Том 25, № 1 (2025)

The article considers the concept of social contract as a consensus between the state and the people. Based on the works of T. Hobbes, D. Locke, J.-J. Rousseau, C. Montesquieu, German social thought, in the context of reflections on the “legitimacy” of R. Nozick, J. Rawls, M. Olson, A. Auzan, the author argues that social contract is consensual in nature and communication between the government and the people is necessary to develop such a consensus, focusing on public organizations and political parties as traditional conductors of the interests of the people in interactions with the state. Based on sociological studies, the author makes a conclusion about Russians’ low trust in political parties and non-participation in public organizations, which indicates that public organizations and political parties poorly represent the interests of citizens in interactions with the government. This situation is determined by the change in the type of society: the Russian society turns into more flexible and atomized, strong ties are replaced by weak ones (even the family as the most traditional institution goes through flexibilization and atomization). In these conditions, public organizations and political parties created in the previous period cease to be adequate intermediaries in the interaction between the authorities and the people, and new communication channels develop - Internet communities and direct appeals of citizens to government bodies. The Russian society actively interacts with the authorities in these forms but weakly in classical ones, which refutes the idea of the people as a passive subject, the spread of political absenteeism, the underdevelopment of civil society and public organizations as an expression of public interests and indicates the need to develop concepts that correspond to a new type of society.

In the contemporary conditions of rapid technological progress and changes in the labor market, lifelong education becomes the most important factor in the reproduction of human capital. In Russia, the problem of adult participation in lifelong education programs has become increasingly important due to the need to adapt professional competencies to changing economic and technological realities and to the importance of advanced training to maintain competitiveness in the labor market. The article considers the participation of the Russian adult population in continuing education, identifies key barriers to this participation and compares the Russian situation with the leading countries in terms of adult participation in training programs. The study is based on the expert survey: 25 semi-­formalized interviews were conducted, which allowed to identify the opinions of specialists from various fields on continuing education of adults. The authors refer to their mass survey and the WCIOM all-­Russian data to provide quantitative confirmation for qualitative conclusions; thematic analysis of interviews and statistical analysis of survey data were used. Thus, the main reasons preventing active participation of adults in lifelong learning programs are cultural-­value attitudes, financial constraints, and shortcomings of the institutional environment. Despite the growing interest in additional education, Russia still lags behind leading countries in terms of the scale of adult participation in continuing education. To change the situation, it is necessary to develop a general educational culture, reduce financial barriers, and improve institutional conditions. Such measures would increase the competitiveness of the workforce and develop the country’s human capital.

In recent years, domestic violence has become one of the most discussed social problems. In the Russian public space, there are heated debates about the necessity of an additional law on the prevention of domestic violence, the limits of state and public organizations’ intervention in family affairs, and the value content of the concept “strong family”. At the same time, there are debates about the importance of criminalizing or decriminalizing domestic violence in the field of political struggle between liberal and conservative forces. Despite such a broad public interest and high-­profile cases of domestic violence covered in the media, this issue is poorly represented in the Russian scientific research. The article outlines the possibilities of sociological monitoring of public opinion on this problem. The authors compare indicators of the all-­Russian surveys conducted in 2019 and 2024 and analyze official statistics on domestic violence from 2015 to 2023 to make conclusions about the Russians’ perception of domestic violence, their personal experience, value orientations and social attitudes when facing such a situation. Domestic violence is perceived by most respondents as a significant social problem, complex in nature and implying not only physical and sexual violence against a family member but also psychological and economic violence; therefore, the role of the psychological factor in the family increases. In general, domestic violence is largely hidden in nature, so, to assess its scale, the authors suggest to use a combination of indirect factors such as the share of withdrawn statements of victims, people’s assessment of the prevalence of domestic violence in their immediate environment (among neighbors, friends and relatives).

Today most countries experience significant changes in the age structure of population - a transition from the youth dominance (associated with high birth and death rates in the past) to aging (due to declining birth and death rates) [46]. The age structure plays an important role in the national economic development: a shortage of labor determines its slowdown, while an excess of the working-­age population (the so-­called “demographic dividend”) determines its acceleration [21; 25]. Numerous empirical studies of the relationship between the age structure and social-­economic development have shown that the economically active population (15-64-year-­olds) has a strong positive impact on the growth of GDP per capita, and what is more important is not the overall increase in numbers but positive changes in life expectancy, age structure, etc. The authors mention three mechanisms of the demographic impact on social-­economic development: the impact on the labor market, the impact on savings and capital accumulation, the impact on education coverage and human capital. Vietnam ranks 15th in the world in terms of the population size and belongs to the group of countries with the “golden structure” of the population in terms of the share of the youth (69% of the working-­age population aged 15-64) but also demonstrates aging trends [8] that are expected to reach their maximum by 2035 [5]. The Vietnamese government implements many measures to take advantage of the “golden period” (development of human resources, attraction of investments, creation of jobs), but the average economic growth rate of 6.21% for 2011-2020 did not allow Vietnam to leave the group of countries with low middle income [49] and high rates of aging [12; 15], which determines the need to study the relationship between population growth and social-­economic development in the context of the age structure. The article is based on the data from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, the 1989, 1999, 2009 and 2019 population censuses and other demographic materials and forecasts.

Over the past decades, the desire for self-­development and success have become an integral part of the Russian society, and personal development trainings have become a tool to realize this desire, as its participants and organizers believe. However, along with professional trainings conducted by certified specialists (psychologists), there are also those that can cause such serious harm to health (mental and physical) that they are called “psychocults” (as a form of sect). The youth as a group striving the most to achieve success in life and high-­status positions are also most susceptible to involvement in psychocults often hidden under the neutral names of personal development training. The article aims at identifying the ideas of the Moscow youth (on the example of the RUDN students) about personal development training. The authors proceeded from the hypothesis about the positive attitude of students to personal development training, which creates a potential danger of involving young people in psychocults “pretending” to be such trainings. Based on the works of Russian and foreign researchers, the article outlines the main characteristics of personal development training, including those that are similar with psychocults. The empirical part of the article is presented by the results of two focus groups and a sociological survey on a representative quota sample (N=500), which indicate a high level of students’ awareness about personal development trainings and marathons of desires and the youth’s interest in participating in them. Based on the empirical study, the authors present a “portrait” of the participant in personal development trainings and differences in students’ perceptions of trainings, marathons and sects: marathons of desires, rather than personal development trainings, are associated with psychocults (sects) due to common negative connotations and similar “portraits” of their participants (led, lonely, unsuccessful), which indicates high risks of the youth involvement in psychocults pretending to be harmless personal development trainings.

The concept of frames by I. Goffman is actively used in studies of religion and religiosity in foreign sociology and social-­cultural anthropology. Particularly numerous are studies of media frames assimilated by society and influencing the adoption of management decisions at the state level. A small part of studies concerns religious everyday life and the image of religion in the mass consciousness. Researchers not only use Goffman’s concept of frame but also the methodological principles of his other works (the concepts of stigma, everyday interaction, presentation of oneself to others), which proves the heuristic potential of Goffman’s intellectual heritage provided its comprehensive perception. Russian researchers also refer to Goffman’s frame analysis, but such works of Russian authors are not numerous or diverse. These are mainly projects in the field of social policy and linguistics, while studies in sociology of religion and religious studies based on frame analysis are quite rare in the Russian scientific discourse. Most of them are theoretical in nature and, as a rule, use the terminological apparatus of the frame concept rather than its methodology. The author’s analysis of theoretical and empirical works using the ideas of frame analysis shows the possibilities of the concept of frames in religious studies. The feature of the research based on this scientific category is the need for a detailed elaboration of the methodological part of each specific study to adequately reflect the specifics of the chosen disciplinary/subject field.

The era of longevity, which characterizes many countries, including Russia, requires a revision of ageing and the role of the elderly in society. The idea of the older cohort of the population as passive beneficiaries, creating an additional burden on the labor market, social services, and health care systems, is gradually replaced by a more inclusive approach based on the principles of active ageing, empowerment for the elderly and their social integration. One of the ways to respond to the challenges of ageing societies are educational programs for the elderly, which can provide the older cohort with necessary knowledge, skills and competencies, thus strengthening its human potential. The article focuses on the development of a theoretical framework for the analysis of education for the elderly in Russia, i.e., “silver ecosystem” of educational programs for the elderly, which is reconstructed from the works of U. Bronfenbrenner and the structuralist-­constructivist approach. Following the logic of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory, the authors consider education for the elderly as a number of interconnected subsystems with an emphasis on actors at different levels, contributing to social development and well-­being of this social group. The structural-­constructivist approach allows to analyze education for the elderly in the context of power and inequality and as a field in which resources are unevenly distributed. The authors apply the new conceptual framework to the regional policy analysis to reveal bonds, boundaries and multidirectional processes at different levels of the “silver ecosystem”, which determine contradictions between ideals of the older generation’s active social involvement and the uneven distribution of resources for social integration of the older generation.

With the development of information technology, digitalization has become a global trend of social development - technologies and knowledge are updated at an incredible speed. Under digital transformation, universities, as the foundation for training specialists and the engine of scientific-­technological progress, should adapt to social changes, keep up with the development of technologies and apply information innovations to improve their management system and human resources. The article presents the general vector of development of the higher education management in China under digital transformation by reviewing its trends in Chinese universities, analyzing their current situation, problems and prospects for introducing digital management elements. Four Chinese higher education institutions of different levels were selected as illustrative cases, and the “typical examples of the development and application of the educational management informatization tools using digital technologies in 2022-2023” prepared by the journal Informatization of Education in China and defined by China’s Ministry of Education were used as the sampling frame. The results of the study showed that under the global digital transformation, Chinese universities have used social resources to complete the upgrade of their information systems, infrastructure, security and safety systems in five key areas, but there are still some challenges. In general, with the information support of the digital management platform, Chinese universities have begun to shift from the experience-­based management to the big data-­based management.

The article is a review of the book by Zh.T. Toshchenko Fates of Social Contract in Russia: Evolution of Ideas and Lessons of Realization (Moscow; 2025. 844 p.). The book describes the emergence of the ideas of social contract as an agreement between the people and the state, often of a latent nature, which were first developed by thinkers of Enlightenment. The author considers various theories of social contract, revealing peculiarities in its contemporary interpretation and fulfillment and focusing on the main characteristics of social contract, its essence as a unity of goals of all participants striving for mutual trust, balance of interests and constant feedback. The author provides a review of the contemporary interpretations of social contract and of the new options for understanding practices of its implementation in the social-political life. The main part of the book presents the analysis of the Russian/Soviet history of the social contract implementation at different stages under the contradictory development of the country, also explaining the forms of participation of the main social groups in the social contract. Finally, the author considers the essence, content, and evolution of the social contract ideas in the 20th - 21st century, their transformation and lessons of the social contract implementation at different stages of the contemporary society development.

The article is a review of the book Civil Service in Russia in the 19th - Early 20th Century. Documents and Research (compilers, scientific editors: A.A. Belykh, A.L. Dmitriev. Moscow: “Delo”, 2024. 680 p.) on the history of civil service in the Russian Empire from 1802, the introduction of the ministerial system, to the revolutionary events of 1917. The key trend of this period is modernization or rather its attempts to weaken/change the significance of ranks due to the educational factor under the increasingly complex tasks of social governance. Almost half of the book is made up of official documents which together with analytical “sketches” and testimonies of contemporaries show the main factors in the evolution of the civil service: training of civil servants, discussions of supporters and opponents of the abolition of ranks, the growing “social democratization” of the bureaucracy. The book is a sociologically useful historical reading for researchers of public administration, social differentiation and development of the education system in a specific historical period, since it combines primary documents with biographical method (presents a collective portrait of the highest level of public administration in pre-­revolutionary Russia) and examples of the quantitative-­qualitative approach to the description and typology of the Russian bureaucracy on various grounds.

In the year of the 300th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Year of the Family in Russia, the V All-­Russian Forum with international participation was held in the Krasnodar Region (Sochi) with the support of the RUDN and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. This Forum has been held since 2019 by the Institute for Demographic Research of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Forum aimed primarily at assessing demographic situation at the national and international levels in 2023-2024 and at developing new approaches to the implementation of demographic policies for increasing birth rate, forming motivation for having many children and healthy longevity, regulating the labor market and migration processes. The plenary and sectional sessions consisted of presentations by the heads of federal and regional government bodies, leading Russian and foreign scientists in the field of demography, and of the “Demographic Encyclopedia in Persons. Vol. 1. Pre-­Revolutionary Period” and the National Report for 2023 “Demographic Well-­Being of Russian Regions”. Two thematic issues of the journals Higher Education in Russia (No. 8) and Issues of Management (No. 3) were published for the Forum.

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