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author: Maksym Kolesnichenko


Urgency of the research. Dynamics of the processes of social differentiation both within countries and in the international arena (between countries) encourages theorists and practitioners to more intensively seeking of compromises in the interaction of various structural components of societies in order to conflict-free development, to achieve a certain cohesion in society. Under these conditions, the scientific discourse on the issue is an effective tool for forming models of social cohesion.

Target setting. Social cohesion is an important factor in the social development of all countries of the contemporary world, so issues such as elucidating its nature, its content and the peculiarities of its functioning in various socio-political and socio-cultural contexts are in the focus of foreign scientific discourse. The article reproduces its trajectory and vision of the actors of foreign scientific discourse of the influence of this phenomenon on social processes.

Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. The of well-known researchers from the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Australia (Charles Cooley, William McDougall, Leon Festinger, Kurt Back, Stanley Schakhtar, John French, Bertram Raven, Irving Janis, Sharon Jeannote, Joseph Stokes, Caroline Beauvais, Christian Larsen, Judith Maxwell, Kurt Levin, Dorwin Cartwright, Jane Jenson, Albert Lott, Bernice Lott, Mark Granovetter, Life Braaten, Xavier Fonseca, Stefan Lukosch, Francis Brasier and others) focuse on the following issues: defining the content of the concept of social cohesion; mutual loyalty and solidarity; strength of social relations and common values; sense of belonging to a group (community); trust between individuals of society (community); reduction of inequality and alienation in society; methodology for measuring its levels and the interaction of various factors influencing its dynamics, etc.

The research objective. The main goal is to clarify the origins of the discourse on social cohesion in foreign scientific space, to reproduce its dynamics in modern conditions, to identify its key topics and to some extent to outline its prospects, as well as to analyze the contribution of foreign authors to its development.

The statement of basic materials. It is proposed to consider foreign scientific discourse in two historical periods - from the 1890s to the 90s of the last century and from the 1990s to the present. Important features of each of the periods of the discourse are distinguished: the beginning of the discourse was laid by the works of French scientists Émile Durkheim and Gustave Le Bon; philosophers, social psychologists, sociologists from the USA and European countries became active researchers of the problem; the attention of researchers is focused primarily on the social essence of social and public relations between members of small groups, which, in the end, formed a significant part of the research field; the analyzed researches laid the basis for determining the content of both the phenomenon itself and the term by which it is defined; in the course of the discourse the criteria of influence on the dynamics of the content of social cohesion and on the role of this phenomenon in the conflict-free social development were determined.

Conclusions. The discourse on the phenomenon of social cohesion in foreign scientific space began at the end of the 19th century. Later, researchers from different countries (USA, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and other European countries) actively joined him. Recently, foreign scientific discourse has intensified around the following problems: characteristic features of the functioning of the phenomenon in certain social conditions; factors influencing the formation of its content; topics such as methodology, technology and research techniques are actively included in the research field; social cohesion in ethnically diversified societies; the role of social and cultural capital in social cohesion; the impact of the interaction of citizenship and national (ethnic) identity in polyethnic countries, with special emphasis on the bearers of the so-called immigrant identity.

Keywords: social cohesion, foreign scientific discourse, periods of scientific discourse, measurement of social cohesion, factors influencing the dynamics of social cohesion.


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