Russian Journal of Sociology

4-16

Authors: Georg W. Oesterdiekhoff

The Western world two, three or four generations ago manifested forms of the political life that is widely separated from these forms that prevail today. European and other nations often preferred authoritarian regimes to democracy, sustained colonies and imperialistic systems, tended to antisemitic and other prejudices, and led horrifying wars. The article shows that the so-called humanitarian revolution of the past decades, which has ameliorated our lives, exhibits psychological changes of modern humans measurable by modern psychological theories and methods. The cognitive-developmental approach or structure-genetic theory programme bases the historical anthropology and delivers the decisive theory to explain that what happened in history. The historical disciplines are requested to surmount the idea that the human being across continents and times has always had the same internal nature.

23-29

Authors: Diana D. Chelpanova

The article reviews the V All-Russian Congress of Sociology “Sociology and Society: Social Inequality and Social Justice”. It took place on October 19–21, 2016 in Yekaterinburg. The reports of leading Russian sociologists are in the focus of this paper. Presentations of this congress identified the limits of various types of social inequalities, determined the role of government in minimizing of social inequality, characterized a new kind of social inequality – a digital social inequality in Russia. The reports examined the regional inequality in the system of Russian higher education, social trauma affecting on different spheres of life. The participants discussed the future of sociology including possibilities of research forecast, actively debated on the political instability and the formation of collective action, social movements in conditions of social inequality. At the end of the congress the role of the ISA in the support of the sociological community was stressed, as well as the principles and functions of sociology in the modern world. As a result, potential vectors of international cooperation were identified and the potential of studies with the involvement of young Russian researchers was discussed.