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Political Philosophy
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9–34
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After Michel Foucault, Bentham’s Panopticon became a widely recognized image of the modern state. The article focuses on some aspects of this strong metaphor that were not taken into account by Foucault or most other researchers. The question of the sources of light in the Panopticon, also understood metaphorically as a sine qua non for the exercise of power and for its legitimacy at the same time, allows to describe such variations of the state’s political form that is based on either a “political religion” (adjacent to a totalitarian phenomenon), or secular (adjacent to liberalism) and based on the “civil religion” (the most complicated of all). A key variable here is the mode to interface the political and the sacred. If in the pre-modern era the openness of political forms for influences emanating from the sacred was presumed, in modern states the political reaches autonomy; the political becomes emancipated from the sacred, and occupies its place in the most radical scenarios. The author argues that in the future, the highest sustainability will be demonstrated by those variations of the state political form in which this autonomy is not completed, or where the connections between the political and the sacred are maintained, albeit at a reduced level, that is, those in which “civil religion” is practiced. |
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35–73
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The concept of “national identity” is one of the most popular constructs linking political theory and policy agents’ requests intended to maintain socio-political order in general, and to legitimize policy in particular. This aspect of legitimacy as explored through the national identity issue engages our attention in this review. The authors explore this aspect as applied to the problem of classical political order, focusing on state capacities and policymaking, accompanied rhetorically by a national identity discourse and based on common values, beliefs, and models of behavior. The review starts from a skepticism towards state capabilities and its claim to monopolize reproduction of a socio-political order which appeals to a volatile idea of a “nation.” This is an obvious case for political philosophy and the social sciences, and also a strong example to illustrate the complexities that states face in the “colonizing” of a public sphere. The complexities are particularly expressed in a growing uncertainty of all statutes of identity-politics agents. The article emphasizes that precisely because of the “colonization” strategy, a “nation” eludes a state that loses its reference points such as “order” or “stability.” The authors conclude that a policy of such a style described above will always be emasculated and fail to provide any kind of social integration. |
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74–84
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Luс Boltanski visited Russia in September, 2019, to support the publication of the Russian translation of his book Mysteries and Conspiracies: Detective Stories, Spy Novels and the Making of Modern Societies. It was his second visit to Russia, where he delivered three lectures. The first lecture was dedicated to Mysteries and Conspiracies. The second lecture was dedicated to his last book Enrichment: A Critique of Commodities, which he wrote with Arnaud Esquerre. The third lecture focused on the relationship between the critical sociology of the Pierre Bourdieu school, and the pragmatic sociology of critical capacity promoted by Luc Boltanski together with his long-time collaborator, Laurent Thevenot, within their Group of Political and Moral Sociology. In this review of the two different approaches, he revisited the theme of his 2009 book On Critique: A Sociology of Emancipation which proclaimed the then-new theoretical synthesis. Mysteries and Conspiracies, published three years later, became the first demonstration of the practical implementation of this new model. On September 14, 2019, Luс Boltanski had an extensive talk with Oleg Kharkhordin wherein he clarified some issues of these lectures. The first part of this interview which was devoted to Mysteries and Conspiracies was published by the Russian on-line edition of gorky.media. Here, we publish the second part of this long interview covering the late writings of the famous French sociologist, the issues explored by his book On Critique, and the beginnings of his academic career when he was an active participant of the Pierre Bourdieu school. |
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85–105
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The article analyzes the data of sociological research obtained by the Life Line (LL) method among schoolchildren and students of secondary vocational education in small mono-towns of the Sverdlovsk region. Particular attention is paid to the heuristic capabilities of this method in the study of mobility and the construction of narratives of the past, present, and future of young people. The article pursues a twofold goal: first, to subject the experience of using LL to methodological reflection, and secondly, to discuss some research findings obtained using this method. A total of 230 drawings from students and schoolchildren from Krasnoturinsk, Revda, and Pervouralsk are included in the analysis. A brief review of the method’s development is given, along with the rationale for the authors’ (less-formalized) version. The typology of LL, constructed according to the criteria of a formal structure, helps to analyze the meanings of (non) linearity, paying attention to both the prevailing logic and the variety of configurations. Classical and modern sociological theory has firmly-rooted ideas about the linearity of social change. At the biographical level, movement and the course of life are also described, taking linearity and direction into account. Most of the drawings of our participants adhere to linear logic; however, a great variety is found inside of it, and various options for deviations from the standard arrow from the past to the future are considered separately. Elements of the sketches testifying to territorial identity are of interest. The use of local names and toponyms gives the drawings a specificity and richness, and demonstrates the local competence of the participants. The life line method allows, in the authors’ opinion, to demonstrate the diversity and the relative isomorphism of biographical visualizations at the same time, placing it in wider social contexts across a region, country, or even the world. |
Papers and essays
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106–138
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The article explores a distinct social form — recommendational relations — in which an agent (a recommender) serves for another (a recipient) as a source of information on a third one (a recommendee). Our vocabulary of suspicion suggests that in a situation like that, a recipient may fall a victim of collusion between the recommender and the recommendee. The readiness of the recommendee to trust the recommendation depends on relations in the triad and, specifically, on (1) the moral distances between them; (2) the recommender’s awareness of being a source of information on the recommendee; (3) the recommender’s preoccupation with other roles; (4) the possibilities of the recipient’s retaliation, and (5) the presence or absence of conditions for cooperation between the recommender and the recommendee. The character of distances between the agents (physical, cultural, or moral) determines which mechanisms of generating trust the recipient is most likely to rely on. It is further argued that some conditions on which a recipient may rely on from a recommender involve the latter’s externalization of their thinking processes and the leaving of material traces of the decision-making algorithm, as such traces may serve as a basis for the recommender’s retaliation. It is further argued that the degree of externalization is responsible for the overall dynamics of the signal system towards inflation (the decline of a particular signal’s “purchasing power” without the decline of its information contents) or devaluation (the decline of a signal’s ability to mark possession of certain qualities). Empirically, the article relies on the yields of a comparative study of academic markets, symbols of academic status, and the application of formal performance measures in five countries. |
«Game of Thrones» in Sociological Perspective
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139–159
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The paper is a review of a number of writings in the humanities and in social science devoted to George Martin’s series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire, and the television-serial drama Game of Thrones. At the beginning, we analyze the researchers’ most heuristically-fruitful intellectual reactions to Game of Thrones, that is, specific products such as texts that may be of interest to social theory. The main part of the article considers the institutional and discursive order of George Martin’s saga through the research lens of the classics of modern social theory, such as Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and Max Weber. The paper then briefly touches upon the religious situation in Westeros, whose system of values and norms is paradoxically characterized by both post-secularism and a surge of religious fundamentalism. As a next step, it analyzes the political theology in the Game of Thrones, which is considered within the perspective of a transcendental legitimization of politics as proposed by Carl Schmitt. In conclusion, the paper considers Westeros’ cognitive landscape which consists of various competing epistemic sets (maesters, septons, white walkers, etc.), and structurally reproduces the situation in the societies of late modernity. |
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160–182
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The article is dedicated to the analysis of the mechanisms of the interaction of power, money, and knowledge in the context of the pre-modern society described by George Martin in A Song of Ice and Fire. The author notes that Martin created an almost unique picture of a society roughly corresponding to Europe of the late Middle Ages, deprived of the state, but drunk with its intuitions and forebodings. In the framework of this society, personal loyalty, love, physical strength, and beauty, that is, the qualities inherent in most of the main characters, become the main values. However, the future turns to other people; the dwarf Tirion Lannister cares about the welfare of the common people, the eunuch Varis personifies the power of knowledge, and the financiers Petir Bailish and Ilirio Mopatis represent the power of money. Finally, Daenerys Targaryen, after the death of her husband and the birth of her dragons, also becomes not so much a real woman as a living symbol of the upcoming new world order. Her attributes are the absolute power represented by the dragons, and the complete equation of the citizens of the future state, symbolized by the army of impeccable eunuchs. Thus, the confrontation between old and new, and between feudalism and modernity in Martin’s novel is not only at the level of socio-political constructions, but also at the level of aesthetic opposition. Moreover, the gain, most likely, remains with the ugly new times. |
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183–192
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In the narrative of Game of Thrones, a fantasy television drama, well-known elements of fantasy-media products successfully blend with their new forms. These elements connect to a specific emotional regime which refers directly to the emotional cultures of contemporary societies through its pessimistic coloring. Cultural pessimism stems from the complex, problematic situations in Europe and America which shape the context in which the television drama originated, and provides a glimpse into the social and political subconsciousness of these societies. The article attempts to reveal these situations by studying the actions and motivations of the drama’s characters, as well as the dramatized means and social framework of the action. The analysis shows that Game of Thrones can be read as a form of a cultural reworking of the experiences of the social and political upheavals in European and American societies. Cultural pessimism is a recipe for the success of this serial drama, but ultimately there is little that can counteract the destructive attitudes that dominate the cultures of contemporary Western societies. |
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193–208
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The classical novels of the 19th century corresponded with early modern national society. At the beginning of the 21st century, serials have replaced classical novels in structuring the form of social reality. The narrative structure of Game of Thronescorresponded with postclassical, postcolonial social reality. The co-existence of different genres, the different types of co-existence between “realistic medieval” and mythological reality, the co-existence of different narrators without a dominant point of view, and the asynchrony of episodes and the dramatic unexpected turns of plot are specific features of forming non-linear space and time. The specific structure of narrative is connected with the specific position of the author and the relationship between the author, the narrators, and power. The depreciation of the ground mythological structure of narrative is a cause of the inflation of catharsis, and induces unlimited series events or an unfinished principal plot. Features of the narrative of Game of Thronesare correlated with the postclassical situation of the co-existence of different social phenomenon that deny each other, but are forced to be connected. |
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209–226
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The article is a study of the ethical and political motives of the behavioral strategies of the main female characters in the cycle of novels of A Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin. The author of the article identifies three such characters; Caitilin Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, and Cersei Lannister. The article considers their gender and social identity, compliance or non-compliance with the stereotypes of behavior expected from them, as well as the life-building practices they choose, ways to justify the chosen behavioral strategies, and the reasons for their success or failure. It is then assumed that the fulfillment of one’s duty and service, to one’s business, family, or people are no less important for the realization of oneself and the achievement of goals (including imperious ones) than the possession of other resources such as strength, the power of the army, chivalrous valor, cunning, or wealth. This is especially true for those who seek to possess and retain political power. This does not mean that those who are kind and noble do not perish or emerge victorious from conflicts. A correct understanding of the goals and meaning of the ruler’s power is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition. Since it is necessary, one who does not possess these qualities does not have a chance for a long-term retention of power. However, owning only it and nothing more gives the applicant for power an undeniable advantage. It is also significant that the gender of the character does not give any long-term advantage in the political game, which is shown in the series of Martin’s novels. The author of the article convincingly proves that either a man and or a woman can be an ideal ruler with equal success in Martin’s world. |
Sociology of Sport
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227–255
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This paper employs the multi-scalar approach towards mega-events (Flint, 2003; Peck, Theodore, and Brenner, 2009; Barret, 2013; and Trubina, 2019) to examine the results of fieldwork conducted in Ekaterinburg in the spring and summer of 2018, namely before, during, and after the 2018 World Cup. The multi-scalar approach allows the consideration of how the supra-local and supranational processes crystallize in complex urban systems, and their connections with other systems. The article addresses the question of the dynamics of the global, the national, and the local scales in the implementation and perception of the mega-event. Since the existing studies of the World Cup in Russia tend, as a rule, to focus on isolated topics and the national scale of the event’s preparation, the article expands the focus of existing research. It demonstrates “the game of scales” in the citizens’ perceptions of the World Cup. They, on the one hand, consider this mega-event as a part of the national strategy of development, including seeking investment, while on the other, they are aware that it is the transnational players (FIFA) and the federal and regional governments that predominantly benefit from the event. The authors argue that the respondents’ judgements, on the one hand, are strongly informed by nationalist and geopolitical propaganda, while on the other hand, stem from the respondents’ understanding of the global influences and the significance of economic logic, including the importance of the branding of the nations and cities. The citizens see both the political strategy devised to “force to show respect” and the economic driver of the national and urban growth in the mega-events. They, at the same time, are aware that it is the citizens who will be paying for the sporting festival with their taxes. The mega-events are ambiguous undertakings: while potentially open and bringing joy to everyone, they facilitate a social and geographic inequality. |
Cultural sociology
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256–282
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The article presents the relationships between the architecture of military hospitals and the changes that have taken place in the organization of hostilities, the attitude towards the army and the soldier, as well as the development of medical technologies. The case of military hospitals highlights the way architecture reflects many insights about the importance and value of each functional element in architectural design and facade solutions. Several of the crucial factors determining the change in the architecture of military hospitals were the shift in the ideology of war and the role of the soldier, the transformation of dominant views concerning medicine and hygiene, and the development of military equipment and weapons. A military hospital has several characteristics specific to this type, which include the closure of the system, the uneven nature of the incoming flow of casualties, and the specific community which makes a military hospital a machine for returning combatants to service. Through the changes in the architecture of military hospitals, it is possible to see the development of medicine, the change in the role of the soldier, the doctor, the division into the classes of “soldiers” and “officers,” military and civil, the attitude to discipline and the organization of treatment, and the development of military technologies. The timeline of the study covers a period of 313 years, during which the architecture of the hospitals has undergone five major changes corresponding to five temporal stages explicated by this paper. Materials for the study include field diaries and notes, historical references, archival materials, books and articles on Russian history, military history and medicine, as well as interviews with military doctors, historians, and gunsmiths. |
Review essays
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283–304
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This article discusses some of the theoretical foundation of the sensemaking approach introduced by Karl Weick within the fields of organizational psychology and organizational theory. Weick, Sutcliffe, and Obstfeld wrote that “Sensemaking involves the ongoing retrospective development of plausible images that rationalize what people are doing” (2005: 409), or, in more general terms, making sense out of what is happening in order to reduce uncertainty and to act upon it. For this purpose, according to Weick, an individual deals with two questions: “What is going on? and, what should I do about it?” Answers to these questions and their following implications in the individual’s actions depend on the seven characteristics of the sensemaking: the individual’s identity, retrospective, enactment, social activity, ongoing [events and flux of experience], cues, and plausibility. Weick offers a “navigation of social space [of organization] with cultural maps in hand”, and draws inspiration from the analysis of jazz improvisation. His works, still lacking attention in Russia, offer an instrument for both crisis situations with dramatic “loss of sense” and quite common everyday events. Weick’s ideas were broadly developed within research on communication, identity, language, narratives, power, and other aspects of organizational activity. At the same time, sensemaking is believed to be one of the main theoretical inspirations for the processual approach in organization studies, which is focused on organizational becoming, or organizing. |
Book reviews
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305–317
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Book Review: Luc Boltanski, Arnaud Esquerre, Enrichissement: une critique de la marchandise (Paris: Gallimard, 2017). |
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318–327
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Book Review: Judy Wajcman, Vremeni v obrez: uskoreniye zhizni pri tsifrovom kapitalizme [Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism] (Moscow: Delo, 2019). |
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328–338
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Book Review: Vadim Radaev, Millenialy: kak menyaetsya rossijskoe obshchestvo [Millennials: How the Russian Society Changes] (Moscow: HSE, 2019) (in Russian). |
In memoriam
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