Daniil Kotsyubinsky and Viktor Voronkov will argue whether sociologists are able to understand society

In the St. Petersburg art space mArs (Marsovo Pole, 3) on Friday, January 27, at 19:00, a regular meeting of the Discussion Club of Daniil Kotsiubinsky “Why is everything wrong?” will take place. Whether sociologists are able to understand society, the guests of the event will reflect and argue during the debate that will unfold between the leader of the club – and its guest of honor, a well-known St. Petersburg sociologist, president of the St. Petersburg Association of Sociologists in 2000-2004. Victor Voronkov.

Can sociological surveys be trusted? And if so, how – quantitative or qualitative? If quantitative, then why so many opinion polls – so many “public opinions” at the same moment in the same society? And if one should trust high-quality opinion polls (“in-depth interviews”), then can they be truly high-quality, that is, representative? If it is impossible to fully trust either one or the other, then are they needed at all? Is it possible to understand at least something through opinion polls, and even more so – to predict?

Can there be a science of “society in general” in principle? Not about the Chinese, Russian, French, Tibetan, Breton, St. Petersburg, Tuareg, non-contact-Amazon communities, etc., but about “society as such”? Does this magical scientific toolkit exist that is equally applicable and allows you to equally correctly “understand from within” the mysterious Bushmen, businesslike New Yorkers, recalcitrant Uighurs, harsh Chelyabinsk residents or meditative Chukchi?

And didn’t European universities, and after them all other universities, succumb in the 19th-20th centuries. to the charm of Auguste Comte, Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim, who set out to “scientifically explain humanity” and derive universal laws of being and development for all countries and peoples, to establish departments of sociology and invest so much effort, means and, most importantly, hopes in these academic studies?

Has sociology in the 20th century succeeded in instructing mankind on the only true and, most importantly, scientifically substantiated path of development?

The question today, in the midst of the third decade of the 21st century, seems almost rhetorical…

Indeed. After all, there is no “unified linguistics” (the fantastic theory of N.Ya. Marr does not count), but there are separate philologies for each language. There is no single history (namely, as an “evolutionary whole”, and not as a “complete collection of private histories”), but there are separate histories for each people, each civilization, each cultural and historical community. There is no single history of culture, but there are histories of many cultures.

But there is a unified sociology! So what is in it from the holy truths, and what is from the evil one?

The members of the Discussion Club will argue about this.

Tickets for the event can be purchased on TimePad or at the box office before the event.