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The article is devoted to the analysis of serious external and internal challenges that currently face higher education in Russia.External challenges are associated with new geopolitical realities that have significantly redefined the place of our country in the system of international relations, transformed its national and state interests and strategic goals, caused significant shifts in the functioning of the most important social institutions, one of which is higher education. The institution of higher education is the most important social institution subject to permanent transformation, and classical universities are the first to respond to the challenges that arise to the system of higher education as a whole.To the external challenges the author refers the exit from the Bologna system and the transition to a new national model of higher education, changes in Russia's economic infrastructure and labor market due to economic sanctions, which requires the training of qualified personnel, primarily for knowledge-intensive industries, and the development of "breakthrough" industrial technologies; digitalization of communication processes, including massive information and, especially, disinformation flows aimed especially, at students.These external challenges largely determine the internal challenges that take place within the institute of higher education and largely affect the structural components of its environment. These includes: digitalization of the educational process and attempts to introduce distance learning technologies too actively, not always thoughtfully; reorientation of the educational process to an applied function; staffing of the educational process; value transformation of the student community, which requires a revision of the existing model of academic interaction.The article analyzes the discussions that are underway about Russia's withdrawal from the Bologna system, and mainly not so much about the primitive essence of the Bologna system itself or about the optimal model of higher education, in relation to the current situation in Russia, as about its advantages lost for Russian students. An analysis of the digitalization of the educational process leading to value transformations among Russian students takes up enough space.

This article comprehensively examines the problem of social construction of a healthy personality, which, in the context of numerous socio-political upheavals, under the influence of external destructive factors, becomes particularly relevant.The concept of "personality", in contrast to the ethically neutral concept of psychophysical and spiritual individuality, it includes a moment of self-determination in the social world. A personality is always characterized by its inherent semantic structure (a system of views, values, ideas), revealed in actions and deeds that are somehow connected with a broader social environment – society and are formed under its influence. Modern social sciences consider personality as a structural integrity of biological, mental and social properties, which gives rise to the identification of several components within the framework of an integral personality structure: biological, mental and social. Similarly, the category of "health" has physical, mental, social and spiritual components that lend themselves to social construction.The author cites the data of a sociological study conducted by him, according to which both the physical, mental and spiritual health of modern Russian students cannot be considered good. In this regard, he discusses discussions about how it is possible to construct a completely healthy personality, or to restore to it any of the lost components of health using a variety of methods and technologies that differ significantly in their scientific validity and social orientation. Undoubtedly useful methods of strengthening both physical and mental health include those aimed at strengthening the body's defenses, its self-regulation systems and stress resistance. Thus, such fairly common and scientifically based methods as relaxation and coping, auto-suggestion, creative visualization and common sense therapy seem quite appropriate. In our opinion, pseudoscientific and sometimes destructive methods include extrasensory perception (psychic healing, telekinesis and psychokinesis), karmic medicine, including biofield correction and neuro-linguistic programming. All these methods, as well as the consequences of their application in terms of possibilities in constructing a healthy personality, are discussed in detail in thе article.

The article presents a systematic analysis of trends and trends in the field of research of health problems in the youth environment, which relate to the attitude to health in general, the field of preserving and strengthening health.The author identifies significant risk factors that significantly affect both the health level of the younger generation and the life expectancy of its representatives, shows the ambivalence and inconsistency of data on the attitude of young people to their health obtained by various researchers. Based on the analysis of various sociological studies, including the author's study conducted in July 2023, the results of the discussions conducted by domestic scientists addressing the health-saving problems of the younger generation of Russia are summarized.The first group includes macro-social problems related to the general state regulation of public health. Among them are the lack of health care of the population among the state priorities; inadequate social policy of the Russian Federation in the field of healthcare; the activities of institutions included in the management of the health sector, including its regulatory regulation. The second group of problems is related to the conceptualization of the concept of "health" and "healthy lifestyle", the interpretation of which is usually ambiguous. It is obvious that the normative definition of a "healthy lifestyle" has medical, physiological, psychological and social structural components, which include various external factors — the influence of family and social environment, fashion on social habits, as well as the nature of media exposure.The data obtained by the author indicate that the greatest influence on the formation of young people's ideas about health problems and practices for its maintenance is exerted by their own experience, social networks, family and the opinion of friends. They also confirm the prevailing trend: although the overwhelming majority of respondents (85%) are sure that people need to lead a healthy lifestyle, one in four believes that their lifestyle is unhealthy rather than healthy, and 5% of them do not consider their lifestyle healthy at all.The author refers to a special group of problems the impact on the health of the digital media environment, into which the younger generation is actively integrated today, first of all, about the so-called "new media", which include: internet portals of online media, blogosphere, social networks, virtual communities, virtual games and other Web resources. By broadcasting ideas, behavioral models, new media in modern society become "legislators" in various spheres of social life. To a certain extent, they participate in the construction of an individual's behavior in relation to health, which is both constructive and destructive in nature.

This article examines an ambivalent ideology – nationalism, which, on the one hand, causes nationalist sentiments in society, provokes ethnic or racial intolerance, and on the other hand, promotes national unity and solidarity.The author examines three theoretical and methodological problems related to the consideration of nationalism as a full-fledged ideology, and also highlights the core ideas of this ideology, the most important of which are the nation, organic community, self-determination and identity politics.In Russian literature, depending on the interpretation of the concept of nation, two main forms of nationalism are distinguished: state and ethnic, and when the so-called "politicization of ethnicity" takes place – the process of significantly increasing the importance of the ethnic factor in politics, nationalism acquires a pronounced political character.Foreign researchers distinguish liberal, conservative, colonial, expansionist types of nationalism and emphasize that it is the latter that "can turn into an irrational and reactionary symbol serving political leaders to justify armed expansion and wars in the name of the nation". Expansionist nationalism is correlated, and sometimes even identified with such ideologized constructions as racism and Nazism. In this regard, the article draws a distinction between the ideology of nationalism and racism, shows their points of contact, and also examines the legitimacy of attributing racism to a number of ideologies.The author also analyzes the problems associated with the historical culmination of the expansionist form of nationalism, which researchers unanimously consider National Socialism, which became widespread in Hitler's Germany and represented a fusion of an extremely simplified form of the ideology of nationalism – Nazism, characterized by pronounced racial intolerance with separate, uniquely interpreted elements of socialist ideology.Through a detailed analysis, the author substantiates the conclusion that in its extremely reactionary, primitive, but radical form, being a breeding ground for racism and Nazism, nationalism certainly had a pernicious effect on society – it led to the destruction of social solidarity, the initiation and proliferation of social, political and, very often, military conflicts. This is convincingly proved by the modern geopolitical realities that have developed as a result of the massive and well-organized propaganda of ultranationalist sentiments in the post-Soviet space, the central arena for which was Ukraine, the birthplace of Ukrainian right-wing nationalism and the seat of modern neo-nationalism.At the same time, nationalism is also quite a progressive and liberating social force if it embodies the spirit of national unity or national independence. Currently, this circumstance is very relevant for the process of recreating Historical Russia – a unique ethnic, geopolitical, cultural, moral and political integrity, which was formed over the centuries as a result of the long residence of peoples and nationalities in the vast Eurasian space. Its cementing principle is a strong statehood, the consolidating thesis about the strengthening of which was permanently not only one of the cornerstones of the political conjuncture of politics, but also a new, reviving national idea, the contours of which are analyzed in the article on extensive historical and scientific material.

In this article, the author attempts to analyze the key components of radical ideological constructs that directly or indirectly justify ways to solve social problems in a radical and, as a rule, illegitimate way. Among such ideologies, researchers include anarchism and socialism, which are discussed in detail in this article.The English political philosopher W. Godwin is considered the pioneer of anarchism, and the first researcher who called himself an "anarchist" and introduced the term "anarchism" into circulation was the French socialist P.-J. Proudhon. Each country in Europe, North or South America and Asia has its own publicists, writers, public figures who defend anarchist views, anarchism has a long history in Russia, where the classics of anarchism grew up – M.A. Bakunin and P.A. Kropotkin.The author analyzes the theoretical core of anarchism, which is formed by a number of radical political constructions – anti-statism, natural order, anti-clericalism and a free economy. At the same time, it is noted that all anarchists categorically assert that both power and private property are the cause of all human misfortunes, and, as a rule, they identify themselves with the "poor and oppressed". They call for a revolution on behalf of the "exploited masses", as a result of which both capitalism and the state will be wiped off the face of the earth, actively promote " anarchy and anarchist tactics". By anarchist tactics is meant such a merciless violent struggle that will sweep away in its path all the institutions of slavery of the old system and all their representatives and defenders in order to create a new, free system, for the spirit of destruction is at the same time a creative spirit.The article also examines in detail the origins, essence and fundamental components of the socialist ideology, the radical varieties of which include Marxism and communism.The author substantiates the position that, in general, the ideology of socialism is close to the ideology of communism. However, the communist ideal is more radical: the communists advocate the complete socialization of production, the complete rejection of private property (in all forms) and the centralized distribution of benefits, which takes place within the framework of a specially organized form of government – the commune. Under communism, absolute equality of people must be established, a kind of ideal society must be established, where everyone will work to the best of their abilities and receive everything they need from society. It is this aspect of communism that is the pipe dream of its supporters, leaving it a social utopia, while the ideology of socialism put forward more specific and achievable goals.The fundamental economic, social and political reasons are analyzed, due to which the practical implementation of the ideology of socialism – the "socialist experiment" of the 20th century ended in complete failure. It is shown that it is the socialist ideology that significantly simplifies the transition to a totalitarian political system.

This article is devoted to the analysis of the impact of digital technologies on the contours of modern society. The author emphasizes that "digitalization", as an element of a new social reality, has become the subject of numerous discussions and disputes, the key vectors of which are: 1) differentiation of digitalization from similar but not identical processes; 2) scope and breadth of digitalization of various spheres of economic and social life; 3) advantages and disadvantages of digitalization of social reality; 4) directions, social consequences and the future of digitalization. At the same time, each of the selected vectors entails a number of questions that require scientifically based answers.In particular, within the framework of the first discussion, such questions are: how does digitalization differ from automation, informatization or computerization? What indicators indicate the success of the digitalization process? The second discussion raises the following questions: Which areas of social life are covered by digitalization? What exactly does this manifest itself in? The third discussion raises questions about the undoubted advantages and obvious disadvantages of digitalization, and the fourth discussion focuses on the problem of the social consequences of accelerated digitalization. The search for scientifically based answers to these questions is the main subject of this article.The author concludes that digital transformation gradually covers all spheres of life of both society and each individual, and over time it will become more and more obvious. However, today it is most noticeably manifested in the field of social communication, which is rapidly being embraced, even "enslaved" by electronic and digital technologies.The danger of accelerated and unconditional digitalization lies in the fetishization of the role and place of digital technology and science in modern social development, which inevitably leads to the strengthening of technocratic determinism and scientism associated with the absolutization of natural sciences as the only scientific knowledge. However, the leveling of the value of the humanities leads to the leveling of the actual analyzing, reflexive activity of a person, to a decrease in the importance of a person in many, and first of all, social processes, which are supposed to be better handled by "artificial intelligence technologies" or cyborgs. But then digitalization, as in its time – liberalization, and then globalization – can become another manipulatively controlled political project or a totalitarian dogma, on the basis of which an active process of establishing a new world order will be launched.

The article examines the sociology of religion as one of the spheres of sociological cognition, as well as those approaches to the definition of religion that predetermined the specifics of the development and self-identification of the sociology of religion in the system of scientific knowledge. The author compares various ideas about religion that exist in everyday consciousness, definitions of religion in the system of theology and its scientific interpretations. At the same time, it is emphasized that recently the efforts of scientists have begun to focus on finding a new, more balanced and universal approach to the definition of religion, although any attempt to give a final definition of religion is doomed to be limited and debatable.The heterogeneity of the tools and approaches used by the sociology of religion has created a serious problem of its place in the structure of sociological knowledge. The sociology of religion is most often identified either with religious sociology or with an autonomous branch in the horizontal structure of sociology. These two scientific identities of the sociology of religion appear both blurred and limited. Without denying the value of generally accepted directions for the sociological analysis of religion, the author reveals a lot of diverse and heterogeneous directions, within which both classics of sociological science who studied religion and modern sociologists worked. As a result, the sociology of religion is simply an arbitrary set of topics, including the analysis of fundamental works of a predominantly socio-philosophical nature, replete with religious terms that are incomprehensible to a reader unfamiliar with at least the basics of religious studies, especially to a student, seriously complicates the understanding of the essence and methodology of the sociological analysis of religion. For this purpose, the article differentiates and structures the subject Jeld of sociological analysis of religion, highlights its most promising fields of research.The author argues that it is appropriate to talk about the sociological analysis of religion, which has developed and continues to develop within the framework of two major, but equivalent directions. The first focuses on the sociological knowledge of religion in line with the general modern sociological theory, in a broad social context, as one of the subsystems of the general, societal system, organically interconnected with its other subsystems — cultural, social, political, etc. A special place within this direction is occupied by the analysis of religion as a social phenomenon and social institution, social functions and dysfunctions of the latter, including the intensive process of politicization of religion. The second is based on an internal analysis of religion and various religious doctrines, primarily from the point of view of those social relations that are formed within their framework. The perspective focus of the second direction is the social functions of various religions, their influence on the moral values and worldview of individuals and social groups, the peculiarities of manifestation in people's daily lives, the peculiarities of the formation and functioning of new religious movements, including totalitarian religious cults and sects.

The article analyzes in detail the medical, as well as socio-economic and social problems in Russia caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The novelty and little-studied process of the course of a new disease, its consequences for the human body, caused many problems associated with the liberalization of medicine and healthcare as the most important social institution. Although huge human resources were allocated and large material resources were spent to combat the pandemic, it was not possible to quickly localize its spread. Despite the fact that a sufficient number of optimistic forecasts were made, including by medical professionals, and even specific dates for the end of the pandemic were periodically called, it has clearly taken on a protracted nature. At the same time, unfortunately, the experience of fighting various infectious diseases, including smallpox and cholera, accumulated by domestic medicine, especially during the Soviet period, was not taken into account. Not enough attention was paid to the analysis of the experience of fighting this disease in its "homeland" — China.Among the economic problems caused by the pandemic are significant sectoral shifts and imbalances in the structure of the economy, a drop in GDP, an increase in inflation, a decrease in real incomes and a redistribution of expenditures among the population, as well as serious changes in the labor market. The social problems caused by the pandemic include the deterioration of the socio-demographic situation and the serious aggravation of traditional and the emergence of new forms of social inequality — health inequality, digital inequality, age and regional inequality.The coronavirus pandemic, which has engulfed almost the entire world, has seriously affected the economy, as well as social and behavioral practices, has caused fears, anxiety, even panic, and deterioration of the social well-being of large segments of society.The article analyzes three probabilistic forecasts of the development of events after the pandemic. According to the first of them, the whole world, including our country, will return to the former, neoliberal course after the end of the pandemic. Then new actors of the world order will come to the forefront of history, and the most powerful socio-economic crisis will take a protracted character, which will entail numerous human sacrifices. The second involves the establishment of a new state dictatorship — a digital type, with total control of bureaucratic institutions over all spheres of personal and public life, including the spread of the influence of medicine on them. The third one justifies the use of the experience of fighting the pandemic and the crisis to review and eliminate the dysfunctional components of the social system, change the attitude to personal and social values, which, ultimately, will help change society for the better.

The article examines in detail the problems associated with the development of Buddhism, which introduced a personal aspect to religion and embodied the idea of the need for compassion for all living beings. A special place is occupied by the analysis of the moral and social component of this religion. Buddhism is seen as a protest movement that originated in India and is directed against the frozen hierarchy, mechanical ritualism and greed of the Brahmins. This religion challenged the Brahmin hierarchy, appealing primarily to warriors, kings, and the mass of the free population. The Buddhist community was a brotherhood of mendicant monks who did not perform any rituals, but only showed people the way to salvation by the example of their lives. Buddhism is also one of the radical reformist teachings, not only intellectually, but also socially. He called people, first of all, to inner perfection, the last stage of which can be achieved only through kindness and benevolence to all living beings. The central point of this article is devoted to the debate about the reality of the Buddha's existence, his teaching and the transformations of this teaching. A significant place is given to the description of the way of life of Buddhist monks, the relationship within the Buddhist community and with the laity. The reasons for the attractiveness of Buddhism and its easy adaptability to other religious doctrines are substantiated. The possibilities of transformation of Buddhism, including within the framework of syncretic creeds, as well as in the activities of totalitarian and pseudo-religious sects, are shown. Examples of the politicization of this religion and its inclusion in the activities of fundamentalist organizations are given.

The article analyzes the social aspects of Hinduism as a combination of not only religious, but also mythological, legal and ethical concepts. They form, on the basis on which the social life of Indian society is largely organized. The author's analysis of the historical development of Hinduism shows that, despite the absence of a rigid organizational structure, it has an internal unity at the social, ideological and religious levels. Hinduism is united in a whole by sacred texts and the Pantheon of Gods, recognized by almost all its trends and schools, as well as the faith in karma — the causal relationship between the actions of an individual in past incarnations and his fate, character, position in society in the current incarnation, and reincarnation. The cornerstone of both the faith and the social component of the Hindu doctrine is the concept of classes and castes, which denote separate groups whose members have a common professional occupation, do not marry other groups, and do not even share meals with them. The article considers the hierarchy of classes that originated in India in the Vedic period, as well as the principles, primarily professional and regional, of the formation of modern castes.The author analyzes a set of religious prescriptions and cult practices that regulate the daily life of Hindus, the ritual side of Hinduism associated with the most significant events in human life. Special attention is paid to new practices of "redemptive rites", including asceticism, fasting, various methods of mortification of the flesh, and redemptive gifts. It is noted that the essence of Hinduism is not limited to its religious and ideological content. An organic integral part of it is a number of social institutions, legal and moral norms, social institutions and cultural phenomena. In this regard, Hinduism is not only and not so much a religion, but a way of life and holistic behavior, which can also have its own spiritual practice.

This article presents the results of a study of new forms of social inequality, as well as the features of their manifestation in modern Russia, carried out by employees of the Department of Modern Sociology of the Sociology Faculty of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. Social inequality as a whole is defined as a specific form of social stratification in which individual individuals, social groups, layers or classes are at different levels of the vertical social hierarchy and have unequal opportunities to satisfy their material, social or spiritual needs. Much attention is paid to the analysis of the ideological foundations of global social inequality, which also includes national states in the vertical hierarchy of individuals, social groups, classes, and layers, which are accordingly ranked within the framework of the world community. It is proved that global social inequality is based on "market fundamentalism" — a special type of political thinking that elevates the principles of the "invisible hand of the market" and "non-interference of the state in the economic activities of economic entities" to the level of a totalitarian type of dogma. The practical embodiment of this dogma entails the reproduction of social inequality and extremely unfair social relations on a global scale.Among the forms of global social inequality, the leading role is played by resource inequality, however, along with the resource inequality, relatively new forms of social inequality are quite clearly manifested, which the Swedish sociologist G. Terborn singled out — vital inequality and existential inequality.Vital or biological inequality captures the basic characteristic of human existence, since it refers to categories such as, for example, environment and health. Existential inequality outlines a system of hierarchies based on inclusion / exclusion categories (social inclusion / exclusion). The article discusses in detail the features of the manifestation of all these forms of social inequality both within the world community and in Russia. In addition, a new methodological approach to the analysis of inequality from the standpoint of social constructivism was substantiated, when the question of what constitutes the basis of social inequality was supplemented by the question of how people themselves produce and reproduce social inequality in the usual practices of everyday social life.