Gaming practice is today the cutting edge of the formation of the future society, the period of global digital transformation of which can be fixed by the moment of total public involvement in digital reality in 2016, when augmented digital reality was massively introduced. Thus, completing the period of post-post-modernity, the expression of which was a person who is at a loss, and not in front of the “brave new world”, but in front of the elusive old one. To date, the grounds for forecasts have been accumulated, the way for which, the authors of the presented article will try to open with this material. The authors argue that the most striking manifestations of the effects of digitalization affecting social reality hide the totality of their influence on many aspects of everyday life. The hidden restructuring of social practices that comes with every multiplayer game released comes through the game world of involved players and business structures that use the psychological, tactical, strategic achievements of the developers for their own commercial purposes. Will the gamification of social practices become a new “bottleneck” for civilization or will we be able to integrate a humanitarian approach and humanistic expertise into strategic control centers for the development of digital technologies.

The article is devoted to a critical study of the complex of mechanisms for the formation of a visual culture of publicity in order to develop an understanding of the ongoing cognitive changes. Modern visual culture is considered as the main tool for the formation of social reality, the creation of a space-time continuum, i.e. an environment that includes objects of cultural space, which include public persons. The latter are at the same time markers of this environment, conductors of its mentality, reflect its ideology, being its pure forms. From the standpoint of today, the functional roles of participants in the visual culture of publicity are analyzed. The mechanisms of publicity are metaphorically considered as image management settings at the stage of television implementation. Their sociological justifications are proposed as tools for including material about public figures in the communication process. The author's definition of the subject of research is given.

Учебное пособие системно раскрывает базовые классические и новые актуальные сведения о герменевтике как методе социального познания. Последовательно рассматриваются исторические аспекты становления герменевтических идей в системе научного знания, особенности герменевтического метода исследования социума, социологическая рефлексия современной культуры с позиции герменевтики. Приводится обширный список соответствующей литературы. Особый акцент делается на прикладных методических аспектах и выработке навыков герменевтического анализа. Предлагается большой ряд проблемных вопросов и тем для обсуждения. Пособие адресовано студентам, аспирантам, преподавателям, профессионально связанным с проблемами интерпретации текстов в целях получения социального знания, а также тем, кто заинтересован изучением социальной коммуникации.

Starting from the understanding of the “death” of the text as a process of its deconstruction, fragmentation, simplification, when the text becomes a signal instead of a message, we will also consider more modern transformations of its role and system organization, leading to symbolic “death” through complication and transition to hypertext. The reasons for converting the text of a message into a narrative and into a participant in intertextual relations. The final departure to the pragmatic aspect of information exchange in various fields (interpersonal communication, advertising, journalism, didactics). Without death, a ritualized act, with the dominance of network forms of communication, its inclusion in the space of network content is impossible. Now, after the publication of the text, it has by and large only two ways: either it is interpreted and retransmitted in such a way that inevitably leads to the inflation of the content, or it is archived, which is equivalent to a “funeral”. In any of the variants, this is the “death” of the original author’s text, the fate of which we are considering. Speaking of the “death of the text”, we mean the transformation of the very general concept (communicative intention) that defines the functionality of modern textual activity. The leading characteristics of relevant information as a unit of communication are its trigger (motivating) potential and the ability to act as network content (liquidity). The features that characterize the text in the traditional sense: coherence, integrity, i.e. the ability to demonstrate the qualities of the “system”, gradually lose their significance in social practice.

Авторы выстраивают в статье последовательное обоснование деления культуры на материальную, социальную и духовную. Обосновывается мнение, что такая декомпозиция культуры в социологическом дискурсе дополняется данными современной психологии, которые говорят в пользу именно подобной структуры потребностей человека. Авторы приводят точку зрения, что такое методологическое решение проблемы носит самый общий характер и требует дальнейшего развития и конкретизации, при этом они отмечают перспективность этого подхода, в частности, в том, что он позволяет перевести в сферу конкретно-социологических исследований такую сложнейшую проблему социальных наук, как проблему ценностей. Достаточно очевидно, что социальные ценности являются не произвольными феноменами, а функциями человеческих потребностей, и потому могут исследоваться и эмпирическими методами.

CТАТУC И МИCCИЯ УНИВЕРCИТЕТА В ПOCТМOДЕРНЕГезалoв А. А., Кoркия Э. Д

The concept of ecological culture occupies today one of the central places in the interdisciplinary scientific discourse and acts as one of the tools for transforming social practices by changing their axiological basis. In this work an attempt is made to consider it genesis and modern meaning. Taking into account the cultural-historical, anthropological and civilization context. Emphasis is placed on the dual nature of modern culture, in which there is a demand for the approval of environmental values in social practice and consumerism in relation to the environment. The latter limits the possibilities of the concept of ecological culture in terms of influence on the development of society. The conclusion is made that the heuristic potential of this concept is not is fully realized and its digression can become an adequate civilization response to the global ecological crisis.

The article considers some methodological foundations of social cognition, socio-cultural and theoretical foundations of social science; defines a clear position in the sociology of science, criticizes the positivist’s approach to the analysis of the methods of sociology; epistemologically analyze such theoretical constructs, which formed the basis of modern sociological knowledge. The article posits the importance of theoretical knowledge in sociology and its philosophical and methodological foundations. Author explains the integrity of the science of sociology, it differs from simple empiricism. Here we describe the theory of Comte and Spencer, the theory of the scientific revolution Koyre, Kuhn’s theory of sciense paradigm and influence of these theories on the development of sociology (and their limitations). The author examines the methodological principles of postpositivism in the social sciences and social cognition in general and describes fenomenology and essential theories.

The article considers the fundamental transformation of the role of education as a value-forming element of the cultural field in the consumer society, provides a historical overview of consumer society theories, and outlines approaches to the study of education as a social-cultural phenomenon within the market economy. The authors apply the cultural sociology approach to identify patterns of educational services consumption that allows to broaden the methodology of social stratification research; consider the theory of social inequality and the principles of social stratification; identify causes of social instability and give estimates of social inequality in consumer society. Based on the works of foreign and Russian experts the authors analyze the institutional environment of social inequality (re)production: according to the results of numerous comparative studies the key such institution is the centralized system of institutional relations in the field of education. The article considers the categories of education and training, globalization and globalism in today’s society; main aspects of the consumer society development in Russia, especially the behavior of Russian consumers in the context of global consumer trends. Thus, the authors emphasize that the consumer society in general is destructive, self-focused, however, this is a vector of global development in the capitalist countries that is impossible to deny; we are to study its trends taking into account the historical aspects of consumerism and take adequate measures to normalize social life.

Identity and the factors influencing its construction in the contemporary society from the point of view of modern identity concepts are discussed. In contemporary society the definition and construction of the individual identity is one of the most important problems. Dynamics of choices’ multiplicity, erosion of rigid traditions and norms, they challenge permanent override of individual identity; and this has an impact on the social structure of the society as whole. Most researchers agree that identity becomes a multi-leveled and flexible system as a result of pluralization and uncertainty of social life.

The article considers one of the most complex social problems - the formation of identity under the contemporary “new individualism”. Global transformations in the nature of social interactions are deeply inscribed in the ‘Self’, which requires significant self-restructuring of individual lives. Postmodern realities have radically changed the established concepts of identity for individuals today possess a wider range of possibilities to determine one’s identity than before. The contemporary reality is fluid, fast-moving and flexible, thus, it is no longer possible to believe in an unchanging and stable identities - they are considered to be multiple, and increasingly fragile and fragmented, to come not from the single source, but to be (re)constructed from a variety of overlapping and sometimes contradictory discourses, practices and positions. In the XXI century, the constant desire to upgrade oneself inevitably becomes a fundamental trend of the contemporary life, that is why, in the situation of the recognized absence of any sustainable worldview, identity must be highly adaptive: everything that previously was immutable becomes short-living and temporary; social patterns, standards, and models continue to change or completely escape from individuals - we all witness the “eternal” process of self-discovery in the new “shimmering reality”.