Social philosophy of P. Sociological views of P. A. Sorokin

Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin(1889-1968) - one of the most prominent classics of sociology, who had a great influence on its development in the 20th century. Sometimes P. Sorokin is called not a Russian sociologist, but an American one. Indeed, chronologically, the “Russian” period of his activity is strictly limited to 1922, the year of his expulsion from Russia. At the same time, the formation of Sorokin’s sociological views, as well as his political position, took place precisely in his homeland, in the conditions of wars, revolutions, the struggle of political parties and scientific schools. In the main work of the “Russian” period - the two-volume “System of Sociology” (1920) - he formulates the basic principles of the theory of social stratification and social mobility (he introduced these terms into scientific use), structures theoretical sociology, highlighting in it social analytics, social mechanics and social genetics.

Sorokin considers social behavior, social interaction of individuals to be the basis of sociological analysis, which he considers as a generic model of both a social group and society as a whole. He divides social groups into organized and unorganized, paying special attention to the analysis of the hierarchical structure of an organized social group. Within groups there are strata (layers) distinguished according to economic, political and professional characteristics. Sorokin argued that a society without stratification and inequality is a myth. The shapes and proportions of the layering may change, but its essence is constant. Stratification will be a permanent feature of any organized society and exists in a non-democratic society and in a society with a "thriving democracy".

Sorokin talks about the presence of two types of social mobility in society - vertical and horizontal. Social mobility means a transition from one social position to another, a kind of “elevator” for movement both within a social group and between groups. Social stratification and mobility in society are predetermined by the fact that people are not equal in their physical strength, mental abilities, inclinations, tastes, etc.; in addition, by the very fact of their joint activities. The material was published on http://site
Joint activity necessarily requires organization, and organization is unthinkable without managers and subordinates. Since society is always stratified, it is inherently inequality, but inequality must be reasonable.

Society should strive for a state in which a person can develop his abilities, and science and the intuition of the masses, and not revolution, can help society in this. In his work “The Sociology of Revolution” (1925), Sorokin calls the revolution a “great tragedy” and defines it as “a death machine that deliberately destroys on both sides the healthiest and most able-bodied, the most outstanding, gifted, strong-willed and mentally qualified elements of the population.” The revolution is accompanied by violence and cruelty, a reduction in the body, and not its increase. It is worth noting that it deforms the social structure of society and worsens the economic and cultural position of the working class. The only way to improve and reconstruct social life there can only be reforms carried out by legal and constitutional means. Note that each reform must be preceded by Scientific research specific social conditions, and each reform must first be “tested” on a small social scale.

Let us note that Sorokin’s theoretical heritage and his contribution to the development of domestic and world sociology can hardly be overestimated, he is so rich in deeply meaningful, theoretically and methodologically supported knowledge of social reality and trends in the future development of society.

Sociology P. Sorokin

Pitirim Sorokin(1889-1968) created a sociological theory, which was called “integral”. In it, society was viewed as a sociocultural system. It is worth noting that he distinguished four sections in sociology: the doctrine of society, social mechanics (determination of the statistical laws of society), social genetics (the origin and development of society), social policy(private sociological science)

An element of society is the interaction of individuals. It is worth noting that it is divided into template and non- template, one-sided and two-sided, antagonistic and non-antagonistic. Society is the process and result of social interaction (the interaction of many individuals). Its result will be their adaptation to their environment. In the process of such adaptation, a social order of society arises, the main development trend of which will be social equality.

The development of human society occurs through evolution and revolution. Social evolution represents a gradual and progressive development based on knowledge of society, reforms, cooperation of people, and the desire for social equality. Social revolution - rapid, deep progressive or regressive development of society, based on the violence of one class over another. It is worth noting that it changes the nature of social equality.

Based on the experience of personal participation in two Russian revolutions of 1917, P. Sorokin identifies their main reasons: the suppression of the basic needs of the majority of the population by the existing social system, the ineffectiveness of this social system, the weakness of the forces of public order. Social revolution goes through stages revolutionary explosion when basic needs find their way out and destroy the country, and counter-revolution, when these needs are curbed.

Pitirim Sorokin developed a theory social stratification, division of society into many social layers (strata) depending on wealth, power, education, etc.

He also has priority in the discovery of the theory of social mobility, movement from one social layer to another.

Sorokin also belongs to the theory of civilizational stages of human development as spiritual and cultural formations. According to P. Sorokin, civilization is a historical community of people united by some type of worldview (ideals, values, methods of cognition). The development of mankind demonstrates three phases of such civilizational development, in which the civilizational and worldview basis of the unification of people changes. Ideational civilization is based on one or another type of religious worldview and dominates during the Middle Ages. Its ideal will be the desire to save the human soul. Sensitive civilization arises on the basis of a materialistic worldview and will be a negation of ideational civilization. Her ideal will be wealth and comfort. It is worth noting that it is characteristic of the industrial stage of human development. Idealistic civilization arises on the basis of the convergence of religious and materialistic worldviews, taking everything positive from their components. It is worth noting that it is characteristic of the last stage of industrialism.

Sorokin Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin Pitirim Alexandrovich

(1889-1968), sociologist. One of the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, in 1917 personal secretary of A.F. Kerensky. From 1918 he taught at Petrograd University, in 1922 he was expelled from Russia. Since 1923 in the USA, professor at Minnesota (1924) and Harvard (1929-59), president of the American Sociological Association (1964). He considered the historical process as a cyclical change of types of culture. One of the founders of the theories of social stratification and social mobility. Main works: “Crime and Punishment, Feat and Reward” (1914), “System of Sociology” (vol. 1-2, 1920), “Social and Cultural Dynamics. A study of the change in the main systems of art, knowledge, ethics, law and social relations" (vol. 1-4, 1930-37), "Russia and the USA" (1944), "The main features of the Russian nation in the 20th century" (1967).

SOROKIN Pitirim Alexandrovich

SOROKIN Pitirim Alexandrovich (1889-1968), sociologist. Born in Russia. Leader of the Right Social Revolutionaries; since 1920 professor at Petrograd University. Since 1922 in exile. Since 1930, professor at Harvard University. He considered the historical process as a cyclical change of the main types of culture, based on an integrated sphere of values (cm. VALUE), characters (cm. SYMBOL). Arguing that modern culture is experiencing a general crisis, Sorokin associated it with the development of materialism and science and saw a way out in the development of a religious “idealistic” culture. One of the founders of theories of social stratification (cm. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION) and social mobility (cm. SOCIAL MOBILITY).
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SOROKIN (Sorokin) Pitirim Alexandrovich (January 21, 1889, Turya village, Yarensky district, Vologda province - February 11, 1968, Winchester, Massachusetts, USA), Russian-American sociologist and social thinker. His name is associated with the ideas of integral sociology and the concept of social stratification (cm. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION), theory of sociocultural dynamics.
Life and work in Russia
Sorokin's father, Alexander Prokopyevich Sorokin, was engaged in church restoration work. Mother, Pelageya Vasilyevna, a Zyrianka from a peasant family. In 1904, Sorokin, having graduated with honors from the Gamsk two-year school, continued his studies at the Khrenovskaya (in Kostroma province) church-teachers school. Even in his early youth, Sorokin became interested in republican, democratic and socialist ideas and joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party. In 1906 he was first arrested and placed in prison in Kineshma. There he became acquainted with the works of revolutionary classics (Lavrov (cm. LAVROV Petr Lavrovich), Mikhailovsky (cm. MIKHAILOVSKY Nikolai Konstantinovich), Chernov (cm. CHERNOV Viktor Mikhailovich), Marx (cm. MARX Karl), Lenin (cm. LENIN Vladimir Ilyich), Plekhanov (cm. PLEKHANOV Georgy Valentinovich) etc.) and social and philosophical thought (Tolstoy (cm. TOLSTOY Lev Nikolaevich), Darwin (cm. DARWIN Charles Robert), Spencer (cm. SPENCER Herbert), Comte (cm. CONT Auguste) and etc.). In 1907 he was released from prison and in 1909, having passed the gymnasium exams (in Veliky Ustyug) as an external student, he entered the Psychoneurological Institute in St. Petersburg. Among his professors were the famous E. V. De Roberti (cm. DE-ROBERTI Evgeniy Valentinovich) and M. M. Kovalevsky (cm. KOVALEVSKY Maxim Maksimovich), which had a huge influence on the formation of Sorokin’s creative individuality. A year later he transferred to Faculty of Law St. Petersburg University, where he studied with the outstanding Russian jurist L. I. Petrazhitsky (cm. PETRAZHITSKY Lev Iosifovich). During his studies, Sorokin published reviews, essays, and reviews of modern foreign philosophical and sociological literature. In 1914, his first monograph “Crime and Punishment, Feat and Reward” was published, in which Sorokin, based on rich empirical material, tries to build an integral concept of social behavior and morality.
In February 1913, Sorokin was again arrested for belonging to the left Socialist Revolutionary organization, but was released at the request of M. M. Kovalevsky. A year later, after graduating from the university, he was left at the department of criminal law and judicial procedure to prepare for a professorship. In 1915 he passed his master's exams, and in January 1917 he received the title of private assistant professor at Petrograd University.
After the February Revolution, Sorokin took Active participation in the work of the Provisional Government, was personal secretary A. F. Kerensky (cm. KERENSKY Alexander Fedorovich). In addition, he edited the Socialist Revolutionary newspapers “Delo Naroda” and “Will of the People”. He publishes a number of vivid socio-political pamphlets, in particular, “Autonomy of Nationalities and the Unity of the State”, “Forms of Government”, “The Problem of Social Equality”, “The Essence of Socialism”, etc.
On January 2, 1918, Sorokin, as a deputy of the Constituent Assembly, was arrested by the Bolsheviks. He publishes an open letter stating the fiasco of the Socialist Revolutionary program and declaring a break with this party. Lenin, in his article “Valuable Confessions of Pitirim Sorokin,” regarded this statement as proof of Bolshevik success. Sorokin breaks with politics and devotes himself entirely to scientific and teaching activities, giving lectures at the University of the Petrograd Psychoneurological Institute, at the Agricultural Institute, the Institute of National Economy, at all kinds of training, educational programs, etc. In 1920, he was elected head of the department of sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Petrograd University, writes popular textbooks on sociology and law. The pinnacle of his work in the Russian period was the two-volume “System of Sociology” (1920).
In the summer of 1922 there was a wave of repressions (cm. REPRESSION) against the scientific and creative intelligentsia, accused of being disloyal to Soviet power. Soon about 200 prominent representatives of the Russian intelligentsia were expelled (cm. EXPLANATION ABROAD) abroad. On September 23, 1922, thirty-three-year-old Sorokin and his wife, Elena Petrovna Baratynskaya, left Russia forever. After a short stay in Berlin, Sorokin was invited by the President of Czechoslovakia T. Masaryk (cm. MASARIK Tomas) goes to Prague, where he gives lectures and prepares his scientific works for publication.
Life and work in the USA. Founder of American Sociology
In the fall of 1923, Sorokin moved to the United States, where he lectured at the University of Minnesota. In 1924, his book “Leaves from a Russian Diary” was published with a description and analysis of Russian events in January 1917 - September 1922. At first, Sorokin was greeted with distrust in the United States. He managed to overcome the hostile attitude towards himself only after publishing a number of fundamental works: “Sociology of Revolution” (1925), “Social Mobility” (1927), “Modern Sociological Theories” (1928), “Foundations of Urban and Rural Sociology” (co-authored with K. Zimmerman, 1929), three-volume “Systematic anthology of rural sociology (1930-1932). These works brought Sorokin world fame. In 1930, Sorokin became dean of the sociology department at Harvard University (he held this position until 1959). He invites K. Zimmerman, T. Parsons to the faculty as professors (cm. PARSONS Talcott) and other famous sociologists. Having received a four-year grant of 10 thousand dollars from Harvard University, he publishes (per year) a work, Social and Cultural Dynamics, unprecedented in volume and empirical coverage. In this work he involves many of the Russian emigrant scientists, as well as his Harvard students (among them R. Merton (cm. MERTON Robert King)). After its release, the reaction to the book was unexpected: negative reviews appeared in the scientific press. Sorokin adapted “Dynamics” for the mass reader, writing “The Crisis of Our Time” (1941) - the most frequently translated and a book to read scientist. A year later, “Man and Society in Distress” appeared, in 1951 - “SOS: the meaning of our crisis.” In the 1950s Sorokin’s work is dominated by themes of crisis and altruistic love: “Social Philosophy in the Age of Crisis”, “Altruistic Love” (1950), “Research in the Field of Altruistic Love and Behavior” (1950), “The Ways and Power of Love” (1954), “ American Sexual Revolution" (1957), "Power and Morality" (1959). In the essay “Mutual rapprochement of the United States and the USSR towards a mixed sociocultural type,” he argues that if humanity can avoid new world wars, then the dominant type of emerging society and culture will not be a capitalist or communist type, but an integral one, uniting the majority of positive values and liberated from serious defects of each type.
Sorokin’s latest books are “Quirks and Disadvantages of Modern Sociology and related sciences"(1956), "Modern Sociological Theories" (1966) - demonstrated the strength and depth of his logical-critical mind. In 1964, 75-year-old Sorokin, one of the founders of American sociology, was elected chairman of the American Sociological Association. After a two-year serious illness, Sorokin died on February 11, 1968 at his home on Cliff Street in Winchester (Massachusetts). After his death, the American Sociological Association established an annual Sorokin Prize for best book in sociology.
Social stratification and mobility
Sorokin's views throughout his life were distinguished by their integrity. His scientific principles were formulated in the “System of Sociology”. According to Sorokin, theoretical sociology is divided into three main sections: 1) social analytics (social anatomy and morphology); 2) social mechanics (its object is social processes); 3) social genetics (theory of evolution public life). The model of a social phenomenon includes 3 elements: individuals, acts (actions) and conductors of communication (symbols of interaction - language (cm. LANGUAGE (natural)), writing (cm. WRITING), music (cm. MUSIC (art form)), art (cm. ART (artistic creativity)), money (cm. MONEY) and so on.). Interaction can be antagonistic or solidaristic, one-sided or two-sided, patterned or unconventional.
In the work “Social mobility” (cm. SOCIAL MOBILITY) Sorokin was the first to substantiate the difference between horizontal (the transition from one social group to another at the same level of social stratification) and vertical mobility (the movement of an individual - upward or downward - from one layer to another - social ascent and social descent), having analyzed the means and channels for its achievement. He argued the thesis that social mobility is the natural state of society. Vertical mobility occurs within three forms of social stratification (cm. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION): intraprofessional or interprofessional, political and advancement along the “economic ladder”. During advancement, obstacles arise in the form of “sieves”, which contain the mechanism of social testing, selection and distribution of individuals into social strata. They tend to coincide with the main channels of vertical mobility (school, army, church, family and marriage, professional, economic and political organizations). Mobility during normal periods of social evolution and during periods of crisis differs, as changes occur in the “sieve” system. In the history of human society there is no constant tendency either towards universal equality or towards excessive differentiation (cm. DIFFERENTIATION (division into parts)). The constant tendency of the social pyramid to rise is complemented by an equally constant (but acting impulsively) tendency to equalize. When the economic or social pyramid becomes too long, “counterforces” come into play: revolutions (cm. REVOLUTION), revolutions and other social cataclysms, which seem to “cut off” the top of the pyramid, turning it for some time into a trapezoid. These forces then give way to a tendency towards differentiation, which again leads to the growth of the pyramid, and so on ad infinitum. Lines social development most adequately correspond to a sinusoid.
Sociology of revolution
This concept formed the basis of Sorokin’s ideas about the role of revolutions in the life of society. He considered their primary and universal cause to be the growth of social differentiation and inequality, which intensifies the suppression of the “basic instincts” of the masses and pushes them to revolutionary actions. The constant effect of any society is that it lags behind in distributing benefits to its members according to their personal qualities and abilities. This defect is complemented by bioanthropological and demographic factors, which leads to a gradual increase in the stratum of people who do not correspond to their social position. In the higher stratum there gathers a large group of incapable, sluggish, degenerate individuals who, in accordance with these qualities, must move to the lower stratum. At the lower level, a mass of talented, energetic people accumulate, who are also “socially” out of place.
If channels of vertical mobility do not function normally in a society, allowing for a painless resolution of this conflict, it pays with a social revolution. In the first phase, all “talented and energetic people” from the lower stratum move to the highest, but along with them, in conditions of chaos, many incapable people also end up there. Not only degenerates, but also talents are removed from the upper stratum. At the second stage, the reaction period begins (cm. REACTION (political)) as an inevitable consequence of any revolution. Erroneously “reset” talents are returned to the top. Gradually, a stable stratification is formed again.
Sociocultural dynamics
Sorokin’s teaching on sociocultural dynamics is related to the problems of stratification. The basis of the concept is the consideration of society and culture as a single sociocultural phenomenon - a supersystem. On the basis of a huge empirical-statistical study of art, science, religion and law, Sorokin concludes that there are three main supersystems that periodically replace each other in history: ideational, idealistic and sensual. The ideational type of culture is characterized by a comprehensive orientation towards transcendental (otherworldly, or supersensible) values. In a culture of the sensual type, material values predominate. The idealistic type of culture synthesizes the values of both types. There is also a fourth type of culture, characteristic of an era of decline, where the values of the three main types coexist eclectically without forming organic integration.
The central concept is value (cm. VALUE). Each type of culture, according to Sorokin, has its own, immanent, law of development and its own “limits to growth.” This is sociocultural dynamics. The prevailing value system in a given era forms a fundamental determinant for this dynamic. (cm. DETERMINANT), defining the nature of a given art, philosophy, religion, ethics, economics and political relations.
Sorokin regarded the modern era as an era of crisis of sensual culture, which, however, is not at all the mortal agony of Western civilization (as in O. Spengler (cm. SPENGLER Oswald)), but a certain stage on the path of transition to a new, ideational culture. The time of transition is characterized by the cultural polarization of society, when some people “mentally and morally disintegrate.” Therefore, in such eras, the need to unite the forces of the “positive pole” comes to the fore, contributing to the preservation of a value system based on “a sense of moral duty and the Kingdom of God.” The advent of ideational culture can be accelerated by the spread of ideas of altruistic love in the world.

encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

Pitirim Sorokin - President of the American Sociological Association

Pitirim Sorokin Alexandrovich. Biography

Sorkin Pitirim Aleksandrovich (01/23/1889, Turya village, Yarensky district, Vologda province - 02/10/1968, Winchester, Massachusetts, USA) - American sociologist and cultural scientist. Founder of the theories of social stratification and social mobility.
Pitirim entered the rural literacy school in the village of Palevitsy (by that time his mother Pelageya Vasilyevna, a Komi-Zyryanka native of Zheshart, had died of cancer). And he and his older brother Vasily left their father, a traveling artisan “master of gold, silver and icon decoration,” but a drunkard and rowdy. One was 10 years old at the time, the other was 14.
After completing his studies at primary school in the spring of 1901 and by chance finding himself with his brother in the village of Gam, Pitirim was accepted, “victoriously passing all the tests,” into the new, just opened Gam second-grade parochial school, from which he graduated with honors in 1904. After graduating from it and under the patronage of his teacher A.N. Obraztsov, Pitirim entered the Khrenovsky church-teachers school in the Kostroma province.
In 1905, Sorokin joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, in December 1906 he was arrested for campaigning activities, and spent 4 months in prison in Kineshma. Naturally, he was expelled from the seminary.
In 1907, Pitirim Sorokin moved to St. Petersburg, where he met a fellow countryman from the Komi region, Professor Kallistrat Zhakov, and, under his patronage, entered the Chernyaevsky courses. Then, in February 1909, in Veliky Ustyug, he passed all exams for gymnasium courses as an external student and in the same year entered the paid St. Petersburg Psychoneurological Institute (K.F. Zhakov also taught here). But at the beginning of 1910, having failed to pay off his student debt, he was suspended from classes along with his fellow sufferer Nikolai Kondratiev (the future Soviet economist who substantiated the NEP).
In July 1910, Pitirim Sorokin was enrolled in the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. In the same year, 1910, Sorokin’s first publications appeared (the article “Remnants of Animism among the Zyryans”, the story “Dig-Fuck”), in which he summarizes the results of his ethnographic expeditions. After graduating from the university in 1914, which, by the way, he graduated with a first-degree diploma, Pitirim remained at the department of criminal law at the university, and since 1916 he has been a private assistant professor.
In 1917, Pitirim Sorokin took part in the revolution on the side of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. He was elected as a deputy of the Constituent Assembly on the list of this party. After February 1917 - Kerensky's secretary and one of the editors of the Socialist Revolutionary newspaper "The Will of the People". In 1918 he was arrested twice by the Bolsheviks, and he was on the verge of execution. He was saved only by a complete renunciation of political activity - he renounces the title of member of the Constituent Assembly and announces his resignation from the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Since 1919, P. Sorokin again taught at Petrograd University. In January 1920, he was awarded the title of professor without protection.
In 1922, P. Sorokin and other outstanding scientists and philosophers were expelled from Soviet Russia on Lenin's orders. Expelled from Russia, P. A. Sorokin ended up in Germany, later in the Czech Republic, and a year later he moved to the United States, where he managed to find a second homeland.
From 1923 to 1930, Pitirim Sorokin taught at various universities in the United States, and at the same time published several major works.
Among the numerous works that appeared from the pen of P. A. Sorokin at a later time, the fundamental four-volume monograph “Social and Cultural Dynamics”, which was met with great interest throughout the scientific world, stands out.
It is noteworthy that both supporters and opponents of P. Sorokin admitted “that, judging by the abundance of the most daring hypotheses, there is no other similar book in modern sociological literature.” In 1930, at Harvard University, P. Sorokin organized the first sociology department in the United States, of which he remained dean for twelve years.
At Harvard, Sorokin trained a galaxy of brilliant American scientists. Evidence of Pitirim Sorokin's merits was his election in 1964 as president of the American Sociological Association.
It is worthy of special attention that, while in America, P. Sorokin did not forget about his native land and his fellow countrymen. P. P. Krotov and A. V. Lipsky quite recently managed to find people in Rimya who knew Pitirim Sorokin’s aunt Anisya well and still remember her. “It turned out that Sorokin constantly wrote letters to her, sent dollars and white flour, from which Anisya baked “French buns”, treating her fellow villagers... One of Sorokin’s messages, according to the recollections of Anisya’s fellow villagers, began like this: “I went from a simple village guy to leading scientists not only in Europe, but also in America."

Pitirim Sorokin. Major works

Digging with a fart: A story about the life of a northern village, - Arkhangelsk Provincial Gazette, 1910 No. 203;
P Sorokin. Housing. Modern Zyryans (1911)
P Sorokin. Forestry. Modern Zyryans (1911)
Marriage in the old days: Polyandry and polygamy, Riga, 1913;
Suicide as a social phenomenon, Riga, 1913;
Crime and punishment, feat and reward, St. Petersburg, 1914;
L. N. Tolstoy as a philosopher, Moscow, 1914;
Autonomy of nationalities and unity of the state, Petrograd, 1917;
The problem of social equality, Petrograd, 1917;
System of sociology. Volumes 1-2. - Petrograd, 1920;
Hunger as a factor: The influence of hunger on human behavior, social organization and public life. - Petrograd, 1922;
The current state of Russia, - Prague, 1922;
Popular essays on social pedagogy and politics. Uzhgorod, 1923;
Social and cultural dynamics. The main work of Pitirim Sorokin in 4 volumes in 1937-1941. It gained fame as a classic work in the field of sociology and cultural studies.
Sociocultural Causality, Space and Time, 1943;
Russia and the USA, 1944;
Society, culture and personality: their structure and dynamics. System of General Sociology, 1947;
Social Philosophy in an Age of Crisis, 1950;
The Ways and Power of Love, 1954;
American Sexual Revolution, 1957;
Main features of the Russian nation in the 20th century, 1967
Interview with the head of the Pitirim Sorokin Center, Ph.D. Pavel Krotov about the legacy of P. Sorokin, his family and future plans. According to the scientist, the Vym village of Turya, the birthplace of P. Sorokin, and the Komi Republic as a whole, can present tourists not only with beautiful nature, but also “pages of the biography” of the outstanding philosopher. He is convinced that “it is impossible to imagine cultural tourism in Komi without Pitirim Sorokin.”
Pitirim Sorokin’s autobiographical book “The Long Road,” where he describes the years of his life in the Komi region, is being translated into the Komi language. The translation from English into Russian was carried out by the head. Department of Syktyvkar State University Vera Chernykh, from Russian to Komi - philologists of the Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Oleg Ulyashev and Galina Fedyuneva.
Video translation. On the website business-sound.ru you can order a video translation service, for example, a video in English translated and voiced in Russian. And vice versa. And also choose accompaniment: music and effects, make a script.

Conclusion
List of used literature

Introduction

Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin (1889-1968) - the largest sociologist of the 20th century. Creative activity Sorokin is divided into two periods - Russian (from the beginning of the 1910s to 1922) and American. By the beginning of the 60s, P. Sorokin had been an American sociologist for about forty years, firmly occupying one of the top ten leading sociologists in the world.

This work examines the main provisions of sociological theories and reveals the main points from the biography of the scientist.

1. Biography and origins of P. Sorokin’s work

Russian and American sociologist Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin (1889 - 1968) was born in Russia (Komi region), where he spent the first 15 years of his life (1889-1904). The mother was Komi, the father was Russian. Before arriving in St. Petersburg, P. Sorokin did not receive a systematic secondary education; he was expelled from the church teacher’s school due to his arrest. During the First Russian Revolution (1905-1906) he became involved in the revolutionary activities of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. He spent more than three months in the royal prison. His formation as a sociologist took place in St. Petersburg. Here he graduated from evening school (Chernyaevsky courses), where he spent two years. In 1909, that is, already at the age of 20) he passed the exams for the gynasis course. In 1909 he entered the Psychoneurological Institute in St. Petersburg, where he studied for one year. In an effort to avoid conscription into the army, in 1910 he entered the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. As a third-year student, he published his first book, “Crime and Punishment, Feat and Reward” (1913). He himself later described his system of views of this period as “a type of empirical neopositivism.” At the same time I was studying revolutionary activities and served a couple of weeks in prison for it.

In 1917, after the February Revolution, sociology in Russia acquired the character of an officially recognized scientific discipline. P. Sorokin in 1919-1922 was the head of the interfaculty department, then - the department of sociology at Petrograd University. In 1917, he took an active part in the revolution on the side of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. After October 1917, he stood in opposition to the Bolshevik regime and took part in the political struggle in the North. In 1918, he was arrested twice by the Bolsheviks and was on the verge of execution. At the end of 1918, he ceased active political activity and on December 23, 1918, he was reinstated as a teacher at the Faculty of Law of Petrograd University, where he began teaching a course in “Criminal Sociology.” In September 1922, P. Sorokin and a group of other scientists who did not accept Marxist ideology and Bolshevik policies were expelled from Soviet Russia. Lived and worked in Prague. At the end of 1923 he was invited to give lectures in the USA. The first courses were taught at the universities of Illinois and Wisconsin, then he received an offer to take a position as a full-time professor at the University of Minnesota.

In 1955, when P. Sorokin turned 66 years old, he retired, but remained director of the Harvard Research Center on Creative Altruism. On December 31, 1959, at the age of 70, he resigned from all positions at Harvard. In the last decade of his life, he continued his active scientific and teaching work, giving lectures at various universities, working on books and articles. He has published more than 30 books. P. Sorokin enjoyed great influence in the world of sociology during his lifetime, but later he turned out to be half-forgotten both in his homeland and in the West. The only exception is his ideas in the field of social mobility. Since the early 1990s. interest in P. Sorokin appeared in Russia, which was manifested in the publication of a number of his works and studies devoted to his life and work.

According to many authoritative experts in the field of sociology, the significance of Sorokin’s figure is still not fully appreciated by either American or domestic science. The works of this famous sociologist were not published in his historical homeland until the 90s. In Russian sociology, the previously closed topic of Sorokin was “unopened” only on the eve of the scientist’s centenary in 1989. Although Americans consider P. Sorokin to be one of the founding fathers of American sociology, at the same time, they often remember him only as a “passionate Russian speaker." His ideas did not fit into the mainstream of traditional American sociological science, which acted as a defender of the establishment and social order.

P. Sorokin entered the history of world sociology as the largest sociologist of the half of the twentieth century, the creator of integral sociology, the theory of social mobility and social space, and the theory of sociocultural dynamics.

Geographically, the work of P. Sorokin is divided into two periods: Russian - until September 1922, when he was forced to leave his historical homeland; and American - since 1923, when, after a short stay in Czechoslovakia, he finally settled in the USA. In the content aspect, i.e. Taking into account the evolution of the sociologist’s theoretical views, three periods have already been distinguished in his work: until the mid-20s; until the end of the 30s; 40 - 60s.

P. Sorokin lived a long and difficult life. Until recently, biographers argued about the place and exact date of birth of the sociologist. Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin was born in the village of Turya, Vologda province (now the Komi Republic) in the family of a traveling artisan - a gold, silver, icon maker who moved from village to village in search of work. Left orphaned at the age of 11, he and his older brother made a living by painting churches. The difficult and complex road of life, which led him from the Far North, first to St. Petersburg, and then to America, is described by P. Sorokin in his autobiography “The Long Road” (52).

It will be interesting to note that other than him, none of the prominent representatives of sociological science ventured into the genre of autobiography. Starting with the works of the famous Chicago School and, above all, the classic work of T. Znaniecki “The Polish Peasant in Europe and America,” autobiography has become an important research tool in the sociology and anthropology of the twentieth century. Sorokin the sociologist, knowing better than others about the possibilities modern methods analysis of autobiographies, nevertheless, perhaps the only prominent sociologist risked “naked” before posterity.

The formation of his creative individuality was greatly influenced by two then world-famous scientists - E.V. De-Roberti and M.M. Kovalevsky (whose secretary became Sorokin), who opened the Department of Sociology at the capital's Psychoneurological Institute, which P. Sorokin entered. A year later, Sorokin was transferred to the law faculty of the university, where he studied with the direct participation of the outstanding Russian jurist of the beginning of the century L.I. Petrazhitsky. Analyzing the spiritual origins of his worldview, P. Sorokin named among the most significant for him the theories of N. Mikhailovsky, P. Lavrov, M. Rostovtsev, P. Kropotkin, G. Tarde, E. Durkheim, G. Simmel, M. Weber, R. Stammler, K. Marx, V. Pareto, etc. E. Durkheim is especially close to him in his way of thinking and method of analyzing social phenomena. P. Sorokin corresponded with him (in all likelihood, under the patronage of M.M. Kovalevsky, who was familiar with the French sociologist).

After graduating from the university, P. Sorokin was retained at the department of criminal law and legal proceedings and already in January 1917 received the title of private assistant professor at Petrograd University. He stood at the origins of the first sociology department in Russia at Petrograd University. In a number of textbooks he is considered the creator and dean of this faculty, however latest research indicate that during this period the faculty did not yet exist, but the sociological department was organized in the socio-economic department, which became part of the faculty of social sciences. A Sociological Institute was also created at the university. At the head of these endeavors was P. Sorokin, who in 1920 was the first to be elevated to the rank of professor of the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences (52, p. 295).

During the Russian period of creativity, Sorokin, in addition to numerous articles in magazines and newspapers, published a number of his works: “Crime and Punishment, Feat and Reward” (1914), “Problems of Social Equality” (1917), popular textbooks on law and sociology and, finally , a generalizing two-volume “System of Sociology” (1920), which became the crown of his work of the Russian period (this work was originally conceived by P. Sorokin in eight volumes).

Researchers of P. Sorokin’s work note that already in this early period he appears to us as an established sociologist. He will carry the ideas that P. Sorokin developed during the St. Petersburg period of his life through all his work, and already in this regard his sociology is integral. For example, two categories of P. Sorokin, included in the golden fund of world sociological science - “social mobility” and “social space” were introduced by him already in his early works.

While still studying at the church-teacher school in the Kostroma province, P. Sorokin began to take an active part in political life. He joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party and was arrested for political activities. Subsequently Sorokin headed right wing this party. After the February Revolution, he was A.F.’s secretary. Kerensky, member of the Constituent Assembly, editor of the newspaper “Will of the People”, and then “Delo of the People”. P. Sorokin met the October Revolution with hostility. In 1922, together with a group of scientists and politicians he was expelled from Russia. The thirty-three-year-old scientist was able to quickly acquire fluent spoken English and already in the summer of 1924 began lecturing at the University of Minnesota, USA. “Leaves from a Russian Diary” (1924), “Sociology of the Revolution” (1925), “Social Mobility” (1927), “Modern Sociological Theories” (1928), and co-authored “Foundations of Urban and Rural Communities” (1929) were published here ), three-volume “Systematic Anthology of Rural Sociology” (1930 - 1932).

These works allowed P. Sorokin to overcome opposition from American academic circles and win the support of leading sociologists - C. Cooley, E. Ross, F. Giddings. The “Russian American” has moved from the “backyards” of political emigration to the forefront of American sociology. In 1930, the world-famous Harvard University established the sociology department and invited Sorokin to head it. P. Sorokin worked at this faculty for three decades, including 12 years as dean.

2. Sociological views of Pitirim Sorkin

Social system of P. Sorokin and social dynamics

Already in the early period, P. Sorokin posed and resolved the question of social integration, the causes and types of integral connections. He believed that it is possible to understand the reasons for the emergence of a social whole only by taking into account the actions of factors that unite people into society. He considered three factors to be the most important mechanisms of social integration that determine the “true fabric of any social structure”:

“cosmic-geographical” socialization of individuals (climate, territory), which determines the specifics of human interaction in a particular society;
“biological-physiological” socialization (instincts, impulses, needs and incentives), forcing people to interact;
“psychological” socialization - socio-psychological mechanisms of interaction (suggestion, imitation, emotional-intellectual contacts).

P. Sorokin comes to the conclusion that these three factors together represent the unifying force of all social phenomena, although in some cases it is they, on the contrary, that can contribute to the disintegration of “collective social unities.” The true basis of social integration is, according to P. Sorokin, unity around the norm, value, goal or so-called soul of the people, national spirit, group mind, consciousness of the clan and other values. Thus, “value” becomes the central concept of Sorokin’s theoretical system. Thinkers had thought about the nature of values before him, but, perhaps, “no one before P. Sorokin managed to show the systematizing and methodological significance of value theory in sociology.”

Considering the structure of “social interaction”, P. Sorokin is already in his works early period highlighted its most important elements. Individuals (minimum two) who interact and thereby determine each other’s behavior. “Acts” (actions) - each act is, on the one hand, an internal realization of one’s own mental life (needs, ability to respond to stimuli), on the other, a stimulus (stimulant) that causes a reaction from other people. “Conductors” of social actions are ways of transmitting reactions between subjects of interaction, which can be material and symbolic (language, writing, music, art, money, tools, ceremonies, reminders, household items).

In public life, P. Sorokin identified various levels of interaction, which together give an idea of the social space of human life and social differentiation in it. He considered the main types of social interaction: interindividual, level of elementary and cumulative groups (classes, nations, people, elite), intergroup. Interaction can be either antagonistic or solidaristic. P. Sorokin considered the collective reflex to be an integral factor of all social life. This attitude was clearly manifested in his work “The Sociology of Revolution” (1925), in which he saw the cause of revolutionary movements in society in the suppression of basic human instincts. Already in his early work “System of Sociology” P. Sorokin outlined the main provisions of the theory of social stratification.

He later developed these ideas in his fundamental and innovative work at the time, Social Mobility (1927), which had an unexpected effect in the United States. According to the unanimous opinion of experts, this work is considered a classic work on the problems of stratification for Western sociology. It was even used as a textbook at one time. According to the memoirs of R. Merton, “Social Mobility” was “an amazing synthesis of empirical and practical material, as well as the first serious and comprehensive review of social stratification in our century” (39, p. 128). In this work, P. Sorokin continued the synthesis outlined in the “System of Sociology.”

P. Sorokin attached particular importance to the understanding of social life to the state of “conductors” (material and symbolic), transmitting reactions from one individual to another. The saturation of social space and time with “conductors,” in his opinion, significantly changes social interactions in society. For example, the degree of intensity of interaction is directly dependent on the saturation of the social space with social conductors (state railways, the average number of letters and telegrams per individual, rallies and lectures, newspapers, libraries, conversations, etc.).

In the processes of accumulation of conductors, P. Sorokin saw a specific feature that distinguishes human society from biological communities. “Conductors” do not disappear as “acts”, but can persist and accumulate. They create an unnatural environment around interacting people - a culture that is, as it were, a frozen result of past interactions of people organically included in their present interaction. Just like E. Durkheim and G. Simmel, P. Sorokin comes to the conclusion that all elements of culture are real elements of society, along with individuals and relationships. They are included in the orbit of our current behavior, regardless of when they were created. Therefore, any society, P. Sorokin believed, can be described and understood only through the prism of its inherent cultural system, the core of which is “meanings, norms, values.” Socio-empirical studies of these cultural qualities can only be described using the method of integral synthesis.

In the works of a later period (“Social and cultural dynamics” and “Society, culture and personality”) P. Sorokin continued to develop ideas about the mechanisms of social integration. In social life, he believed, three types of phenomena can be distinguished: material, organic and supraorganic (norms and values). Superorganic phenomena, of course, are the main ones, because they are carriers of “meanings.” The sociologist is not interested in the physical and biological traits of individuals, but in the fact that they act as monarchs and subjects, believers and atheists, generals and soldiers, parents and children, saints and sinners, capitalists and workers, judges and criminals, etc. And behind these differences are the “meanings” that people assign to them.

P. Sorokin identified various kinds of connections that arise in society:

spatial or mechanical connections that arise when various phenomena are combined;
associations formed under the influence of external factors (climate, type of housing, clothing);
“causal-functional” connections that unite social and cultural phenomena into a real system (increasing crime, militarization of society, vertical mobility - the simplest example of such causal-functional connections);
“logically significant” types of connections, which are highest form integration, systemicity of society, arise on the basis of “identity” of meanings. This type of connections unites phenomena into typical forms and meaningful patterns and forms spiritual cultural systems.

P. Sorokin criticized the prevailing empirical trend in sociology in the United States with its predominant interest in the individual and examined social reality from the standpoint of social realism. For him, the starting point was the postulation of the existence of a super-individual sociocultural reality, irreducible to material reality and endowed with a system of meanings. He believed that integral sociology should embrace in its study all the sociological aspects of a broadly understood culture. He did not reduce the social whole only to structural and functional connections.

Thus, in public life P. Sorokin highlighted:

social - forms of human activity (role, status, group, institution);
cultural - the results and conditions of human activity (the world of values, meanings and symbols). Social and cultural in P. Sorokin’s integral sociology presuppose each other and merge into sociocultural unities - sociocultural systems.

The integralist tendencies in the work of P. Sorokin are finally formalized into a complete theoretical model in his work “Social and Cultural Dynamics,” which became the main work of the scientist. This work accumulated ideas from almost all branches of humanities. P. Sorokin distinguished between sociocultural phenomena at various levels. In any period of history, he believed, five main low-level cultural systems coexist, striving for constancy: language, ethics, religion, art, science. The integrating concept of it main work became the concept of “sociocultural system”, the scope of which extends to society. According to P. Sorokin, sociocultural systems arise as a result of a combination of various combinations between the two most important types of integration connections - causal-functional and logical-significant. Supersystems differ in methods of cognition, and he considered their worldview to be their core.

P. Sorokin identified several types of sociocultural supersystems that took place in world history:

“sensory” supersystem - reality is perceived directly by the senses;
“speculative” - reality is cognized with the help of intuition;
“idealistic” - was considered as a combination of the first two types of systems.

IN different periods history, these supersystems are in various stages of their development. The dominant worldview in society and the sociocultural system organized around it are gradually exhausting their capabilities for understanding reality and are being replaced by one of two other alternative worldviews.

In the book “Social and Cultural Dynamics” Sorokin developed new concept historical development culture, basing it on the theory of sociocultural dynamics. He views changes in society as a natural dialectical process of an oscillatory nature. These cyclical fluctuations are carried out by sociocultural systems, the core of which are certain worldviews.

Changes in society, P. Sorokin believed, occur rhythmically and periodically, which he tried to show using a wealth of factual material. To complete the work, for which Harvard University allocated a colossal grant of ten thousand dollars at that time, Sorokin attracted many of the Russian emigrant scientists and his Harvard students, among whom was R. Merton. In order to confirm his hypotheses with empirical facts, he assembled a team of famous scientists. There were specialists in the history of painting, sculpture, architecture, music, literature, natural sciences, philosophy, economics, religion, ethics, law, wars, and revolutions.

To confirm his hypotheses, Pitirim Sorokin provides hundreds of tables in this work, each of which summarized long time series of historical data on many sociocultural processes. As Sorokin writes in his autobiography, he did not tell any of his experts why he needed statistical tables and statements of facts on certain sociocultural processes. Based on a generalization of empirical material, P. Sorokin tried to identify and explain the rhythmic pattern of sociocultural changes (including changes in stratification profiles).

The duration of dynamic cycles in sociocultural processes is longer than that of the market waves of the famous Russian economist N. Kondratiev. In his four-volume work, P. Sorokin sought to show on historical and empirical material that the process of transition from one supersystem to another is accompanied by a cultural crisis: a radical change social institutions, values and norms, which naturally influence people's behavior. According to P. Sorokin, the first World War and the October Revolution were the result of colossal upheavals in the sociocultural system of Western society.

P. Sorokin’s work “Social and Cultural Dynamics” is a sociological work unprecedented in volume and empirical scope, which in this sense is compared with “Capital” by K. Marx and “Treatise on General Sociology” by V. Pareto. The structure of the four-volume set is as follows: Volume 1: “Changes in Art Forms”, 745 pp.; volume 2: “Changes in systems of truth, ethics and law” 727 pp.; volume 3: “Changes in social relations, cycles of wars and revolutions”, 636 pp.; volume 4: “Main problems, principles and methods”, 804 pp. Despite the ambiguous assessment of “Social and Cultural Dynamics” at the time of its publication, the concept of sociocultural dynamics of P. Sorokin is still highly valued in world sociology, as well as his empirical studies of social stratification and social mobility.

Summarizing everything that has been said about the complex and contradictory personality and work of the American sociologist of Russian origin P. Sorokin, it can be noted that

P. Sorokin’s sociology rightly received the name integral: already in his early works he formulated the principles that he followed in all subsequent years; his research included in the asset of sociological analysis all the best achievements of the humanities of that period of time;
although P. Sorokin’s scientific system was based on general integral ideas, it has undergone significant changes - from research traditional for social thought at the turn of the century in the spirit of neo-positivist-behaviourist analysis to global macrosociological analysis of a later period, when civilization becomes the initial unit of sociologist’s research;
If in the early sociology of the Russian period P. Sorokin acted from the position of a system-functional analysis, then in the Harvard period of creativity he replenished his creative arsenal with a sociocultural analysis of the world, which favorably distinguished his research with a richer vision of reality from the school of structural functionalism of T. Parsons, which occupied dominant positions in American sociology;
the first in the sociology of the twentieth century. P. Sorokin suggested systems approach to the study of social stratification and social mobility; analyzed a huge amount of empirical material characterizing historical changes in this area; developed a methodology for measuring social stratification, which has not lost its relevance to this day;
at a time when the problem of social change attracted almost no attention from Western sociologists, P. Sorokin developed a unique model of social dynamics, based on the theory of sociocultural dimensions; he drew attention to the nonlinear nature of the processes of social development, the problems of the transitional state of society.

Pitirim Sorokin's theory of stratification

In Western sociology, the contribution to the theory of social stratification by the American sociologist of Russian origin Pitirim Sorokin is highly valued. “Russian American” is known not only as the author of the concept of sociocultural dynamics, but also as the creator of a dynamic model of social stratification. He introduced two important concepts into world sociology, without which not a single study on the problems of stratification can do today - “social space” and “social mobility”. On this topic, the most significant works by P. Sorokin are “System of Sociology” (1920) and “Social Mobility” (1927).

The concept of “social space” has become one of the most important in the sociology of the 20th century. P. Sorokin was one of the first to use it back in the St. Petersburg period of his activity. He introduced this concept in connection with the development of the concept of social stratification and social mobility. In his opinion, both characterize a certain position of an individual (group), or a change in this position in a certain system, with the help of which the social space is designated, covering the entire complex interweaving social connections between people.

When characterizing social space, P. Sorokin persistently emphasized that social space is fundamentally different from geometric space. Indeed, a person can travel thousands of kilometers of geometric space without changing his position in socially. And, on the contrary, remaining at the same longitude and latitude, he can radically change his place in social life, successfully move up the “social ladder,” and “make a career.” People who are close to each other in geometric space - a slave and a slave owner, a feudal lord and his serf - are socially separated from each other by a huge distance. But people who are very far away can be close in their social status.

Distinctive features the social space of human life, according to P. Sorokin, are as follows:

The relationships of people in social space are hierarchized (stratified) in a certain way - there is “up” and there is “down”. Consequently, there is the possibility of social movement in both vertical and horizontal directions. The more “open” the society is, the fewer social partitions, the so-called “prescribed” positions, the greater the opportunities for movement in social space;
The second feature of social space is its “multidimensionality”. This is the difference between social and Euclidean geometric space, which is three-dimensional. To clarify the geometric location of an object, we must know on which continent and at what point the object of interest to us is located, at what latitude and longitude, north or south, west or east from the chosen reference point.

A special coordinate system helps to navigate the complex interweaving of social connections that form the social space of human life. P. Sorokin proposed to consider the following as starting points for the position of a person in social space:

a person’s attitude towards certain social groups, i.e. establishing its connections with all groups of the population;
the relationship of these groups to each other;
the position and functions of man within each of the main groups.

What is the structure of social space? What are the forms and directions of social stratification? What specific layers and groups is society differentiated into? How do individuals circulate in layers and groups in structure? P. Sorokin tried to give answers to these questions already in his early sociology. In his work “System of Sociology,” he identified several levels of social interaction:

interindividual interactions are the first level of social interaction in society, at which it is formed into social groups; “elementary groups” represent the unity of people around one of the characteristics (gender, age, language, profession, faith, income, etc.);
intergroup relations are the second level of social interaction, as a result of which in a peculiar way historical conditions strata and combinations of different groups arise;
relations between “cumulative” groups - the third level of social interaction; He classified groups united around several characteristics (classes, nations, nationalities, elites, etc.) as cumulative groups.

Social space, according to P. Sorokin, is the totality of all the listed social formations, which he scrupulously analyzed already in the St. Petersburg period of his work. P. Sorokin gave a description of elementary groups, including various racial, gender, age, family, linguistic, professional, territorial, religious, party, status, and state communities. His family and professional groups became the subject of special study. He tried to describe those groups that Russian sociologists had not studied before him - his description of the elites became the first and only one in Russian literature of that time.

P. Sorokin carefully analyzed cumulative groups, each of which combines several elementary groups into a single whole. He paid special attention to such varieties of these groups as classes. In Russian sociology, before P. Sorokin, there were several attempts to define what constitutes a class. However, researchers absolutized one specific feature and ignored others. For example, in the “distribution” theory (M. Tugan-Baranovsky, P. Struve) attention was paid to the common economic interests that unite the class; in “organizational theory” (A. Bogdanova) - on the role of class in the organization of social life, etc. In contrast to them, P. Sorokin defined the class on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of many of its characteristics. A class is a “cumulative” group that combines three “elementary” groupings - professional, property, legal - and, due to this association, receives new socio-psychological, ideological and other characteristics.

Before P. Sorokin, Russian sociology did not have such a comprehensive atlas of social statics. Separate groups were studied, but already P. Sorokin’s early studies on the problem of social stratification were distinguished by the desire to systematize all data about individual groups into one whole. During the St. Petersburg period, he essentially laid out the foundations of the theory of social stratification, which were then completed in the work “Social Mobility,” which he published in the USA.

In conditions when in Western sociology little empirical research has yet been carried out social structures, P. Sorokin developed a technique for empirically measuring a person’s position in social space. Although he constantly emphasized that social space is more complex and multidimensional than Euclidean geometric space, he proposed, for the purpose of its empirical measurement, to conditionally consider social space as three-dimensional.

P. Sorokin identified three main coordinate axes for measuring social space - economic, political and professional, which correspond to the three most important spheres of human activity. Here he acted as a successor to the ideas of M. Weber. The position (social status) of any individual in social space, P. Sorokin believed, can be described using three coordinates on these axes of social space. Accordingly, he distinguished three main forms of stratification: economic, political and professional. Based on extensive historical material, P. Sorokin analyzed in detail the trends in the height of the profile of economic, political and professional stratification in his work “Social Mobility”.

Economic stratification. P. Sorokin came to the conclusion that it is impossible to identify a stable tendency in society either towards enrichment or impoverishment. In the history of any society, there are cycles in which the increase in economic inequality is replaced by its weakening. Under relatively stable social conditions, the height of the economic stratification profile fluctuates within certain limits. Radical changes in economic stratification occur when the old social building collapses, i.e. social structure. If the society does not perish, then for some time a more “flat” configuration of social stratification appears, i.e. social inequality is decreasing (the upper strata are being overthrown, a significant part of the population is impoverished). However, as a result of developing economic differentiation, a higher stratification profile is being formed.

The profile of political stratification, P. Sorokin believed, is more flexible and fluctuates within wider limits than the profile of economic stratification. In any society there is a constant struggle between the forces of political alignment and the forces of stratification. Sometimes some win, sometimes others win. When the profile oscillation in one direction becomes too strong and abrupt, then the opposing forces different ways increase their pressure and bring the stratification profile to the equilibrium point.

Many researchers believed and still believe that the historical process indicates a tendency towards a decrease in the political hierarchy and an increase in political “levelling” (a decrease in the height and relief of the pyramid). But P. Sorokin sought to prove from the experience of the development of European states that there is no constant trend of transition from minority rule to majority rule, as well as a tendency to limit state intervention in the life of society. At the same time, he did not reveal in history a constant tendency towards an increase in the profile of political stratification. In changes in the profile of political stratification, P. Sorokin came to the conclusion, there are no constant trends; they fluctuate from country to country, from one period to another.

Professional stratification is associated with the division of labor, i.e. field of application, types and nature of work, hierarchy of professional statuses, level of qualifications and professional skills, vocational education. It manifests itself in two main forms: interprofessional and intraprofessional. The initial premises proposed by P. Sorokin for measuring professional stratification are preserved in modern sociological research.

When stratification is analyzed in an occupational context, the following layers are distinguished accordingly: workers in heavy industry; service workers; persons with average special education etc. We can also consider groups of “professionals”, “semi-professionals”, “skilled labor”, “semi-skilled labor”, “unskilled labor”. However, the dimension of this type of social stratification has changed.

Modern researchers do not find convincing the criterion proposed by P. Sorokin for measuring professional stratification, which he defined as the level of intelligence necessary to fulfill a given professional responsibility. The fact is that among the methods of measuring intelligence existing today one can find many very contradictory ones. In addition, they are intended to measure the actual intelligence of a particular individual, and not to determine the level of intelligence required to perform these professional duties.

P. Sorokin, following M. Weber, was one of the first to draw attention to the fact that stratification processes act as an exclusively multidimensional phenomenon. In reality, the situation of each person is determined by many characteristics and is the result of a number of factors and living conditions. A stratum identified by one criterion is simultaneously characterized by a number of other empirical indicators. IN real life all these dimensions of stratification are closely intertwined, which allowed P. Sorokin to talk about multidimensional stratification.

The status position of an individual or group cannot be defined as something unambiguous. “People who belong to the highest stratum in one respect,” wrote P. Sorokin, “usually belong to the same stratum in other respects, and vice versa. Representatives of the highest economic strata simultaneously belong to the highest political and professional strata. The poor, as a rule, are deprived of civil rights and are in the lower strata of the professional hierarchy. That's how it is general rule, although there are many exceptions. So, for example, the richest are not always at the top of the political or professional pyramid, and the poor do not in all cases occupy the lowest places in the political and professional... This fact does not allow us to analyze all three main forms of social stratification together.” . (51, p. 303).

A complete picture of the nature of the social stratification of a particular society, P. Sorokin believed, can only be achieved by considering its dynamic side, expressed by the concept of “social mobility”.

Since the relations of people in social space are hierarchized in a certain way (there is “up” and there is “down”), social positions differ in their prestige. Consequently, people often strive not only to maintain, but also to change their position in the social structure (for the better, from their point of view,).

Mobility can be individual, group or family. There is a distinction between intergenerational (between generations) mobility - a change in social status from father to son and intragenerational (within a generation) mobility - an individual career associated with social ascent or descent.

The concept of “social mobility” characterizes social movements along all coordinate axes of the social space of public life. In the direction of movement, social mobility can be horizontal or vertical, and the latter can be upward or downward:

horizontal mobility occurs when a person’s new position does not change his place in the social hierarchy, i.e. a transition occurs from one social group to another at one level. For example, the transition from turners to milling operators, territorial movement or change of geographical place of residence, if they are not associated with changes in social conditions;
vertical mobility means a change in hierarchical positions in society. Social ascent or descent from one social stratum to another is upward or downward vertical mobility:

a) upward mobility - the advancement of people to positions with higher prestige, income, power - up the social ladder (worker - foreman - shift supervisor - director). An example of upward mobility is a successful social career. Receiving a diploma also means a case of upward individual mobility in terms of formal qualifications.

b) downward mobility - moving to “lower” positions, i.e. having lower prestige, income, and standard of living. Moving down the social ladder is often called "social descent." An extreme example of downward mobility is falling to the “social bottom.”

There has never been a completely immobile society, and social mobility has never been completely free. “In the history of social organisms,” Sorokin concludes, “the rhythms of relatively mobile and stationary periods are captured. In these changes there is no constant tendency either to strengthen or weaken vertical mobility” (51, p. 392). The level of social mobility is denoted by the concept of “closedness” or “openness” of society:

“closed” is usually considered to be a society in which social movement is significantly limited. Prestigious positions are monopolized by individual relatively closed groups (can be inherited);
An “open” society is considered to be one where the opportunities for social mobility are quite wide, and individuals (groups) can freely (based on their own achievements) move along the levels of the social hierarchy.

The “closed” type of society is inherent primarily in pre-industrial systems. Usually, the caste system in India is cited as a classic example of a “closed” society; bourgeois democracies, which are characterized by the absence of formal restrictions on advancement up the social ladder, are “open”. P. Sorokin at one time gave a very figurative comparison of these types of social stratification.

Through what social institutions are social movements of individuals, or even groups, carried out from one social position to another? Among the most important channels of social mobility - a kind of social “elevators” - P. Sorokin named the army, church, school, politics, Morganist marriages, and wealth. IN modern societies traditional roles, such as religious, military and government, continue to serve as channels of mobility in a modernized form. However, more mobility today occurs through professional roles associated with education. The growing importance of education in the processes of social mobility has become, as noted by P. Sorokin, a determining factor in the dynamics of social structures in modern societies.

Conclusion

Thus, P. Sorokin, considering three types of stratification - economic, political and professional, essentially proposed assessing stratification and inequality in society according to the criteria of income and wealth, i.e. savings; according to criteria of influence on the behavior of members of society (political stratification) and according to criteria associated with the successful fulfillment of social roles (professional stratification). These ideas of P. Sorokin received further development at the Harvard School of American Sociology, which developed the idea of structural functionalism.

List of used literature

Gromov I., Matskevich A., Semenov S. Western sociology. - St. Petersburg, 1997.
Kanashevich N.M. Sociology. Issues of theory and methodology: Monograph. - Mogilev: Moscow State University Publishing House. A.A. Kuleshova - 1999.
Novikova S. History of the development of sociology in Russia. - M., 1996.
Sorokin P.A. Public textbook of sociology. - M., 1994.

Footnotes

Novikova S. History of the development of sociology in Russia. - M., 1996. - p.74.

Kanashevich N.M. Sociology. Issues of theory and methodology: Monograph. - Mogilev: Moscow State University Publishing House. A.A. Kuleshova - 1999.- p.52-53.

Kanashevich N.M. Sociology. Issues of theory and methodology: Monograph. - Mogilev: Moscow State University Publishing House. A.A. Kuleshova - 1999.- p.53-54.

Novikova S. History of the development of sociology in Russia. - M., 1996. - p. 34

Kanashevich N.M. Sociology. Issues of theory and methodology: Monograph. - Mogilev: Moscow State University Publishing House. A.A. Kuleshova - 1999.- p.55-56.

Kanashevich N.M. Sociology. Issues of theory and methodology: Monograph. - Mogilev: Moscow State University Publishing House. A.A. Kuleshova - 1999.- p.56-57.

Sorokin P.A. Public textbook of sociology. - M., 1994. - p. 154.

Gromov I., Matskevich A., Semenov S. Western sociology. - St. Petersburg, 1997 - pp. 78-79.

Kanashevich N.M. Sociology. Issues of theory and methodology: Monograph. - Mogilev: Moscow State University Publishing House. A.A. Kuleshova - 1999.- p.57-62.

Pitirim Sorokin (1889-1968) created a sociological theory called “integral”. In it, society was viewed as a sociocultural system. He distinguished four sections in sociology: the doctrine of society, social mechanics (determination of the statistical laws of society), social genetics (the origin and development of society), social policy (private sociological science).

An element of society is the interaction of individuals. It is divided into patterned and non-patterned, one-sided and two-sided, antagonistic and non-antagonistic. Society is the process and result of social interaction (the interaction of many individuals). Its result is their adaptation to their environment. In the process of such adaptation, a social order of society arises, the main development trend of which is social equality.

The development of human society occurs through evolution and revolution. Social evolution is a gradual and progressive development based on knowledge of society, reforms, cooperation of people, and the desire for social equality. Social revolution is a rapid, deep progressive or regressive development of society, based on the violence of one class over another. It changes the nature of social equality.

Based on the experience of personal participation in two Russian revolutions of 1917, P. Sorokin identifies their main reasons: the suppression of the basic needs of the majority of the population by the existing social system, the ineffectiveness of this social system, the weakness of the forces of public order. A social revolution goes through the stages of a revolutionary explosion, when basic needs find a way out and destroy the country, and counter-revolutions, when these needs are curbed.

Pitirim Sorokin developed the theory of social stratification, the division of society into many social layers (strata) depending on wealth, power, education, etc.

He also has priority in the discovery of the theory of social mobility, movement from one social layer to another.

Sorokin also belongs to the theory of civilizational stages of human development as spiritual and cultural formations. According to P. Sorokin, civilization is a historical community of people united by some type of worldview (ideals, values, methods of cognition). The development of mankind demonstrates three phases of such civilizational development, in which the civilizational and ideological basis of the unification of people changes. Ideational civilization is based on one or another type of religious worldview and dominates during the Middle Ages. Its ideal is the desire to save the human soul. Sensitive civilization arises on the basis of a materialistic worldview and is a negation of ideational civilization. Her ideal is wealth and comfort. It is characteristic of the industrial stage of human development. An idealistic civilization arises on the basis of the convergence of religious and materialistic worldviews, taking everything positive from its components. It is characteristic of the last stage of industrialism.