Социологическая теория: вызовы и возможности российской социологии

Социологические исследования. 2021. № 11. С. 12–23.

Sorokin P. S.

The article discusses the state and prospects for the development of contemporary
sociological theory. The current crisis is associated with the processes of “de-structuration”, which bring
to the fore the problem of “(transformative) agency”, which has not yet received adequate elaboration
in social knowledge. Sociology, in comparison with other sciences, may play a leading role in the
scholarly development of this problem. However, in order to fulfil its potential, sociology requires
a significant revision of several common theoretical postulates related to the problem of “structure/
agency”. First, it is necessary to revise the thesis concerning the “secondary nature” of “action” in
relation to “structure”. Second, develop a theoretical picture of the world that combines the idea of
the relative, albeit declining, stability of social formations with the thesis of the real transformational
potential of “agency”, which is empirically expressed in the emergence of new and changing existing
social forms. Thirdly, it is necessary to develop theoretical approaches to understanding the processes
of potential formation of “(transformative) agency”, taking into account both the non-deterministic
nature of the latter and its dependence on a wide range of different institutional contexts, which, in
turn, are transformed by it. Russian sociology can make an important contribution to solving these
problems, relying on the baggage of conceptual ideas developed over a century and a half of its history,
as well as on the unique and rich empirical context of contemporary Russian society.

Keywords: глобальный кризис, sociological theory, российская социология, global crisis, теоретическая социология, Russian sociology, de-structuration, transformative agency, деструктурация, трансформирующая агентность