Articles

This article analyzes the theory and practice of using mediation technologies for managing (resolving) modern environmental confl icts. The main characteristics of mediation, the necessary conditions for its application, types of mediation, and the diff erences between environmental mediation and other types of mediation are highlighted. Using various examples of mediation in environmental confl icts in the United States since the 1970s, the author examines the principles of choosing a mediator, the mediator’s role in the confl ict resolution process, the advantages and disadvantages of using mediation from the point of view of various participants in environmental confl icts, the political aspects of using mediation to resolve environmental confl icts and its possibilities and limitations.

This article off ers an analysis of “Bourgeois Happiness” and “Molotov,” two novels by Nikolai Pomyalovsky that present an artistic conceptualization of the formation of the consciousnes of the raznochintsy class. The heroes of Pomyalovsky’s novels, Yegor Molotov and Mikhail Cherevanin, personify two strategies for the behavior of representatives of the new class. Molotov integrates into the existing structure of society and comes to creatie a bourgeois “idyll.” Cherevanin refuses to integrate, becomes a pessimist and chooses a path of self-destruction. The search for a mission by both heroes ends in failure. Molotov and Cherevanin do not have faith in their own strength and lack a clear understanding of what to do. But the artistic conceptualization of such searches undertaken by Pomyalovsky had a greater socio-political signifi cance. Pomyalovsky began the work to be completed by Nikolai Chernyshevsky, another well-known writer of the raznochintsy class. And the achievment of Chernyshevsky was that he united the disparate parts of the unformed raznochintsy consciousness in a comprehensive doctrine that he presented in the novel “What Is to Be Done?”

This article is devoted to the prospect of using collective memory as a resource of soft power. The author notes that the importance of this use of collective memory is associated not only with purposeful social activity, but also with a special sociolinguistic matrix. The article sets out the main political and philosophical ideas that retinterpret the power practices underlying the use of collective memory in soft power strategies. Scaling up to the level of international relationships, collective memory is associated with soft power as one of the eff ective tools for implementing strategies that mitigate the eff ects of overt or covert interstate confl icts. Collective memory as a separate tool of soft power is deployed in various practices of memorial diplomacy, although its use to improve interstate relations and reconciliation of various historical narratives in the world is not exhaustive. The aims, actors and forms of memorial diplomacy are noted by the authors, as are the main scenarios of its implementation: 1) for overcoming the negative and tragic experience of the past; and 2) to update narrative strategies in territories with pronounced narrative inconsistency.

The dynamic change in the realities of the modern world has led to, among other things, the transformation of the political resource of the mass media. The mass media has a much greater infl uence on the political process today than it did at the end of the last century. Major changes have taken place both in the functioning of the press and in the discourse in which it is customary to consider it. In this regard, this article is devoted to the analysis of terms that have become quite popular and in demand in a short time, despite the fact that they are relatively new to the categorical corpus of political communication studies. Having studied the content of the most frequently cited works in the “Science Index” system (RSCI: Russian Science Citation Index) that touch on these subjects, the author identifi es the main meanings attached to the concepts of “post-truth” and “ fake”; identifi es similarities and diff erences between disinformation and misinformation, verifi cation and factchecking; and formulates specifi c ways to counter the manipulative infl uence of the mass media on the audience.

Social networks are an environment that refl ects the social practices of youth. From the situational activity of each network group, large clusters are formed which accumulate attitudes of the corresponding layer of young people. This study focuses on regional groups of the social network VKontakte in the city of Tomsk. Data collection and visualization create a methodology for mapping this information space (“community detection”) that is relevant in network analysis. The presence of two socially diff erentiating strategies of behavior among the youth of Tomsk were substantiated by the study. They feature diff erent everyday practices, values, reference groups and information sources, and self-stigmatization systems. “Low” sociocultural practices correspond to a social group that can be described as a “group without a future,” with a negative identity. The practices of another social group, aimed at obtaining higher education and building a career, diff er radically from those of the former. Its representatives are guided by foreign sources, organizations and models. Signifi cant attention in the study is given over to issues of methodology, the mapping process and the interpretation of research results.

This article is devoted to the analysis of the directions and possibilities of using Internet technologies in the implementation of the state youth policy of Russia. The author notes that information technologies and network forms of communication form fundamentally new models of socialization and, as a result, expand the range of possible forms of political participation of young people. In this regard, it is important that youth policy is implemented taking into account current socio-political and cultural trends, as well as the opportunities off ered by modern information and communication technologies. Special attention is paid to the use of Internet technologies to solve information and communication problems of youth policy, as well as to ensure the process of civil and Patriotic education of young people.

This article is devoted to the study of the impact of socio-demographic factors such as gender, age and level of education on the process of forming an image of an ideal president. Examining part of a study of the ideal presidential image conducted by the Political Sociology and Psychology Program in Moscow State University’s Political Science Department, the author identifi es and analyzes the universal and unique personal and professional characteristics in the mass consciousness of Russian citizens from diff erent social categories. The results of the study lead to certain conclusions concerning the integrity and organicity of the ideal president’s image. In the opinion of young people, the political and professional qualities that a head of state should possess were largely infl uenced by relatively new, “rational-secular” values that were introduced into the political system of the state during the period of recovery after the collapse of the USSR. Moreover, despite the quite successful “resocialization” that representatives of the older generation went through, that generation’s view on the image of the exemplary head of state still appears more conservative in comparison with the “eff ective manager” that the younger generation of citizens imagines of the president.

This article presents a conceptual analysis of the phenomenon of the citizen in the subject fi eld of political science. The authors distinguish three aspects of analysis: historical-political, socio-political and political-psychological. It is noted that the contradiction that exists today in Russia between the concept of “citizen” and the phenomenon of “citizen” is due to the historical context of their development. A citizen is presented as the socio-political role of a person in the state and society which determines his formal political, legal and social status and is prescribed to him by cultural traditions and the political system. The political and legal status of a citizen is described through the category of citizenship. The image of the ideal citizen is infl uenced by the political regime and moral principles. Civil society is considered an environment for the formation and self-realization of a citizen. The political and psychological characteristics of a citizen as a subject of socio-political relations are determined by a developed civic consciousness, a formed civic identity and a wide repertoire of forms of civic activity.

An extensive body of research has been assembled by modern social science on the interaction of state power and big business, yet despite this the relevance of a thorough theoretical review of these relations has not diminished in recent decades. This article analyzes a number of paradigms that defi ne value criteria, worldviews and theoretical and methodological standards aff ecting both scholarly research in this area and the development of state policy and actual politics. These are rational-critical, corporatist and neo-corporatist paradigms, that of the “new state management,” and such critical theories as neo-Marxism and the theory of political networks. When analyzing these paradigms, the author pays special attention to the operationalization of key concepts and the defi nition of basic interpretations, models and concepts of corporate-state interaction. The study of theoretical-methodological approaches contributes to the systematization of the results of research in the study of applied mechanisms of interaction between government and big business. The author concludes that the paradigms cited to a certain extent only coexist and actualize depending on the situation in the world economy, the political relations of individual states or their alliances, cultural characteristics and other factors.

This article is devoted to the study of the political aspect of Russia’s foreign policy goals in the Middle East. The author draws attention to the global megatrends that, taking on regional specifi city, signifi cantly aff ect the regional system of international relations and, as a consequence, the formulation of Russia’s foreign policy goals in the Middle East. The article identifi es such manifestly significant megatrends as the globalization/regionalization of world politics; the changing role of the West in the international arena; high demographic dynamics; and the increasing importance of the religious factor in public life and public consciousness. Based on an analysis of the infl uence of the these trends on the Middle East region, the author sets out and substantiates a thesis of what can be considered the main political goals of Russia in the Mddle East, to wit: promotion of infl uence in the region by participating in the settlement of Middle East confl icts; assistance in the creation of a regional security system; and the creation of a favorable environment for the realization of economic interests in the region.