Elena Maslovskaya’s scientific contributions

The paper discusses the concept of civilization in historical sociology and new perspectives on civilizational politics in the field of international relations. Contemporary civilizational analysis as a paradigm of historical sociology devotes considerable attention to civilizational legacies in today’s world. At the same time, the research programme of civilizational politics in IR regards civilizations as discursive constructs and focuses on the ways in which political imaginaries become institutionalized. Apparently, these perspectives can be seen as complementary. However, current discussions of civilizational politics are mostly characterized by selective appropriation of insights from the new perspectives in IR and general neglect of the contributions of historical sociology. In particular, studies of Russian civilizational politics mostly draw on the constructivist approach and focus on ideological discourses. The paper evaluates recent research on civilizational aspects of Russian politics and stresses the need to reconsider this issue taking into account the contribution of civilizational analysis in historical sociology.

The author conducts the analysis of the field of legal translation in contemporary Russia and focuses on translation agencies specializing in the languages of the peoples of the postSoviet states. The theoretical framework of the research is the sociological approach to the study of legal interpreters and Bourdieu’s theory including his analysis of the juridical field. Today some concepts of Bourdieu’s sociology can be found in the studies of the activities of legal interpreters, but his theory is still insufficiently applied. The main empirical method of the research is semistructured interviews with legal interpreters, heads of translation agencies, investigators and lawyers. The relational and dynamic perspective of Bourdieu’s theory allowed the author to analyze the formation and transformation of the boundaries of the professional group of legal interpreters as a result of competition between actors with different forms of capital. The article reveals the role of ethnic capital in the functioning of translation agencies. The author makes a conclusion that the recruitment of legal interpreters largely depends on the requirements of institutional actors of the juridical field; identifies factors affecting the working conditions of court interpreters - the rarity of their language, ability to establish reciprocal relationships with the head of a translation agency, and permanent working relationships with the law enforcement bodies personnel. The article proves the advantages of Bourdieu’s approach in the study of the translation agencies structure, and shows how the changes in interpreters’ habitus and formal position influence the development dynamics of translation agencies and the field of legal translation as a whole. The research results allow to make a conclusion that actors of the juridical field exert a decisive influence on positional struggle within the field of legal translation.

The relevance of this topic is defined by the growing involvement of legal interpreters in legal proceedings. This article aims to study the peculiarities of the professional activities of interpreters in criminal legal proceedings involving migrants from post-Soviet states. The main characteristics of the field of legal translation are analyzed, and the peculiarities of the recruitment of legal interpreters and their interaction with the procedural parties in courts of different jurisdictions are revealed. The theoretical framework of the study is composed of Pierre Bourdieus sociological theory, including his analysis of the juridical field, and contemporary approaches in the anthropology of professions. The main empirical methods include semi-structured interviews and nonparticipant observation. The study singles out the criteria of stratification of legal interpreters, and demonstrates how the institutional and sociocultural contexts influence the professional activities of interpreters. The forms of interaction of interpreters with procedural parties and the judge were analyzed, demonstrating the costs of communication between the interpreters and different actors of the juridical field. According to the results, legal interpreters follow informal rules that have been formed in the process of their everyday interaction with their main clients law enforcement bodies. Structural and epistemic disagreements between jurists and interpreters were revealed. The research data also demonstrate that interpreters are not full-fledged actors of the juridical field, but they fulfill a technical function within that field. A conclusion is made about the weak structuring of the field of legal translation and predominance of precarious employment of actors of this field. The revealed problems could be solved by the institutionalization of the expert position of court interpreters.

Монография посвящена исследованию меняющихся основ, структурных особенностей и перспектив цивилизационного развития российского общества в условиях динамичного современного мира. В центре внимания ключевые вопросы истоков, оснований, ресурсов и динамики цивилизационного устройства России. Теоретическим основанием изучения архитектоники социально- структурных, культурных, институциональных перемен современного российского общества стал цивилизационный подход. В современном цивилизационном анализе одним из фундаментальных теоретико-методологических инструментов является концепция множественных модерностей (современностей), которая активно применяется для раскрытия механизмов и форм исторической трансформации советского и постсоветского общества. Критическое изучение многообразия исторических типов порядка, уклада, идентичности российского общества и культуры нацелено на понимание стратегических путей, сценариев и потенциала их цивилизационной эволюции. Для всех интересующихся исторической судьбой, цивилизационным своеобразием и местом российского общества в мировом цивилизационном процессе.

The article considers some approaches to the analysis of post-communist transformations in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. In the studies of social-political changes in post-communist societies, there is a new turn towards the analysis of long-term historical processes and the cultural context of contemporary social transformations. The authors emphasize that the ‘new historicism’ in the studies of post-communist transformations follows the sociological theory of multiple modernities, although its importance is not always recognized by researchers. Its original version developed by Shmuel Eisenstadt in the 1990s was not free from certain limitations due to the concept of ‘cultural program’ that presupposes a high degree of path dependence; however, these limitations were overcome in the works of Johann Arnason and Peter Wagner. The studies of post-communist transformations are often based on the early versions of modernization theory which presupposed a smooth transition to the market economy and liberal democracy. However, this approach encountered difficulties under the reversal of economic and political liberalization. The multiple modernities theory overcomes the limitations of this approach, it is relevant for the analysis of transformation processes in contemporary Russia and other post-communist states. In the recent studies of the historical legacies of communism, they are not considered as a ‘cultural program’ determining the trajectory of social development. The article describes some contemporary conservative ideologies in Russia as an example of the Soviet historical legacy’s influence, and argues that various ‘ideological ecosystems’ present their own interpretations of modernity.

The article analyzes from the perspective of the theory of juridical field the process of institutional professionalization of advocates in post-Soviet Russia. The author makes a conclusion that the emergence of new institutional and individual actors of the juridical field fascilitated the formation of various interests and approaches to delivery of juridical services. In spite of the formation in the early 2000s of a single organizational structure of the advocates’ community this community remains divided and stratified. In some aspects of their activities the advocates try to defend their professional autonomy. Nevertheless, in the situation of internal conflicts the Soviet-style model of interaction between the Bar and the state is actualized. Juridical professionalization of organizations defending the rights of vulnerable groups is regarded as structured by unequal access to material and symbolic resources. Special attention is devoted by the author to formation in such organizations of an alternative form of professionalization of human rights lawyers with the potential to change their juridical habitus and create a specific identity that combines elements of human rights activism and legal professionalism.

The article considers the current discussion on the possibilities and limitations of different theoretical-methodological approaches to the study of the representation of expert knowledge in court proceedings, and on the peculiarities of interaction of forensic experts and jurists. The author emphasizes contribution and methodological limitations of the interpretative traditions and focuses on the potential of the actor-network theory for the study of interaction of forensic experts and jurists, such as implementation of Bruno Latour's principle of “generalized symmetry” and the concept “juridical chain” for the analysis of the legal sphere. The author believes that Latour's exclusive attention to the “specific rationality” of judicial practice prevented him from revealing complex trajectories of networks both within and outside the particular legal institution that he studied. The article claims that representatives of science and technology studies contribute to de-legitimization of the results of scientific research represented in forensic expert reports for this approach ignores the asymmetry of power relations between experts and jurists. Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the juridical field allows to overcome the one-sidedness of the actor-network theory for it considers the inner logic of the juridical field development, reveals the asymmetry of power relations within it, competition between bearers of different forms of juridical capital with specific interests and resources, and the influence of other fields on the juridical field. The author believes that the most promising perspective is the combination of actor-network theory, its interpretations in science and technology studies and Bourdieu's theory of the juridical field, which would allow to analyze not only the inner logic of circulation of expert knowledge but also the external context of its production and transformations within the juridical field.

The article demonstrates the possibilities and limitations of different theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of interaction of forensic experts and jurists. The author substantiates the relevance of combining the concept of «working group» and Bourdieu’s theory of juridical field for problematizing the legitimacy of legal decisions in the context of representation of expert knowledge in legal proceedings. This approach allows us not only to analyze the process of circulation of expert knowledge but also to take into account the structural context of interaction of forensic experts and jurists revealing the interests, strategies and tactics of various actors. The article emphasizes the need for conducting empirical sociological research focused on entanglement of dispositions of actors and their positions in social space. The author’s approach allows to reveal the strategies of using expert knowledge for legitimization of legal decisions. Interviews with participants in legal proceedings confirm that pre- judicial «working groups» are characteristic for the system of criminal justice in Russia. The persistence of relations between participants of a pre-judicial «working group» is defined by institutional interdependence of organizations which they represent and by informal relations. The differences between «working groups» are based on such factors as the scale of urban space and the degree of diversification of the market of expert services.

In the article, Gerard Delanty's sociology is analyzed in the context of the development of contemporary social theory and historical sociology. Delanty considers European history in the context of inter-civilizational encounters with the legacies of Antiquity and several religious traditions. He discusses the rise of the European nation-states and, at the same time, the growth of cosmopolitan traits which became more conspicuous by the end of the 19th century. He analyzes the "short 20th century" from the viewpoint of a clash of competing projects of modernity. The situation since 1989 is defined by Delanty as a new stage of European history characterized by the strengthening of the post-national dimension of modernity. At the same time, he considers the trends of crises in the European project. These trends represent the contradictions of modernity, particularly between capitalism and democracy. Delanty also demonstrates the possibility of the application of his theoretical approach to other world regions such as Latin America, where different versions of modernity have been formed. The authors believe that Delanty's theory is relevant for comparative-historical studies of social processes in Russian society.

The paper presents the results of a sociological study. On the basis of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological theory and its contem- porary interpretations the article considers the process of interaction between the juridical and scientific fields. The peculiarities of participation of experts in procedural activities are analyzed in the case of medical experts and assessors. The results of the study confirm the tendency towards juridical professionalization of these groups of legal experts. It has been revealed that asymmetry of power relations within the juridical field forces the experts to work out a set of tactics ensuring legal protection of their professional position. The paper singles out the repertoire of tactical moves which are used by the experts in their interaction with investigative and judicial bodies.