From «Revolution» to «Transformations» and «Changes»? Development of Discourses of Analysis Qualitative Social Change

Research Article
Acknowledgments
The research was supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project 19-011-00277 «Social Transformation of Russian Society: Actors in the Demand for Change».
How to Cite
Latov Y.V. 2021. From «Revolution» to «Transformations» and «Changes»? Development of Discourses of Analysis Qualitative Social Change — Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika. Vol. 9. No. 1. P. 7-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2021.9.1.7869

Abstract

The popular condemnation of «revolutionaryism» in post-Soviet Russia is seen as contradicting the global trends in scientific analysis of the role of revolutions in the development of society, according to which it is the revolutionary institutional changes that are most important for social progress. These ideas were first comprehensively expressed by the founders of Marxism, and in the twentieth century. in Western sociological thought «completed», on the one hand, with the theories of the scientific and technological revolution, on the other hand, with the concepts of the sociology of revolution. The desire of Russian social scientists to overcome the legacy of Soviet «forced Marxism» led to a conscious alienation from the post-Marxist sociology of revolution. In Russian scientific discourse in the 1990s–2000s. there was a displacement of the discussion of revolutionary changes by using less specific concepts of «social transformation» and «change», and in the 2010s. it joined with the government’s policy of a fundamental rejection of any revolutionary changes. As a result, Russian sociologists lose the ability to distinguish between revolutionary and evolutionary shifts in the development of Russian society, focusing mainly on their traumatic nature.
Keywords:
sociology of revolution, marxist sociology, post-marxism, social transformation, change, «cultural trauma», institutional change

Author Biography

Yury V. Latov, Institute of Sociology FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russian Federation
Doctor of Sociology, Leading Researcher

References

1. Gurr T. (2005). Why People Rebel. [Russ. ed.: Pochemu lyudi buntuyut]. SPb. : Piter publ. 461 p. (In Russ.)

2. Glaz’yev S. Yu. (1993). Teoriya dolgosrochnogo tekhniko-ekonomicheskogo razvitiya. [The theory of long-term technical and economic development]. M.: VlaDar publ. (In Russ.)

3. Goldstoun D. (2006). Towards a Fourth Generation of Revolutionary Theory. [K teorii revolyutsii chetvertogo pokoleniya]. Logos. No. 5(56). P. 58–103. (In Russ.)

4. Gudkov L., Zorkaya N. (2017). Vytesneniye istorii: chto ostalos’ ot mifa revolyutsii? [Repression of History: What Remains of the Myth of the Revolution?]. Vestnik obshchestvennogo mneniya. No. 1–2 (124). P. 161–181. (In Russ.)

5. Twenty Five Years of Russian Transformations: Experience of Sociological Analysis (2018). [Dvadtsat’ pyat’ let sotsial’nykh transformatsiy v otsenkakh i suzhdeniyakh rossiyan: opyt sotsiologicheskogo analiza]. M. : Ves’ Mir publ. 384 p. (In Russ.)

6. Zaval’ko G. A. (2005). Ponyatiye «revolyutsiya» v filosofii i obshchestvennykh naukakh: problemy, idei, kontseptsii. [The concept of «revolution» in philosophy and social sciences: problems, ideas, concepts]. M. : KomKniga publ. (In Russ.)

7. Zaslavskaya T. I. (2004). Sovremennoye rossiyskoye obshchestvo. Sotsial’nyy mekhanizm transformatsii. [Contemporary Russian Society. Social Mechanism of Transformation]. M. : Delo publ. (In Russ.)

8. Zaslavskaya T. I. (2007) Izbrannyje proizvedenija. T. 2. Transformatsionnyy protsess v Rossii: v poiske novoy metodologii [Favorites. T. 2. Transformational process in Russia: in search of a new methodology]. M.: ZAO «Izdatel’stvo «Ekonomika». (In Russ.)

9. Zyuganov G. A. (1993) Drama vlasti [Power drama]. M.: Paleya. (In Russ.)

10. Latov Yu. V. (2017) Chto nakhoditsya po tu storonu material’nogo proizvodstva? Marksistskiye korni i institutsional’nyye vetvi postindustrial’nykh teoriy. [What is on the other side of material production? Marxist roots and institutional branches of postindustrial theories]. Istoriko-ekonomicheskiye issledovaniya. T. 18. No. 1. Р. 7–29. (In Russ.)

11. Lenin V. I. (1960). Dve taktiki sotsial-demokratii v russkoy revolyutsii. [Two tactics of social democracy in the Russian revolution]. Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy. M.: Politizdat publ. T. 11. P. 1–131. (In Russ.)

12. Lenin V. I. (1969). Krakh II Internatsionala. [The collapse of the II International]. Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy. M.: Politizdat publ. T. 26. Р. 211–265. (In Russ.)

13. Marх K. (1956). Klassovaya bor’ba vo Frantsii s 1848 po 1850 g. [Class struggle in France from 1848 to 1850]. In: Marks K., Engel’s F. Sochineniya. T. 7. M.: Politizdat publ. P. 5–110. (In Russ.)

14. Marx K. (1957). Britanskoye vladychestvo v Indii [British rule in India]. In: Marx K., Engel’s F. Sochineniya. T. 9. M.: Politizdat publ. P. 130–136. (In Russ.)

15. Petukhov V. V., Petukhov R. V. (2019). Request for Change: Factors and Causes of its Actualization, Key Components, and Potential Carriers. [Zapros na peremeny: prichiny aktualizatsii, klyuchevyye slagayemyye i potentsial’nyye nositeli]. Polis. Politicheskiye issledovaniya. No. 5. P. 119–133. DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2019.05.09 (In Russ.)

16. Pinkus S. (2017). 1688. First modern revolution. [1688 god. Pervaya sovremennaya revolyutsiya]. M. : AST publ. 926 p. (In Russ.)

17. Romanovskiy N. V. (2009). Sovremennaya sotsiologiya: determinanty peremen. [Contemporary sociology: determinants of change]. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya. № 12. P. 26–35. (In Russ.)

18. Skochpol T. (2017). Gosudarstva i sotsial’nyye revolyutsii: sravnitel’nyy analiz Frantsii, Rossii i Kitaya. [States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China]. M.: Izd-vo Instituta Gaydara publ. 552 p. (In Russ.)

19. Tilli Ch. (2019). From Mobilization to Revolution. [Ot mobilizatsii k revolyutsii]. M. : Izdatel’skiy dom Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki publ. 427 p. (In Russ.)

20. Toshchenko Zh. T. (2020). Obshchestvo travmy: mezhdu evolyutsiyey i revolyutsiyey (opyt teoreticheskogo i empiricheskogo analiza). [Society of Trauma: Between Evolution and Revolution (An Experience of Theoretical and Empirical Analysis)]. M.: Ves’ Mir. 352 p. (In Russ.)

21. Hantington S. (2004). Political order in Changing Societies New Haven. [Russ. ed.: Politicheskiy poryadok v menyayushchikhsya obshchestvakh]. M.: Progress-Traditsiya publ. (In Russ.)

22. Shtompka P. (2001). Kul’turnaya travma v postkommunisticheskom obshchestve. [Cultural trauma in post-communist society]. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya. No. 2. P. 3–12. (In Russ.)

23. Shulz E. E. (2014). Revolyutsiya: k voprosu ob opredelenii termina. [Revolution: on the definition of the term]. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya. 2014. No. 4 (360). P. 132–142. (In Russ.)

24. Shulz E. E. (2015). «Teoriya revolyutsii»: k istorii izucheniya, sistematizatsii i sovremennomu sostoyaniyu. [«The theory of revolution»: on the history of study, systematization and the current state]. Nauchnyye vedomosti Belgorodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya «Istoriya. Politologiya. Ekonomika. Informatika». No. 1. Vol. 33. P. 167–172. (In Russ.)
Article

Received: 14.12.2020

Accepted: 28.03.2021

Citation Formats
Other cite formats:

Harvard
Latov, Y. V. (2021) ’From «Revolution» to «Transformations» and «Changes»? Development of Discourses of Analysis Qualitative Social Change’, Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika, 9(1), pp. 7-22. doi: https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2021.9.1.7869.