Mustafaeva A.A., Aktaulova B.Zh.
Almaty, Kazakhstan
The term “social portrait”: concept, significance and its peculiarity in conducting research
Despite such widespread use of the “portrait,” it is primarily associated with painting and represents one of its genres. The purpose of forming a portrait also determines the type of portrait, so among the main varieties, a literary portrait stands out, which characterizes its character by “depicting” the appearance of a person, including facial features, clothing, figure, gestures and facial expressions. The purpose of a literary portrait is to recreate the holistic appearance of the hero, including not only physical, but also spiritual aspects. Along with the literary portrait, one can distinguish historical, creative, and historiographical portraits. Recently, other varieties, such as philosophical, cultural and social portraits, deserve special attention. Mixed types of portraits are often observed, for example, historical-political, cultural-philosophical, socio-demographic portraits.
The concept of “portrait” functions in many areas, and sociology is no exception.In sociology, a portrait is used to study the behavior and (or) character of the group of people being portrayed. The peculiarity of the social portrait is determined primarily by collectivity, that is, collective character. It should also be emphasized that, from a practical point of view, it is impossible to create a social portrait that can cover or characterize all aspects. So R. Aron believes that a social portrait requires deep knowledge of the original and comes to the conclusion that the portrait cannot be absolutely completed. Among the main difficulties faced by the academic environment in drawing up a social portrait, some factors are difficult to capture. For example, when forming a social portrait of an entrepreneur, researchers discovered that both the personal qualities and motives of each entrepreneur differ from each other. Accordingly, it is illogical and impossible to form a single generalizing social portrait. In this case, it is quite possible and logical to identify the most common features of the exterior and interior, including lifestyle.
When creating a portrait of one kind or another, the most important condition, perhaps the only one, is the similarity of the created “image” with the original or the so-called model, which is carried out not only by the absolute transformation of the appearance of the portrayed object, but also by the transfer of spirituality, characteristic features functioning in a certain era and place, sometimes reflecting the social environment of the person being portrayed and even nationality and religion.
Along with the desire of a portrait to convey an external (external) image, it is also important for it to reveal the psychological characteristics of the group being portrayed; with the help of the latter, typical features or characteristics inherent in the group of people under consideration are identified and which are taken as the basis for the formation of a social portrait, taking into account the characteristics of mentality, educational, age , gender and professional characteristics. Thus, the created social portrait is able to assess both the social affiliation and the character of the object. However, in this case, it is also necessary to take into account the research methodology, that is, the list of questionnaire or survey questions that result in a portrait being created. Since when forming such a questionnaire, some characteristics, depending on the purpose of the study, are not determined.
The science of “sociology” makes it possible to describe the representatives of a particular group, its development and distinctive aspects. Therefore, sociology is perceived as an artist who is able to write and draw a portrait of a group of people, a society or an entire nation. However, considering a group of people by profession, education or religious affiliation is different from the whole society or people. Since in the first case the portrait is created on the basis of common characteristics. Society is now so diverse that it is not easy to generalize to create a portrait.
Let's consider a number of definitions of the term “social portrait”:
§ a genre used in sociological research, where the characteristics of a social group are examined in detail;
§ a genre that functions in scientific research and describes the main aspects of the life of the social group being portrayed.
The concepts of “social portrait” and “sociological portrait” began to be used in sociological science in the 70s of the last century, when drawing up a similar portrait was productive for identifying the general characteristics of a group or class. When creating a social portrait, it is necessary to involve the most extensive base of a large number of respondents in the study. During the Soviet period, a social portrait of an ordinary Soviet person was compiled, which subsequently became the basis for writing the book “The Soviet Ordinary Man: The Experience of a Social Portrait at the Turn of the 90s.” It should be noted that this study was based on the results of a large-scale sociological study, which contributed to the closest description of the Soviet personality. Currently, the formation of a portrait is carried out on the basis not only of representatives of one group, but also of religion (On the social portrait of a modern believer) and nationality (Social portrait of a modern Belarusian).
In sociological science, a portrait is used in the study of the distinctive aspects of the manner and character of certain representatives of a group. Regarding the term “social”, it is the result of the united actions of different people that manifest themselves during their communication and relationships. The categories of this kind of sociological research are social status, which takes into account gender and age, economic and financial situation, as well as sociological influence or so-called authority or prestige, lifestyle, which covers quality of life, consumption of both cultural and vital goods and social role, which includes working conditions and the scope of authority. When considering financial status, current income and level of well-being are taken into account, which covers durable items, including movable and immovable property. It should be noted that a social portrait is not a scientific method, but is an algorithm for collecting material. Depending on the purpose of the study and the tasks set, the social portrait may include different criteria.
So, a social portrait is a complex of generalized characteristics of a social group, i.e. identifying common and stable characteristics of the group being portrayed, which can be achieved using mathematical and computer methods.
Literature:
1. Aron R. Stages of development of sociological thought. General edited and prefaced P.S. Gurevich. M., 1992.
2. Soviet common man: the experience of a social portrait at the turn of the 90s. M., 1986
3. Dictionary of foreign words. M., 1996.
4. Soviet encyclopedic dictionary, 1989
The concept of “social portrait” is widely used in modern sociology, but is not always understood unambiguously, since a general scientifically based definition of this concept has not been developed. The theoretical basis for drawing up a social portrait in sociology was the concept of ideal types by M. Weber. The definition of the concept of social portrait is given in the work of M.P. Karpenko, M.V. Kibakina, V.A. Lapshova. The social portrait of youth, students and age cohorts is examined in the studies of L.A. Belyaeva, Yu.R. Vishnevsky, L.Ya. Rubina, etc.
“Social portrait” is a special genre of sociological research in which the characteristic features of a certain social group are as detailed as possible.
According to Lunacharsky: a “social portrait” is a portrait when the artist “saw and showed us an entire social stratum in a specific person, in a specific individual.”
A sociological portrait is a special genre of scientific research, which should contain a description of the main aspects of the life of the social community being studied.
It should be noted that the concepts of “sociological portrait” and “social portrait” have been used in Russian sociology since the 1970s, when it was popular to develop portraits of representatives of certain social groups (for example, a social portrait of a Soviet worker). Today, researchers are involved in compiling sociological portraits quite often - you can find a sociological portrait of the average American (research by F. Golov, L. Gudkov, B. Dubin), a sociological portrait of students (research by T. Suyarkova), a sociological portrait of Ukraine or a Perm cellular subscriber. All such portraits represent some kind of sociological description, which was based on averaged data obtained in the course of various sociological studies, excluding the construction of any typologies and the identification of any patterns. The category “sociological portrait,” despite its widespread use in sociological discourse, is rather vague, defined differently within each individual study. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to give a clear definition of the concept of “sociological portrait” and develop a methodology for compiling sociological portraits of various social objects in general and regions in particular.
By a sociological portrait we will understand a holistic description of the social essence of an object (social group, community, organization, etc.), including a systemic description of all its components, as well as social processes and relationships associated with it.
Drawing up a sociological portrait of any social object involves the implementation of a number of basic principles, which include the universality of the formed portrait, its integrity and preservation of the uniqueness of the described object.
Speaking about the frequency of appearance of definitions of the term in the scientific literature, it should be noted that in a number of studies there was not even an attempt made to somehow justify the need to use the term “social portrait”, and the term itself was not explained. The lack of a methodological description is characteristic not only of modern researchers, but also of Soviet scientists, who quite often used the term “social portrait”, meaning by it some abstract generalized characteristic of a certain social class - the “arithmetic mean” in sociology. .
A social portrait in the broadest sense is understood as a description of a person or a group of people, while the portrait captures, along with external similarities, the spiritual world of a person (model), sometimes creating a typical image of a representative of a people, class, or era.
A very particular definition, applicable situationally and very locally, was proposed by a group of scientists from the Modern Humanitarian Academy (SHA): “Under the socio-typological portrait<...>we understand an integrated description of the basic social, demographic and other personality properties inherent in the entire population<…>" Without questioning the legitimacy of using the term, we note, however, that extrapolation of individual experience to group characteristics is not yet a social portrait of the totality due to the underestimation of all individuals included in it.
A definition of “social type” close to the “social portrait” was introduced by A.E. Yakubovsky: “Social type in the modern understanding<…>- this is a certain number of people who are in a similar social position, have similar social and value attitudes (that is, mental kinship) and exemplary social capabilities, implementing a single model of lifestyle.” Indeed, people’s social and value attitudes should be one of the components, although these attitudes are more characteristic of the aggregate image of an entire generation rather than a group of people.
An interesting approach was demonstrated by the compilers of the collection of documents, combining and publishing under the concept of “social portrait” a number of historical sources telling about the fate of the “disenfranchised” in the period from the mid-20s to the end of the 30s.
Ushakov B.G. associated the understanding of the “social portrait” with a sociopsychological analysis of a certain state and its social status, which can also be called one of the components of the desired definition. The folklore researcher identified the “social portrait” with social analysis, however, the “social portrait” presupposes not only analysis, but also synthesis, recreating the “portrait component”.
It is necessary to understand that the “social portrait” is not a scientific method used in sociology, since its definition and description are absent in the methodological literature on sociology, but rather one of the factors for collecting and grouping material, a kind of algorithm that directs work in a certain direction. Moreover, depending on the topic of the research being conducted, the “social portrait” as a factor in generalizing the material may include various criteria.
It must be said that we find portrait studies, first of all, in sociology, although the sociological reference literature does not contain definitions of such a concept.
So, a social portrait is integrated and generalized characteristics of a social group, often obtained using mathematical and computer methods of scientific research and recording the most general and stable - “averaged” - characteristics of the object under study, implementing a certain model of behavior.
SOCIAL TIME
Episodic (situational) statuses
These include those that exist for a very short time (pedestrian, passenger, etc.).
All statuses exist in time, if by time we mean human life. With his death his social time ends. In human society, time lasts much longer.
Timeless statuses. Some statuses of an individual (they are called ascribed) do not disappear as long as he is alive. In our sense, they exist forever. For example: gender, nationality, race and some others.
Permanent(main) statuses are statuses that persist over a long period of time.
Temporary statuses. Most statuses are temporary. And the brightest of them are episodic. They are named so due to their short duration. You can be a guest for a few hours or days, but hardly for several years. The same can be said about a passenger, a buyer or a clinic patient. A striking example of episodic status is being in a queue. The queue with its generally accepted norms and rules, distribution of roles and informal statuses arises spontaneously and for a short time. After some time, you left the store and went outside. Now you have the episodic status of a passerby. And after 10 minutes you went down to the subway and turned into a passenger. On the wall of the carriage hang the rights and obligations assigned to this status.
Economic, political, religious statuses can be temporary or permanent. Examples of political statuses. Permanent ones are those that are included in the state system (government, police). Voter status is temporary. The President's confidant in the election campaign is a temporary status. A presidential candidate is also a temporary status, but the local representative of the president is permanent.
With the help of statuses, a sociologist can characterize the object of research as accurately as an artist, drawing a portrait of a person with a set of individual traits. Can we say that the totality of statuses characterizes this particular person?
The status portrait of a person has another name in sociology - the status set of an individual, which was introduced in the mid-20th century by the American sociologist R. Merton.
A status set is the totality of all statuses belonging to one individual.
The status set of each person is individual, that is, unique in all details. If we change one of them, say, gender or profession, and leave all the others unchanged, we will get a similar, but different person. Even if all the main statuses of two people coincide, which does not happen so often, the non-primary ones will certainly differ. Of two people who are completely similar in status, one may currently be on the subway (the episodic status of “passenger”), and the other may be driving his own “Audio” (“the driver is the owner of his own car”).
Chelyabinsk sociologists conducted an interesting study of excellent students, their views on life, study and in general, as they say. Since I myself, at one time, was one of those people, it was very interesting for me to read. I also recommend that all “colleagues” with honors diplomas read it and check if it matches your loved one)
So, excellent students constitute a special and very specific group in terms of the nature of their social position, which is most actively involved in status-role relations and to a greater extent expresses the success-oriented life credo of young Russians. At the same time, the transformation of the social structure of Russian society is significantly changing the situation, basic models of socialization and social prospects of excellent students. The existing system of higher education does not guarantee successful professional socialization of excellent students. Higher education has acquired a pronounced commercial connotation and has become widespread and accessible. Distribution mechanisms have disappeared; there are no clear, specific prospects for the social fulfillment of excellent students. A similar situation is developing in the domestic labor market. As a result, today's excellent students take risks socially, having no guarantee of receiving a “ticket to life” upon successful completion of a university. On the other hand, the value orientations and social expectations of excellent students move towards self-development, the creation of “general” social capital (rather than clear options for professional socialization) in the form of confirmation of their personal and professional skills, communication competencies, etc.
Sociological role model of the personality of an excellent student.
As is known, a role gives an individual patterns of his actions in specific situations. Based on this understanding, society can also be represented as a complex role system, consisting of patterns (forms) of behavior that set standards for certain situations, organize the social structure, and reproduce various social relationships and interconnections. In the course of playing certain roles, the individual accepts the rules of social behavior: he becomes part of the adult world; takes his place in society, mastering professions; achieves success in life, etc.
By mastering a role repertoire with corresponding identifications, an individual becomes a personality, and his position in society is determined by the number, as well as the complexity, of the roles he has mastered. Thus the social life of man is a series of social dramas - theatrical performances performed before various audiences, sometimes with astonishing changes of costume, and always requiring the actor to be what he plays. In the process of mastering roles, the core of the personality is formed, his “I” arises. Thus, it is not the “I” that determines the composition of the role. On the contrary, the “I”, like a mosaic, is made up of various roles - models, patterns of social behavior.
The roles mastered by an individual in the course of social practice constitute his role system or role set, which determines the line of behavior, life strategy, and other “life parameters.” At the same time, an individual identifies himself with different roles in different ways - with some, personally significant ones, more (role identification), with others, secondary ones, less (distancing from the role). Each role in the role set requires a special manner of behavior and communication with people, providing for relationships that are unlike others. “Correct” performance of a role is rewarded, “wrong” performance is punished by society.
Role theory clearly demonstrates how this or that person plays dramatic roles in the “grand play of society,” and, in the language of P. Berger, a person “has the masks that he must wear while playing his roles.” A person-personality is understood as a repertoire of roles with corresponding identifications.
T. Parsons wrote: “A role is part of the general orientation system of individual actors, which is organized around expectations in relation to a specific context of interaction, integrated with a specific set of values-standards that govern the interaction of one or more changes in accordance with additional roles.”
The dynamic model of the role of the “excellent student” can be based on M. Weber’s theory of social action, since it reveals and describes the “social formulas of the role” or the very principle of role socialization of the individual: “do what is required of you - you will get what is promised to you” ", implemented in clearly defined socio-psychological mechanisms. Socialization in this understanding can be defined as the process of mastering social roles, the skillful execution of which will allow a person to find his place in society (acquire social status).
Within the framework of the social role of an excellent student, the norms of his behavior are systematized into a single whole in accordance with the specifics of the function and status that this role serves. For example, an excellent student - and this distinguishes him from other students - maintains a good relationship with the teacher, always helps him, and actively participates in the public life of the university. And all this is due to the fact that he has high “social” responsibility, takes on increased obligations, etc. In addition, excellent academic performance requires demonstrating “better” knowledge of subjects, diligent completion of all assignments, close to one hundred percent attendance, and being on time checkpoints passed, etc.
These are the formal expectations and requirements of society and key social institutions (family, education system, including the university administration and student community). It is parents and teachers who are directly involved in creating models for fulfilling the social role of an excellent student, imposing on the student a clear set of moral, work and other qualities that he must meet (in order to achieve something in life). Most of the public expectations regarding the behavior of an excellent student, his typical aspirations and guaranteed rewards take the form of strict formalized requirements and standards, which are strictly followed. Fulfillment of these instructions makes it more likely for an individual to achieve personal goals and increases the guarantee of receiving recognition, material rewards, and personnel advancement. As the author's research on this issue shows, almost every excellent student realizes that the condition for his success is compliance with role instructions. Thus, every seven out of ten excellent students surveyed, regardless of gender, age and profile, noted that there is a clear algorithm for studying with excellent marks, when by observing certain rules, following a “simple algorithm”, a student passes exams with excellent marks. Among such principles, rules and etc. were noted:
– work “automatically” (93%);
– completing all homework on time (83%);
– contact with the teacher (76%);
– no omissions (74%);
– participation in research work (74%);
– preparation of at least 3–5 reports on each subject per semester (61% - humanities, 45% - technical and other), etc.
If an excellent student plays a role, violating social expectations, then social sanctions are applied to him, which are external measures of coercion to properly fulfill the social role. These include, for example, deprivation of a scholarship, educational formal and informal conversations, etc. The rigidity of social role control depends on a number of factors. “Playing by the rules” or “accepting the rules” promises the student, as a reward, the activation of certain social opportunities. Activation of opportunities in our understanding means social recognition of an individual in a socially approved (institutionalized) order of certain rights, permission to perform certain social actions, privileges, often recognition of a certain level of power as an opportunity and ability to determine the actions of others.
These respondents include:
– increased prospects for status employment (86% among the “senior” group, 67% among the “junior” group of respondents):
– ease of passing the session – most subjects are automatic (78%);
– availability of an increased scholarship (65%);
– guarantee of free full-time postgraduate study and prospects for a scientific career (63%);
– the opportunity to do an internship in a good place (42%);
– internship opportunity (38%);
– good attitude from teachers and university administration as a whole (29%);
– opportunity to participate in grants, research under the guidance of a teacher (19%);
– respect from classmates (15%).
“Social role formulas” or principles of role socialization of an excellent student, as the study shows, are as follows:
– I am an excellent student (graduated with honors) in order to achieve something in life (51%);
– in order to achieve in life, you need to be successful, including graduating from a university with honors. This gives concrete prospects (34%);
– a diploma with honors does not guarantee success in life and does not provide significant advantages in getting a job, career, etc. (11%).
The value core of the social role of an excellent student forms the social phenomenon of success. The success of an individual is usually understood as a social position that actualizes (activates) a number of social opportunities and indicates that the individual has achieved socially recognized results in various fields of activity, which the individual also evaluates as significant.
Let us also note that the success of an individual is his symbolic capital (P. Bourdieu), personifying the influence of a social agent on the balance of power in a social group and society as a whole. A successful person has significant symbolic capital, his opinion is listened to much more often, and he gets the opportunity to influence the adoption of significant decisions. The formation of a model of success depends on the system of values accepted in society at a specific period of its development and internalized by the individual; in addition, the model of success depends on the individual’s belonging to a certain social stratum; it differs significantly among representatives of the upper and lower strata of modern Western and Russian society.
The institution of success has two dimensions: personal and social. Accordingly, there is a dual understanding of success. Social or public success is directly related to social position in society. The criterion for a successful life becomes the occupation of an advantageous social position and the disposal of large social capital. This social position is directly related to relations of prestige, chosenness, celebrity (popularity), and power.
Another, personal dimension of the institution of success comes from the individual’s satisfaction with his own life, the degree of his self-realization, etc. Success in this dimension is closely related to the individual’s social well-being, comfort and satisfaction with the social relationships, roles, status, etc., in which he is included .
Thus, the institutional complex of success has two main axes - subjective and objective, in the sociological understanding of these terms.
The key to social success is success in public life, “in business,” etc. This involves the development of such communicative and personal qualities as intuition, communicative competence, creativity, ingenuity, the ability to establish and use network and cluster production structures, and much more. .
So, the institutional functionality of success can be expressed as follows:
1. Success is the normative and value basis of the behavior of an excellent student;
2. Success – forms the value framework and criteria of socialization;
3. Success – is the basis for most socially oriented models of behavior (social roles) of an excellent student. It is necessary to highlight at least two conceptual foundations of success in relation to the role set of an excellent student. On the one hand, family members of the (future) excellent student and teachers argue that success is possible only subject to excellent academic performance, which guarantees the graduate increased opportunities for career growth, including in the sphere of education and science that is closed from others (according to the teacher - excellent studies is a pass to graduate school), that is, correctly playing out situations that bring success, mastering only those roles, as a result of playing which one can achieve success. In this case, the scheme “to become successful, do this” is followed. Parents and teachers, as representatives of the most important institutions of socialization - family and education - produce and distribute the “recipe for success.”
The book by psychologist A.V. Ivanov, “The Psychology of Successful Business in Russia,” shows that success in business, in acquiring material wealth, primarily depends on a certain style of behavior, which in Russia has a pronounced specificity. And three key signs of a person striving for material success are formulated: activity and sequence of actions, the result of which is material wealth; the ability to generate business ideas based on real experience; developing connections.
For an excellent student, a similar scheme is also suitable. In adapted form it looks like this:
– active student social activities and hard work for results – evidence of which is the presence of a honors diploma. The latter, in turn, opens up wider opportunities for career growth: a good position, high salary, etc.;
– excellent knowledge acquired during the training process, professional competence. Focus on career growth;
– the ability to communicate with the “right people” and achieve the desired result, having a large number of important contacts.
The normative complex of the social institution of “success” is successfully outlined by I. Boguslavsky in his work “American Success: People and Symbols,” highlighting ten features inherent in the most successful business leaders:
(1) passion;
(2) intelligence and clarity of thinking;
(3) the great art of communication;
(4) high energy reserves;
(5) selfishness under control;
(6) inner peace;
(7) the ability to benefit from early life experiences;
(8) strong family;
(9) positive attitude;
(10) “doing the right things right.”
As the focus group showed, these and other role personality traits are also inherent in excellent students.
The key social expectations of a student playing the role of an excellent student are primarily related to:
1. The opportunity to start a scientific or teaching career: enroll in a budget graduate school, etc., in other words, create favorable conditions for “scientific” professional socialization, “receive an invitation” to work at a university.
2. Practical reinforcement, official evidence that he, as a future employee, has such personal professional qualities as: efficiency, intelligence, determination, accuracy, communication talent, success, ambition. A diploma with honors is, in fact, recognition by a formal institution (education) of these qualities, which increases his chances of occupying a vacant position. In addition, “excellent” education in the specialty indicates the highest possible professional competence of the applicant for the vacancy.
3. The solution to a number of psychological complexes, such as “the desire to meet the expectations of parents,” proof of one’s own worth in a particular social group, etc.
4. Obtaining the opportunity to advance along the social line (party, as well as various public associations and unions).
Taking on the role of an excellent student implies the internalization of a certain normative and value complex, the correction of the “picture of the world.” An excellent student tries to distinguish himself, to stand out from the general mass of people around him. This is, on the one hand, identifying oneself as a social group with an elevated status, and on the other hand, the desire to follow an effective path of socialization, which is supported and approved by the existing social system. However, there are many other roles, the fulfillment of which promises the individual success in socialization. Excellent studies at a university are just one of the opportunities for successful socialization. Roles can be conditionally “folded” into a model of life strategies, or a life strategy can be revealed through a corresponding set of social roles.
In other words, sociologists want to say that excellent studies at a university are not at all as important for a person as excellent students themselves think, and not even from the point of view of further employment, but also for the successful self-realization of an individual. Although the question remains open: if a person realizes himself through study and science, why shouldn’t he be an excellent student? In short, why can’t you be an excellent student not for “someone”, but for yourself...
FEDERAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
State educational institution
"Perm State University"
SOCIOLOGICAL PORTRAIT OF THE PERM REGION: REGIONAL SOCIOCULTURAL TRADITIONS IN THE CONDITIONS OF POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INNOVATIONS
MONOGRAPH
Under general editorship and
UDC 316.334/531)
BBK 60Ros – 4 Per)
The project was carried out with financial support
Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation (RGNF)
project No. a/u
Culture, cultural consumption and cultural life in the region (values, lifestyle, subcultures);
Social problems of educational development;
Leisure activities of the population in the region;
Social problems of confessions;
Social problems of ecology;
Interethnic relations;
Social aspects of healthcare;
Economic activity of enterprises;
Business life of the region, in particular the activities of financial institutions;
State of the environment in the region;
Economic relations of enterprises in the region;
Economic-geographical zoning.
Determining the composition of information necessary to construct a sociological portrait of a region is associated with solving two more groups of problems. Firstly, the region, region, autonomy as a region is divided into districts. And these areas differ in a number of characteristics: the degree of distance from the center and main transport routes; level of development of industry and agriculture; by whether the areas are subsidized or not; by the standard of living of the population, the degree of urbanization, the national composition of the population, etc. A detailed description of each of the regions will significantly increase the volume of all work, make the sociological portrait of the region as a whole mosaic and deprive it of the necessary integrity. Overcoming these difficulties is possible subject to the preliminary construction of a socio-economic typology of regions (or the use of a ready-made one, if one exists and satisfies the goals and requirements of the work) and a detailed analysis of each type using the example of one of its representatives.
Secondly, the temporal (historical) depth of information analysis is not clear. The need for such historical information is related to the task of understanding and explaining the processes and phenomena occurring in the region. There are two possible situations here: the first option is that in this region the economy is quite stable, the transition to market relations and everything connected with them has been fully developed. In this case, the need to involve historical material is minimal. The second option is that in this region “perestroika” is just underway (or has been delayed). In this case, the behavior and consciousness of people are greatly influenced by institutional and cultural structures that arose in Soviet society. In such a situation, the use of historical data over the past ten to twenty years becomes absolutely necessary.
When compiling a sociological portrait, the various spheres of life activity of a region indicated above should not be described separately, independently of each other, since, as has already been shown, the region is a social system. Possessing the sign of self-sufficiency, it is characterized by a certain level of integration, openness, hierarchy, which is expressed in the presence of levels and subsystems, combined into an integral system with characteristic features. Various subsystems of the region have their own characteristics and are characterized by the originality of processes and structures; each of these subsystems can be considered as a relatively independent layer of life in the region. All layers are located one above the other, and the order of this arrangement is determined as follows. If layer A (a subsystem of the social system) sets the main structural parameters for processes and phenomena (or triggers these processes) that belong to layer B, then we believe that layer A lies below layer B. Then the sociological portrait of the region can be represented as a set of lying on other layers (spheres) of social life. It is better to start the procedure for analyzing information and presenting its results as a sociological portrait from the lower layers, but the existing hierarchy of layers is not rigid. Therefore, there may be a need to explain some features in the life of the layers lying below, with the help of patterns and processes occurring in the plane of the layers of social life that are located above. For example, culture can determine or change the nature of processes and phenomena in the economic life of the population, in the field of migration, etc.
To determine the connection and dependence between different layers, it is convenient to use the system analysis option proposed
Briefly, this approach can be characterized as follows. Some system is based on a certain material, substance (for social systems this is people), from which a variety of systems can be formed. The material itself is something formless. Forms, constitutes a given system, a certain basic process. It is implemented in this material. The process occurs over time and has temporal characteristics. But if this process is recorded at some point in time, then we get structure. A structure is a picture of a process at a specific point in time. Like the process, structure is realized on the material: the imposition of structure on a formless material leads to the appearance of certain organization. Organization is material, but unlike material, it has a certain structure. Many arrangements of material form morphology systems. These arrangements ensure the flow of the process on the material.
As an example, consider the settlement system. People in the region form the material, the settlement system itself - a structure with many “empty places” where you can come and where you can live. In the process of settlement, people occupy these places. The result is a settlement system in which the organization will be population density at different points in the region, with the abandonment of small villages and the crowding of large cities. This settlement structure (morphology) determines the settlement process - urbanization, when people are more willing to settle where the population density is greater.
Organized material acquires certain properties: it retains traces of its former structure. And if a new process acts on it and tries to imprint its structure on it, the result is organizations that retain traces of both structures - the old and the new. Thus, one social subsystem lying in the upper layer tries to “influence” the subsystem from the lower layer.
But if another process acts on this structure simultaneously with the first process, then the overall picture changes. The second process also affects this structure, changing it in its own way. This causes a change in the nature of the first process. In this case, we can say that the second process changes the shape and pace of the first process, and therefore acts as a mechanism.
Returning to the sociological portrait of the region, presented in the form of a number of interconnected layers, we can say the following: the processes, as well as structures (since they are snapshots, a reflection of these processes on a certain material) of the lower layer affect the material of the layer lying above, forming certain structures on it , which means they launch certain processes. As the structures and processes of the upper layer develop, they acquire relative independence and begin to form in accordance with their own laws, that is, the laws of their layer. And since the substrate, the material of all these structures and processes is the same - the population of a given region, then its structure is imprinted by both the processes of the lower layer and the processes of the upper layer. Thus, the structure of the substrate bears the imprint of all the processes taking place in both layers. Due to this, the processes of the upper layer influence the processes of the lower layer. Taking into account all the indicated relationships, it is necessary to iterate: again return to the analysis of the lower layer in order to understand how the upper layer could influence the nature of its processes and structures.
The order (hierarchy) of layers can only be partially established a priori. To a large extent, the connection between different layers and subsystems of the social system is established based on the analysis of specific research data. It may be that some of these layers will have to be placed and viewed in parallel. In any case, the procedure proposed here for considering and presenting social information about the region should be perceived as possible, indicating a way to solve the problem in particularly difficult cases.
We can identify the following subsystems of the region that are significant for drawing up a sociological portrait, and arrange them in accordance with the hierarchy of layers (bottom to top):
1) geography of the region (relief, natural resources, climate);
2) population of the region (settlement system, demographic situation, socio-demographic structure, national composition, religious composition);
3) political subsystem (political structure of the region, political life in the region and the political culture of its population, features of administration and local self-government);
4) economic subsystem (industry, employment, economic activity, labor market, motivation for work, standard of living);
5) infrastructure (network of educational institutions, hospitals, leisure centers);
6) social stratification and social mobility;
7) cultural characteristics of the region (human cultural capital and its implementation in the region, subcultures, lifestyle, cultural consumption and cultural life in the region);
8) social well-being of the population (including the level of social tension, characteristics of public opinion, social mood).
To study each layer, it is advisable to use both sociological methods (mass surveys, expert interviews) and statistical data (for example, data from the State Statistics Committee). This is due to the fact that some subsystems of the region can be characterized through a system of objective indicators (the population of the region, the birth rate, the number of divorces, the number of educational institutions and registered non-profit organizations, etc.), while others can only be characterized on the basis of subjective assessments of the population. The latter concerns, for example, the cultural subsystem of the region. A mass survey of the population will allow us to determine the prevailing values in the consciousness of the population (identify the existing value core, defining patterns, standards of behavior), and an in-depth expert interview with representatives of public organizations, government structures, the regional media, and specialists in the field of studying social processes will allow us to trace how historically formed a sociocultural core, and also demonstrate its implementation at different levels of the region’s life: in economic activity and business activity, in political preferences and electoral behavior, management and self-government, at the level of crime and social deviations.
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