No 3 (2025)

This article explores the “sociological imagination” concept within the field of sociology, particularly its role in theoretical work. Professions often claim unique knowledge and skills that grant them exclusive expertise. Sociologists, similarly, frequently invoke specific modes of thinking, such as critical sociological thinking and the sociological imagination, as essential to their professional identity and the comprehension of social reality. This study examines early interpretations of the sociological imagination by Everett Hughes and Arnold Rose in the 1960s. Hughes viewed it as a counter to over-professionalization, urging sociologists to explore beyond established patterns. He advocated for broad applications, from creating societal models to addressing specific problems. Rose critiqued C. Wright Mills’ concept, linking it to sympathetic introspection. He identified diverse types of sociological imagination tied to micro/macro perspectives, historical context, and analytical distance. Both underscored the importance of imagination in sociological thinking, offering insights relevant to contemporary challenges in the discipline and sociological education. The study advocates integrating the reading of “The Sociological Imagination” with training in analytical skills, using metaphors, diverse data, theoretical knowledge, and alternative approaches like Abbott’s lyrical sociology. The study concludes by noting that rigid requirements limit individual expression of imagination, narrowing the diversity of academic publications.

The article raises the issue of criteria for the expert activity by a scientific journal using the example of the journal “Sociological Studies” in the context of its role in modern reproductive processes in science. The criteria are understood from the point of view of developing professional control mechanisms and procedures that ensure the sustainable functioning and development of the scientific community. Three main criteria of expert activity are identified: the normality of the scientific knowledge production, scientific ethics and scientific communication. The introductory journal’s editorial articles from 2010 to 2024 are analyzed. Conclusions are drawn about the priority attention to methodological issues of publications and their relevance. Attention is paid to the journal’s communicative function as one of the main tasks of the publication in consolidating the sociological community. There have been changes in the discussion of the topics of these criteria in different periods. The issues of continuity and collegiality, as well as conceptual consistency in scientific publications, are common to all the identified criteria of expert activity.

Russian conservatism is considered in the article as the philosophical core of a new integrative ideological basis of Russian society, which has been constructed since the 2000s. The content analysis of Telegram channels allowed us to identify three main socio-political trends of conservatives, conventionally named: “white”, “red” and “green” For all these groups, the political ideal is concentrated in the historical past. For the “whites” – in the Russian; for the “reds” – it is associated with the restoration of the Soviet Union as a great leftist international power; the “greens” – see as their ideal a society with the strictest patriarchal-religious Islamic principles. The study revealed not only differences in the goals of each trend in relation to the desired future, but also a different interpretation of “traditional values.” Ideologically, these conservative movements are united only by negative consolidation – rallying against common enemies, although our research has shown that the images of enemies of the three mentioned movements are different in many ways. In this regard the article raised the question about the strength of the ideological union of modern conservative movements in Russia.

The article conceptualizes the “creative localities” and problematizes their role in the transformation of the urban environment basing on the materials of an empirical study. Creative localities are defined as new self-organizing forms of social space characterized by a certain localization and specific social interaction that trigger creative processes. Based on the results of an empirical study using qualitative interviews with representatives of creative localities, the essential characteristics of creative localities as a social phenomenon are clarified, the potential for their impact on urban environment changes both in physical and social terms is revealed, the conditions and risks for the successful development of the urban creative environment and the manifestation of youth subjectivity are analyzed. The conclusion is drawn about the dominant importance of self-organization and grassroots initiatives for the formation and development of creative localities. It has been revealed that the very emergence of creative localities depends on the ability of active actors to assemble a micro-group of like-minded people capable of supporting a creative idea, and their further development depends on the effectiveness of “cross-” interaction between various creative communities and achieving a balance between external support (from the government and business) and non-interference in the creative process.

In this article, we investigate the relationship between the components of cultural capital and lifestyle choices related to health of young people in Russia. The research is based on the data of the “Trajectories in Education and Careers” longitudinal study. The data come from the 11^th panel held in 2021 when the participants were at the age of 26 in average and had already completed their education and entered the labor market. To approach the research question, we apply latent class analysis with two-step estimation of the relationship between the latent classes and predictors. We identify three latent classes of young people in Russia. They are “doing sports”, “keeping unhealthy habits”, and “being passive”. We find that in general respondents with a large amount of institutionalized and embodied cultural capital are more likely to adhere to a healthy lifestyle. For them, the probability of being in the class of young people “doing sports” is higher. The same time, components of cultural capital show different relationship to the other two latent classes. The indicators of respondents’ embodied cultural capital, as well as their parents’ institutionalized cultural capital, contribute mainly to the distinction between the classes of people “doing sports” and “passive” in relation to their health. However, respondents’ own institutionalized cultural capital corresponds mainly to the distinction between classes of the youth “doing sports” and “keeping unhealthy habits”. We discuss the logic of these findings and what they tell us about cultural capital and lifestyle choices.

According to the system approach, the balance of intimacy and autonomy in relationships with parents contributes to successful development of personality. In the context of the diversification of the family institution, the question of the structure impact by the parental family on the well-being of children, including adult children, remains relevant. The results of an online study of 500 residents of Moscow and the Moscow region, citizens aged 18–34 who are not married and have no children, are presented. Less than a third of the respondents live with their parents, and for the majority this is rather a forced option. According to two thirds of adult children, parents participate in their lives as much as they would like. However, one third of fathers are not involved enough in their children’s daily lives. Pressure, excessive control of mothers, imposition of their opinions, desire to dictate, misunderstandings, indifference and even infantilism of fathers were noted among the causes of conflicts. Disagreements with parents also arise in the normative sphere. Parents expect the marriage of adult children and the birth of grandchildren earlier than their children are ready for this. Living with their parents is an additional source of conflict for young women with their mothers, and for young men with their fathers. Subjective psychological well-being is operationalized in the context of hedonistic and eudaimonistic approaches. The indicator of subjective well-being is based on indicators of life satisfaction, locus of control and self-esteem. Statistically significantly more young women and men with low levels of well-being believe that their father is not involved enough in their daily lives. There were more young women with a low well-being index among those who lived only with their mother during the graduation period and did not know their father, and more young men with a low index among those who lived with their stepfathers during this period. The necessity of attracting state information and financial resources for the timely separation of adult children from their parents is substantiated.

The processes of erosion (diffusion) of the social structure of late capitalism are considered in the article as symptoms of the post-capitalist tendencies development. The structure of the main classes of capitalist society is undergoing various structural shifts. There is a fragmentation of the main classes into increasingly narrow socio-professional groups. At the same time, there is an intertwining of different class characteristics within the same socio-professional group, as well as the performance of different socio-class functions by the same persons. There are also emerging trends that affect many socio-professional groups, giving them certain common properties. In this sense, the formation of the precariat is characteristic is based on the acquisition by representatives of various socio-professional groups of such a common property as instability of employment and income. But the most fundamental shifts in the social structure and in the social position of various social strata of capitalist society are associated with the increasing role of creative activity. This trend is brought to life by the spread of modern sophisticated technologies, the growing knowledge of the intensity of production, and the need for capital to maintain a high intensity of innovation processes. Such shifts lead to the formation of contradictions between the conditions of a person’s self-realization in creative activity and those narrow limits in which this activity is subordinated to the interests of self-growth of capital. At the same time, a significant part of a person’s creative potential is used within the framework of the so-called “useless sector” – a significant part of what is called “creative industries” is focused not on the goals of human development, but on manipulating market and consumer behavior in order to get more effectively appropriate profits.

The review is devoted to the analysis of the collective monograph “The Life World of Workers: Sustainability versus Precarity,” published in 2024. This work completes a long-term collective study on the problems of precarization that started in 2012 under the leadership of Zh. T. Toshchenko. The books published over the years from different angles described that specific characteristic of work (and in the last two monographs – of everyday life of the population as a whole) in modern Russian society, which is known as precarization. The new monograph presents a broad picture of the life world of Russian workers, interpreted within the theoretical framework of the concepts of precarization and the sociology of life. The work describes the contradictory socio-economic, socio-political, spiritual processes that have developed in the context of digital transformation and have led to the emergence of such negative phenomena as the precarization of labor, the alienation of the population from management and culture, and the growth of social inequality. The review argues that these consequences of contemporary development in Russia can be better understood as phenomena of late capitalism.