IL SIR staff took part in the 16th conference of the European Sociological Association
On August 27 to 30, the 16th Conference of the European Sociological Association was held in Porto, Portugal, in which our Laboratory staff took part.
Head of IL SIR Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova, Senior Researcher Roman Abramov, Research Assistant Egor Novgorodov and Research Assistant Ekaterina Dolgova took part in the 16th Conference of the European Sociological Association on August 27-30 in Porto, Portugal. There were different research groups within the framework of the conference’s theme "Tension, Trust and Transformation" that organized a number of special thematic sections devoted to various aspects of current sociological issues.
Roman Abramov focused on visiting and participating in sections that were close to his scientific interests. In particular, he was a participant in the section devoted to the analysis of professions and professionalism in the perspective of power and knowledge (RN19_T05: Knowledge-power nexus revisited), headed by Dr. Christiane Schnell. She opened this session with her own report on the problematization of the concepts of professionalism in sociology from the point of view of the challenges of neoliberalism and paternalism ("Beyond Paternalism and Neoliberalism? On Contemporary Professionalism and Future Perspectives") and demonstrated the work of these concepts using the example of her own study on the financial managers at the World Bank. Finnish sociologist of professions V. Alakivi introduced the audience to his study on the “Dynamics of Discourse of Professionals Working in the Field of Social Policy”. Similarly, an interesting study on “The influence of the Introduction of Special Software on Professional Communication and Professional Knowledge of Architects” was presented by German sociologists, Marie Heppner and Adji Sinkh.
Roman Abramov participated in the session "Professionalism and Technological Transformations" as a speaker. This session discussed the challenges to professionalism associated with new technologies, and talked about how doctors use hospital computer knowledge bases as well as, what professional aspects of work bloggers and influencers have. Roman Abramov's presentation was titled "Theories of Professionalism Today: Conceptual Challenges and New Analytical Horizons". The report showed several areas of challenges in the modern sociology of professions, where existing theoretical models of professionalism work relatively poorly and how a new understanding of the definition of professions and professionalism in a sociological perspective is required. The report also discussed the challenges and opportunities for theories of professionalism created by artificial intelligence, platform capitalism and the development of new media. Prospects for the development of theories of professionalism in the new conditions were proposed. The report aroused considerable interest among the audience.
Roman Abramov is a member of the committee of the disciplinary network "Sociology of Professions" ( RN19 - Sociology of Professions) of the European Sociological Association (ESA) and participates in the formation of the thematic agenda of the committee, reviewing applications for ESA events. During the conference, the committee "Sociology of Professions" held a meeting to discuss further directions for the development of the disciplinary area and organizational issues of the committee's work Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova and Roman Abramov took part in this session.
Ekaterina Dolgova took part in the section “Arts educations and arts in education” with the report “Perception of Art Production Process by Performers with Disabilities in an Inclusive Museum”. In the report, Ekaterina presented the preliminary results of her PhD dissertation on how a museum, through the prism of Russian experience, helps to overcome labor exclusion and how people with disabilities perceive their position as workers in an inclusive museum. In response to questions of researchers from different European countries during the discussion of her report, particularly attention was paid to the uniqueness of the Russian experience and its comparison with western cases of museum participation. The participants of the section also emphasized the importance of ethnographic notes, due to the social space of the museum itself. In addition, speakers from Portugal, Sweden, Norway and Latvia took part in the presentations of the section. The focus of their research was also centered on the significance of museums as a platform, on the basis of which they analyzed, for example, the spatial division of labor in cultural institutions, the transformation of educational practices in the field of fine arts, the culture of participation using the example of involving young people in educational museum practices. During the different presentations, Ekaterina became acquainted with new scientific trends in the field of sociology of art and culture and received valuable comments for further research on the topic of her dissertation.
Egor Novgorodov's report, titled "Video Games as a Tool for Creating "Good Citizens": Content Analysis of Media Representations", was included in the RN02 - Sociology of Arts section. With the permission of the organizers, the report was presented online. In his presentation, which is based on the analysis of materials from Russian media, Egor demonstrated how the image of computer games and the attitude towards them in federal media resources have been transforming in recent years - from condemnation and accusations of promoting violence to the recognition of video games as a neutral object that can be used, among other things, for educational purposes and to broadcast the official agenda. This report sparked an active discussion, which continued via correspondence. The colleagues were interested in both the theoretical framework of the work and individual aspects of the media discourses considered in the study. Egor received a kind invitation from the organizers to attend the midterm conference of the research group “Sociology of Art” as part of the ECA scientific community in Barcelona next year.
Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova took part in the section “Sociology of Inclusive Education” with a report titled “Implementing the conceptual mission of the Salamanca Declaration: attitudes of preschool teachers towards inclusion in Kazakhstan, China and Russia”. The report presented the results of a comparative analysis of survey data from preschool teachers in the three countries. The study showed that inclusion is a fairly new phenomenon in the education systems of these countries. The concept of disability in these national contexts is changing, but is still largely based on the “medical model”. There are still many children with special educational needs and disabilities who are deprived of education and early development services (Su et al., 2020; HRW, 2019). The results showed the importance of training specialists in the field of preschool care and education on inclusion issues. This is because the competence of such specialists leads to more positive attitudes towards inclusion. Such trainings should be provided both in university programs and in the format of advanced training during the process of gaining professional experience. In addition to the level of training, several other variables influenced the attitudes of teachers, including the size of the group of children, the age of the respondents, and their previous experience working with children with special needs or disabilities. The results demonstrated the overall positive impact of an inclusive organizational culture, which was associated with positive attitudes of all stakeholders. However, the survey data could not provide a deep understanding of perceptions and attitudes of relevant stakeholders, therefore, the next stage of the study will be focused on qualitative interviews and contextual comparative analysis.
