2408-9338Research result. Sociology and Management2408-933810.18413/2408-9338-2018-4-3-0-61493SOCIAL STRUCTURE, SOCIAL INSTITUTES AND PROCESSESGLOBAL SOCIAL NETWORKS: SOME CONCEPTUAL ISSUESGLOBAL SOCIAL NETWORKS: SOME CONCEPTUAL ISSUESYanitskyOleg N.YanitskyOleg N.oleg.yanitsky@yandex.ru20184300

The article is an attempt to formulate some general principles of network analysis under globalization from the viewpoint of sociology. These principles are the following: a network as a sociological category has an all-embracing and universal meaning. But today its dynamics has a probable character. Any network is always an interaction between the agents and their environment. If its carrying capacity exceeds this environment, it turns into one more agent of social action. Modern networks are the results of functioning of a highly-integrated sociobiotechnical system (hereafter – the SBT-system) in that the metabolic processes play a key role. Global social networks always have a double-sided character: outside-directed for the mastering of new territories and resources and inside-directed aimed at the maintenance of a society or community sustainability and at the defense of human rights and freedoms. Under conditions of information-communication society social networks may emerge as a result of development of social production or to be socially-constructed. Thus, mass-media are now a mighty instrument for shaping the publics’ consciousness and behavior. There are no social networks shaped by natural or social agents separately. Modern global, regional and local networks have a reverse impact on structure and dynamics of public production as well as on human consciousness and behavior. Today, any society meets a double challenge: the necessity of further technological development and at the same time its humanization under conditions of its accelerating and multidirectional transformations.

The article is an attempt to formulate some general principles of network analysis under globalization from the viewpoint of sociology. These principles are the following: a network as a sociological category has an all-embracing and universal meaning. But today its dynamics has a probable character. Any network is always an interaction between the agents and their environment. If its carrying capacity exceeds this environment, it turns into one more agent of social action. Modern networks are the results of functioning of a highly-integrated sociobiotechnical system (hereafter – the SBT-system) in that the metabolic processes play a key role. Global social networks always have a double-sided character: outside-directed for the mastering of new territories and resources and inside-directed aimed at the maintenance of a society or community sustainability and at the defense of human rights and freedoms. Under conditions of information-communication society social networks may emerge as a result of development of social production or to be socially-constructed. Thus, mass-media are now a mighty instrument for shaping the publics’ consciousness and behavior. There are no social networks shaped by natural or social agents separately. Modern global, regional and local networks have a reverse impact on structure and dynamics of public production as well as on human consciousness and behavior. Today, any society meets a double challenge: the necessity of further technological development and at the same time its humanization under conditions of its accelerating and multidirectional transformations.

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