number. What can be done to fill the gap is to provide a statistical analysis of the main countries accepting Russian emigrants, which was already done by certain researchers, or to use qualitative sociological methods. The present paper analyzes the results of semi-structured interviews with skilled emigrants who left Russia in 2011-2017; the interviews were part of a research project conducted by the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in 2017. The analysis of participant interviews helps to indentify the motives, channels and mechanisms of Russian emigrants with higher education diplomas and to answer the questions referring to similarities and differences between individuals of different professions, age groups and those leaving for different countries when they choose certain patterns. The authors conclude that the lack of relevant differences in intentions across all the above-mentioned groups is one of the main findings. Over recent years most of skilled emigrants have been driven primarily by economical and partially by political motives. Nevertheless, the choice of channels and mechanisms of emigration are greatly shaped by the professional background, type of employment, age and even the migration direction. IT workers and employees working in finance and economic sector tend to relocate using labor contracts; young scientists opt for grant schemes or free internships; older generation involving creative professionals and people of liberal professions turn to education channels using their own funds. The group of remote job skilled emigrants is distinctive as they use the whole variety of channels and mechanisms to move abroad.