Time as a tool for sociological analysis of the interests of the subject of activity

Yulia V. Karavaeva, PhD in Pedagogy, Docent, Associate Professor, Lipetsk State Pedagogical P.P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky University, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1792-3712, e-mail: jvkaravaeva@yandex.ru

Viktor S. Karavaev, student, Lipetsk State Pedagogical P.P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky University, e-mail: karavaevviktors@yandex.ru

The article explores the possibility of improving sociological tools in the field of addressing time characteristics as a system-forming element of social practices and the interests of social actors. It substantiates the importance for social management of rethinking sociological approaches in the conceptual justification of the possibilities of using temporal characteristics to study the interests of individual and collective subjects. Based on the systematization of scientific knowledge, the main directions of researching the essential and structural characteristics of the interests of social actors are identified and described, taking into account the parameters of time in social space. Among these directions are: distinguishing the mechanisms of determining interests depending on different time systems; applying a combination of various temporal methods to identify the specifics of a subject’s interests; considering the life stage of a social actor when studying their interests; accounting for the conditions of actualization of significant social activities; considering the trend of narrowing the range of future foresight and the corresponding complexity of forecasting the process of interest formation; applying a variety of existing criteria for assessing the rationality of activities; considering the breadth of the temporal sphere of interest realization, and others. Problematic areas related to accounting for temporal characteristics of social reality in studying the interests of social actors are described: issues of identifying interests and their structural interactions caused by the inconsistency of interests and their overlap in a specific time period; the problem of identifying the features of interest transformation over a time perspective; the problem of distortion of interests under the influence of ideological and power manifestations; and the imperfections of the theoretical and methodological foundations of researching the temporal characteristics of the interests of social actors.

Keywords: time, interest, social relations, social actor, social management, social practices, social space

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