The article is devoted to the radical transformation of the structure of knowledge in modern economic sociology and managerial theory, to the transition from slender hierarchies of ideas (the top of which consists of a small number of axioms, and the base of which consists of multiple specific recommendations) to the postmodern market of concepts. The authors made a comparative analysis of such transformation in economic sociology and managerial theory, revealed general regularities and specific factors that determined the difference between the scientific fields of these science. The latter include: 1) subjects conducting scientific research (in managerial theory, along with scientists, managers, consultants, people somehow connected with business were engaged in such practice), 2) a terminology of sciences (in managerial theory, a specific language for communication between managers and employees was actively created), 3) the use of marketing and PR-technologies to promote ideas. The totality of these factors determined a special “landscape” of the subject areas of economic sociology and managerial theory.The article concludes that despite the existing problems caused by multiparadigmality, the emerging “flexible” format of socio-humanitarian knowledge opens new opportunities for creativity in rapid changes of social reality, obsolescence of classical approaches to its cognition, as well as the realization of the variety of phenomena and processes in the field of economics and management.In such situation, each scientific team should choose its own special place in the exhibition of ideas, create its own “exhibits” attractive to the scientific community and the general public. Among the variety of topical and demanded research directions, the article identifies three key thematic blocks reflecting the scientific priorities of the Department of Economic Sociology and Management of Moscow University: 1) institutional changes and institutional context of socio-economic and managerial processes, 2) aging population and digitalization as key factors of economic and management transformation, 3) socio-economic processes and phenomena in the mirror of digital communication.

In recent decades, the Russian education system has been constantly reformed. Its current state and problems cannot be understood without identifying the subject initiating and carrying out these permanent changes. Such a subject is an innovative bureaucracy - a specific type of bureaucracy that serves innovative processes and creates social and organizational routines from them. This bureaucracy managed to make a conveyor of innovations, which often moves in a circle - without beginning or end. The reforms have become pendulum and repeat at certain intervals. The article considers numerous consequences and excesses of the innovative bureaucracy’s dominance in the higher education management, which are determined by this bureaucracy success in replacing the real, socially significant goals of the higher education system with indicators that can be quickly achieved and reported as if for the public good. The harsh administrative pressure of the innovative bureaucracy leads to the constant updating and combination of standards (although not all their content can be standardized), to an increase in reporting (including in electronic, online form) and in teaching load. The lack and ambivalence of goals and the non-stop projects of changes hinder the formation of institutional matrix to meet the contemporary challenges and determine destabilizing processes in the education system. The authors argue that an institutional approach to the higher education management can change the situation, since it focuses not on administrative orders and formal goals but on establishing norms and rules for the education system self-development. Thus, the efficiency of the education system should be evaluated by the society and the state and not by representatives of the innovative bureaucracy, who strive to preserve the innovation conveyor. The principles of post-industrial management should be applied in the higher education system, replacing the bureaucratic approach to the implementation of innovations.

The relevance of the research topic is determined by the fact that China has entered a new stage of its development – the bulk of the population is concentrated in cities. Until recently, migration to cities and active urbanization were system-forming processes in Chinese society. In the post-industrial era, the situation changes significantly and requires sociological understanding. The country's accelerated industrialization in recent decades has brought millions of people into the cities. A stereotype has formed according to which success in life can only be achieved in the city. In many ways, migration developed spontaneously; people moved to cities in accordance with fashion, rather than rational considerations. As a result, the culture of urban settlements suffered noticeable damage. There are now areas populated by people who were unable to settle in the city and were limited in their ability to return to the village. The country’s leadership has formulated a new policy aimed at integrating urban and rural areas. It is based on three social priorities: 1) slow down migration from villages to cities; 2) rationalize migration flows, taking into account the need for the development of industrial enterprises and the cities where they are located; 3) create opportunities for migration from cities to rural areas. The most important direction in the implementation of such a policy was the creation of city-regions, uniting several cities (in some cases including one metropolis) and the surrounding countryside. In this case, the infrastructure of cities gradually spreads to the rural outskirts and then covers the entire city-region; in the same time created in rural areas industrial enterprises and service organizations slow down traditional migration to cities and cause reverse migration flows.

More than forty years passed since the start of the reform and opening policy in China, which made millions of peasants move to the city. Urbanization has become one of the most important social processes in China, which helped the country gain a powerful economic potential based on the accelerated industrialization. Social-economic development is impossible without the expansion of cities and their populations. Until recently, cities have been centers for developing human capital and ensuring economic growth. However, urbanization has negative consequences as it leads to an outflow of workforce from rural areas, thus threating their social development. To confront such a threat, the Chinese government introduced a new type of urbanization for the simultaneous revival of rural areas. These two national strategies may seem opposite in terms of goals and objectives: the first stategy aims at developing cities and improving urban living conditions; the second strategy aims at developing rural infrastructure; but both strategies have a common goal - to ensure social modernization with Chinese specificity, which implies harmonious development and urban-rural balance. The article aims at identifying social, managerial and economic features of the new urbanization policy in China as a two-pronged strategy of the simultaneous development of urban and rural areas. The implementation of this new type of urbanization is to solve a number of problems of internal migration, since peasants who have not managed to arrange their lives in the city cannot return to the countryside for different reasons. Local authorities of both cities and villages struggle to increase the size of their population, which determines conflicts and ineffective management decisions in many Chinese regions. In many cases, there is a clear discrepancy between the interests of society as a whole and the interests of regional administrative bodies implementing social-economic policies. China needs to solve these problems to ensure sustainable urban development while improving living conditions in rural areas.

The current confrontation between Russia-China and the West requires a study of civilizational differences that determine national identities and attitudes towards social-economic values. This confrontation has deep cultural roots; thus, the Russian-Western intense rivalry in the 18th - 19th centuries was based on different perceptions of social reality, different value orientations and priorities in economy, politics and other spheres. Sociologists and social philosophers have studied factors that determined civilizational differences between non-Western and Western societies, namely the Russian world and the Anglo-Saxon world for decades, emphasizing their confessional differences, fundamentally divergent geopolitical interests, opposite political systems and so on. In the social-economic perspective, property rights are a significant basis of civilizational differences. The West has always considered its clear stand on property rights as the only possible. However, this position can be based on either economic considerations or moral criteria. Such differences are reflected in inheritance systems, although sociologists rarely focus on them. The division between heirs in equal parts complies with the moral standards of our society and is known as the path of ‘communal good’. Another way is to transfer the greater part of property to one member of the family in order to avoid its fragmentation, which is reasonable in the economic perspective but not always morally acceptable; this is the path known as ‘rational evil’. Thus, inheritance systems are among the most crucial civilizational differences between Russia and the West. The civilizational analysis is fundamentally important under the current confrontation between the West and Russia- China, and the position on private property and inheritance system determines civilizational differences. In Western Europe, the right of primogeniture was in force for a long time, and its cruel laws dictated that all real estate and most of the other property was inherited by the eldest son. This rule contributed to the earlу development of capitalism based on wage labor. On the contrary, in Russia, China and many other non-Western countries, the inheritance was divided among all children. Although it was disadvantageous for the social-economic development, it did not contradict conventional moral standards and did not destroy family relationships. In post-industrial societies, the institutional context has radically changed and the division of property among relatives does not

The process of socialization continues throughout person’s life, but at different stages of development, individuals give preference to different social practices. With age, the importance of various types of practices changes. In a postindustrial society, there are significant changes in the criteria for choosing and configuring social practices by people of the “third age”.The article presents the original structure of social practices for analyzing the aging of the population in modern conditions. The authors identified three types of social practices: procreation practices, production and labor practices, as well as supra-natural practices. They can complement or substitute each other, as well as overlap each other. In different historical conditions and cultural contexts, these relationships between these practices change significantly.With regard to individuals, the authors propose to use the short names of the three types of social practices — family, work and leisure. The most obvious way of replacing and complementing these social practices is manifested at different stages of an individual’s life - in childhood, adulthood, and old age. Until recently, reaching the retirement age presupposed the termination of labor practices. Today, more and more retirees can, should and/or want to continue working. This basic change has had a significant impact on the interrelation of social practices in the “third age”. At the intersection of work and leisure practices, educational programs for pensioners began to actively develop, which until recently was perceived as an “exotic”. Family practices are also changing for working pensioners: they are increasingly able to provide financial assistance to children.In the postindustrial society, the leisure practices of pensioners have become extremely diverse. Along with those which have already taken their place in the life of older people for a relatively long time (attending various kinds of cultural events, sports and travel), practices related to active participation in social and political life, as well as a healthy lifestyle, began to develop.The triad of social practices proposed by the authors makes possible not only to identify peculiarities of modern pensioners’ life strategies, but also to determine the dimensions in social work with them that require improvement.

Based on the data of the All-Russian survey of pensioners (February 2022), the article reveals their opinions on working in retirement, reasons for continuing work, problems when changing jobs, attitudes to new forms of employment, and life priorities. The article continues the analysis presented in the article “Employment of the elderly: Social imperatives and barriers in contemporary Russia” (2022; 22 (1)). The most important factor affecting the life strategies of the elderly in the post-industrial society is their increasing involvement in labor activity. The survey showed that the basic incentive for working in the older age is additional income. In depressed regions and during crises, work is one of the possible means for survival of both pensioners and their families. However, under the growing well-being of working pensioners, social motives and incentives for self-realization become fundamentally important. Differences in the pensioners’ motivation to continue their labor activity are determined by both personal characteristics (gender, age) and local social-economic circumstances (place of residence). Thus, Moscow pensioners, who get city allowances and feel less poor than pensioners in other regions, express special opinions on a number of issues. Life strategies differ significantly by gender: retired women are less satisfied with their status as non-working pensioners and are more willing to use new forms of employment, which may lead to more active employment of women in the future. More than a third of pensioners, contrary to stereotypes, are ready to work remotely. Most pensioners are not ready to become selfemployed, but many start to consider this form of employment and admit its benefits. To improve their social role, pensioners propose to develop volunteer and educational projects in which they could share knowledge and experience with the younger generations, and to hold events that would show the elderly’s contribution to the development of society.

В статье исследуется структура системы непрерывного образования в России, установлено, что одной из важнейших проблем реформирования национальной системы образования является ее адаптация к запросам лиц среднего и старшего возрастов. В настоящее время наличествуют серьезные входные барьеры к получению ими высшего образования, а содержание и организация образовательного процесса не соответствуют запросам возрастной аудитории. Авторы приходят к выводу, что государство должно рациональным образом стимулировать работодателей и самих граждан получать дополнительное образование не только в рамках государственных структур, но и в частных образовательных центрах, корпоративных университетах. При этом разработка государственных образовательных программ для взрослых требует серьезного предварительного анализа адекватности получаемых знаний жизненным стратегиям людей.

Статья посвящена анализу взаимодействия высшего образования и рынка труда в России. Выделены общекультурная и прагматическая функции высшего образования и показано преобладание первой в российской истории. Рассмотрены прерывность образования и непрерывность рынка труда как процессов и возможности их синхронизации в плановой экономике. Современные реформы высшего образования оценены как неудачные попытки приблизить высшее образование к рынку труда, в результате которых разрыв между ними только увеличился. Описано своеобразное отношение россиян к высшему образованию. Сделаны выводы о необходимости сохранения исторически сформировавшихся образовательных ценностей, возвращения к специалитету и подготовке студентов по традиционным научным направлениям в сочетании с развитием частных образовательных центров и стимулированием работодателей к профессиональной адаптации выпускников вузов.

From a sociological point of view, mergers and acquisitions of companies are specific types of integration between social systems. The unions of countries are an analogue of these processes at the macrosocial level. There are a number of important similarities between these seemingly different unifying processes. Like countries’ unions, associations of companies can be voluntary or involuntary (friendly or unfriendly). Unification may not threaten the interests of the lower levels of the social system, but may cause fear and opposition from the elites. Finally, the specificity, ease and effectiveness of associations depend on the institutional context in which they take place.The most important institutional difference between associations of countries and associations of organizations is the prohibition on the violent seizure of states (in accordance with the principle of inviolability of borders) when invoking and even approving hostile takeovers in the market economy.Participation management as an implementation of the general trend towards democratization of organizations in the post-industrial era is also one of the elements of the institutional context of mergers and acquisitions. Its three components — capital, sharing, profit sharing and participation in decision making — transform the unifying processes in a specific way. In general, it becomes easier to carry out mergers and acquisitions, since in the conditions of participation management and self-government of independent groups (teams); the formation of a new social system is not a clash of the previously existed hierarchies of power, but the addition of new participants in the intra-organizational market.

Based on the expert survey of the Russian HR-managers on the employment of the elderly (the project Specifics of employment and career of the elderly in contemporary Russia was conducted in November 2020 - January 2021), the authors present the ideas of HR-managers on the problems in the employment of the elderly and strategies to solve them in the current Russian conditions. In the post-industrial society, older generations can, want and often need to work. The main motives for their employment are not only economic - the need to have an additional income (urgent need for money, feeling of financial independence, need to help children), but also social motives (fear of losing a proactive lifestyle, loss of social status and ability to keep social networks). According to the HR-specialists, older workers have many positive qualities for employment; however, some of these qualities are considered as the elderlys willingness to accept any (non-prestigious and low-paid) job. Educational programs for older workers are underdeveloped in Russian organizations: even if there are such, they are formal or created by public employment services. Experts are positive about the states support for the employment of older people and consider it a primary condition for improving the situation. At the same time, experts support traditional administrative measures that require some budget funding. The survey identified age discrimination as the most important problem of the elderlys employment as based on the stereotypes of HR-managers. Solving this problem seems to be the most important condition for improving the employment of older people in Russia - by developing educational programs, improving the institution of mentoring (in direct and reverse forms) and fair assessment of the older job candidates.

The article deals with the current trends and trends in the development of the general theory of management. The thesis about the systemic influence of related sciences — psychology, sociology, rhetoric-on the theory of management is substantiated. The author identifies the cognitive and institutional reasons for this influence and provides a sociological assessment of the symbiosis of these scientific disciplines within the postindustrial management paradigm.

This article presents an analysis of research results on two categories of workers and job candidates - the youngest (under 25 years old) and the oldest (retired and pre-retirement). These age group cohorts are under the greatest pressure in the Russian labour market: the greatest difficulties in getting a job, age discrimination, etc. Paradoxically, these groups show not a difference but rather a similarity in their value orientations. They often experience latent and obvious discrimination from HR managers. As a result, in many respects these groups tend to have similar views about the labour market and their "life chances" to build a career and maintain income stability. The younger and older age groups are ready to interact with each other, but stereotypes about old age (prevalent in the country) make this process difficult. State policies that support certain age groups in the labour market often intensify intergenerational conflicts rather than hinder them. The Corona Virus pandemic has significantly affected the position of the youngest and oldest people in the labour market, putting them in a situation where they cannot apply for good jobs and have to accept any work.

Humanity has always perceived uncertainty as an extremely negative characteristic of the environment. With a certain degree of convention, the entire development of civilization can be viewed as a struggle against uncertainty. And by the 2020s, people had acquired a powerful weapon for this struggle — information and communication technologies. They have created unprecedented opportunities to monitor and predict the development of a huge number of objects (or/and subjects). However, as is always the case in the development of society, clear success is coupled with serious problems generated by it. Minimizing uncertainty turns into total control over people. A new type of totalitarianism is emerging. In many of its features, it is similar to its predecessor of the twentieth century, but it also has its own characteristics. Whereas the “old” totalitarianism was built around the protection and implementation of ideological values, the new totalitarianism is based on managerial imperatives and the desire to avoid uncertainty. If within the framework of the “old” totalitarianism the subject of control was only the state with its specially designed structures, in the new totalitarianism people are controlled not only by state bodies, but also by corporations. The most important feature of the new totalitarianism is that modern technology begins to consistently destroy the lacunae of human freedom in all spheres of social life, and above all in the economy. The planned economy of the twentieth century could not completely subordinate the people’s economic behavior to a single center. The lacunae of freedom were used by a lot of people, who managed to produce and trade independently from the state. Today, humanity faces a difficult choice — either to continue to get rid of uncertainty, making society even more totalitarian, or to realize the positive aspects of uncertainty and begin to fight against the new totalitarianism.

Changes in the ways and forms of joint activity are usually evolutionarily: society changes and begins to produce people capable of reproducing it. First of all, these are changes in the social role of the worker, which is performed today in a completely different coordinate system, under uncertainty and constantly changing rules of the game. There are the following new trends in the labor market: the disappearance of mass employment and development of precarious employment, the replacement of traditional labor relations with contractual ones, an increase in the workers autonomy, and the transformation of preferences in the field of career building. At the same time, the role and demand for project activities in almost all areas of society are increasing for such activities can satisfy the needs of the contemporary person, including his interaction with other people. The project is not just a mechanism for achieving a specific goal, but a universal way of organizing the life world, which contributes to the emergence of special types of social interaction and individual self-realization. The project way of life, project thinking, and project perception of reality are developing. The project as a social phenomenon becomes an organizing principle not only in professional activity, but also in everyday life. The authors use the method of sociological typification which consists of identifying a type (ideal, social) that combines the most important characteristics of people belonging to a particular group. To explain the combination of these characteristics, the authors consider the social context of their development. The conducted analysis allows to identify a new social type - the project worker with a special combination of professional and personal qualities.

S ociology is an unusual science. Many authors call its current state “paradoxical”, other authors speak about the crisis of this science. The article presents sociology as a project of the modern era. This interpretation can explain many of the contradictions and eclectic results of its development. S ociology as a project initiated by O. Comte was to combine social philosophy and empiricism. The latter was represented by socio-economic statistics and surveys, which were carried out in accordance with common sense by representatives of the state and other people. The project was aimed to create from these elements, different in nature, an integral science, built on the principles of natural sciences, i. e. representing a single hierarchy — from the most general ideas to concrete calculations. This project failed. The article discusses the reasons for this situation and different results of the project. The results of the sociological project can be conditionally divided into five groups: 1) “small” particular laws that say little about society as a whole; 2) specific methods of empirical research that yield accurate results in the fields of politics, marketing, human resource management, etc.; 3) the results achieved by deterministic theories; 4) sociological antinomies; 5)“negative results, which are also results” and lead to the comprehension of the fact, that there are some areas of social reality, to which scientific methods are radically inapplicable. Despite the fact that the goal of the project turned out to be unattainable, these results must be treated with reverence, because they are the work of outstanding scientists who called themselves sociologists, and some of them are really able to improve people’s lives. Today sociology is losing its monopoly on the production of useful knowledge about society, and its structure is beginning to be something like an exhibition of i dea s in social philosophy and achievements in empirical studies of society.

The units that formed the basis for the creation of the nowadays Department of Economic Sociology and Management have undergone many reorganizations. They were accompanied by a change of leaders, changes in personnel, changes of scientific and educational priorities, and in many cases of names. The Department of Sociology of Labor and Labor Collectives, the Department of Sociology of Organizations, the Department of Economic Sociology and Sociology of Labor, the Department of Economic Sociology and Marketing, the Department of Sociology of Organizations and Management — all these divisions were predecessors of the Department of Economic Sociology and Management, existing in the structure of the sociological faculty since 2017 year.The authors of the article analyze in detail the objective and subjective reasons for the transformations, as well as the consequences to which they led. Particular attention is paid to the change of words, terms and concepts used in the names of the structural units and courses that were assigned to them. Changes in language in a specific way reflected the transformations that took place in the economy and society. Words appeared and disappeared, acquired a positive and negative meaning, excited various emotions in all those involved in the educational process.The authors concluded that multiple changes, often complicating the work of professors, simultaneously increased their cohesion and contributed to the mastery in many disciplines. These features allow them today to implement innovative projects in the scientific and educational spheres.

The correlation of professional and personal qualities has always been the object of attention of specialists in sociology, psychology and HR management. The main thesis of the article is that in the post-industrial society as a whole, the importance of personal qualities of a human being increases.The article discusses numerous situations in which the balance of professional and personal qualities manifests itself in different ways. Outside of work, people in their interactions most often focus on the impression that a person makes due to his/her personal qualities. The apogee in the choice of individuals according their personal qualities is friends. We are friends only on the basis that we like one or another person. In many ways, the same situation is observed in relation to relatives and neighbors. But there are situations that make us to some extent put aside the ability of a person or organization to please us. The most obvious example is doctors. At the same time, today, doctors should focus on building partnership with patients, within which personal qualities begin to play an important role.In the professional activities, human interactions can develop according to organizational, market or hybrid (organizational-market) scenarios. In a classic bureaucratic organization, personal qualities have always occupied a subordinate place in relation to professionalism. In the market, the personal qualities of sellers have always been significant in attracting customers. This situation was reflected in the ideology of marketing and customer focus. In a modern economy, market relations penetrate organizations and force to reevaluate the importance of an employee’s personal qualities.A profession (activity) of a blogger or a person leading Internet channel cis a symbol of the increasing role of personal qualities. In most cases, they gather million audiences not because of their unique professional abilities, but because of their ability to please people.

During the formation of contemporary democracy, its ideologists strived to create a management mechanism that did not resemble monarchy at all, so that to emphasize the radical nature of social-political changes in the transition from pre-industrial to industrial society. The dynastic transfer of power in all its manifestations and at all levels of governance was denounced as outdated, ineffective, and violating the very foundations of the peoples will. The article shows that, despite the initial criticism, dynasties are widespread in contemporary politics. The family is a part of politics and systems of public administration in a truly post-industrial form - as a brand, image, and symbol. The transition to the post-industrial society predetermines a change in the attitude to dynasties and their role not only in politics but also in systems of interaction with the population (electorate). Based on the analysis of other research and authors data on political dynasties at different levels of government in 17 countries, the article proves the changing attitude to political dynasties even within democratic systems. Political dynasties increasingly often contribute to the creation and expansion of social networks, establishing sustainable political ties, ensuring gender presentation in government, etc. There are numerous manifestations of dynasties in countries with different levels of social-economic development (developed and developing) and different types of government (authoritarian and democratic) due to the application of marketing thinking and technologies in politics. Dynasties allow to effectively use the family potential to create and promote political brands, to ensure sustainable social choices of political candidates and parties, to facilitate political socialization of new generations and relative predictability of politicians behavior, who would follow a family line in making important decisions.