Issue No. 1, 2023 of the journal "Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing" is being prepared for publication

For the attention of the sociological community: announcement of issue No. 1, 2023 of the journal «Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing»

Issue No. 1 (full electronic version in early April) features:

Piotr Sztompka. The Bright Side of a Tragedy: on the Unintended and Unanticipated Consequences of the Barbaric Aggression

The address by Professor P. Sztompka at the plenary session of the All-Ukrainian research and practice conference «Problems of the development of sociological theory: war, violence, social orders», 15–16 December 2022. It examines the social and political consequences, often not fully foreseeable at present, of Russia’s war against Ukraine, interpreted as «useful functions» in L. Coser’s terminology, or the social gains of any conflict. Ten such «bright flashes of light amid the darkness of war» for Ukraine are singled out, among them the assertion and strengthening of Ukrainian national identity, the rise and mobilisation of civil society, a new level of legitimacy of the state and the army, convincing examples of social resilience, the consolidation of the country’s European and Euro-Atlantic civilisational choice and others.

Serhii Makeiev. The apologetics of culture as the apologetics of war: the case of Werner Sombart

The article analyses a little-known page in the work of W. Sombart, namely his attitude towards the First World War and its understanding by the most authoritative social scientist of the beginning of the last century as the principal conflict of the epoch — a conflict of national world-views — and, together with this, the aim and meanings of the world-historical mission of the German people. In particular, in his 1915 book «Traders and heroes. Reflections of a patriot» W. Sombart justifies the war on Germany’s part on the grounds that the development of the economy, of culture and of communication, conditioned and propelled by market capitalism, turns into consequences that destroy the very foundations of humanity’s existence. In W. Sombart’s descriptions the undeniable, as he is convinced, spiritual significance of war obscures and marginalises the pain, suffering, losses and destruction that accompany it.

Liudmyla Kalashnykova, Olena Liseienko. Threats to the social security of the population in the South of Ukraine: new challenges and ways to minimise them

The article discusses the level of social security in the Southern region of the country before and after the beginning of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It outlines new threats to particular components of the social security of the population of the South of Ukraine connected with the war, in particular to demographic, economic, housing, educational, crime-related and environmental security. Possible ways of minimising such threats are proposed through the introduction of a number of economic, social and sociological mechanisms for overcoming their consequences.

Volodymyr Nikolaienko, Leonid Nikolaienko, Yurii Yakovenko Railway mobility: social history and practices of implementation

The process of railway mobility is examined from the standpoint of the history of empires, in particular Great Britain, in which the institutionalisation first of the domestic railway and then of railways in the colonies played a considerable role in the development not only of English industry but also of world industry, and contributed to global social and cultural development, including the development of military affairs. The authors conclude that the development of railway mobility fitted into the postulates of the ideology of the modernisation and rationalisation of social life, but was interpreted in the categories of the colonisation of someone else’s living space/time, since it accustomed people to a corresponding regime of life and not only while travelling by rail.

Raisa Shulha. Cultural identity as a space for experiencing psychological comfort of the personality

The subject of the author’s reflections is the relationship between a person’s experience of their identity and the state of psychological comfort. Approaches to understanding cultural identity as such and the significance of experiencing it for the personality are defined. Art is presented as an effective factor in satisfying the need to experience identity and in achieving a state of psychological comfort. The existential character of the parameters of identity embodied in a work and the existential dimension of a person’s experience of them are described.

The section «Discussions» carries the contributions of the participants of the round table «The reliability of sociological knowledge: theoretical-methodological, empirical and discursive aspects» (moderator – Olha Maksymenko), which took place on 21–22 October 2022 at the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The event was devoted to the memory of V. M. Vorona, academician of the NAS of Ukraine, director of the Institute of Sociology from 1992 to 2021, laureate of the State Prize in Science and Technology. The event was held online. The following questions were discussed: a) the theoretical foundations, methodological principles and empirical criteria of reliability; b) approaches to assessing reliability and the instruments used; c) the factors that affect the reliability of study data; d) problems of the reliability of data and of the validity of conclusions in quantitative and qualitative research; e) the challenges for mass sociological surveys in Ukraine in wartime.

The section «Sociological essays» carries an essay by Serhii Taradaik. «On the seafaring of the «Rus» concerning the very old and irritating question of the «Rus». For, after all, these are Vikings, Scandinavians. Unlike a historical study, this is an appeal to ordinary experience and an attempt to interpret it in historical terms using the means of present-day social theory.