Sociological Project Research Articles

In search of global sociology: a critical overview of competing research agendas

This article critically examines the idea of global sociology in relationship to the discipline of Sociology. While the discipline initially emerged in Western societies, in the post-1945 era, the field extended its reach to the rest of the world. The intellectual project of global sociology emerged in the 1960s and has been on the agenda of the International Sociological Association since at least 1990. Delving deeper than the mere notion of a sociology that is applied to the world, global sociology requires the re-examination of the role of core sociological concepts and narratives, especially regarding the extent to which these reflect Eurocentric preoccupations. Global modernisation (alongside Global Studies) and Postcolonial Sociology, two of the most widely known research fields claiming global intent, are examined as to whether they provide meaningful blueprints for global sociology. Both offer promising insights but also suffer from important drawbacks. Instead of attempting to unearth new grand narratives that would displace the narrative of Western modernity, though, it might be possible to envision a plurality of such narratives coming from different regions of the globe. Sociology can thus be conceived not as exclusively global but also as local and glocal.

News Translation as Media Work in Agency Journalism? Evidence from United News of India Urdu

ABSTRACT Western liberal media theories often neglect to recognize “news translation” as one of the journalistic practices. This paper problematizes this dominant understanding of journalistic practice and expands the Bourdieusian media sociology project beyond western media systems by applying it to Indian agency journalism. A case study of the United News of India Urdu (UNIU) serves as the basis for this examination, drawing on an ethnography of news production practices, and supplemented with in-depth interviews conducted with Muslim journalists from 2018 to 2020 across four major Indian cities. Through this investigation, the paper asserts that “news translation” is indeed a vital but contested component of media work within the sphere of Indian-language journalism. The paper uses “media work” as a key concept to demonstrate that UNIU’s journalists are anchored in the field of journalism, as is evidenced by their institutional-cum-organizational location and their application of the elements of journalistic practice to their work.

Translating ‘understanding’/ understanding translation: A reflexive approach

This article has its starting point in an apparently marginal undertaking: Bridget Fowler’s translation of Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘Comprendre’, a methodologically oriented chapter which appeared at the end of the collectively authored book La Misère du monde. Its objective is to show how translation, beyond its apparent marginality, is in fact a key component of sociological practice, and inseparable from sociological interpretation and theorizing. Because of this, translation can provide an original and unexpected point of view that sheds light on little considered sociological matters and relations which usually escape from critical consideration. First, Fowler’s translation is discussed in the context of her critical engagement with Bourdieu’s sociology. Second, sociological approaches to the mostly neglected craft of academic translation are examined. Third, the project of a reflexive sociology is related to that of reflexive translation through what can be characterized as a translational sociology.

Гражданская религия как коммуникативная среда: концептуальный анализ

The article presents a conceptual analysis of civil religion as a special form of combining the sacred and the political. Having stated the need for social researchers to address the religious side of society in general and its political implications in particular, the author tries not only to reconstruct the genealogy of the term “civil religion”, but also to trace the differences between civil and political religion. Based on the analysis of the origins of the concept of civil religion, the author shows that its components — “civil” and “religious” — were introduced from two sources that are completely different in their spirit: the social philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the sociological project of Emile Durkheim. Robert Bellah managed to combine the heuristics of both sources and offer a specific language for describing externally secular, but internally religious societies. Having thoroughly analyzed the three features of civil religion identified by Bellah, the author focuses on its functioning as a communication environment — a specific set of values that taboo or stimulate the articulation of certain political issues. The communication environment not only ensures the satisfaction of the needs of the state, within which a civil-religious cult is established, but also maintains a consensus on basic values, the undermining of which is fraught with the complete disintegration of society. According to the author’s conclusion, in order to talk about the presence of a civil religion in a polity, this polity must meet several criteria, including unambiguous consensus about sacred values, political decision-making justified via theology and values, as well as the “topological” nature of the development of a political cult. This is the main reason why this form of political life is relatively rare.

W.E.B. Du Bois and Irene Diggs: Gender, Erasures, and Knowledge Production in the Sociology of the Global Color Line

The global sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois developed during the 1940s relies significantly on a collaborative relationship with African-American sociologist and anthropologist Irene Diggs (1906–1998). Diggs was mentored by Du Bois as a graduate student at Atlanta University and later became his research assistant, secretary, and colleague. No person worked for and with Du Bois as Diggs did, for nearly 14 years. In her own work, Diggs transcended Du Bois. Using archival documentary research, I analyze the connection between Diggs and Du Bois to show how they developed a global sociological perspective that included an analysis of the color line in Latin America. My analysis has two goals: (1) to show how the Du Bois–Diggs relationship was permeated by gender inequalities and a misrecognition of Diggs’s critical contribution and (2) to introduce Irene Diggs’s work on Latin America between 1942 and 1953 to show how it was inscribed within the project of a global sociology of the color line. I discuss how Diggs’s historical sociology expands the analysis of the Latin American color line today.

Applied sociological projects in the context of the clinical educational model of the Saint Petersburg State University

Applied sociological projects can play an important role in reducing the gap between higher education and labor markets, but for this educational organizations need to develop a mechanism for interaction between students and employers. The article presents the clinical model used at the Saint Petersburg State University as a tool for organizing applied sociological projects as a part of the educational process. The authors describe the features of the Sociological Clinic of Applied Research of the Saint Petersburg State University, the results of its work and the directions of its development, providing some practical recommendations for introducing a clinical training infrastructure in educational programs in sociology. These recommendations may be useful for universities that want to improve their interaction with the labor market and their quality of education. The development and assessment of forms for integrating employers’ requests into educational institutions are current methodological tasks, and solutions developed and tested by the Saint Petersburg State University, namely the clinical approach, may be interesting for all participants of the education market. Its uniqueness is determined by the flexible organizational model which focuses on characteristics of different educational areas. Over a five-year period, the Sociological Clinic of Applied Research has become an educational form that successfully combines classical education with project-based activities, giving students the opportunity to include in-demand cases into their portfolios and establish relationships with representatives of local communities. This experience will be useful for improving the quality of education in sociology-related areas.

Durkheim, Religion, and the Postcolonial Critique of Sociology’s Eurocentrism

In light of the postcolonial critique of Eurocentrism, the epistemological foundations of sociology and the legacies of classical sociologists have certainly become controversial. Postcolonial critiques of sociology’s Eurocentrism have denounced the “parochial” nature and limitations of the theoretical contributions left by Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, the reductive and stereotyping orientation of the “primitivist” and/or “orientalist” representations of non-Western peoples that can be identified in their work, and the incomplete and misleading accounts of the Western processes of modernization that we have inherited from them, which fail to fully address and satisfactorily account for the realities of modern Western forms of colonialism and imperialism. However, the nature and consequences of Durkheim’s specific sociological Eurocentrism raise opposing views within postcolonialism. This article aims to evaluate the pertinence of the divergent and sometimes contradictory postcolonial appraisals of Durkheim’s Eurocentrism by focusing particularly on the controversies generated by his sociological approach to religion. Placing Durkheim’s sociological project within both the academic field and the socio-political context in which it took shape, this article highlights the shifting relevance and the implications of his evolving sociological approach to this object of study in his science of morals. Although it is not exempt from inconsistencies and Eurocentric assumptions, Durkheim’s sociological approach to religion leaves an invaluable legacy for a non-dualistic sociological understanding of the rituals through which humans (re)create their social identities and their forms of belonging and solidarity. In line with the priorities of some postcolonial agendas, it can fully reveal its explanatory potential in the sociological investigation of modern and contemporary interethnic and racial conflicts and forms of colonialism and neo-colonialism.

Perceptions of russians and europeans about gender roles in the context of the problem of gender inequality: a comparative analysis on the data of the European values study (EVS)

The article covers the study of ideas about gender roles in the context of the problem of gender inequality in European countries based on the data of the international sociological project European Values Study. Despite the changes that have taken place in the world over the past half century in the main areas of society, inequality between men and women is still part of global social inequality and remains an important problem of the modern world. Achieving gender equality in the modern world is recognised as a global priority. The purpose of the article was to compare the ideas of men and women about gender roles in Russia and Europe and to identify the factors influencing these ideas. The paper examines the relationship between respondents' perceptions of gender roles and gender inequality from the point of view of the gender-role approach, highlights the relationship between these perceptions and the level of gender inequality in various European countries, clarifies the factors influencing the level of patriarchy/egalitarianness of respondents' perceptions of gender roles. The results of the main international studies of gender inequality are also systematised, the results of the main modern sociological studies of ideas about gender roles are described. The author focuses on the sociological study of the problem, as well as on the quantitative analysis of data. The study shows that in most European countries the level of gender inequality coincides with the level of patriarchal ideas about gender roles. Women in general have more egalitarian ideas about gender roles than men. Higher education, paid work, high levels of qualifications and income increase the likelihood of egalitarian perceptions of gender roles. A high level of churchgoing, the presence of children and a registered marriage increase the likelihood of patriarchal ideas about gender roles.

Campus Collaboration as a Gateway to Public Sociology: A Guide For “Unmuzzling” Graduate Student Instructors

Graduate students face obstacles when attempting to pursue public sociology in general, but specifically when they desire to utilize public sociology as both a research and teaching orientation that fully incorporates undergraduate students. Drawing on a two-year public sociology project on student financial security challenges, the author advocates for graduate students interested in public sociology to engage in campus collaborations, where connections between undergraduate students and campus partners are forged based on relevant campus resources easily accessible to graduate students. Based on the specifics of the author’s campus collaboration, six tips emerge for graduate students interested in replicating this approach to public sociology early in their careers. Gaining familiarity with conducting public sociology that fully incorporates undergraduate students in graduate school, a model that has been shown to benefit students, community partners, and sociology as a discipline, will prepare graduate student instructors to implement the model when they become faculty.

“The Polish Peasant in Europe and America”: Socio-Political, Biographical and Scientific Contexts

The authors focus on the history of the famous sociological work The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, as well as on the biographies of both authors, William Thomas and Florian Znaniecki. The combination of biographical analysis with socio-political context and the work in the genre of scientific biography makes it possible to understand not only the background of the creation of this major sociological project, but also to clarify the role of the sociologist-intellectual in social life. The appeal to the nonlinear fate of this work was stimulated by the drama of its realization and perception by the scientific public. The authors, relying on contemporary scientific commentaries, reconstruct this process from the description of the socio-political context, the strategies of the scientific careers of both authors till biographical facts, and the result of their common work. Discussing the process of transition of scientific knowledge, the authors consider the reception of the ideas of W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki during the process of perception and rooting of qualitative-interpretive sociology in Russia. Here, the ways of concepts and ideas transitioning themselves acquire significant interest, i.e., not only the translation of certain scientific works, but the very order of embedding ideas in the context of the ‘host’ scientific environment. More specifically, we consider the phenomenon of asymmetry (more Znaniecki, less Thomas), which accompanied the further scientific fate of both authors in the context of various national scientific schools, and primarily in Russia.

Regional and Ethnic Self-Identification of Representatives of the «Transitional» and «Post-Soviet» Generations in the European part of the Arctic Zone of Russia (case of Pomorie)

The paper deals with the research data on the ethnic, civil and regional identity of the youth of the Arkhangelsk region, obtained during the pilot sociological project in autumn 2021. The results of the survey are compared with the data of similar studies conducted in the region in the 2000s. The low inter-ethnic tension and the relevance of ethnic selfidentification are confirmed. The readiness of the «transitional» and «post-Soviet» generations to accept the formula of the Russian Constitution about the «state-forming people» and the corresponding «de-ethnization» of the concept of «Russian» is shown. Other issue of the paper concerns the theme of the «Pomorian revival». Project data show that in the youth environment this theme is deactivated, the majority attribute the «Pomors» to the Russian ethnic group, and the name «Pomorye» mainly means only the geographical space. Third, a high frequency of negative assessments of the regional economy, social sphere, public safety and labor market, which correlate with the migration readiness of young people, was noted. The destructive impact of these assessments on the stability of regional identity, treated as the basis of socio-economic stability in the Arkhangelsk region as one of the key regions in terms of Russia's national interests in the Arctic, is noted.

Secondary ethnographic analysis: Thinking about things

There is a fruitful tension in ethnomethodological work. On the one hand, real-world data are used to rein in analytical privilege. On the other, conceptual discussions necessarily take place in a more open analytical space. Describing settings in detail and thinking about things in the abstract are both essential components of the ethnomethodological project. What ethnographies might consist in complicates this picture. Garfinkel initially deflated the concept of ‘ethnography’, using it to refer to how all members of society make sense of their world. Sacks, on the other hand, initially construed his sociological project as a more rigorous form of professional ethnography. Ethnographic methods rightly remain an important tool for ethnomethodological analyses. They provide an empirical grounding for analysis and facilitate ‘thinking about things’ in a more open manner than some other forms of data. This paper argues that ethnographic analyses more generally can be used as ethnomethodological resources, (re)introducing the idea that others’ fieldwork and analyses are legitimate resources for ethnomethodological work. Some materials from Elijah Anderson’s classic ethnography A Place on the Corner are used to illustrate the possibilities taking this approach might offer.

Inheritance of cultural asset of the family: educational and professional paths of generations, biographical approach

The article analyzes the cultural capital of the family, as well as the ways of its transmission to the younger generations. The relevance of the problem is due to the need to develop human resources, especially educational and professional ones. The research questions were the types of cultural family capital and the peculiarities of its transmission, the influence of the teacher's profession in the field of preschool education on personal and intergenerational social mobility, the passage of educational and professional path by representatives of several family generations, the relevance of the biographical method. The project studied biographical interviews of parents of students of top-rated Russian schools. The collected empirical arrays allowed us to draw conclusions about three generations of the informants' family. In addition to the intergenerational analysis, a study of existing sociological projects was conducted that examined in detail the activities of teachers in the field of preschool and school education. The author presents the substantiation of several significant mechanisms of inheritance of cultural capital by the middle and younger generations of the family. The study of biographical materials was carried out using the domestic computer program Diskant. It is established that the profession of a kindergarten teacher has a positive effect on personal and generational social mobility. The main way of transferring family capital is the inheritance of value orientations for education and obtaining a profession in the field of highly qualified labor. An additional mechanism for the transmission of cultural resources can be considered a visit to cultural events and clubs. The relevance of the biographical approach in application to the problems of research is substantiated. The method provides extensive empirical material with the opportunity to delve into the understanding of texts. The limitation in using the biographical approach was the complexity of digital processing of primary sociological information.

Researching imaginaries of the future as a tool for engendering grounded utopias for individual and social transformation and empowerment in educational environments

This article is the result of a shared collaborative research project between the Oberstufen-Kolleg Bielefeld, the faculty of pedagogy of the University of Bielefeld and a research group based at the Open University of Catalonia (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). It presents and discusses a human, sociological and pedagogical project in participatory action research, in which we sought to follow Appadurai’s call for research as a human right and put it into practice. 
 The article shares and analyzes a pedagogical practice in which the work with imaginaries was rendered an essential part of the educative process, becoming especially important for students who felt they were somehow excluded from full participation in social life. Furthermore, the article provides ideas about the relevance of putting imaginaries into participatory research, to relate society’s members in shared research processes as well as the remarkable reciprocal effects that might result from these practices.

Let's Campaign for a Fairer Society in the Aftermath of COVID-19.

In this paper I ground a brief account of the impact of COVID-19 on the United Kingdom in an understanding of a decade of austerity politics from 2010 to 2020, itself a product of the advent and consolidation of post-1970s financialised or rentier capitalism. I argue that such an analysis is essential if realistic plans are to be laid for a “better”—understood here as a more equitable or “fairer”—society. I go on to consider the contributions that sociology can, and arguably should, make to this end. This involves a range of engagements from scholarship at one end of the spectrum to action or muckraking sociology at the other. In addition to plotting a role for sociology, I suggest a set of criteria for recognizing a “fairer society”; postulate a series of institutional reforms that might characterize the attainment of such a society; and outline and confront social structural, cultural and agential obstacles to its realization. A theme running throughout the paper is that the delineation and promulgation of the “good society” remains central to any credible—that is, post-Enlightenment reconstruction of - the sociological project.

The results of sociological research among preschool and school age children and their parents

The current Ukrainian population health status is characterized as critical. The article has analyzed the results of the sociological sampling among the children aged 0-14 and 15-17 years inclusively, as well as prevalence of diseases of the digestive system; the medical and social significance of influence of this pathology on the most substantial periods of growth and development of a child and duodenal ulcer incidence rate among children. Objective: to study the prevalence of the digestive system diseases, including duodenal ulcer among school-aged children in Ukraine. Materials and methods: sociological and process analysis methods were used. Results and discussion. The article presents the sociological sampling project scheme. The research comprised 597 children who live in cities and in rural area. We have presented the results of the sociological sampling of the first group of the children with the digestive system diseases, namely: 198 children, including 102 children living in cities and 96 – in rural area. According to the research program, we studied and analyzed the results of sociological sampling among the children in the Kyiv City and Kyiv Region and gave the recommendations on health improvement to the children with duodenal ulcer and their parents. Conclusion. The results of surveying the school-aged children with the digestive system diseases and other population categories, the study of their opinion will give an opportunity to prepare the further actions plan to prevent these diseases.

Зарубежное радиовещание в жизни советского студенчества

The article is devoted to the analysis of the sociological project “Young Intelligentsia of Russia” implemented by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Irkutsk in 1985. Attention in the work is paid to the reason for the actualization of this research in modern conditions. The reasons that forced the leadership of the USSR to organize this study are analyzed. The main objective of this project was to find out the prevalence among students of the practice of listening to foreign radio stations. The researchers paid great attention to the reasons that motivated students to this activity, which is frowned upon by the authorities of the country. The structure of interests of listeners of foreign radio stations was also revealed through their choice of appropriate headings and thematic broadcasts.

On decolonial revisions of modern social theory

This review essay discusses decolonial and revisionist approaches to the sociological canon, centring on a major new work, Colonialism and Modern Social Theory by Gurminder Bhambra and John Holmwood (2021). The challenge to ‘classical’ social theory and the demand to reconstitute the theory curriculum come in the context of increased visibility for wider decolonial agendas, linked to ‘fallist’ protests in South Africa, Black Lives Matter and allied antiracist organizing, and calls to decolonize public and civic spaces and institutions such as universities, effect museum restitution, and colonial reparations. The review identifies continuities and complementarities with Connell’s critique of the sociological canon, though Colonialism and Modern Social Theory takes a different tack from Connell’s Southern Theory (2009). Bhambra and Holmwood’s opening of sociology’s canon converges with Connell’s recent work to align a critical project of global and decolonial public sociology with a pragmatic programme for doing academic work differently.

Conscience and Conscious in the Global South: B.R. Ambedkar, Kwame Nkrumah, and Anticolonial Sociology

Abstract By reading Pan-African writing with anti-caste writing together, this article examines the uses of “conscience” and “consciousness” across Third World solidarity movements. By drawing out the relationship between “consciousness” and “conscience” in political writing, this essay reveals the intertwined intellectual genealogies of Global South political theory. This genealogy is indebted to sociological projects in the early twentieth century. This article focuses particularly on Ghanaian Pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah and Indian anti-caste activist B.R. Ambedkar. By connecting these the two thinkers, and by tracing their shared intellectual genealogies, I illuminate the sociological experimentation at the center of anticolonial philosophy. For early twentieth-century sociology, these were normative claims about “society” as a heteronomous and egalitarian collective. By tracing these experimentations through the Global South, I show that the most ground-breaking sociologists in the North Atlantic world were, in fact, anticolonial thinkers who used the field to reimagine human emancipation.

UNDERSTANDING BOURDIEU’S DISTINCTION: SOCIAL AND LITERARY CONTESTATION TO GAIN LEGITIMATE POSITION

This writing reveals the subtle domination in the area of literature and social practice which is illustrated through the practice of coffee consumption and also the claims of legitimate authors. Bourdieu examines this sociological space as a field of contestation, so he constructs his sociological project by mapping the type of social power in arena in which every subject wagers his capital to achieve a legitimate position. In the arena, each subject desires to get power either by way of embracing the rule that applies, doxa, or to fight with the practice of the new, heterodox. Following the existing rules are not able to change anything because it dictates the subject to be a disciplined subject. Bourdieu proposes the emerging heterodox because doing resistance to all forms of domination can give birth to the new alternative social structure and preventing the old one to remain in power. Social change is expected because Bourdieu's symbolic power as in symbolic capital tends to provoke symbolic violence. Having symbolic capital enchanting for its power to subtly dominate people with less capital. Oppression becomes natural due to everyday practice normalizing the oppression. shapes the taste of a certain class as class distinction. Bourdieu’s concept of distinction investigates a more sophisticated strategy in the social arena where every agent plays subtle intimidation and indeed domination.