Grumbling ‘oldies’, Whining ‘youngsters’, and Progress of Sociology

Grumbling ‘oldies’, Whining ‘youngsters’, and Progress of Sociology


Ivanov D.V.

Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Prof., Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Head of the Department of Theory and History of Sociology, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia dvi2001@rambler.ru

ID of the Article: 8991


For citation:

Ivanov D.V. Grumbling ‘oldies’, Whining ‘youngsters’, and Progress of Sociology. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2022. No 2. P. 3-11




Abstract

The article is presenting the author’s approach to the problem of progress in contemporary sociology. Two kinds of the crisis discourse questioning the sociology’s progress are analyzed. Such discourses are associated with the different generations of sociologists who consider in different ways conceptual, institutional, and instrumental changes in the discipline. The progress of sociology in the recent history is traced in the form of tendencies towards more complex and coherent representations of social order / structures, social action / agency, and social change / development. The progress in sociological theory and methodology is stated. The article argues the special role of postvirtualization processes and digitalization routine in formation of the structures, agency patterns, and social development models which define actual agenda in studies of sociology’s fundamental subjects: social order, social action, and social change.


Keywords
sociology; scientific progress; structure; agency; social development; digitalization routine

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