Value-driven issues throughout the development of sociological theory

Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Head of the Department of Social Expertise, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12 Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)

gichepurko@ukr.net

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7540-5174

VALERII PYLYPENKO,

Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Professor, Principal Research Fellow at the Department of History and Theory of Sociology, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)

pilipenko290457@ukr.net

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9918-6217

The paper examines and compares how the major sociological theories treat axiological issues. Value-driven topics are analysed in view of their relevance to society in times of crisis, when both societal life and the very structure of society undergo dramatic change. Nowadays, social scientists around the world are also witnessing such a change due to the emergence of alternative schools of sociological thought (non-classical, interpretive, postmodern, etc.) and, subsequently, the necessity to revise the paradigms that have been existed in sociology so far. Since the above-mentioned approaches are often used to address value-related issues, building a solid theoretical framework for these studies takes on considerable significance. Furthermore, the paradigm revision has been prompted by technological advances changing all areas of people’s lives, especially social interactions. The global human community, integral in nature, is being formed, and production of human values now matters more than production of things; hence the “expansion” of value-focused perspectives in contemporary sociology. The authors give special attention to collectivities which are higher-order units of the social system. These units are described as well-organised action systems where each individual performs his/her specific role. Just as the role of an individual is distinct from that of the collectivity (because the individual and the collectivity are different as units), so too a distinction is drawn between the value and the norm — because they represent different levels of social relationships. Values are the main connecting element between the society’s cultural system and the social sphere while norms, for the most part, belong to the social system. Values serve primarily to maintain the pattern according to which the society is functioning at a given time; norms are essential to social integration. Apart from being the means of regulating social processes and relationships, norms embody the “principles” that can be applied beyond a particular social system. The authors underline that it is important for Ukrainian sociology to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of axiology and make good use of those ideas because this is a prerequisite for its successful integration into the global sociological community.

Full article: eng

Keywords: society, values, norms, sociological theory, socialisation, social structure, social system

References

Alexander, J. C. (1999). The paradoxes of civil society. [In Ukrainian]. Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing, 1, 27–41. [= Александер 1999]

Balabanova, N. V., Zhukov, V. I., & Pilipenko, V. Ye. (2002). Social dialogue. Social partnership. Welfare state. [In Russian]. Kyiv: Academy of Labour and Social Relations of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine. [= Балабанова 2002]

Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1995). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. [In Russian]. Moscow, Russian Federation: Medium Press. [= Бергер 1995]

Blau, P. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Bourdieu, P. (1993). The sociology of politics. [In Russian]. Moscow, Russian Federation: Socio-Logos Press. [= Бурдье 1993]

Coleman, J. (1961). The adolescent society: The social life of the teenager and its impact on education. New York, NY: Free Press of Glencoe.

Coleman, J. (1990). Foundations of social theory. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Davydov, Iu. N., & Poliakova, N. L. (Eds.). (1990). Contemporary Western sociology: Classical traditions and the search for a new paradigm (on the occasion of the 12th World Congress of Sociology, Madrid, 1990). [In Russian]. Moscow: Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (INION) of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. [= Давыдов 1990]

Dobrenkov, V. I. (Ed.). (1994). American sociological thought: Merton R., Mead G., Parsons T., Schutz A. [Texts]. [In Russian]. Moscow, Russian Federation: Moscow University Press. [= Добреньков 1994]

Golovakha, Ye. [Yevhen Golovakha]. (2020, May 4). How the global system of human values has changed since World War II [Video file]. [In Ukrainian]. Retrieved from [= Головаха 2020]

Gouldner, A. W. (1970). The coming crisis of Western sociology. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Homans, G. C. (1974). Social behaviour: Its elementary forms (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/54.2.474

Inglehart, R. (1977). The Silent Revolution: Changing values and political styles among Western publics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90400-9_52

Kuzmuk, O. M., & Liubchuk, V. V. (2019). Value orientations among secondary school graduates: The findings of a qualitative study. [In Ukrainian]. Proceedings of the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”. Political Science. Sociology. Law, 43(3), 94–98. https://doi.org/10.20535/2308-5053.2019.3(43).195689 [= Кузьмук 2019].

Lockwood, D. (1956). Some remarks on “The Social System”. The British Journal of Sociology, 7(2), 134–146.

Mackay, R. W. (1974). Conceptions of children and models of socialisation. In R. Turner (Ed.), Ethnomethodology: Selected readings. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Education.

Parsons, T. (1951). The social system. London, England: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Parsons, T. (1956). The American family: Its relation to personality and to the social structure. In T. Parsons, R. F. Bales, Family, socialisation and interaction process (pp. 3–34). London, England: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Parsons, T. (1962). Youth in the context of American society. Daedalus, 91(1), 97–123.

Parsons, T. (2007). An outline of the social system [1961]. In C. Calhoun, J. Gerteis, J. Moody, S. Pfaff, & I. Virk (Eds.), Classical sociological theory (2nd ed.) (pp. 421–440). Malden, MA: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926509348443

Pilipenko, V. Ye., & Privalov, Yu. A. (Eds.). (1998). Ukraineʼs youth and drug addiction. [In Russian]. Kyiv, Ukraine: Stylos Press. [= Пилипенко 1998]

Pilipenko, V. Ye., Zakharuk, N. Yu., & Sopneva, N. B. (2009). Values in regard to the sociology of health care. [In Russian]. Donetsk, Ukraine: Yugo-Vostok Press. [= Пилипенко 2009]

Pylypenko, V. Ye. (2012). Ukrainian sociology nowadays: Research into the main areas of the society’s life. [In Ukrainian]. Lviv, Ukraine: ZUKTs (Western Ukrainian Consulting Centre). [= Пилипенко 2012]

Pyvovarova, N. P., & Khliapatura, B. M. (2015). Ukrainian sociocultural reality: Modern or postmodern, materialism or postmaterialism? [In Ukrainian]. Grani (Facets), 18(2), 97–104. [= Пивоварова 2015]

Ritzer, G. (2002). Modern sociological theory (5th ed.). [In Russian]. Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation: Piter Press. [= Ритцер 2002]

Ritzer, G., & Stepnisky, J. (2018). Modern sociological theory (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Ruchka, A. O., & Tancher, V. V. A coursebook on the history of theoretical sociology. [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv, Ukraine: Naukova Dumka Press. [= Ручка 1995]

Tancher, V. V. (Ed.). (1994). Sociological theory today: Collected essays of American and Ukrainian social theorists. [In Russian]. Kyiv: Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. [= Танчер 1994]

Turner, R. (1970). Words, utterances, and activities. In J. D. Douglas (Ed.), Understanding everyday life: Toward the reconstruction of sociological knowledge (pp. 169–187). Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351327329-7

Volianskaia, Ye. V., Pilipenko V. Ye, & Sapelkina, Ye. V. (2004). Sociocultural determination of adolescent aggression. [In Russian]. Kyiv, Ukraine: Foliant Press. [= Волянская 2004]

Wallace, R. A., & Wolf, A. (1995). Contemporary sociological theory: Continuing the classical tradition (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Weber, M. (2018). Soziologische Grundbegriffe: Die Begriffsdefinitionen einer empirisch arbeitenden Soziologie. Independent Publishers Group “e-artnow”.

Received 06.07.2020