Article
Проблема «структура/действие» в XXI в.: изменения в социальной реальности и выводы для исследовательской повестки
This article addresses traditional for social thought question of “structure/agency”
relations in the context of current problems of socio-economic
development at the global and national levels. The focus is more on general social theory. The key thesis
of the present paper is that, in the context of negative trends in socio-economic dynamics and significant
increase in the pace of social and technological change, the phenomenon of “de-structuration” takes
place implying that in various domains of social life (economic, political, cultural e.a.) structures are
more and more subject to change thus opening opportunities for “transformative agency” and creating
new institutions that may potentially contribute to positive change in socioeconomic development.
However, authors suggest that dominating approach in sociological research is insufficient to address
these issues. It is demonstrated that human capital theory and, in particular, the T. Schultz’s idea
about the “entrepreneurial element” of human capital, may be useful for theoretical elaborations and
practical solutions responsive to challenges in socioeconomic development. Rich heritage of the Russian
sociological tradition may help renovate theoretical and methodological toolbox of sociology.
This study identifies how country differences on a key cultural dimension—egalitarianism— influence the direction of different types of international investment flows. A society's cultural orientation toward egalitarianism is manifested by intolerance for abuses of market and political power and a desire for protecting the weak and less powerful actors. We show egalitarianism to be based on exogenous factors including social fractionalization, dominant religion circa 1900, and war experience from the 19th century era of state formation. Controlling for a large set of competing explanations, we find a robust influence of egalitarianism distance on cross-national investment flows of bond and equity issuances, syndicated loans, and mergers and acquisitions. An informal cultural institution largely determined a century or more ago, egalitarianism exercises its effect on international investment via an associated set of consistent contemporary policy choices. But even after controlling for these associated policy choices, egalitarianism continues to exercise a direct effect on cross-border investment flows, likely through its direct influence on managers’ daily business conduct.
This paper analyzes the role of education in economic growth with special focus on countries with high participation in tertiary education. The practical challenge that this conceptual paper is trying to address is that global economic growth is decreasing in the last decades – especially in developed countries.
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The problem of employment is one of the most fundamental in the development and functioning of human society. Therefore, the concept of "work" as a specific kind of human activity is rightfully occupies a central place in the most philosophical, sociological and economic theories. This article discusses the problem of correlation between the concepts of "work" and "employment" and their place in human activities. For many centuries, the concept of "work" and invest in its value has changed significantly, it transformed itself with human labor. In this work, the author, using a variety of sources, makes an attempt to define the conceptual and terminological apparatus. Through comparison of general scientific methods, the author divides the concept of "work" and "employment". Based on the analysis of classical and non-classical labor theory is the assumption that the transformation of society in the labor employment society. While the society of the past could be described as the labor society, at the more recent stage it became an employment society. In addition, the author suggests perceiving the work acitivy from three different perspectives: socio-philosophical, sociological, and economic.
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Several approaches to the concept of fatherhood present in Western sociological tradition are analyzed and compared: biological determinism, social constructivism and biosocial theory. The problematics of fatherhood and men’s parental practices is marginalized in modern Russian social research devoted to family and this fact makes the traditional inequality in family relations, when the father’s role is considered secondary compared to that of mother, even stronger. However, in Western critical men’s studies several stages can be outlined: the development of “sex roles” paradigm (biological determinism), the emergence of the hegemonic masculinity concept, inter-disciplinary stage (biosocial theory). According to the approach of biological determinism, the role of a father is that of the patriarch, he continues the family line and serves as a model for his ascendants. Social constructivism looks into man’s functions in the family from the point of view of masculine pressure and establishing hegemony over a woman and children. Biosocial theory aims to unite the biological determinacy of fatherhood with social, cultural and personal context. It is shown that these approaches are directly connected with the level of the society development, marriage and family perceptions, the level of egality of gender order.