Basic Trends of Studying Aging in Global Sociology

The given paper presents the comparative analysis of 94 reports which were announced at the XVIII World Congress of Sociology held in Yokohama, Japan in July, 2014. All reports considered the questions of aging, subjective well-being of older people, economic aspects of population aging and other questions concerning this area. The aim of the paper is to define the main tendencies in studying aging questions that interest the world sociology under the growth of life expectancy, population aging, i.e. increasing cohort of older people in relation to youth and those in midlife in the structure of population, taking into account the current economic crisis and cutting budgets income basis. The results are grouped according to the following criteria with their detailed characteristics: 1) the level of social and economic development of the societies which have become the objects of research: welfare states, developing countries and undeveloped countries; 2) the cultural peculiarities. Due to the analysis in different countries the close traditional attitude to the perceiving the aging, the intergenerational relations give more common ground to the scope of research, as for Japan and China than for Japan and the European countries in terms of the level of social welfare; 3) the scope of studies

Internet as an Instrument to Transmit Theoretical Knowledge

The problem of transmitting theoretical knowledge and the role of the Internet in it require the solution due to the existing modernization of theoretical knowledge transmission process. The objective of this research is to define the role of the Internet in transmitting theoretical knowledge as it is the extremely important resource of the modern society. According to the carried out analysis of the problem and its solution the information technology is not only the mean that accumulates the volumes of knowledge, but also the tool of its social use, forms of social activity by way of social and information technology. As a result, using method of the methodological analysis in combination with competency-based approach we revealed that the Internet as a diachronic way of transmitting knowledge and experience is characterized by a polyagentity and interdisciplinarity

Science in Russia: Factors of Modernization and Resources for Development

One of the most strategic resources of a country is its science and technology complex. To be productive, scientists need excellent conditions for doing research. Consequently, they choose such place where they can work efficiently, they even leave their motherland for researching under better conditions. The study describes the key indicators of efficient research activity. To characterize the science of a country, we distinguish two groups: indicators of scientific and technological capabilities and indicators for assessing the impact of scientific productivity. We use statistical data of reports published in Russia from 2003 to 2014. We did the comparative analysis of performance indicators of research activity in some European and Asian OECD member countries. That provides an overview of the main trends of development and the state of world science. Using data analysis presented in Science Watch, Web of Science and Scopus databases, OECD STAN database, ANBERD, the data published by National Science Foundation and the RAND Corporation, we identify key indicators of research activity in the world. We point out the negative tendency of emigration of Russian scientists and highlight the main reasons of this process. In conclusion, we outline the main reasons of the crisis in Russian science

Organizational Culture in Focus of Measurements

In practical sociology the extensive experience of measuring organizational culture is obtained. But, up to now it remains unclear which method of research: either quantitative or qualitative is the most established, valid and reliable regarding an assessment of organizational culture. The authors represent the results of the pilot sociological research conducted on the basis of Cameron and Quinn's method in one of the Russian universities. The problem situation is connected with changing legal, economic conditions, norms and rules in the activity of universities under present reforms of higher education in Russia. Using the example of a researched unit of the university the authors make a hypothesis that such definition as organizational culture will allow to receive a strategic tool by means of which it will be possible to focus organization activity in total and each employee in particular on mobilizing, displaying initiative, searching resources and overcoming problems of adaptation to new conditions of development

Information anomie and “pixilated consciousness” effect

Fighting units - information bits manipulate mass audience in information society for being in its consciousness. Garbled information, obtained as a result of anomie communication, activates mechanisms of human response and becomes a trigger for making actions. We define the phenomenon of information anomie and describe aberration (misrepresentation) of information that becomes an integral feature of political communication in modern information society. This definition has never been used before by scientists. Norms of information exchange in technical communication is the absence of information aberration that Shannon (1948) called as fight against information entropy. We propose a thesis that aberration at all stages of the communication process makes qualitative changes of information, consequently, changes in behavior and information recipient’s actions that lead to irreversible consequences.That is why, struggle with semantic information aberration is important and becomes the most central task for political communication in contemporary society. We claim that consequences of information anomie are irreversible. We denote such communication as anomic political communication. A person lives in a constant shock caused by various crises and information overloading - “information tsunami”. As a result of anomie communication, a “pixilated consciousness” effect occurs. The recipient of information is being in the state of uncertainty. Individuals cannot rationally estimate current events and make a sensible political choice. Information anomie creates the bound of possible and probable changes in the system of social interactions. The put-forward theses mark contours of a concept of information anomie and allow to designate its key attributes

Challenges of scientific knowledge visualization in publication productivity of the university academic staff

It has recently been shown that a person, an author particularly, faces the challenges of visualization in the cognitive process. The aim of this study is to consider the forms of thinking process and the changes happened in education process and in scientific activity. It was noted that the challenges connected with information perceiving during the work with the text occur in the process of creating academic papers as well. We conclude that the topical field of visualization covers not only the educative process assuming information transfer from person to person (model "teacher-student"), but the process of scientific activity. Applying the methods of visualization in publication activity is the factor for effective communication in social and cultural space that provides the opportunity for academic society to recognize results. We offer possible ways to promote scientific papers via online resources such as scientific social networks and tools of media corporations. The scientific social network ResearchGate and Thomson Reuters media corporation product as an online tool “Researcher ID” placed at the bibliographic database Web of Science TM Core Collection are used as the examples. We state that information technology allows authors to promote the results of their studies around the world

Improving the Well-Being State of the Elderly Via Mentoring System in Organizations

For the majority of Russian enterprises the urgent challenge is the uncontrolled and unjustified cost increases. The largest part of the cost of enterprise accounts for the maintenance staff. Important indicators of economic efficiency in the management of the staff are not only the results but also the costs for the implementation of enterprise management and production activities. The purpose of this article is to explain the need for the introduction of mentoring to improve the quality of the enterprise and the well-being of the elderly. The objectives of the article are to discover the essence of mentoring, determine the need for its implementation in the enterprise by involving the elderly. Description portrait of the ideal mentor may suggest that "this role" be the best candidate will be the people, groups of older people are not placed by or with the desire to combine the resulting years of experience and a decent income. As this system has a positive effect on the employment of retirees, and self-realization

Enhancing Staff Wellbeing Through Cost Management in the Crisis Period

In the crisis period among the enterprises there are consistent price rises – primarily on resources and then on the end product. Increase in costs on production aggravates the problem of the enterprise survival on the market and heightens the necessity to optimize them. Cost reduction on staff, conducted in the traditional way, which is often a main cost ratio of the enterprise, leads to staff wellbeing reduction. That is why it is necessary to use an effective alternative – cost management. Cost management is considered as an integrated enterprise activity aimed to optimize its own costs with minimal losses. The cost classification used in lean production is described, as well as several cost optimization techniques are illustrated by describing the real experience of the Japanese company "Toyota". The experiment of introducing selected tools of lean production in the hotel-type dormitory No. 5 of the National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University is described. As a result of the project the 5S system was implemented at the maid's workplace and in the room. The most optimum alternative of maid's movement in the room while cleaning is visualized in spaghetti diagram. Time losses reduction allows creating cost-effective value for customers

Information warfare technologies in political discourse

We attempt to examine the technology of "information warfare" in this paper. The dominant theme of the paper is that the outcome of the information warfare is important not only for the future of a state itself but for the future of the world balance of forces. The main task of geopolitical actors in information warfare is to introduce ideas corresponding to their interests into mass consciousness. All participants of political conflicts have common features in technologies of Information warfare. The information anomie is the indicator of the great geopolitical actors’ personified interests on the stage of "information warfare" - the process resulted in destroying the communicative line: report-information understanding and disrupting the social order in society. In this paper authors describe the following Information Warfare technologies: "Political volcano" technology; "SPIN" technology; "Widening media resource" technology; "specific gravity" technology; "Cold War 2.0" technology and Information cleaningup technology. It is assumed that in the future there will be new instructions on applying technologies of information warfare. To impart perspective to the paper we consider examples, opinions and trends

University as a Sociocultural Phenomenon: the Past and the Present

We carried out the review of the main educational strategies which present the basis of university education in antiquity, in the medieval period and at present. The educational model created during the antique period was based on ideals of beauty and harmony, that assumed an equivalence of spiritual and corporal in personality formation as it is demanded by the nature. In philosophy of education in the medieval period there was an idea of person's transformation through education and belief by means of classical literature which was considered as a timeless knowledge source. The university was thought of as educational institution where it is possible to approach to universal knowledge. We consider that in modern society its development has transitive nature. The foundation of the educational process is not the universal knowledge, but the skill to find bearings in fast-changing knowledge stream, to adapt and find opportunities for self-fulfillment under the conditions of continuous change. In the single information and educational space it became possible to make educational process continuous as a condition of person's improvement. We conceive the idea of continuous or lifelong learning as the necessary and natural process acting as a precondition of forming integral personality and social wellbeing