Social Turbulence in the Сontext of Global Transformations

Abstract

In the article, a sociological analysis of the phenomenon of social turbulence is carried out as a key characteristic of the contemporary epoch of global instability, uncertainty, and accelerated changes. Such key factors of scholarly attention to the phenomenon of social turbulence are determined as its total and permanent character, the depth and scale of destructive influences, and penetration into all levels of societal life. Emphasis is placed on the necessity of identification and classification of diverse manifestations and dimensions of social turbulence in various spheres of societal life; investigation of endogenous (internal) and exogenous (external) factors causing and intensifying turbulent processes; forecasting and assessment of socioeconomic, sociocultural, and sociopsychological consequences of turbulence in short-term and long-term perspectives. An analysis of scientific studies of social turbulence is carried out, the results of which are presented in the works of such well-known Western and domestic researchers as E. Trist, U. Beck, E. Giddens, Z. Bauman, M. Castells, I. Prigogine, I. Stengers, O. Kubalskyi, O. Panchenko, V. Zubov, L. Kryveha, and others. It is noted that the article's purpose is the determination of the main factors causing and intensifying turbulent processes and their consequences, as well as the substantiation of the scientific and practical expediency of developing innovative strategies of social response, risk management, and enhancing the capacity of institutions, communities, and individual individuals to adapt to conditions of permanent turbulence. Social turbulence is considered not only as a metaphor but as a conceptual research instrument of crisis transformations of social structures (social institutions, social groups, communities, etc.), norms, and collective identities. Emphasis is placed on the fact that in the XXI century, turbulence acquires a systemic, permanent, and global character, ceasing to be an exception and transforming into a background characteristic of contemporaneity. Focus is concentrated on the analysis of deep causes, scales, and consequences of social turbulence, emphasis being placed on such of them as intensification of globalizational imbalances, growth of socioeconomic inequality, ecological crises, mass migration processes, crisis of democracy, digital revolution, and informational disorientation. An authorial vision of social turbulence as an ambivalent process combining threats and opportunities, chaos and order, destruction and restoration is proposed. It is emphasized that such an approach to interpreting social turbulence creates a foundation for interdisciplinary dialogue and the formation of effective adaptation strategies necessary for survival and development in a world of constant changes. Particular attention is devoted to the Ukrainian context as a space of extreme turbulence, where new models of social resilience are forming.