New vectors of strategic communications: social architecture as an actual agenda

The main purpose of the study is to analyze the phenomenon of "social architecture" as a new direction of strategic communications that has emerged in the context of the permanent transformation of modern societies. The object of research can be defined as communication processes and practices of managing social change. The subject of the research is the analysis of the methodological foundations and forms of practical implementation of the tasks of social architecture as a basic vector of communication design of social relations and structures. In the Russian context of the mid-2020s, social architecture was formed as a response to the challenges of uncertainty and a request for an image of the future, going beyond the initial understanding of P. Hintjens as designing online communities. It is defined as a purposeful activity for communication design and organization of socially significant changes. The methodological basis of the phenomenon is the theory of social action by M. Weber, the concept of social engineering by K. Popper and the idea of the "right to the city" by A. Lefebvre. The key functionality of a social architect includes diagnosing social structures, designing interaction models, facilitating change, and cultivating trust. An important result of the research was the establishment of the social essence of a new direction – the active involvement of society in the processes of transformation of both forms of community, values, and types of communication. From here, the dominant feature of social architecture is formed – strategic work with trust, aimed at building a long-term communication infrastructure for dialogue between the state, business and society. In fact, according to the authors of the study, a new mechanism of co-management is being created, which is confirmed by the practices of corporate citizenship. Thus, social architecture is a kind of synthesis of social and political vectors based on a socio-constructivist approach. Its novelty lies in its focus on creating sustainable management models through the communication design of a social environment based on mutual understanding and civic participation.