SOCIOLOGY: PROFESSION AND VOCATION
Interview with Professor Sergey Golod
Professor Sergey Golod, the Head of St. Petersburg Sociological Institute, answers questions or JSSA editor Vladimir Kozlovsky about his scientific career and problems of Sociological Institute development in St. Petersburg. A selected bibliography of Professor Golod´s works is appended.
CLASSICS OF RUSSIAN SOCIOLOGY
Gutorov V., Guliak I.A. Gradovsky as a Scholar and Political Thinker
Gradovsky A. Society and State
In the article the main aspects of sociology and political philosophy of A.D. Gradovskij ? one of the most famous representatives of Russian social thought of the second half of XIX century - are analysed. The central point of Gradovskij´s thought was always the elaboration of conception of national state which had been incrusted organically in the structure of original theory of social progress. This theory was developed under the influence of reforms conducted in Russia by the king Alexandr II and his administration. By realizing in frame of this theory the main traditions and trends of both the West-European and Russian social and political thought Gradovskij has become the acknowledged spiritual leader of Russian liberal conservatism.
GLOBALIZATION
Amselle J.-L. Globalization: A Bigger Share or a Poorly Cut Slice?
The attempt is made to show how tightly the contemporary theme of globalization is related to functionalist ideas. Like all philosophies of modernity and all sociologies of modernization, the globalization paradigm with its hypothesis of "open societies" necessarily posits the opposite category of a "closed society", itself a traditional theme in anthropology. Far from referring to a natural characteristic of exotic societies, the notion of a closed society is, in fact, an anthropological construct. Since the invention of the Malinowskian method, this discipline has locked anthropologists and their informants inside a closed-off space. By decompartmentalizing exotic societies, we undermine the globalization theory?s very foundations.
POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY
Achkasova V. Political Myth-making as an Expression of Regional Interests
This article describes and analyses the process of regional political ideologies formation and the structure of ideological systems. Regional societies are in the beginning of ideologies construction and for this reason the main attention is paid to the particularities of mythoscreation as an early stage of the final ideological concepts creation.
Sokolov M. Structure and Logic of Intolerance of the Russian Right-wing Radicalism
In recent years the Russian right-wing radicals´ intolerance towards other ethnic and religious groups was scrupulously described by the students of Russian nationalism. But most of the proposed explanations of its origins referred to a version of the frustration-aggression model, claiming that the politics of discrimination, nationalist movement is struggling for, is just a reflection of individual deprivation of its members caused by the economic crisis. This paper proposes an alternative approach to investigation of the right-wing radicalism, based on reconstruction of the cultural models, underlying nationalists´ perception of social relationships. The results obtained by ethnographic study of one of the radical groups demonstrate that the Russian nationalists´ intolerance should be regarded as a deliberate political practice, determined by a definition of situation which is typical for the worldwide nationalist movements of the last two centuries.
Riegel K.-G. Rituals of Confession within Communities of Virtuosi. An Interpretation of the Stalinist Criticism and Self-Criticism in the Perspective of Max Weber?s Sociology of Religion
In his comparative-historical studies of religion Max Weber stressed the role that
communties of virtuosi played in the process of rationalization and modernization of
Western Societies. The Puritan virtuosi pursued their ultimate religious ends with an
astonishing single-mindness, subjected their daily lives to a regimen of self-control
and self-discipline in subordination to their desperate search for salvation, and also
revolutionized unintentionally the preindustrial, magical world of their societies.
This article operates the enlargement of the concept of the religious virtuoso to
the ideological virtuoso in order to describe and analyze important components of
the political religion of revolutionary movements. The close affinities between otherworldly
religious and revolutionary, inner-worldly and salvationist movements can be
demonstrated in the figuration of the Leninist cadre. The party of professional
revolutionaries required the unreserved devotion of the cadre virtuoso to the
revolutionary, salvationist principles and articles of faith of the movement. The
permanent search and fight against real or invented internal enemies resulted in
endless self-purifications campaigns confirming the exclusiveness of the party and
strenghtening its internal cohesion. Despite their apparent differences in respect to
the ultimate ends of salvation and to their anchorage in the world, religious communities
of virtuosi as well as their secular, revolutionry counterparts share sufficient common
structural characteristics to deal with them as one type of salvationist community of
virtuosi.
Special attention is paid to the transformation of the communities of virtuosi and
their rituals of confession under Stalinist "hierocratic domination", especially in the
context of show trials.
POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF RUSSIAN SOCIETY
Dmitriev V. Politically Active Personality in the History of Shapsug Ethnie (XIXth - XXth century)
This article focuses on particularities of political behavior in Shapsug (Black Sea Adygs) society in temporal limits, given by the direct interaction of Russia and North Caucasian peoples. Attention to personal features of political activity is conditioned by weackness of political institutions in Shapsug ethnie, originally connected with the level of social organizations of traditional society, but later associated with local institutions packed by subordination to Russian authorities. The article analyses the features of political personality in periods of mobilization of national consciousness (the first half and the middle of the XIXth century; 1920s and 1990s) and its reduction (the end of XIXth century and the beginning of XXth century; the middle of XXth century).
Karpov Y. Political Leaders in Chechnia and Daghestan at the End of the XVIIIth - First Half of the XIXth century. Tools and Methods of Getting Power
This article investigates the technology for getting political power in traditional mounting Caucasus societies. Four famous figures of the recent North Caucasian political history were chosen as an object of study. These are Shayhe Mansur and Bejbulat Taimazov, who led anti-Russian movement accordingly at the end of the XVIIIth and in the beginning of the XIXth century; and Imam Shamil with his famous naib Khadzhi-Murat. In Daghestan Men societies played the main role in the system of social relations. Thus, to get political power in society man should be an active member of such corporative structure. In Daghestan as well as in Chechnia "mystery" and "miracle" effects were used by becoming political leaders to transform power of leader to authority of power.SEMANTICS OF CULTURE
Popkov V. Stereotypes and Prejudices: The Impact on Intercultural Communication
The article considers the problems of stereotype and prejudice research in
intercultural communication. The focus has been made on stereotype and prejudice
formation and some modern approaches to their origin are considered. The functions
of stereotype and its role in intercultural communication are among the questions
under discussion. The problem of communication effectiveness with the usage of
stereotype is also discussed in the article. The attention is also paid to the matter
when stereotypes help and when they prevent effective communication. There is an
attempt to find the answer to the question why people use stereotypes while
communicating with the representatives of other cultures and if we can improve
stereotyping.
Special attention is given to the point of how to deal with stereotypes and prejudices
in the process of intercultural contacts.
Romanov P. The Cultural Symbols in Socio-anthropological Research of Organization
The organizational culture is a symbolic space and provides meanings for everyday interactions of employees and managers. This paper explores some ethnographic approaches to the study of organizational symbolism in Russian industrial organization.
CURRICULA AND TEACHING
The Conference on the Sociology of Education