From anthropocentrism to sociology of things and digital sociology

The genesis of socio-humanitarian and sociological knowledge, namely: understanding and studying the phenomenon of human life, its biological, vital, informational and social aspects has been revealed. The regularity of the transformation of anthropocentrism under the influence of the development of science and technology, the emergence of the concept of post-humanism has been substantiated. The examples of man-made disasters, the use of weapons of mass destruction, as social facts, that had a significant impact on the development of mankind, have been adduced. The conditions for the emergence of object-oriented sociology and the sociology of things have been shown, some scientific approaches have been disclosed within the framework of this concept of Graham Harman, Brun Latour and his followers. Separately, the methodological approaches of the actor-network theory have been disclosed, the main one has been highlighted. Separately, the methodological foundations of cognition of the world of things have been described within the framework of object-oriented sociology, related to the rejection of opposing pairs of the concepts “society and nature”, “truth is non-truth”, “structure and process” and others. The connection of this theory with the sociology of translation has been shown. The characteristic of the problems of development of the scientific and methodological base of digital sociology in the context of changing the content of social relations “man – machine” on the example of the information and communication network Internet has been given. Among them, have been allocated the problems of delegation to digital technologies, more and more powers in solving complex socio-technical problems, the global centralization of digital resources management, the emergence of virtual actors of social interaction. The author reduces specific examples of the use of actor-network theory to interpret the processes and phenomena of interaction between users of Internet resources with individual components of the Internet. Separately, promising areas of research in this area, related to the phenomena of the Internet of things and neuronet, have been highlighted

The current problems of the digital reflection of social reality: rethinking scientific concepts

Need of new reading of sociological concepts of society of risk, network society, complex society and different scientific views on modern society in relation to process of an institutionalization of digital sociology as special sociological theory, subject matter and special methodology of knowledge of digital reality has been substantiated. Methodological approaches to use of the principles, the ideas and categories of various schools of sciences, groups of erudite and certain representatives of sociological science to development of the conceptual and categorial device, methodical potential and tools of digital sociology have been adduced. Special attention has been paid to the consideration of the concept of social network of the American sociologist Richard Mark Emerson in the context of digitalization. From positions of the concept of Richard Mark Emerson emergence of new dependences of users of Internet network on special category of subjects socially of interaction – moderators, administrators, owners of resources, the controlling public authorities and also manipulators of people’s attention has been explained; the specific motivation, which reveals itself in such phenomena as hypertrophied aspiration to the self-presentation (“selfie”, etc.); representation of the distorted virtual image for communications, hyperactivity in the appeal to various resources (“Internet surfing”) and also prevalence of motivators and estimated means – anonymous comments, “likes”, posts, reposts, symbolical encouragement and awards. Besides that, the behavior of Internet users has been considered in the context of the theory of the rational choice of the American sociologist James S. Coleman: at all risks of virtual interaction, the choice for integration of social communications into digital space, use of Internet resources for satisfaction of  personal and group needs brings more vital benefits for people, than folding of social activity in the Internet network

Digital sociology and new opportunities for social and educational rehabilitation of disabled people

Based on the conducted sociological research and using modern methodological approaches of digital sociology, the feasibility of developing institutional conditions for improving the educational rehabilitation of disabled people by means of modern Internet technologies has been justified. Examples of the development of analogical problems in the works of domestic and foreign authors have been given. The possibilities of scientific and methodological support of social experiments on the development and implementation of educational Internet communications to overcome the disability of disabled people using the Arsenal of digital sociology have been described separately. The data on the attitude of disabled people to higher education in the system of their rehabilitation and life activity, with the identification of social groups with positive, uncertain and negative attitudes with a predominant positive attitude to the possibility of educational rehabilitation have been provided. The educational needs of people with disabilities in various areas have been described, their quantitative characteristics with the definition of priorities and areas of education that are not relevant for people with disabilities have been presented. A significant place in the article has been given to the possibilities of involving disabled people in the process of developing educational programs and in research activities, both in terms of the availability of willing people among them, and the use of various forms of their integration into real research projects as part of temporary creative teams. The conditions for the implementation of scientific support for the development of training programs in the Internet space by conducting their practical testing on the example of the Zagorsk experiment have been characterized separately. Attention to supporting individual research projects of people with disabilities in the course of higher education has been paid, ways to help them collect experimental material have been substantiated. Separately, the role and place of joint forms of scientific activity of disabled people, teachers and students in the performance of state tasks have been shown. Taking into account the important role of social inclusion of disabled people in Internet communications, the prevalence of creating accounts in the Internet information and communication network and using various Internet resources among disabled people and family members has been separately reflected