Summary - Теоретические проблемы актуальной этнополитики в России: Этносоциология модернизации современной России

After Soviet Union collapsed the Russian society entered the period of deep system transformation. If we look at contemporary Russia through the prism of world development trends the country appeared to be one of transition states moving towards a new civilization quality which is used to be described in terms of post-industrial or information society concepts.

Sociological science has a tradition to name transformation of that kind as modernization. The outcome of modernization depends on dynamics of interaction of integration and disintegration trends in the process of social structure evolution. Successful modernization background is formed by sociocultural integration of society creating adequate to modernization set of values for new social groups.

Government’s key objective during modernization period is to minimize social cost of transition process. A sociocultural policy which is based on well developed theory of forming values and standards system in transforming societies could become a useful tool of implementing the objective.

Design and fulfillment of that policy play significant role for contemporary Russia. Russian society historically was being formed as multiethnic and multicultural empire. (The term empire is used here to denote a sociocultural category, but not political.)

Imperial heritage becomes apparent in a strong tradition of ethnocultural periphery submission to country centre. And this tradition definitely influence the peculiarities of country’s involvement into globalization processes, which are widening the area of ethnocultural interactions in its turn. At the same time variously aimed trends are arising in ethnosocial dynamics of contemporary Russian society.

That explains why ethnopolitical policymaking meets with a complicated task: to integrate traditional systems of values of different ethnic groups and peoples, industrial values of soviet period and values of a new information age.

The monograph argues for one of possible variants of theoretical-sociological background of integration substance and management. That hypothesis requires an appropriate empirical verification and then could be used in contemporary Russian ethnopolicymaking.

The starting methodological point for research derives from understanding of society in transition as specific system state in between chaos and order. Social evolution in that state depends on interaction of different factors, which can promote the strengthening of chaos (imbalance, instability, disintegration) as well as establishing of order (balance, sustainability, integration).

Stochasticity of disintegration/integration processes assumes the existence of quite definite limits for these processes. One of detection instruments of that sort of limitations as well as the mechanisms of their functioning could be the consideration of social interrelations as indirect form of interactions of normative values regulatives.

The author uses a сonception of normative value system as a basis for making a model of ethno-sociocultural integration. In doing so the author relied upon and developed some research methodologies including T. Parsons’ concept on role of value orientations in societal integration, P. Sztompka’s ideas on system interrelations of norms and values,

S. N. Eisenstadt’s and E. Shils’ consideration of sociocultural interpretation of centre/periphery relations.

The normative values system is a product of historical evolution of the community, the result of its adaptation to environment. It represents an organic unity of methaphisical core (transcendental values of existence), societal values, applied social values and norms. Such a structure provides optimal correlation between system’s rigidness and adaptivity, i. e. its ability to provide self-security and self-development.

Any social contact is mediated by interaction of normative value systems of its participants. Hence the outcome of the interaction is formed by structure, substance and peculiarities of functioning of definite normative value systems.

Successful sociocultural integration under modernization demands normative value matrix of society to be reformatted. This could be achieved by formation of a new normative value centre and establishing of appropriate correlations between centre and periphery.

The optimal variant of such reformatting is an organic transformation of normative value system, which occurs without any change of metaphysic nucleus. A new centre is being formed by different variants of synthesis of previous centre and periphery. As a result, new prerequisites for minimization of social costs of transition process come into being.

Organic transformation represents an immediate product of totality of social interactions taking place in transition society. Possibility of such transformation depends on the level of values tolerance of interacting social entities.

Values tolerance means an ability of social entities to establish values equality of other participants of social interaction and their ability to build scenarios of social interaction in accordance to the equality of the kind. The high level of values tolerance provides maximal revelation of adapting potential of value normative systems.

Intellectual elite of each separate social group and society as a whole represent the actor, which determine the dominant of values tolerance in the course of cross-group social interactions. That’s why ethno-sociocultural integration of Russian society in post-industrial modernization is being born predominantly in the process of interaction of ethnocultural groups elites.

A real sociocultural integration takes place, when correlation of value normative systems of interacting entities creates resonance effect. If that interaction occurs in conditions when all its participants get the opportunity to reach the level of values tolerance, resonance correlation would reach the level of societal values.

That is a level where the conditions for synthesis of a new normative value centre of Russian civic nation are created. And that is a centre with sustainable correlation with Russian ethnocultural periphery. Another effect of that is a continuity provision towards former — imperial and soviet — sociocultural centers.

Thus the creation of economic, legal, information etc conditions which would provide the dominance of resonance effects and correlation of normative value systems on the societal values level should become the main function of contemporary Russian ethnic policy.