The transformation of the concept of 'network' in social research methodology
One of the most important characteristics of philosophical and socio-humanitarian science at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries is the constant updating of conceptual and terminological apparatus, which is due to the high rate of real changes in society. The article begins the analysis of the history of the development of network theory within the boundaries of social philosophy by referring to the work of the 50’s by J. A. Barnes, in which the author suggests using the metaphor of the network to describe complicated social relations. Next, the article examines a number of modern approaches presented in the works of M. Castells, M. McLuhan, H. Rosa and S. Zuboff and confirming the basic intuition about the high heuristic of the network understanding of modern society. In the context of addressing the broad contextual field of social theory, the factors of technological progress, economic dependence, correlation with the educational environment, problems of extended ecological theory and a number of other aspects directly related to the development of the network approach are studied. Addressing these contexts makes it possible to better reveal the specifics of modern methodological strategies and, at the same time, identify a number of problematic areas in socio-humanitarian knowledge. The article substantiates the thesis according to which a consistent consideration of the transformation of social theory, which has made the transition from anthropological in the spirit of network analysis to modern concepts such as “supervisory capitalism”, “McDonaldization”, etc., is key to understanding the foundations of research on the current state of public relations.
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The research is carried out at expense of RSF project No. 25-28-00707 “Social Programming as a Problem of Network Self-Organization”.