Processes of integration/differentiation in Russian society: questions of methodology

Abstract

The problem of theoretical foundations that adequately explain the phenomenon of social integration/differentiation of society in the context of global changes is posed, an analysis of approaches within the framework of sociological, cultural, political science, and psychological postmodern concepts is given. It is shown that the complication of the transitional state of society weakens the effect of adaptive socio-psychological mechanisms, removing the problem of the complexity of the transitional state from the analytical field of social sciences into the interdisciplinary space. Possible directions of theoretical search for factors of latent influence on the processes of integration/differentiation, social groups and society as a whole are revealed. The large gap that has arisen between subjective and objective spaces and time, the attitude towards them and the changes taking place in them, is proposed to be explored with the help of cultural concepts of evolutionary dynamics and intra-system and cross-system aromorphoses. It is shown that sociological science refers to the understanding of the processes of integration/differentiation of the time of late modernity, characterized by great uncertainty, fluidity, complexity, and ambiguity. The analysis of identification mechanisms of consolidation and fragmentation has been developed within the framework of cognitivist and constructionist-oriented concepts, the mutual influence of identity, historical social structures and social processes. The importance of studying the conditions of consolidation, cohesion of society within the framework of the concept of a divided society, established in political science. It is proposed to turn to the macropsychological approach to analyze the psychological state of society. Attention is drawn to the fact that psychological studies of the polarization of consciousness of the last decade take into account the changing contexts of globalization, transitivity, virtuality, as well as new approaches to the analysis of information culture: from the analysis of general characteristics to the differentiation of layers, to the accounting and description of new "archaeological" layers information culture.