Sociology of critical states of society: theoretical and methodological problems
How to Cite
Yanitsky O.N. 2015. Sociology of critical states of society: theoretical and methodological problems — Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika. No. 4. P. 5-24.
Abstract
The author substantiates the necessity of developing the ‘sociology of the critical states’ (in short, critical sociology) of a society as an independent branch of sociological knowledge. Western sociology is still focused on the models of a sustainable society (sustainability), whereas the situation of a critical, that is, urgent state has become a normal state of various communities and societies across the world. The common feature of a diversity of such states is an impossibility to return to the initial state. The economic and/or political crises may experience ups and downs, but the critical areas are still mushrooming elsewhere. The theoretical and methodological base of the new branch of sociology is the concept of a ‘society of all-embracing risk’ proposed and developed in 1980-90s by the author of this article. The subject matter of the proposed discipline are the forces that generate the critical situations; their disposition, resources and strength; their values, strategies, tactics and action repertoire; a spacetime dimension of the emergence and evolution of such situations; a changing quality of the social capital of affected people, locals and refugees; and characteristics of post-critical states and methods of their rehabilitation. The indispensable prerequisites for establishing such a discipline are as follows: full-time integration of various natural, technical and social professionals; this close collaboration is the condition for translation from one scientific language to another; a capability of such an interdisciplinary team to play in turn a role of insider and outsider in relation to a critical situation; and a long-term and permanent monitoring of its evolution.
Keywords:
sociology of critical states of communities and societies, the concept of ‘society of all¬embracing risk’, media, multidisciplinarity, full-time integrators, bottom-top approach
References
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Yanitsky O. Russian Greens in a Risk Society. A Structural Analysis. Helsinki: Kikimora Publications. 2000. - 290 p.
Yanitsky O. Sustainability and Risk: The Case of Russia. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences. 2000. Vol. 13 (3), P. 265-277. (а)
Kravchenko S. A. Stanovlenie slozhnogo obshchestva: k obosnovaniyu gumanisticheskoi teorii slozhnosti. [Formation of a complex society, to the justification of the humanistic theory of complexity]. M.: Izd-vo «MGIMO-Universitet». 2012. - 306 p. (In Russ.).
Yanitskiy O. N. Sotsiologiya riska. [Sociology of risk]. M.: Izdatel’stvo LVS. 2003. - 192 p. (In Russ.).
Yanitskiy O. N. Modern i ego otkhody. [Modern and waste]. J. Sotsiologicheskiy zhurnal. 2004. № 1/2. S. 199-205. (In Russ.).
Yanitskiy O. N. Rossiya kak obshchestvo riska: metodologiya analiza i kontury kontseptsii. [Russia as a risk society: the methodology of analysis and outlines the concept]. J. Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost’. 2004. № 2. S. 5-15. (In Russ.).
Yanitskiy O. N. «Turbulentnye vremena» kak problema obshchestva riska. [ “Turbulent Times" as a problem of risk society]. J. Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost’. 2011.№ 6. S. 155-164. (In Russ.).
Yanitskiy O. N. Metabolicheskaya kontseptsiya sovremennogo goroda. [Metabolic concept of the modern city]. J. Sotsiologicheskaya nauka i sotsial’naya praktika. 2013. № 3. S. 16-32. (In Russ.).
Arsenalt A. and Castells M. Switching Power: Rupert Murdoch and the Global Business of Media Politics // International Sociology, 2008. 23(4). P. 488-513.
Bauman Z. Wasted Lives. Modernity and its Outcasts. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. 2004. - 152 p.
Beck U. Risk Society. Toward a New Modernity. London: SAGE. 1992. - 260 p.
Beck U. Ecological Enlightenment. Essays on the Politics in the Risk Society. New Jersey: Humanities Press. 1995.
Beck U. World Risk Society. Malden, MA: Polity Press. 1999.
Beck U. Re-mapping Inequality and Power in an Age of Climate Change: The Emergence of ‘Cosmopolitan’ Risk Communities. Lecture at the ISA World Congress of Sociology, 11-17 July, 2010. Gothenburg, Sweden. 2010.
Beck U., Giddens A., Lash S. Reflexive Modernization. Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1994. - 225 p.
Brundtland G. and Khalid M., eds. Our Common Future. The World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford, N. Y: Oxford University Press. 1987.
Dowty R. A. and Allen B. L., eds. Dynamics of Disaster. Lessons on Risk, Response and Recovery. London, Washington, DC: Earthscan. 2010.
Fishkin J. S. and Luskin R. C. Experimenting with a democratic ideal: Deliberative polling and public opinion // Acta Politica, 2005. 40 (3). P. 284-298.
Irwin A. Sociology and Environment. A Critical Introduction to Society, Nature and Knowledge. Malden, MA: Polity. 2001. - 224 p.
Irwin A. and Wynne B., eds. Misunderstanding Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1996.
Murphy R. Leadership in Disaster. Learning for a Future with Global Climate Change. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. 2009. - 417 p.
Pynnoniemi K. Russian critical infrastructures. Helsinki: The Finnish institute of international affairs. 2012. - 124 p.
Tilly Ch. Social Movements. 1768-2004. London: Paradigm Publishers. 2004. - 194 p.
Yanitsky O. Modernization and Globalization from the Perspective of a Transition Society // Sociological Theory and the Environment. Proceedings of the 2nd Woudshoten Conference. Amsterdam: SISWO. 1988. P. 165-84.
Yanitsky O. Russian Greens in a Risk Society. A Structural Analysis. Helsinki: Kikimora Publications. 2000. - 290 p.
Yanitsky O. Sustainability and Risk: The Case of Russia. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences. 2000. Vol. 13 (3), P. 265-277. (а)
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Harvard
Yanitsky, O. N. (2015) ’Sociology of critical states of society: theoretical and methodological problems’, Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika, (4), pp. 5-24. Available at: https://www.jour.fnisc.ru/index.php/socnp/article/view/3088 (Accessed: 5December2025).
Section
UNTITLED
Publisher: Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FCTAS RAS)