Sociopolitical Orientation Research Articles

SOCIAL MOOD OF RUSSIAN SOCIETY AS A MARKER OF SOCIO-POLITICAL CHANGES IN CONDITIONS OF UNCERTAINTY

Based on the analysis of monitoring research data, the article proposes a view of social mood as a marker of socio-political changes, including a socio-psychological mechanism of adaptation to a traumatic period of uncertainty. Based on the data of the Institute of Socio-Political Problems of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences and in comparison with the results of studies by leading analytical centers of the country, the psychological state of Russian society is characterized, in particular, the dynamics of social mood over the past three years through the prism of emotional and rational indicators: an assessment of the current situation in the country, the dynamics of social expectations, the direction of social optimism, the spectrum of the problem field of Russians, an assessment of the perception of power, political loyalty and political alienation, political participation. The mobility and variability of social mood is presented in the values of its intensity and the vector of changes. The interdependence of the tonal and subject socio-political orientation of social mood is revealed. A conclusion is made about the positive tonality and restrained right-center political orientation of the social mood of Russian society. At the same time, the accumulation in social memory of the result of reflexive orientation toward social changes forms in the mass consciousness a potential source of both obstacles and opportunities for the transformation of social memory. The question is raised about the direction of such transformation, about the possible mutual influence of social mood, socio-political practices, changes in the structure of social memory depending on the socio-political context and time.

The sociopolitical liberalization of young adults: transforming a dominated habitus

Since the 1940s research has suggested that higher education has a liberalizing influence on sociopolitical orientation, although none has demonstrated how this might occur. In the U.S. there is an increasing trend among conservative politicians and media to depreciate the value of a college education, by alleging that college turns people into liberals. To examine the charge that ‘college turns people into liberals’, I conducted biographical narrative interviews with 24 American college-educated young adults who changed their sociopolitical orientation from conservative to liberal. Utilizing Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and habitus clivé, and grounded theory methods of analysis, I developed a processual model of such transformation. Findings from this study refute narratives of professorial or institutional indoctrination. Instead, the model indicates a more complex process of habitus transformation, that in most cases begins before college students arrive on campus. This study is important because a successful democracy requires an educated populace.

Совместимы ли патриотизм и интернационализм?

This article analyses the relationship between patriotism and internationalism. In the context of the pluralism of interpretations in modern discourse, the paper clarifies the concepts of internationalism and patriotism, as well as their correlation with the terms cosmopolitanism, nationalism and anti-patriotism. All these categories are considered here as different types of attitudes of some ethnic communities, nations and peoples towards other ethnic communities, nations and peoples, as a way of nations’ self-positioning in the world’s multi-ethnic cultural space. The authors single out the ideological and the socio-psychological levels of the analysis of patriotism and internationalism. At the ideological level, the categories used to characterize interethnic relations are presented in the form of types of rational political ideology. Here, the subject of interethnic relations is the ethnic community as a whole, as a collective community. At the socio-psychological level, the types of mass socio-political orientations, feelings, behavioural attitudes and stereotypes in the sphere of interethnic relations are determined. Here, the subject of interethnic relations is the individual person as a typical representative of a certain ethnic community. It has been established that patriotism and internationalism are closely interconnected and mediate each other, both in individual and in social consciousness. The attitude towards one’s own Motherland and people determines the attitude towards other countries and peoples, and vice versa, the attitude towards other countries and peoples determines the attitude towards one’s own country and people. The essence of modern Russian patriotism is described as a harmonious balance between constructive humanistic patriotism and humanistic internationalism. In addition, the problem of forming constructive patriotism in the Russian mass consciousness, which should replace the liberal ideologies of cosmopolitanism and globalism, is discussed. These ideologies are viewed as destructive forms of internationalism, which promote the erasure of the socio-cultural identity of nations and deny national patriotism.

The protean music career as a sociopolitical orientation: The mutually integrated, non-hierarchical work values of socially engaged musicians

Socially engaged, participatory music making is slowly establishing itself as a complement to musicians’ portfolio careers, although it may still be considered of less value than established concert hall practices. To gain a better understanding of the drivers toward socially engaged practice in music field, we analyzed 20 semi-structured interviews with musicians in Finland, using the lenses of work values and career orientations. The abductive, theoretical reading analysis shows that the musicians viewed the social-relational nature of their work as a fundamental feature of the practice and sought congruence between their work values and other personal values. The interviewees renounced the hierarchy between intrinsic (autonomy, creativity, variety, achievement, challenge, and intellectual stimulation) and social work values (interacting with people, altruism, and contribution to society), and found participatory practice to be artistically freeing and personally rewarding. Their work appeared less driven by extrinsic values (economic gain and status); hence, their self-directed and values-driven orientation resonates strongly with the notion of the protean career. Although their sociopolitical stance involved the risk of weakening their professional status and they had to constantly justify their work amongst their colleagues, they all expressed conscious counternarratives to what they considered the elitism of expert culture in traditional music institutions. The study argues that the practice of socially engaged musicians can help the professional field of music reconsider and transform its stubborn value hierarchies in the complex social, political, ethical, and moral landscapes of contemporary society.

Migration and socio-political orientations of religious and non-religious student youth

Migration processes in the context of the expansion of world economic relations inevitably affect the main spheres of life of the entire world community. The emigration of the most active part of the indigenous population of Russia, predominantly educated and highly professional, is an acute problem, as it inevitably leads to risks to the national and geopolitical security of the state. The growing uncontrolled migration process aimed at the outflow of the mobile indigenous population in the new Russian social reality actualizes the study of the motives of emigrant moods, socio-economic, socio-political orientations, socio-cultural positions, ethno-confessional traditions and customs, spiritual and moral values of youth and, first of all, highly educated part of the younger generation: students. The article analyzes the materials of a sociological study conducted by the Institute for Demographic Research of the Federal Scientific Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2022 among students in three constituent entities of the Russian Federation: Moscow, the Republic of Tyva and the Belgorod Region. The focus of the study is aimed at identifying the possible impact of religious and non-religious worldviews on the emigrant orientations of the young part of the Russian population. The set goal was solved with the help of sociological methods of building worldview groups (“religious”/“non-religious”) and typological groups (“settled”/projective “emigrants”). The sociological search was based on a comparative analysis of the assessments and positions of representatives of these groups in relation to religious, national, socio-economic and socio-political problems. The results of a sociological study show that religious ideas and traditions, spiritual and moral values directly related to them play a significant role in the patriotic and civic positions of student youth in relation to Russian society and the state.

The Pathway between Social Dominance Orientation and Drop out from Hierarchy-Attenuating Contexts: The Role of Moral Foundations and Person-Environment Misfit.

The present study examines the role of individuals' preference for unequal intergroup relations in exacerbating a process of differential attrition from organizations that value intergroup equality (i.e., hierarchy-attenuating contexts). We proposed that people functioning within a well-recognized hierarchy-attenuating context (i.e., students of social work) who were higher on social dominance orientation (SDO) would be more likely to leave their institution through two pathways; first, people higher on SDO would have fewer moral concerns of social fairness and human harm-avoidance (i.e., individualizing); in turn, a lack of individualizing morality would stimulate a perceived person-environment misfit, ultimately increasing their intention to leave. We conducted a single cross-sectional design study involving a convenience sample of 245 undergraduate social work students. Overall, the results of the serial mediation model suggest that people higher on SDO intend to leave their organization that supports inclusive equality via reduced individualizing morality and high perceived P-E misfit. These findings contribute to understanding the role of socio-political orientations and moral beliefs in hindering proper adaptation to contexts that value egalitarian social norms, with relevant implications for individuals and groups.

Disinformation as a factor of manipulation consciousness

About disinformation and manipulating human consciousness, in particular in the information sphere. It is substantiated that manipulation, as one of the types of information attacks, interferes with the normal life activities of a person, which makes it impossible to form a stable system of information relations, stimulates unpredictable mobility and sharp fluctuations of socio-political orientations and assessments in the population, which, as a result, transforms into instability of social and of political processes in the country as a whole and into significant threats to the security of people, society and the state.

African middle classness, politics and protest: on the context of this issue

ABSTRACT Middle classes in the Global South have become topical. They were considered mainly by economists in development-oriented institutions and praised as a factor contributing to economic development and democratic forces. We recapitulate some of the trends and remind the reader of earlier debates. We take stock of the variety of contributions and point to the efforts to have a more nuanced look at the composition and orientations of ‘middle classes’ and their political engagements. We maintain that the initial economistic reduction, measuring monetary income as the main criteria for middle classness, is insufficient and offers no reliable set of indicators as to the social and political as well as cultural positioning of members of such income groups. An appropriate analysis of the nature and role of African middle classes must consider four aspects: the specific class formations of African societies; the link between socioeconomic stratification and sociopolitical orientations; the limited knowledge and theorisation of African societies; and the need to apply a multidimensional and new research including diverse sociocultural elements and their contextual embeddedness. We argue that an intersectional lens can break up the classical competition of the one-dimensional paradigms and suggest decolonising research on protest and middle classes by integrating a perspective and theorisation from Africa. More attention should be paid to analytical concepts such as intersectionality and social milieu for the understanding of African societies and their potential for transformation through protest. This requires overcoming stereotypical and truncated assumptions about the middle classes.

Theoretical Concepts of I. Ilyin and the Ideology of Putinism as Reflections of Socio-Political Orientations in Russian Society

Theoretical Concepts of I. Ilyin and the Ideology of Putinism as Reflections of Socio-Political Orientations in Russian Society

“Voting with feet”: Russian electoral sociology on the problem of voter turnout (1989–1996)

The article is devoted to the problem of turnout in elections in the USSR and Russia in the period from 1989 to 1996 in the assessment of Russian sociologists and social scientists. The theory of representative democracy in its neoliberal version narrows the acts of legitimation to the voting procedure. The experience of implementing these principles in the USSR and the Russian Federation at the end of the 20th century is quite relevant for the development of contemporary political sociology. The goal is a retrospective (historical) study of the explanatory schemes offered by Russian electoral sociologists and representatives of related disciplines on the decline in voter turnout in the 1989–1996 elections. Objectives: 1) description of specific situations, 2) analysis of the positions and arguments put forward, 3) generalization of the hypotheses and concepts proposed. Traditional methods for works of this nature were used (analysis, synthesis, heuristic, descriptive). The decline in the number of voters was constant. As in the rest of the world, it primarily affected those structures that were not perceived as significant. This led to a gradual lowering of the electoral barrier, even to its abolition. The statement about “voting with one’s feet” as a result of disappointment in the socio-economic transformations of the 1990s became a common place in the sociologists’ reasoning. The active part of the electorate, affiliated with certain political forces and organizations, reacted sensitively to mass media reports of falsifications. The general decline in voter turnout was perfectly exploited by political technologists for the benefit of their clients. The first steps of the Russian electoral sociology were not able to improve the situation in the socio-political orientation of the electorate.

Viktor Kosenko: at the Crossroads of Cultures and Traditions. Warsaw

The relevance of the investigation is justified by the lack of research into the first two decades of the life of the outstanding Ukrainian musician of the first half of the 20th century, Viktor Stepanovych Kosenko — an extremely important time when the foundations of the worldview and aesthetic beliefs of the future composer were laid. During this period, Viktor Kosenko, together with other family members, was in Warsaw, where he received a thorough general and musical education.
 The situation of another "white spot in domestic musicology" related to the artist's biography was created due to the lack of materials and documents, as well as the artist's personal belongings related to this period. The socio-political circumstances of Soviet Ukraine, in which Viktor Kosenko found himself in the 20s of the 20th century, became an obstacle to the preservation of sources and information of the relevant time.
 It has also been established that the composer's biography, which has been repeatedly reproduced in reference books and studies, is artificially constructed by him "at the demand of time". The scientific novelty of the study is the introduction into wide circulation of the socio-worldview and cultural panorama of the initial period of the artist's life. Therefore, the actual goal of the article is the reconstruction of the circumstances of the first twenty years of the composer's biography. The methodological basis of the research is the cultural-historical, biographical, as well as the method of source analysis, used to reproduce the initial period of V. S. Kosenko’s life path.
 Thanks to little-known publications of memoirs of the artist's contemporaries, as well as archival findings of modern scientists, it was possible to restore some facts of Viktor Kosenko's biography. The study focuses on the peculiarities of the educational and pedagogical process in the Warsaw Suvorov Cadet Corps, where the future composer studied. Emphasis is placed on the influence of many traditions, both national and social-worldview, with which Viktor Kosenko could come into contact during this period of his life. The atmosphere, traditions, way of life, as well as artistic impressions that formed the personality of the young musician and possibly influenced his further musical life are also considered.
 Conclusions. The multinational and multicultural environment of the earliest period of Victor Kosenko's life in Warsaw probably left an impression on the artist. Being at the intersection of cultures and traditions — a military and artistic environment with their inherent worldviews, a change in artistic and sociopolitical orientations at the border of the 19th and 20th centuries, the presence in everyday life of several national traditions (officially declared Russian, urban culture of Warsaw, preservation of Ukrainian origins in the family circle, a diverse circle of teachers and fellow students, etc.), could not but influence the growth of the creative personality of the Europeanized composer, who was open to other cultures. Tracing multi-level and multi-vector influences on the formation of creative ideas and their further specification looks like a promising direction for further research of the artist's creativity.

Characterizing children’s conceptual knowledge and computational practices in a critical machine learning educational program

In this study, we describe the design and implementation of a CML (critical machine learning) education program for children between the ages of 9 and 13 at an after-school center. In this participatory design-based research, we collected learner artifacts, recordings of interactions, and pre/post drawings and written responses to model children’s developing knowledge and practices related to critical machine learning. Drawing from constructionist and critical pedagogical perspectives, our research questions are: (1) How do children develop machine learning knowledge grounded in social, ethical, and political orientations in a CML education program? and (2) What computational practices do children engage in when developing robots for social good in a CML education program? We found that (1) children made more sophisticated connections with socio-political orientations and ML content as they progressed through the program, and (2) they engaged in computational practices, such as experimenting and iterating, testing and debugging, reusing and remixing, and abstracting and modularizing. Further, our findings indicate that a critical lens to ML education can be characterized by posing and answering questions about the roles of AI technologies producers and consumers and identifying how these technologies are designed to apply this knowledge to build applications for marginalized populations. This study suggests that a critical lens is an effective approach towards engaging young children in designing their own machine learning tools in socially responsible ways.

Evgeny Schwartz’s fairy tale play “The Emperor’s New Clothes”: a satirical comedy or an anti-fascist pamphlet?

The play-tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Evgeny Schwartz was created in 1934, when serious historical and political processes started in the world, associated with the establishment of a despotic, totalitarian regime in a number of countries, as well as with the spread of fascist ideology in Western Europe, which eventually would lead to World War II. In the article, the fairy tale play “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is considered from the point of view of its genre originality. On the one hand, in this work, reflecting the political processes that took place in the world, there are signs of the genre of an anti-fascist pamphlet (accusatory pathos, socio-political orientation, aphoristic style, irony bordering on sarcasm, etc.). Ideologically, Evgeny Schwartz’s fairy tale is directed against German fascism, as evidenced by the scattered replicas of characters in the play, in which a merciless satire on the reality of Nazi Germany is heard. On the other hand, the genre of the play “The Emperor's New Clothes” is much broader than the framework of an anti-fascist pamphlet, it is a satirical comedy aiming at exposure and debunk of social vices; in this it is close to farce, comedy of manners and character comedy. Thus, behind the external simplicity of the plot of the fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, one can guess the diversity and hidden meaning inherent in the satirical work.

RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP IN THE CONCEPTUAL AND CATEGORICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF LAW

The article examines the concept of responsible citizenship in the field of philosophy of law through the prism of modern conceptual interpretations, the principle of historicism, the hermeneutic approach, and the empirical legal and socio-political orientation of society. Responsible citizenship can be described as an interdisciplinary, integrated, interactive phenomenon, which on the one hand is a factor of law or legal practice and on the other hand, is a complex of established ideas, feelings, national traditions, perceptions, views, etc., of individuals on legal, socio-political, economic, cultural, state phenomena and processes.

Genesis of the Institute of Procedural Guidance: Historical and Legal Aspect

The result of the reform of the criminal process in 2012 was the introduction of a new institute of procedural guidance for pre-trial investigations. This institute has become the object of many scientific discussions, and therefore there is a need to analyse its historical and legal genesis to clearly understand the place and role of the prosecutor in modern criminal proceedings. The purpose of the study is to examine the institute of procedural guidance in criminal proceedings and identify promising areas for improving its legal regulation. The study used dialectical, system-structural, synthesis, formal-logical, and historical methods. It is proved that the institute of procedural guidance originated quite a long time ago. From the very beginning, monarchs used civil servants to represent exclusively their interests in certain processes that were important to them. It is established that the genesis of the institute of the prosecutor’s office began to be used quite widely, up to the development of a separate structure of the relevant state bodies and assigning them the function of supervision over certain spheres of life, that is, the functions of the prosecutor’s office expanded sufficiently and representation of the interests of the state in criminal proceedings became part of the overall function of supervision. With the change in the socio-political orientation of Ukraine’s development after independence, the place and role of the prosecutor’s office in the system of state bodies have evolved under the influence of advanced European trends. The reverse process of changing the functions of the prosecutor’s office in criminal proceedings has begun, namely, the function of total prosecutor’s supervision has begun to narrow and be reduced to procedural guidance of the criminal process and representation exclusively in certain cases. As a result of the study, it was stated that the legislation regulating the legal status of the prosecutor’s office has contradictions, namely, the Law of Ukraine “On Prosecutor’s Office” imposes broader powers on the prosecutor than the Constitution of Ukraine, which undoubtedly requires legislative correction by making appropriate changes. The findings of the study can be used in rule-making and law enforcement activities.

\u2018Disfigurations\u2019 of Democracy? Pareto, Mosca and the Challenge of \u2018Elite Theory\u2019

Considering recent re-assessments of Pareto and Mosca, I discuss whether these thinkers’ socio-political orientations contribute to the ‘disfiguration’ of democracy (in: Urbinati, Democracy disfigured: opinion, truth, and the people, Harvard, Cambridge, MA, 2014) or provide a resource for the renewal of democratic institutions. Femia (Pareto and political theory, Routledge, Abingdon, 2006) presents Pareto as being in the “Machiavellian tradition of sceptical liberalism,” revealing the liberal potential of Pareto’s realist political theory. Finocchiaro (Beyond right and left, Yale, New Haven, London, 1999) ameliorates the conservative consequences of Mosca’s thought by reinterpreting him as a ‘democratic elitist,’ who holds a conception of political liberty “as a relationship such that authority flows from the masses to the elites.” Highlighting the significance of internal tensions within each thinker’s work foregrounded by these readings, between the causal primacy of psychic states and the ‘mutual dependence’ of social factors (Pareto), and between the elite principle and ‘balanced pluralism’ (Mosca), I ask whether the ‘sceptical liberal’ Pareto or the ‘democratic elitist’ Mosca elude Urbinati’s unpolitical, populist and plebiscitarian ‘disfigurations’ of democracy.

Discourses on Islamic Refugees in the South Korean News: A Corpus-Based Approach

Considering the manner in which Korean news outlets express different socio-political positions by way of framing and re-constructing news, this study examines the extent to which Muslim refugees are framed and represented in major newspapers—Hankyoreh on the political left and Chosun Ilbo on the right—between January and November in 2018, when the issue of Muslim refugees received unprecedented attention in Korea. Through analysis of the custom-built corpora, this study identifies discursive practices of the media institutions in relation to Muslim refugees in Korea and explains these practices in terms of the socio-political orientation of each newspaper.

Social responsibility during the COVID-19 pandemic (The Republic of Bashkortostan)

Analysis of modern prevention concepts makes it possible to single out individual-oriented preventive concepts, and concepts of socio-political orientation. Individually oriented prevention involves the use of professional assistance at the earliest stage. The consequences of a social problem or individual disturbance must be promptly counteracted, which requires knowledge about the social space and living conditions of the individual, since such knowledge provides current planning and/or strategic intervention in the situation. Most western concepts of socio-political prevention are based on the competence model. Therefore, individually focused preventive strategies are aimed at correcting, regulating life goals and actions of individuals in accordance with the standards of normativity prevailing in society. Socio-political prevention is aimed at forming structures that should involve the individual in constructive, autonomous interaction with the environment and within it. The article below is devoted to the analysis of these problems.

Влияние академической среды на формирование политических установок студентов: опыт социологического исследования

Presented is the study of the role of the academic environment in the formation of political attitudes of modern Russian students on the example of the city of Yaroslavl. The theoretical interpretation of the political attitude is presented. The definition of political attitudes, structure, typology and functions are disclosed. The material presented in the article is based on the results of the author's sociological study of the political attitudes of students, primarily through the study of the university environment as a factor in the formation of political attitudes. The political involvement of students, their protest moods, electoral behavior, political views, trust in political institutions and leaders, popular sources of political information among students, social activity and other aspects are analyzed. The results of the study showed that the influence of the academic environment on the political attitudes of students is rather moderate. It was found that academic performance, the level of student social activity, the faculty of education do not have a significant impact on the political orientations of students. Communication with other students and teachers is essential. Moreover, the influence of teachers and disciplines of a socio-political orientation rather leads to an increase in political literacy and greater involvement of students in the political sphere.

Стилистические особенности репортажа (по материалам общественно-политического издания «НОВАЯ ГАЗЕТА»)

This article is devoted to identifying the stylistic features of reporting on the material of publications of the socio-political publication «Novaya Gazeta». Modern print media are increasingly focusing on those genres that attract the reader due to their dynamism and emotionality, since the audience’s requests are often not limited to getting dry facts. In the media text, the reader wants to see both information and analyticity. Such a genre is the reportage, which combines these functions and which is now addressed by most publications. In the article we will consider what features and how the reporting functions in the space of an opposition publication of a socio-political orientation. It can be assumed that to highlight acute social issues, the authors use special vocabulary and a variety of stylistic techniques that help to achieve the desired impact on the audience.