Announcement of issue No. 3 of the journal “Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing” (2025)

The following articles and materials will be published in issue No. 3 of the journal:

Oleksandr Stehnii

Climate security and military activity: a subject-object model of the relationship

On the basis of an interdisciplinary approach, the article examines the social and structural aspects of climate change: its social causes and consequences; social strategies of mitigation and adaptation; the socio-political actors of public discourse. Particular attention is given to causal relationships in respect of the political and security manifestations of climate change. Two types of risk are distinguished: the first is a consequence of the direct and indirect effects of climate change, while the second is caused by the effect of climate change on the social consequences of maladaptation and of the energy transition.

The article stresses the promise of using the concept of “total defence” to optimise the ways of recruiting and integrating civilian and military personnel.

Anna Maksymenko, Markiian Datsyshyn

The dynamics of public opinion under pre-war tension and martial law: the example of one community

Wartime conditions substantially complicate the functioning of territorial communities, requiring local self-government bodies to respond promptly to new challenges and to involve local business and residents in the processes of strategic planning, socio-economic development and preparation for post-war recovery. In this context the monitoring of public opinion at the local level acquires particular relevance, making it possible to track the dynamics of the population's subjective assessments and providing local authorities with information relevant to managerial decisions.

The aim of the article is to analyse changes in residents' subjective attitudes towards their perception of their own community, their assessment of the current situation and their expectations for the future, using the example of the Pyriatyn territorial community (Poltava oblast).

Across three waves of the survey, a third of respondents placed their expectations of both positive and negative developments in the community on the implementation of reforms at the state level. There is, however, no single dominant argument in justifying pessimistic or optimistic expectations. From wave to wave, respondents' answers show an absence of clear conceptions of who drives progress in local affairs and how one can influence the socio-economic development of one's own community.

Liubov Bevzenko

A sociology of the expected future in Ukrainian realities — in search of an epistemological foundation (part 2)

The author argues that the expected image of one's own future is only one's own project, whose realisation in the form of a life trajectory takes place thanks to one's expected own resources (human and educational capital) and to expected resources that may be designated as social capital. Possible deviations from the chosen life trajectory may be corrected through agency as traditionally defined — a conscious and rational choice of the optimal way out of a situation. The complexity paradigm shows how a system's activity at moments of crisis creates, at the level of the “real”, several variants of possible macro-future scenarios. Expectations regarding one's own future in these cases depend on which scenario moves from the level of the “real” to the level of the “actual”. Three different ways of making such a correction are distinguished. The first is not to notice the macro-level crisis; the second is to change it by physically moving to more stable regions (countries). The third, the most interesting and unusual for the previous epistemology, is to put all one's earlier life plans on pause and identify one's own life trajectory with the trajectory of change at the systemic level. The epistemology the author proposes offers certain paradigmatic heuristics for this.

Viktor Stepanenko

The historical sociology of Charles Tilly: research evolution and methodological guideposts

The article analyses the research evolution and methodological approaches of Charles Tilly's historical sociology. It notes that an important feature of the scholar's methodology is his innovative research approaches, which may be characterised as theoretical synthesis. By “theoretical synthesis” is meant the integration of different research perspectives, including disciplinary ones, and of theoretical approaches, concepts and paradigms in order to form conceptual positions for explaining complex social phenomena and processes. It is argued that in Tilly's case theoretical synthesis was perhaps the most important feature of his research evolution and innovative methodology. For what is at stake is not only the integration of sociological approaches (micro and macro, agency and structure, stability and relationality) but also the combination — or rather the overcoming — of the conventional disciplinary boundaries of sociology, history, political science, economics, urban studies and cultural studies. The article stresses the relevance of Tilly's theoretical legacy and integrative approaches in the Ukrainian context, in particular during Ukraine's defensive war against external military aggression. The interweaving and interaction in the Ukrainian case of such complex processes as nation- and state-building, resistance and mobilisation in a war for state independence, civic protest mobilisations and processes of democratisation in all their complexity, especially in view of the war, are precisely the thematic problem fields on which Tilly focused his research attention.

Rodion Pryshva

On the methods of the disciplinary stage of social revolution: guerrilla experience in France and Ukraine (the article is submitted in English)

The article examines the process of the disciplinary system’s formation within counter-insurgency operations, using the suppression of the Vendée uprising (1793–1796) and the fight against peasant resistance in Ukraine in 1918–1922 as examples. Central attention is given to M. Foucault’s concept of the panopticon, which is interpreted as a model for the transformation of insurgent space from a state of “polyopticon” — a regime of mutual observation and support between insurgents and the local population — into a regime of centralized surveillance and suppression. The author demonstrates how, in conditions of revolutionary anomie and civil war, new forms of power control are created: military, ideological, and police structures gradually seize the initiative from the insurgents, isolating the population from partisan formations and forming a “disciplinary cordon”. Comparative analysis reveals both soft forms of influence (as in the case of General Hoche in France) and harsh forms — characteristic of Bolshevik practices combining terror and administrative-police control (panopticon). The work emphasizes that success in combating guerrillas depends not only on the strength of the coercive apparatus but also on the state’s ability to penetrate the microphysics of everyday life, imposing its network of surveillance, normalization, and control. In conclusion, the article discusses the prospects for the development of guerrilla warfare in the context of technological changes, especially concerning the proliferation of unmanned surveillance systems, which call into question the sustainability of traditional insurgent potential in high-tech societies.

Kateryna Maltseva

The multidimensionality of stress: risk factors and protective factors in health outcomes

The scholarly literature characterises stress as a multidimensional phenomenon that includes the antecedents of stress, its cognitive appraisal, its emotional and physiological consequences, and strategies for coping with it. The stress response is an ontologically ancient adaptation of biological life; it helps an organism respond effectively to signals of possible danger and adapt to changes in the environment that may threaten its integrity, health or life. The stress response is also considered adaptive (helpful) because it enables an organism to mobilise in order to repel a stressor and to restore balance once the mobilisation of resources needed for adaptive action has taken place. It is argued that different stressors affect situations and individuals differently, and that this must be taken into account in assessing the effect of stress on health, given the differing potential of various stressors to leave an “imprint” on human physiology or immunity. The author examines various factors of stress resistance — social ties, an optimistic disposition, the ability to forgive and to recognise one's own vulnerability in moments of defeat as something shared with other people — from the standpoint of theoretical explanations (that is, mechanisms) and on the basis of empirical data.

Oleksandr Reznik, Oleh Kozlovskiy

Theoretical synthesis in sociology: historical, methodological and typological aspects

The article presents the results of work on the problems of the history, methodology and typology of theoretical synthesis in sociology on the basis of a review and analysis of its various interpretations. The authors observed a change in the character of reflection on the practice of this immanent method of theorising within the theoretical discourse of sociology. Over the course of the 20th century there was a shift from a largely implicit to an explicit and declarative use of theoretical synthesis in sociology. Alongside attempts at general theoretical synthesis, attempts at specialised theoretical synthesis for solving practical tasks are becoming more numerous. Such a differentiation of theoretical synthesis may be regarded as a certain typology of it by the scale of its subject matter. The strategies of positivist synthesis are hypothetically differentiated into its early positivist (A. Comte), instrumental-positivist (W. Wallace, J. Turner and others) and post-positivist (T. Fararo, J. Skvoretz) versions (this assumption, however, requires separate and deeper elaboration).

Veronika Chekaliuk

Metalanguage in a digital society: its role in shaping images and public consciousness

The article studies current trends in image-making in the digital environment, in particular through the prism of Oleh Kryshtal's conception of metalanguage, which is acquiring considerable significance in a sociological context. Attention is given, among other things, to the influence of internet platforms, technological innovation and social networks on the responsiveness of the media, and to the role of digital technologies in shaping public opinion. Particular attention is paid to the problems of information security in a digital environment. The adaptation of journalism to new conditions of communication is becoming necessary for an effective response to these contemporary threats, and this should foster the development of new forms of media content and communication strategies. The article examines the branding of territories in the digital age and the interaction between social media, government structures and the public in the context of promoting territorial brands.

It sets out the influence of artificial intelligence on image-making and its role in transforming sociological processes. The study is based on a structural-functional analysis of digital communication and on the methods of sociological research, which allows a deeper understanding of the changes taking place in the processes of image transformation in a digital society.

Svitlana Shevchenko

Conceptual dimensions of adulthood in contemporary sociological theorising

The article aims to analyse the conceptual work of Western sociology on adulthood and to draw conclusions about its heuristic possibilities and limitations for contemporary society.

Despite long-standing calls for the theoretical interpretation of adulthood and of the transition to it, its conceptualisation remains insufficient. The article analyses contemporary approaches to a sociological understanding of adulthood, in particular the conceptions that explain its change under conditions of late modernity.

Separate attention is given to J. Arnett's conception of “emerging adulthood”. J. Côté's conception of “delayed adulthood” and his idea of two types of individualisation are examined in detail, as is the possibility of applying his humanistic approach to understanding adulthood. The article sets out an analysis of the work of J. Twenge, who links the slowing of the maturation of today's generations with the influence of digital technologies and changes in upbringing, and an analysis of the link between social indicators and indicators of mental state. It examines the sociological approach of H. Blatterer, who interprets adulthood through the prism of social recognition and of changes in the structures of society, emphasising the flexibility of contemporary social roles and the instability of adult identity.

The conclusion is drawn that further research is needed that takes account of the historical context of conceptions of adulthood, of institutional transformations and of the economic realities affecting the possibilities of attaining adult status.

In the section “Academic life”:

Oleksii Yakubin

The 28th World Congress of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Seoul, 2025 (a brief report)

The article analyses the key challenges facing political science in the context of the 28th World Congress of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), held on 12–16 July 2025 in Seoul. Through the prism of the Congress's key theme — resistance to autocratisation under conditions of polarisation — the author examines the question of political science's institutional role, its epistemological responsibility and its social duty. The article sets out: (1) the conceptual debates at the Congress about the nature of contemporary autocracy; (2) the role of the sociological dimension in contemporary political science; (3) institutional practices of inclusion and public engagement; (4) the experience of a Ukrainian researcher's participation in several key formats of the Congress — a paper, a panel, a round table; (5) the dilemmas of representation, language and academic autonomy for the Ukrainian academic community. The IPSA World Congress 2025 emerges as a symptomatic event for political science and for the social sciences generally — a space in which not only research topics but also new forms of global epistemic agency take shape.

In the section “Discussions”:

The round table “The trauma of war: consequences and challenges”

A round table devoted to the traumatic consequences of the war was held on 24 June 2025 at the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine.

The main aim of the round table was to discuss the social and psychological consequences of the traumatic events Ukrainian society has faced under war conditions. The interdisciplinary character of the round table lay in combining the findings of sociology, psychology, medicine, political science and other disciplines for a comprehensive study of trauma as a social and an individual phenomenon.

Participants characterised the key states of stress and examined the mechanisms of adaptation to extreme conditions.

Following the round table, participants set out possible directions for further research.

Serhii Dembitskyi (moderator)