http://ecsoc.hse.ru en-us Copyright 2025 Sun, 30 Nov 2025 12:25:49 +0300 https://ecsoc.hse.ru/en/2025-26-5/1106295951.html https://ecsoc.hse.ru/en/2025-26-5/1106296208.html The focus of the article is cultural marginality and its manifestation among Russian students, as well as its positive features. The authors analyze the history of scholarship on cultural marginality which meaning in the social sciences has shifted from the liminal state of “the stranger” in-between two stable cultural boundaries, to a more fundamental characteristic of social life due to the multiplicity of cultural borders. This development is viewed within two schematically defined lines of the theoretical inquiry: structure-functional and constructivist approaches. The former underlines the crosscultural interaction and the problem of adaptation, while the latter points out an unstable character of the cultural boundaries themselves. Cultural marginality of the Russian youth is intensifying and becoming more visible because the youth experiences, on the one hand, the worldwide tendency of blurring cultural borders, and on the other, the top-down incentive to form “traditional” values reflected in the cultural policy in the context of geopolitical tensions. The survey conducted by the authors among Moscow students in 2024 (convenience sample, n = 1615) attempts to demonstrate operationalization of the cultural marginality and provide a view on the current trends in the Moscow youth. To do so, cluster analysis has been conducted, which showed that two cluster groups can be distinguished: followers of the dominant culture, and cultural marginals. Consistent with the constructivist approach, the latter demonstrate complexity in forming their cultural identity and the recognition of the multiplicity of cultural boundaries, which, in some cases, can lead to social isolation. Cultural marginality, revealed among the Russian youth, poses the question on its positive aspects and potential; the gap that can be linked via the fields and capitals theory in sociology. Using various examples of successful realization of cultural marginality from literatures on leadership, and innovations in the fields of cultural production, we demonstrate the heuristic potential of dialogue between sociology of marginality and field theory. The research contributes to the literature on marginality by empirical analysis conducted within the logic of the constructivist approach and, combined with economic sociology of fields and capitals and empirical studies of the Russian youth’s solidarity, outlines a sociology of cultural marginality as a theory of the middle range. https://ecsoc.hse.ru/en/2025-26-5/1106296331.html While people in and around the tech industry debate whether algorithms are political at all, social scientists take the politics as a given, asking instead how this politics unfolds: how algorithms concretely govern. What we call “high-tech modernism”  the application of machine learning algorithms to organize our social, economic, and political life  has a dual logic. On the one hand, like traditional bureaucracy, it is an engine of classification, even if it categorizes people and things very differently. On the other, like the market, it provides a means of self-adjusting allocation, though its feedback loops work differently from the price system. Perhaps the most important consequence of high-tech modernism for the contemporary moral political economy is how it weaves hierarchy and data-gathering into the warp and woof of everyday life, replacing visible feedback loops with invisible ones, and suggesting that highly mediated outcomes are in fact the unmediated expression of people’s own true wishes. The Journal of Economic Sociology offers a Russian translation of Professor Henry Farrell and Professor Marion Fourcade’s article, titled The Moral Economy of High-Tech Modernism, published in 2023 in Dædalus. This translation will be included in a Russian-language collection of Professor Marion Fourcade’s articles on the digital economy, which is being prepared for publication by the Gaidar Institute Press. https://ecsoc.hse.ru/en/2025-26-5/1106296408.html The article proposes a concept of a general model of mechanisms for joint socioeconomic activity based on the principles of institutional design developed within the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. The initial thesis is the assumption of the existence of universal functions that implement the processes of coordination and governance/management in various types of mechanisms for regulating joint socio-economic activity. The set of the universal functions and the general structure of the abstract mechanism for joint activity are derived from the principles of institutional design of the IAD. The article considers a general approach to the embodiment of six universal functions in the form of a set of design elements used to create real mechanisms. The initial set of design elements is formed on the basis of the methods for implementing these functions within the three main modes of communication  direct, indirect, and rule-based  between participants in joint activity. The properties of the embodied mechanisms are considered, including the manifestation of these properties in real regulatory structures such as “network”, “hierarchy”, “market,” and “rules/ institutions”. The process of constructing embodied mechanisms for joint activity is interpreted as a task of choosing a combination of design elements that best suit the characteristics of a specific joint activity and environmental conditions. The principles of optimization of mechanisms for joint activity with heterogeneous operations are proposed, which leads to the possibility of hybridization of mechanisms. The main results of the study are presented in the form of a concept of a general model of joint activity mechanisms. The proposed approach can serve as a basis for the analysis of collective actions, research into the transformation of forms of social coordination and the potential impact of digital technologies, including AI, on the development of joint activity mechanisms. The model can be used in studies of cooperation, management of public resources, organizational design, and digitalization of socio-economic institutions. https://ecsoc.hse.ru/en/2025-26-5/1106296551.html This article examines the gastronomic landscapes of Siberian and Far Eastern cities. Catering establishments are analyzed as significant elements of urban culture that undergo transformation through the globalization and commercialization of local features. The study addresses the critical issues of preserving local uniqueness and cultural diversity while resisting the homogenization of gastronomic landscapes. The theoretical framework centers on concepts of authenticity, emphasizing its dual role as both a cultural resource and marketing tool. By consciously or unconsciously crafting perceptions of authentic space, restaurant operators may draw upon either local cultural heritage or global trends  thereby showcasing unique local features or creating “non-places”. We posit that spatial authenticity is intrinsically linked to specific cultural contexts with spatial connotations. Generalized culinary traditions (cuisines) serve as markers of these contexts: local, regional, Russian, Asian, American, European, Eastern, or hybrid. Empirically, the study utilizes 2GIS data covering 6,747 establishments in administrative centers across the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts (21 cities). Analytical methods included city typology development, visualized through mapping. Key findings reveal regional distinctions: Asian and local cuisines predominate in the Far East, while Eastern and hybrid cuisines prevail in Siberia. City typologies emerged based on dominant cuisine profiles: Asiancuisine dominant, Eastern-cuisine dominant, American/Russian-cuisine dominant, Local-cuisine dominant, Hybrid-cuisine dominant. Cities dominated by hybrid and Eastern cuisines show higher prevalence of large chain establishments. The study identifies authenticity-reproduction strategies: leveraging local/regional cuisine, which is characteristic primarily of cities with a predominance of local cuisine; in the case of other types of cities, the offering of local farm ingredients and incorporating fashionable local symbols or urban toponyms are highlighted. https://ecsoc.hse.ru/en/2025-26-5/1106296815.html Digital technologies are not only transforming the nature of the contemporary economy and society, but also challenging the democratic order, as we know it. In her new work ‘Surveillance Capitalism or Democracy?’ American scholar Shoshana Zuboff expands upon the ideas developed in her bestseller ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ and arrives at even more alarming conclusions about the political future of digital society. The largest technology corporations illegally and secretly collect vast amounts of user data, which they then use to turn human behavior into a commodity. People are deprived of their ‘epistemic rights,’ which results in corporate algorithms knowing more about them than they know about themselves. The techno-oligarchy uses this knowledge to consolidate its power and erode the democratic order. Zuboff argues that surveillance capitalism undermines the principles of liberal democracy by stripping citizens of political sovereignty and turning citizens into obedient executors of algorithms that manipulate the behavior of the masses for the benefit of the new digital oligarchy. To counter the political power of surveillance capitalism and defend democracy, Zuboff proposes eliminating the very condition that enabled its rise in the early 21st century: the uncontrolled and covert collection of users’ personal data by technology companies. Zuboff argues that democratic governments must safeguard user privacy and protect personal data to prevent corporations from commodifying human behavior through unchecked algorithms. Today, humanity must choose between surveillance capitalism and democracy. Zuboff argues that the democratic order cannot endure the long-term expansion of surveillance capitalism. Either surveillance capitalism will undermine democracy, or the democratic order will resist the techno-oligarchy and protect citizens’ rights in the digital age. https://ecsoc.hse.ru/en/2025-26-5/1106297069.html A consciously unconsummated union in which spouses forgo sexual relations has historically been referred to as a “white marriage.” This review of Alice Pacher’s (No) Sex in Japan: The Sociology of Asexuality in Intimate Relationships (2022) explores the phenomenon of marital asexuality, challenging prevailing Western assumptions about the intrinsic link between marriage and sexuality. Through a comparative sociological analysis of narratives from Japanese and German couples regarding their sexual relationships, the book argues that intimacy is not a universal feature of marriage but rather a socio-cultural construct, where sexual activity between spouses is shaped by broader socio-economic and cultural forces. The review underscores how economic instability, work-related fatigue, evolving family structures, poor sexual health, the parent-centered nature of the Japanese family, and the prominence of the commercial sex industry collectively contribute to diminished libido and the decline of intimate relations within marriage. Japanese respondents tend to associate sex more with reproductive obligation than with emotional intimacy, with their erotic desires often redirected toward extramarital affairs and commercial sex. According to Pacher, German respondents perceive Japanese attitudes toward sexual behavior with rejection and suspicion of cultural irrationality. At the core of the European model of a romantic sexual union still lies the deepening of sexual intimacy between partners, which provides this form of social organization not only with a recreational but also a spiritual meaning. Particular emphasis is placed on the methodological challenges inherent in cross-cultural studies of asexuality, including the lack of a standardized definition of sexual activity, linguistic limitations in expressing sexual experiences, and normative biases embedded in Eurocentric theoretical frameworks. The review warns against exoticizing the Japanese context and calls on scholars of family, marriage, intimacy, and pronatalism to adopt a more reflexive approach to their analytical categories. https://ecsoc.hse.ru/en/2025-26-5/1106297127.html https://ecsoc.hse.ru/en/2025-26-5/1106297171.html This study critically examines the development trajectory of artificial intelligence (AI), challenging dominant narratives that frame AI as a neutral or inevitable technological progression. Drawing on and extending theoretical frameworks such as Feenberg’s critical theory of technology, Zuboff’s surveillance capitalism, and Acemoglu’s democratic erosion, the paper introduces the concept of algorithmic hegemony to explain how AI is increasingly shaped by concentrated power structures, institutional displacement, and ideological imperatives. Through a critical interpretive analysis of global investment flows, sectoral imbalances, and transparency deficits, the study reveals that AI is being developed primarily by a narrow coalition of private corporations and authoritarian states. This ecosystem marginalizes academia, civil society, and democratic oversight. The findings highlight a shift of epistemic authority from public institutions to private interests, the deployment of AI systems for surveillance and behavioural control, and the erosion of civic agency in digital governance. By synthesizing empirical data with normative critique, the study offers a multidimensional theoretical contribution and calls for a paradigmatic shift toward society-centered AI governance. The proposed concept of algorithmic hegemony provides a new lens to understand the political economy of AI and its implications for democracy, justice, and public interest.