One of the acute issues of contemporary Russian reality is understanding the youth and their ambivalent attitude to work. Based on a series of empirical studies examining Russian university students` work values, the author concludes that the main dilemma of future professionals lies in the choice between personally beneficial (presumably highly paid and prestigious) and socially significant labour market positions (not always rewarded with status and money). Developing the theory of embeddedness in networks and institutions, the author derives and substantiates a conceptual apparatus for describing the mechanism of choice formation in favour of one of these two approaches to work. The following concepts are introduced to scientific discourse: (1) agents supporting market orientation towards work (influence of parasocial connections and psychological legitimation of individualistic work values); (2) anchors that form values oriented at social utility (rootedness in family and professional communities, strong-weak ties and models of virtue as the basis for collectivistic work values` formation); (3) the perception of institutional problems as symbolic and positional, hindering or implying the active participation of young people in their professional activities. The proposed concepts draw on classical sociological sources (G. Simmel, E. Durkheim, M. Weber, M.Scheler, K. Polanyi), as well as contemporary approaches in economic sociology (network, sociocultural, and institutional). The author emphasizes the social determinacy of young people’s choice of future career path, which stems from the nature of their relationships with the others and institutions, which shapes their ways of perceiving the existing structural conditions as limiting or motivating to act.
This article examines Martin Greiffenhagen's concept of "technocratic conservatism." It provides an overview of the key tenets of the social theory held by its proponents and outlines the role of Carl Schmitt, as well as the specific ways his ideas were appropriated by conservative intellectuals in the 1960s. The central focus of the analysis is Rudiger Altman's "formierte Gesellschaft"("formed society") project, which addresses the crisis of political representation and the problem of political decision-making within a technocratic ("conservative-technocratic") order. The article investigates Altman's attempt at a "Schmittian" resolution for this crisis. Conceding the impossibility of reviving a "genuinely political" state under 1960s conditions, Altman nevertheless insisted on the persistence of a domain for sovereign governmental action. He sought its foundation in the objective constraints (Sachzwang) of industrial-technocratic society itself, seeking through it to justify a Schmittian model for legitimizing sovereign political decision-making via the category of authority. Altman's proposed synthesis was thus intended to resolve the fundamental crisis of the "technocratic conservative" order, which was being challenged by a resurgent left-wing political activism. The present research is part of a series of publications examining the history as well as philosophical and political foundations of German post-war conservatism and the German
The article analyses the content of the recently emerged research direction of human-machine communication (HMC) as a new thematic area of interdisciplinary communication studies. We evaluate the contribution made by researchers united by the Human-Machine Communication (HMC) journal project to understanding the process of formation of a new configuration of communication space. All articles published throughout the entire period of the journal's existence from 2020 to 2025, comprising 11 volumes and 95 articles, were analysed. A conclusion was reached regarding the emergence of a new thematic area, formed in the interdisciplinary field at the intersection of the sociology of technology, social communication studies, and artificial intelligence technologies, and aimed at studying the interaction of human and nonhuman agents. As a result of the HMC project, the study of human-machine communication has evolved into several thematic areas: the specifics of communication between heterogeneous communicants; human perception of machines as agents of communication; ethical aspects of communication; manifestations of gender and status; usage of emotions; the problem of trust to devices; emergence of autonomy and agency. The contribution made by the HMC direction includes the substantiation in the latest publications of the need to transition to the & laquo;Act - Mean - Relate & raquo; paradigm as a new perspective on the ontological factor in shaping the communication configuration of heterogeneous agents.
Book review: Chan A.S. (2025) Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future, Oakland: University of California Press. — 262 p. ISBN 978-0520402843
Review of the book: Simms B. (2023) Die Rückkehr des Großraums? Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. — (Carl-Schmitt-Vorlesungen, Band 6). ISBN: 978-3-428-19022-5
