Social transformations within the conditions of digital environment

In: Moscow State University Bulletin. Series 18. Sociology and Political Science, Band 26, Heft 1, S. 70-81

Abstract

The digital environment is forming new social reality: the structure of society and principles of formation and functioning of social groups are being changed, identity is being blurred, as well as the labor, education and consumption markets are experiencing changes. These changes demand serious social thought. The article presents social inequality transformation issues in conditions of digitalization and its probable reasons. In particular, some of the reasons, that influence new inequity forms, are: identity bounds violation, due to technological progress affecting personal space; simultaneous existence of virtual (online) and real (offline) spaces, severely increased multiplicity of statuses (including fictional), migration virtualization, and transition of some parameters from rank to nominal, etc. Digitalization also impacts on social institutions, such as education one. For instance, part-time or full switch to online-education is gaining popularity. The article shows some researches among students about online educational programs: respondents claim that the traditional and online models should be combined. For sure, online platforms have advantage in access to variable sources, such as particular online courses, subscription to EJ, useful data bases, permanent chatting with students and professors, etc. In addition, it is assumed that the social structure of the education system that has implemented e-learning becomes less hierarchical, which is associated with the digitization of the text.