Suchergebnisse

As think tanks continue to grow exponentially in number worldwide, their infl uence on world politics has also been increasing. These think tanks, including Russia's policy-oriented scientifi c research institutes, study a wide range of pressing political, social and economic issues, present their ideas and recommendations to national governments and international institutions, and promote international dialogue to foster solutions to world's most burning problems. For think tanks to remain trustworthy and infl uential, they need to maintain their integrity, independence of judgement, in-depth scholarship, and a sharpened focus on real-world outcomes. Their impact will also depend on their effi ciency in promoting their fi ndings through an active publications campaign, fi rst-rate conferences and seminars, skillful outreach programs, innovative Internet activities, and cutting-edge social networking. With the assistance of think tanks, the world politics will be better informed and thus more enlightened, future-oriented, resourceful, and better equipped to fi nd solutions to ongoing confl icts, build international cooperation, and avoid crises in the future. ; По мере бурного роста количества экспертно-аналитических организаций в различных регионах мира, их влияние на мировую политику также увеличивается. Эти «мозговые центры», включая занимающиеся международной проблематикой научно-исследовательские институты РФ, изучают важнейшие политические, социальные, экономические проблемы, представляют свои идеи и рекомендации государственным органам соответствующих стран и международным организациям, содействуют международному диалогу в поиске решений наиболее насущных вопросов, стоящих перед мировым сообществом. Репутация и эффективность экспертно-аналитических организаций зависит от их способности обеспечить профессиональную честность, объективность и всесторонний подход при проведении исследований, концентрировать усилия на насущной повестке дня мировой политики. Действенность их работы также повышается за счет целенаправленного продвижения результатов их исследований, изданий актуальных и востребованных публикаций, проведения резонансных конференций и семинаров с участием ведущих экспертов и политиков, осуществления инновационной деятельности в Интернете и социальных сетях.

в статье анализируются некоторые аспекты пересмотра истории Великой Отечественной и Второй мировой войн в контексте современной мировой политики. ; The article analyzes some aspects of the history of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War revision in the context of contemporary world politics.

Is There an Alternative to Ateistic Contemporary Politics? (A)theistic Political Cosiderations of Alexandre Kojève and Carl Schmitt The aim of this Master Thesis is to fulfill the ambition expressed in A. Kojève's manuscript "Atheism" to compare the manifestations of theism and atheism in the field of politics, based on C. Schmitt's perspective of political and political theology, while the theistic political alternative to atheism has not been developed in A. Kojève's political works. Objectives: 1. To release A. Kojève's concept of atheism in the context of the Western thought; 2. To show the significance of the issue of atheism in Western political thought; 3. Justify why the political should be considered not in the context of nature but in the context of the antinomy between atheism and theism; 4. To analyze the relationship between antinomy of theism and atheism and the political. Thesis: A. Kojève's antinomy of theism and atheism is a necessary element in the perception and interpretation of the political and politics. In his study of the phenomenon of atheism, Kojève systematically develops what Pascal began to examine in early modernity as a problem of soul immortality, linked not to speculative philosophical and theological arguments but to reflection on human existence and mortality, which leads to the question of God's existence, but cannot be unequivocally resolved by the efforts of the human mind. A. Kojève describes atheism as a polemical concept. As long as man is mortal, the controversy between atheism and theism is an inevitable antinomy that cannot be resolved by rational consideration, and coexistence between theist and atheists can only be based on inevitable coercion because synthesis is impossible. In Western political thought, the rise of the phenomenon of democracy as atheism can be seen in the dispute between Alexis de Tocqueville and Hegel, which raises the question of whether it is possible to reconcile the concept of a transcendent God with democracy. The connection of the transcendent God's overcoming with democracy raises the controversy of theism and atheism as a political problem which cannot be solved by the efforts of the mind, but only by means of violence. Although Leo Strauss in his commentary on Carl Schmitt interprets the political as a controversy with liberal political philosophy on the status of the natural state, the real controversy over politics takes place not from the perspective of political philosophy but from the perspective of theological thinking. We find the atheistic concept of politics by examining A. Kojève's theory of politics, in which the political is perceived as a historical and finite phenomenon. According to A. Kojève, history and the political end when a person is freed from the fear of eternal death and begins to perceive himself as an absolutely free and mortal individual, thus overcoming the absolute Master - God. Although Schmitt's relationship with the concept of political as historicity is ambiguous, Schmitt's concept of the political is based on the assumption that the difference between friend and enemy is as inevitable as it is impossible to reject the concept of a mystical, miraculous God. However, the political as divinity is only a hypothesis, but its possibility means that A. Kojève failed to prove the completeness of the political. Moreover, the antinomy of atheism and theism bases existentially the inevitable possibility of political. Therefore, we can understand Schmitt's political theology and the political not as critique of liberalism but of atheist (e.g. M. Bakunin) who are seeking to attain the world state and abolish the political.

Is There an Alternative to Ateistic Contemporary Politics? (A)theistic Political Cosiderations of Alexandre Kojève and Carl Schmitt The aim of this Master Thesis is to fulfill the ambition expressed in A. Kojève's manuscript "Atheism" to compare the manifestations of theism and atheism in the field of politics, based on C. Schmitt's perspective of political and political theology, while the theistic political alternative to atheism has not been developed in A. Kojève's political works. Objectives: 1. To release A. Kojève's concept of atheism in the context of the Western thought; 2. To show the significance of the issue of atheism in Western political thought; 3. Justify why the political should be considered not in the context of nature but in the context of the antinomy between atheism and theism; 4. To analyze the relationship between antinomy of theism and atheism and the political. Thesis: A. Kojève's antinomy of theism and atheism is a necessary element in the perception and interpretation of the political and politics. In his study of the phenomenon of atheism, Kojève systematically develops what Pascal began to examine in early modernity as a problem of soul immortality, linked not to speculative philosophical and theological arguments but to reflection on human existence and mortality, which leads to the question of God's existence, but cannot be unequivocally resolved by the efforts of the human mind. A. Kojève describes atheism as a polemical concept. As long as man is mortal, the controversy between atheism and theism is an inevitable antinomy that cannot be resolved by rational consideration, and coexistence between theist and atheists can only be based on inevitable coercion because synthesis is impossible. In Western political thought, the rise of the phenomenon of democracy as atheism can be seen in the dispute between Alexis de Tocqueville and Hegel, which raises the question of whether it is possible to reconcile the concept of a transcendent God with democracy. The connection of the transcendent God's overcoming with democracy raises the controversy of theism and atheism as a political problem which cannot be solved by the efforts of the mind, but only by means of violence. Although Leo Strauss in his commentary on Carl Schmitt interprets the political as a controversy with liberal political philosophy on the status of the natural state, the real controversy over politics takes place not from the perspective of political philosophy but from the perspective of theological thinking. We find the atheistic concept of politics by examining A. Kojève's theory of politics, in which the political is perceived as a historical and finite phenomenon. According to A. Kojève, history and the political end when a person is freed from the fear of eternal death and begins to perceive himself as an absolutely free and mortal individual, thus overcoming the absolute Master - God. Although Schmitt's relationship with the concept of political as historicity is ambiguous, Schmitt's concept of the political is based on the assumption that the difference between friend and enemy is as inevitable as it is impossible to reject the concept of a mystical, miraculous God. However, the political as divinity is only a hypothesis, but its possibility means that A. Kojève failed to prove the completeness of the political. Moreover, the antinomy of atheism and theism bases existentially the inevitable possibility of political. Therefore, we can understand Schmitt's political theology and the political not as critique of liberalism but of atheist (e.g. M. Bakunin) who are seeking to attain the world state and abolish the political.

Is There an Alternative to Ateistic Contemporary Politics? (A)theistic Political Cosiderations of Alexandre Kojève and Carl Schmitt The aim of this Master Thesis is to fulfill the ambition expressed in A. Kojève's manuscript "Atheism" to compare the manifestations of theism and atheism in the field of politics, based on C. Schmitt's perspective of political and political theology, while the theistic political alternative to atheism has not been developed in A. Kojève's political works. Objectives: 1. To release A. Kojève's concept of atheism in the context of the Western thought; 2. To show the significance of the issue of atheism in Western political thought; 3. Justify why the political should be considered not in the context of nature but in the context of the antinomy between atheism and theism; 4. To analyze the relationship between antinomy of theism and atheism and the political. Thesis: A. Kojève's antinomy of theism and atheism is a necessary element in the perception and interpretation of the political and politics. In his study of the phenomenon of atheism, Kojève systematically develops what Pascal began to examine in early modernity as a problem of soul immortality, linked not to speculative philosophical and theological arguments but to reflection on human existence and mortality, which leads to the question of God's existence, but cannot be unequivocally resolved by the efforts of the human mind. A. Kojève describes atheism as a polemical concept. As long as man is mortal, the controversy between atheism and theism is an inevitable antinomy that cannot be resolved by rational consideration, and coexistence between theist and atheists can only be based on inevitable coercion because synthesis is impossible. In Western political thought, the rise of the phenomenon of democracy as atheism can be seen in the dispute between Alexis de Tocqueville and Hegel, which raises the question of whether it is possible to reconcile the concept of a transcendent God with democracy. The connection of the transcendent God's overcoming with democracy raises the controversy of theism and atheism as a political problem which cannot be solved by the efforts of the mind, but only by means of violence. Although Leo Strauss in his commentary on Carl Schmitt interprets the political as a controversy with liberal political philosophy on the status of the natural state, the real controversy over politics takes place not from the perspective of political philosophy but from the perspective of theological thinking. We find the atheistic concept of politics by examining A. Kojève's theory of politics, in which the political is perceived as a historical and finite phenomenon. According to A. Kojève, history and the political end when a person is freed from the fear of eternal death and begins to perceive himself as an absolutely free and mortal individual, thus overcoming the absolute Master - God. Although Schmitt's relationship with the concept of political as historicity is ambiguous, Schmitt's concept of the political is based on the assumption that the difference between friend and enemy is as inevitable as it is impossible to reject the concept of a mystical, miraculous God. However, the political as divinity is only a hypothesis, but its possibility means that A. Kojève failed to prove the completeness of the political. Moreover, the antinomy of atheism and theism bases existentially the inevitable possibility of political. Therefore, we can understand Schmitt's political theology and the political not as critique of liberalism but of atheist (e.g. M. Bakunin) who are seeking to attain the world state and abolish the political.

Is There an Alternative to Ateistic Contemporary Politics? (A)theistic Political Cosiderations of Alexandre Kojève and Carl Schmitt The aim of this Master Thesis is to fulfill the ambition expressed in A. Kojève's manuscript "Atheism" to compare the manifestations of theism and atheism in the field of politics, based on C. Schmitt's perspective of political and political theology, while the theistic political alternative to atheism has not been developed in A. Kojève's political works. Objectives: 1. To release A. Kojève's concept of atheism in the context of the Western thought; 2. To show the significance of the issue of atheism in Western political thought; 3. Justify why the political should be considered not in the context of nature but in the context of the antinomy between atheism and theism; 4. To analyze the relationship between antinomy of theism and atheism and the political. Thesis: A. Kojève's antinomy of theism and atheism is a necessary element in the perception and interpretation of the political and politics. In his study of the phenomenon of atheism, Kojève systematically develops what Pascal began to examine in early modernity as a problem of soul immortality, linked not to speculative philosophical and theological arguments but to reflection on human existence and mortality, which leads to the question of God's existence, but cannot be unequivocally resolved by the efforts of the human mind. A. Kojève describes atheism as a polemical concept. As long as man is mortal, the controversy between atheism and theism is an inevitable antinomy that cannot be resolved by rational consideration, and coexistence between theist and atheists can only be based on inevitable coercion because synthesis is impossible. In Western political thought, the rise of the phenomenon of democracy as atheism can be seen in the dispute between Alexis de Tocqueville and Hegel, which raises the question of whether it is possible to reconcile the concept of a transcendent God with democracy. The connection of the transcendent God's overcoming with democracy raises the controversy of theism and atheism as a political problem which cannot be solved by the efforts of the mind, but only by means of violence. Although Leo Strauss in his commentary on Carl Schmitt interprets the political as a controversy with liberal political philosophy on the status of the natural state, the real controversy over politics takes place not from the perspective of political philosophy but from the perspective of theological thinking. We find the atheistic concept of politics by examining A. Kojève's theory of politics, in which the political is perceived as a historical and finite phenomenon. According to A. Kojève, history and the political end when a person is freed from the fear of eternal death and begins to perceive himself as an absolutely free and mortal individual, thus overcoming the absolute Master - God. Although Schmitt's relationship with the concept of political as historicity is ambiguous, Schmitt's concept of the political is based on the assumption that the difference between friend and enemy is as inevitable as it is impossible to reject the concept of a mystical, miraculous God. However, the political as divinity is only a hypothesis, but its possibility means that A. Kojève failed to prove the completeness of the political. Moreover, the antinomy of atheism and theism bases existentially the inevitable possibility of political. Therefore, we can understand Schmitt's political theology and the political not as critique of liberalism but of atheist (e.g. M. Bakunin) who are seeking to attain the world state and abolish the political.

The article analyses various instances of the memory politics of the Nazi genocide of Roma in Ukraine during wartime, Soviet and Post-Soviet periods of times through the prism of the theory of "path dependency" and the concept of "sites of memory". One of the aims of this study is to interpret recent trends in contemporary memory politics in Ukraine, with focus on the Roma genocide memorials, and the documentation of the victims. The author shows how Soviet 'path dependency' designed the limits of commemoration of the Nazi genocide of the Roma in Ukraine. During World War II the leading Soviet newspapers informed the public about the mass killings of Roma by the Nazis on the occupied territories and stressed that the systematic extermination of this group was motivated by racial goals. However, after 1945, the systematic extermination of the Roma population by the Nazis became a taboo and was ignored by Soviet historiography and memory politics. The absence of an educated strata within the Roma group and the aggressive forgetting politics made impossible the recording of testimonies of the Soviet Roma tragedy immediately after the war. Today it is simply impossible because of a lack of witnesses and archival records. The author draws interesting parallels with memory politics in Ukraine, and its conciliation with Belarus and Russia. In recent years, about twenty monuments commemorating victims of the genocide of the Roma have been erected in Ukraine. According to decision of the Ukrainian Rada dated 8 October 2004, the International Day of the Holocaust of the Roma is held annually on 2 August. Following the countries of the European Union, Ukraine abandoned the official use of the word 'Gypsies' in favour of the more politically correct name 'Roma'. At the same time, in Belarus there only three sites of memory devoted to the Roma genocide and in Russia – no one. In Ukraine, over the last few years, a number of conferences on the genocide of the Roma were held, collections of scientific papers were published, ...

The concept of "performance place", rather than a more common "space" is used to point out the significance of the physical and social location, where the theatre building or performance environment is situated, within the framework of the city fabric or geography of the country. The place of performance is a reflection of the shifting ideological, political and moral role which the institution of theatre is identified with in the society. The critical understanding of the place is related to the politics of the theatre, resistance to the discourse of power, as expressed by the artist's geopolitical imagination, and transgression of the social bounds. The aim of this article is to employ the concept of performance place to reflect upon the Lithuanian theatre – to see how the understanding of the place has been changing and what political projects or myths govern the choice of different locations. Two ideas of performance place are dominant in the Lithuanian theatre practices today. The first one is related to the conception of the national theatre institutions as a place which legitimates the artistic practices through the relationship with the local national community. The second locates performative practices in the fissures and margins of the first one – the official and national culture network. These are marginal places such as abandoned quarters of the city or post-industrial spaces which provoke anarchic and resistant attitude towards the tradition and power structures. However, both conceptions of place become problematic and ambivalent in the context of contemporary late capitalist system.[.].

The concept of "performance place", rather than a more common "space" is used to point out the significance of the physical and social location, where the theatre building or performance environment is situated, within the framework of the city fabric or geography of the country. The place of performance is a reflection of the shifting ideological, political and moral role which the institution of theatre is identified with in the society. The critical understanding of the place is related to the politics of the theatre, resistance to the discourse of power, as expressed by the artist's geopolitical imagination, and transgression of the social bounds. The aim of this article is to employ the concept of performance place to reflect upon the Lithuanian theatre – to see how the understanding of the place has been changing and what political projects or myths govern the choice of different locations. Two ideas of performance place are dominant in the Lithuanian theatre practices today. The first one is related to the conception of the national theatre institutions as a place which legitimates the artistic practices through the relationship with the local national community. The second locates performative practices in the fissures and margins of the first one – the official and national culture network. These are marginal places such as abandoned quarters of the city or post-industrial spaces which provoke anarchic and resistant attitude towards the tradition and power structures. However, both conceptions of place become problematic and ambivalent in the context of contemporary late capitalist system.[.].

The concept of "performance place", rather than a more common "space" is used to point out the significance of the physical and social location, where the theatre building or performance environment is situated, within the framework of the city fabric or geography of the country. The place of performance is a reflection of the shifting ideological, political and moral role which the institution of theatre is identified with in the society. The critical understanding of the place is related to the politics of the theatre, resistance to the discourse of power, as expressed by the artist's geopolitical imagination, and transgression of the social bounds. The aim of this article is to employ the concept of performance place to reflect upon the Lithuanian theatre – to see how the understanding of the place has been changing and what political projects or myths govern the choice of different locations. Two ideas of performance place are dominant in the Lithuanian theatre practices today. The first one is related to the conception of the national theatre institutions as a place which legitimates the artistic practices through the relationship with the local national community. The second locates performative practices in the fissures and margins of the first one – the official and national culture network. These are marginal places such as abandoned quarters of the city or post-industrial spaces which provoke anarchic and resistant attitude towards the tradition and power structures. However, both conceptions of place become problematic and ambivalent in the context of contemporary late capitalist system.[.].

International audience ; The educational and methodological manual is devoted to the main issues of modern world politics and international relations. In particular, the main trends in the development of world politics are analyzed through the prism of the main theories of international relations, such as: political realism, liberalism, neorealism and neoliberalism, as well as constructivism and feminism. Along with this, the manual introduces the regional and global developments in the post-Soviet space, Europe, the Middle East, as well as in the Asia-Pacific, Latin American and African regions. Special emphasis is placed on the geopolitical priorities of Armenia and the South Caucasus. The course ends with lectures on the technological developments of our time, their impact on international relations, as well as models for the formation of a strategy for a secure Future. ; Учебно-методическое пособие посвящено основным проблемам современной мировой политики и международных от-ношений. В частности, главные тенденции развития мировой политики анализируются сквозь призму основных теорий между-народных отношений – таких, как: политический реализм, либерализм, неореализм и неолиберализм, а также конструктивизм и феминизм. Наряду с этим, пособие знакомит с региональными и глобальными развитиями на постсоветском пространстве, Европе, Ближнем Востоке, а также в Азиатско-Тихоокеанском, Латиноамериканском и Африканском регионах. Особый акцент ставится на геополитические приоритеты Армении и Южного Кавказа. Курс завершается лекциями, посвященными технологическим развитиям современности, их влиянию на международные отношения, а также моделям формирования стратегии безопасного Будущего.

To understand the depth of transformations in all spheres of society generated by
migration, new terminology is needed. The notion of "postmigrant societies" implies that the
distinction between local and migrant population loses its relevance in certain social spheres.
According to the familiar epistemological framework, societies are presented as consisting of
"local population" on the one hand, and "migrant population" on the other. This understanding,
however, is becoming obsolete. First, it does not reflect the fact that the phenomenon of spatial
mobility is embedded in the social structure. A significant part of the so-called local population
is itself included in migration processes. People who are considered to be part of the
"autochthonous population" are in fact migrants themselves due to different circumstances
(contract work, long-term stay in another country due to studies, involvement in joint business
projects, participation in international scientific teams, availability of real estate abroad, etc.). At
the same time, those people who are regarded as "migrants" by common sense can be well
integrated into the social institutions of their new homeland. Second, the traditional
epistemological framework does not reflect contemporary demographic trends. It is unable to
capture two points: (a) population rotation within the framework of circular/pendulum migration;
(b) qualitative change in the urban population of industrialized countries.

The article compares the forecasts concerning trends in world politics of the early 21st century created by Francis Fukuyama, Samuel Huntington and Immanuel Wallerstein. Though none of the forecasts was completely accurate, all of them spoke of the tendencies that could be later observed in world politics. Despite many experts criticized Fukuyama's concept of the 'end of history', Western elites had been making foreign policies of their countries in accordance with the concept until recently.The article explains how such policies came to contradict contemporary state of affairs. In accordance with Huntington's expectations, the role of civilizational factor in world politics of the early 21st century signifi cantly grew compared to previous periods. However, the character of civilizational factor's infl uence on political processes appeared to be different compared to what Huntington expected. The article underlines the accuracy of Wallerstein's forecast concerning the consequences of mass South-North migration. At the same time, the article concludes, his forecast, likewise the other two, also requires adaptation to contemporary situation in societal development. ; В статье дается сравнительный анализ прогнозов об особенностях и тенденциях развития мировой политики начала XXI в., данных в работах известных политологов Ф. Фукуямы, С. Хантингтона и И. Валлерстайна. Подчеркивается, что каждый из них предсказал некоторые тенденции, реально проявившиеся в мировых политических процессах последних десятилетий, хотя не все прогнозы оказались точными. Отмечается, что, хотя концепция «конца истории» Ф. Фукуямы подвергалась обоснованной критике со стороны специалистов, на практике правящие элиты стран Запада до последнего времени выстраивали политику в соответствии с этой концепцией. Констатируется, что эта политика пришла в противоречие с современными реалиями. Как и предполагал С. Хантингтон, роль цивилизационного фактора в мировой политике XXI в. возросла по сравнению с предшествующими периодами. Но влияние этого фактора на политические процессы проявляется иначе, чем предполагал американский политолог. Наиболее близок к современным реалиям прогноз И. Валлерстайна относительно последствий массовой миграции с Юга на Север. Тем не менее этот, как и все другие прогнозы, необходимо адаптировать к современной ситуации в общественном развитии.

This is the fourth part of a series of essays on contemporary sociological theory. The aim of these essays is to identify and critically assess the key concepts, ideas, epistemological principles, and the relational – symmetric and asymmetric – aspects of the ongoing global division of sociological labor. Although the concept of "theory" has deep roots in the professional discourses of East European intellectuals, sociological theory finds itself in a position where it cannot significantly affect the socio-political intellectual agenda. Moreover, sociological theory more and more is identified with the role of an "underlaborer." If so, the problem needs to be posed in this way: it seems that current time has given us a chance to ask whether the shifting boundaries of democratic politics have begun to exert influence on the understanding of sociological theory. Thus, it is questionable that the mere "cumulative" growth of intellectual and institutional sociological recourses in a global context will automatically strengthen a theoretical sensibility. What is needed in sociological theoretical culture is not another symmetric-functional historicism, including the one-dimensional scientific mode of explanatory historicism ("from specificity to generality" [see Alexander 1982; 7]), but a deeper critical understanding of both analytical theoretical frameworks and normative discourses, including the attempts to understand the unevenly distributed global sociological field of asymmetric institutional and intellectual power relations. The examination of the fourfold functional model of Michael Burawoy had demonstrated that there are four dilemmas that he confronts in his attempts to articulate the idea of public sociology in a globalizing context: first, the contradiction between the universal content and national form of public sociology; second, the contradiction between analytical realism and pluralist relativism; third, the (nominal) contradiction between artificial types of public sociology and critical sociology; fourth, the contradiction between epistemological pluralism and value pluralism. The fourth part of a series of essays discusses the relevance of the relatively radical ("alternative") conceptual proposal of Steven Seidman for contemporary metatheoretical debates, especially those concerned with (1) the relation between "analytic" and "ideological" frameworks, (2) the interplay between empirical generalizations and theoretical generalizations. Unlike Burawoy, Seidman is more genealogically conscious of local/temporal nature of social relations and various – symmetric and asymmetric – boundaries, including social theoretical and sociological theoretical. It is for this sensitive reason that Seidman rejects the "arrogance" of foundational theoretical schemes. Despite his recognition of the limits of a-contextual theorizing and the need to embrace local vs. universal perspective (for example, by evaluating conflicting perspectives and intellectual, social, moral, and political consequences), however, his model is constructed in such a way that it depends too much on the kind of one-dimensional inductive orientation. There are at least two further problems that result from the "event-based" narrative of postmodern social theory which deals carefully with its temporal and spatial boundaries: first, problems in identifying different criteria of the relation between the different multidimensional levels of epistemological continuum; second, problems related to developing ways of evaluating (a) the (probably) vital link between general categories of classical social theory and general (nevertheless, accountable) moral principles, (b) the relation between different principles of presuppositional theoretical level and moderate prognostic potentialities of postpositivistic (however, firmly classical, i.e., "social") theory.

This is the fourth part of a series of essays on contemporary sociological theory. The aim of these essays is to identify and critically assess the key concepts, ideas, epistemological principles, and the relational – symmetric and asymmetric – aspects of the ongoing global division of sociological labor. Although the concept of "theory" has deep roots in the professional discourses of East European intellectuals, sociological theory finds itself in a position where it cannot significantly affect the socio-political intellectual agenda. Moreover, sociological theory more and more is identified with the role of an "underlaborer." If so, the problem needs to be posed in this way: it seems that current time has given us a chance to ask whether the shifting boundaries of democratic politics have begun to exert influence on the understanding of sociological theory. Thus, it is questionable that the mere "cumulative" growth of intellectual and institutional sociological recourses in a global context will automatically strengthen a theoretical sensibility. What is needed in sociological theoretical culture is not another symmetric-functional historicism, including the one-dimensional scientific mode of explanatory historicism ("from specificity to generality" [see Alexander 1982; 7]), but a deeper critical understanding of both analytical theoretical frameworks and normative discourses, including the attempts to understand the unevenly distributed global sociological field of asymmetric institutional and intellectual power relations. The examination of the fourfold functional model of Michael Burawoy had demonstrated that there are four dilemmas that he confronts in his attempts to articulate the idea of public sociology in a globalizing context: first, the contradiction between the universal content and national form of public sociology; second, the contradiction between analytical realism and pluralist relativism; third, the (nominal) contradiction between artificial types of public sociology and critical sociology; fourth, the contradiction between epistemological pluralism and value pluralism. The fourth part of a series of essays discusses the relevance of the relatively radical ("alternative") conceptual proposal of Steven Seidman for contemporary metatheoretical debates, especially those concerned with (1) the relation between "analytic" and "ideological" frameworks, (2) the interplay between empirical generalizations and theoretical generalizations. Unlike Burawoy, Seidman is more genealogically conscious of local/temporal nature of social relations and various – symmetric and asymmetric – boundaries, including social theoretical and sociological theoretical. It is for this sensitive reason that Seidman rejects the "arrogance" of foundational theoretical schemes. Despite his recognition of the limits of a-contextual theorizing and the need to embrace local vs. universal perspective (for example, by evaluating conflicting perspectives and intellectual, social, moral, and political consequences), however, his model is constructed in such a way that it depends too much on the kind of one-dimensional inductive orientation. There are at least two further problems that result from the "event-based" narrative of postmodern social theory which deals carefully with its temporal and spatial boundaries: first, problems in identifying different criteria of the relation between the different multidimensional levels of epistemological continuum; second, problems related to developing ways of evaluating (a) the (probably) vital link between general categories of classical social theory and general (nevertheless, accountable) moral principles, (b) the relation between different principles of presuppositional theoretical level and moderate prognostic potentialities of postpositivistic (however, firmly classical, i.e., "social") theory.