A new page in the history of Russian sociology

The paper offers an analysis of emergence, shaping and functioning of so-called regional field sociology born in contemporary Russia as a result of new economic, political and social requirements. Based on a collective efforts aimed at the activities of organizations in this branch of sociology, it is shown how from disparate, not always scientifically adequate, spontaneously emerging units, significant and influential scholarly and applied formations were built up, which gradually acquired a well-founded methodological and methodological basis that allowed them to satisfy requests from socio-political and commercial structures to solve both promising, but mostly current, short-term problems. It is noted that the book under review highlights and analyzes such key components of the research and at the same time clearly expressed applied activities of these organizations, such as the ratio of quality and quantity, the characteristics of clients (customers) and the complexity of relationships with them. Also important are the thoughts of the authors of this book about the respondents, about what problems and questions arise in the process of contacting them in a wide variety of situations, how they found ways to communicate and involve people in the work of obtaining necessary information. The section that describes the inner world of people who decide to work in these sociological services also attracts attention: the forms of their recruitment, methods of training, ways of maturing and gaining professional maturity. Problematic situations such as acquiring communication skills with people and seeing how some of the results of their work are implemented in management practices are not ignored. Such a painful issue as professional burnout has not been forgotten. This work is also decorated with the presence of irony and incidents in the process of presenting a wide variety of situations in the life of sociologists, and even the use of such a technique as “beads”, where a variety of situations are presented, which, in the opinion of the editor-compiler, fit under the heading “You can’t invent it on purpose”.