Volume 24, Nº 4 (2024)

The article is devoted to the problem of the crisis of the state power legitimization in advanced capitalist society studied in the critical social theory of J. Habermas. Today, against the background of ongoing tectonic shifts in the world order, the Western states of advanced capitalism are facing the problems that are becoming increasingly diffi cult for the ruling elites to solve. The categories such as the state and democracy are under the threat of loss of legitimacy. The crisis of legitimacy of the late capitalist social order is by no means a new phenomenon for social science. J. Habermas's refl ections are based on concepts and principles developed by him within the framework of critical social theory. He argues that the main contradiction of the capitalist order remains the private appropriation of state wealth; in terms of the discursive model of practical rationality: the suppression of generalized interests through treating them as private. As a result, political decisions do not recognize a rational consensus. The stability of the capitalist social formation depends on the continued eff ectiveness of legitimation, which does not stand up to discursive scrutiny. The central problem is the lack of a regulatory framework for public consent. J. Habermas is convinced that it is possible to ensure normative agreement on the intersubjective basis by referring to the concept of undistorted communication. It is possible to establish some kind of regulatory agreement, from the point of view of which the activities of the state can be given legitimacy. Not that this is likely to ensure the legitimacy of a liberal capitalist state; rather, the needs and interests that would be the basis of a normative agreement and that could be established in a situation of undistorted communication would point the way to the transformation of a capitalist society, which models of domination cause people to systematically err about their motives and interests.

The problem of social inequality among young people is particularly acute due to the contradictory impact on the younger generation. That is it stimulates its mobility, but is intensifi ed due to the limited resources of the region; families, provoke social tension and various deviations, including birth rate restriction. Therefore, it is important to study the demographic aspects of social inequality. The article presents the results of a sociological study conducted by the questionnaire method in Saratov in 2023. According to the probabilistic quota-territorial sample, 550 young Saratov residents were interviewed. The results were processed in the SPSS program. The study showed that gender largely determines the frequency of encountering social inequality – girls face it more often than boys. This is manifested in the availability of property, diff erent starting conditions, the availability of education and the cost of clothing. Young men are more likely to pay attention to a person's mannerisms, the possession of power and the availability of health care. As for girls, the main factors of social inequality are social policies, unfair distribution of income, unemployment, external circumstances, and the impracticality of people. For young men, it is a low level of income, culture and lack of desire to work. Social institutions are of considerable importance for the inequality of young Saratov residents. For girls, these are the institutions of religion, public organizations and state authorities. Young men pay more attention to the infl uence of family institutions, education and the media. Age largely determines the life trajectory and inequality of young people. Young people include access to socially signifi cant benefi ts, place and living conditions, assessment of their material living conditions in comparison with their environment. As they grow older, the importance of such factors as the level of income, power resources, the ability to manage people and circumstances increases. But the importance of place, living conditions and assessment of one's material conditions decreases in comparison with the social environment. The older the respondents are the more suspicious and hostile young people are towards socially unequal people. 

В статье представлен анализ трансформации текстов как механизмов социальной коммуникаций, в частности в цифровой социальной реальности. Трансформация социальной реальности актуализируется в разных сферах человеческой жизнедеятельности – социальной коммуникации, самоидентификации, социокультурных кодах и ритуалах. Любой текст (высказывание), будучи социальным действием, является институциональным конструктом и коррелирует со структурой социальной реальности его генерирования. Социологический ракурс исследования текстов имеет основой сочетание двух методологических подходов – солидаристского и критического, предполагающих, тем не менее, первичность социальной структуры и вторичность языка (текста). В контексте методологии символического интеракционизма показано, что смысл любого текста обусловлен социокультурным контекстом. Теория речевых актов рассматривает все тексты как совокупности социальных действий (речевых актов), адекватная интерпретация которых детерминирована их соответствием установленным социальным нормам и традициям. Современная социальная реальность цифрового сообщества характеризуется неопределенностью, нестабильностью и множеством рискогенных ситуаций. В этих условиях все тексты как социальные конструкты также изменили свои функции. Особенно это касается текстов, обеспечивающих социальную коммуникацию в виртуальной реальности Интернета. Смещение коммуникативной функции текста в сторону прагматики обусловило изменение текстовых структур и появление нового формата – гипертекста. Специфика гипертекста актуализируется в его нелинейности, фрагментации и неопределенности. Сетевая социальная коммуникация как опосредованная, удаленная от коммуникантов во времени и пространстве среда оперирует гипертекстами, содержащими, кроме первичного текста, комментарии оценки, ссылки и аллюзии. Это свойство гипертекстов (интертекстуальность) обеспечивает широкомасштабную социальную коммуникацию между бесчисленным количеством коммуникантов. Социальные последствия функционирования гипертекстов заключаются в обеспечении и поддержании социального равенства между пользователями интернет-пространства.

The aims of the work are: to consider the dynamics of socio-economic development, to analyze the place of the military-industrial complex in the growth of economic and social indicators, to assess the influence of the defense industry in solving problems in the fi eld of defense capability, to identify the mechanisms of this infl uence, to evaluate the impact of military spendings on increasing industrial performance. The methods of comparative analysis, content analysis and expert opinion were used. The importance of the military-industrial complex in the growth of socio-economic indicators of the Russian state was shown. The systemic properties of the defense industry as a factor of economic progress are outlined. The need to develop the scientifi c, technical and production potential of the defense industry and increase the competitiveness of domestic enterprises, especially in the important import substitution, is substantiated. It was revealed that the growth of the country's socio-economic indicators in recent years is associated with the growth of industry, which was positively infl uenced by the defense industry, expanding production at the enterprises of the complex. There is an increase in external challenges, and accordingly, the need to strengthen the country’s defense capability is growing. The defense-industrial complex can be considered as a factor in socio-economic growth and insurance the country's defense capability, which makes it logical to focus on it in order to increase the pace of development of the Russian state. The direct and indirect mechanisms of the infl uence of the defense industry on the economic growth and ensuring defense capability were shown. The defense industry can play a key role in the stability and protection of the Russian social system and the further growth of economic indicators. To achieve this, changes are taking place in state policy in the fi eld of training specialists, which are the keys to ensuring security, sovereignty and competitiveness.

The article actualizes the need to study the behavioral characteristics and psycho-emotional portrait of consumers of the market of physical education and wellness services. The main attention is paid to the study of the formation of consumer preferences when choosing services, their needs and expectations from the services provided, as well as the infl uence of various factors on the decision to receive services from this market segment. The author conducted a sociological survey using the questionnaire method and presented the results obtained at the Saratov State University in order to develop methodological approaches to the analysis of the problem of lifestyle, health and attitude to health. The survey was attended by undergraduate students (N = 213) aged 17 to 25 years (target sample; selection criteria – occupation, age, region of residence). During the analysis of the survey data, it was suggested that the self-assessment of the health status of modern youth can be defi ned as low. It was revealed that, despite the awareness of the impact of bad habits on human health, almost half of the surveyed youth have harmful habits. The analysis of the obtained data confi rms that pricing in the market of physical education and health products and services mostly belongs to the premium sector, which limits the audience of this market.

The object of this research were representatives of so-called “digital” generation of Russian youth (people born in the fi rst decade of the 21st century), and the subject was media practices common among them. Despite the fact that within Russian scholarship, quite a lot of attention is traditionally paid to the problems of media consumption by young people, various aspects of political dimension of the formats of interaction with the media widely spread among young people are rarely in the focus of attention of scholars. In this regard, the goal of the study was to identify the features of media practices of “digital” generation of Russian youth and their infl uence on political consciousness of this social group. Empirical basis of the analysis was the results of surveys conducted in 2022–2024 by Russian Public Opinion Research Center, Public Opinion Foundation and Levada-Center (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia), as well as independently conducted by employees of the Department of Political Science, Saratov State University named after N. G. Chernyshevsky, online surveys and focus group interviews, during which several issues not covered by federal sociological services were clarifi ed. The article presents a brief overview of the latest research on the media practices of modern Russian youth, highlights the features and trends of media consumption by the “digital” generation, i.e. personalization of consumed content, priority of online forms of information dissemination, “situationality” and ritualization of news consumption, a high level of technical literacy of information consumers, an increase in the scale of digital escapism, multi-screen communication, etc. Specifi c practical recommendations are formulated on the possibilities of correcting media practices and transforming media consumption by young people in order to form more balanced and objective assessments of political reality.

The article presents a comparative analysis of the extra-rational component of the development and implementation of state policy in the aviation industry in the Soviet period and in modern Russia. The main conceptual components of the extra-rational block of state sectoral policy are noted, as well as the main tools and mechanisms used by actors in decision-making to popularize the industry among the population. Despite the wide range of relevant tools used to support the development of the aircraft industry among the population and the growing interest in the fi eld among young people, it is concluded that there is insuffi cient work in this area in the context of creating works of mass culture, popularizing the field through the images of historical and modern heroes.

The article examines basic approaches to state migration policy of the Economic Community of West African States’ members. Interest in this issue is due to the need of modern political science to find new and improve existing means, methods and technologies for regulating migration fl ows of the population. Models for managing population migration in West Africa are complex and multi-level state political and legal mechanisms, the study of the functioning of which allows us to assess the eff ectiveness of these models. Based on this, the article solves the problem of identifying the key directions in the formation of state migration policy in the ECOWAS countries and their justifi cation. The factors determining directions and trends of migration policy and main forms of its implementation in modern conditions are considered. The emphasis is on revealing political-institutional and ideological components of the state migration policy of the ECOWAS countries. The role of subregional and regional institutions in the process of state regulation of population migration is determined.

The purpose of this article is to consider various scholarly interpretations of the relationship between the nature of political identity of different age groups and ensuring national security in modern Russia. Based on the analysis of relevant segment of domestic scientifi c discourse, it is concluded that the problem of the relationship between general civic identity of the younger generation and ensuring national security in modern Russia is not singled out as a separate research area or a self-suffi cient scientifi c problem. The author substantiates that this perspective is very important from both theoretical and practical points of view, since the solution of all accumulated problems in Russian society largely depends on the positioning of Russian youth in relation to the state and the main directions of its policy.