Book
Социология восприятия риска: опыт реконструкции ключевых подходов
The article is devoted to the conceptualization of the idea of professional or occupational risk in the context of risk sociology. Assuming there is opposing epistemological positions for studying risk in sociology, the author identifies two approaches to the conceptualization of occupational risk: realistic and constructivist. In the first case, professional risk is interpreted as the likelihood of a real threat and possible damage to employees due to the impact on them of harmful production factors of different genesis. In the second case, professional risk is understood as possible decisions (actions) of an actor that are caused, on the one hand, by the framework of the profession’s «life world» (knowledge, skills, experience, norms). On the other hand the actor’s views on the possible costs/benefits are shaped in the course of professional activities. Author demonstrates the research perspectives and limitations of each of these approaches by referring to several examples from empirical sociological research.
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.