The fourth technological revolution and deep shifts in globalization processes

While relying on studies in the field of globalization both in worldwide and in Russian sociology, on examining the dynamic of modernization in the USSR, in Russia and abroad, as well as on many years of his own research in the field of social consequences of the technological revolution, social ecology and the theory of risk, the author comes to the following conclusions. Separate agents of global society are currently in different stages of globalization and modernization, however, each one of them is in one way or another integrated into global cyberspace, which emerged as a result of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Said space is a new stage of manufacturing industry and social reproduction and at the same time a living environment for the social agents which inhabit the planet. On the other hand, this integration process is transforming the planet into a super-complicated socio-biotechnical system (SBT-system) which develops under it own rules. This article examines and evaluates the ongoing and expected changes in the structure and processes of globalization-modernization under the influence of the 4IR, while determining its key drivers and players, as well as analyzing such an issue as correlation between network and territorial organization of society given these new conditions, and the critical conditions of agents and their communities which emerge as a result of said changes. Accentuated are the role and the shapes of metabolic processes, the latter being a key factor which integrates separate elements of the global super-system. Examined are the functions of bureaucratic structures in this new global situation, as well as new forms of global threats and risks (“hybrid warfare”, precise and scattered attacks by hackers etc.). Noted is the critical underdevelopment of the structure and functions of existing social institutions compared to the nature and tempo-rhythm of the ongoing changes. The article ends with a short list of tasks faced by those scientific disciplines which study this new integrated socio-technological reality. The most relevant of these tasks are as follows: the formation of cyberspace and doubling social reality, metabolic processes, developing social interpretation methods for the new reality, social institutions and decision making methods falling behind this ever accelerating reality, and, finally, the phenomenon of “interdisciplinary” everyday life.

agent, globalization, institutions, cyberspace, interdisciplinarity, metabolism, risk, the net, socio-biotechnical system, society, environment, territory.

Ahiezer A. S., Kogan L. B., Yanitzky O. N. Urbanizacija, obschestvo i nauchno-tehnicheskaja revoliucija [Urbanization, Society and Scientific and Technological Revolution]. Voprosy filosofii, 1969, no 2, pp. 43–53.

Arsenault A., Castells M. Switching Power: Rupert Murdoch and the Global Business of Media Politics. International Sociology, 2008, no 23 (4), pp. 488–513.

Bauman Z. Globalizacija. Posledstvija dlia cheloveka i obschestva [Globalization: The Human Consequences]. Moscow, Ves' Mir, 2004. 188 p.

Bauman Z. Individualizirovannoe obschestvo [The Individualized Society]. Moscow, Logos, 2002. 323 p.

Bauman Z. Tekuchaja sovremennost' [Liquid Modernity]. Moscow, Piter, 2008. 239 p.

Beck U. Risk Society. Toward a New Modernity. London, SAGE, 1992. 260 p.

Bϋhler-Neiderberger D. Childhood Sociology in ten Countries: Outcomes and Future directions. Current Sociology, 2010, Vol. 58, no 2, pp. 69–384.

Catton W. R., Dunlap R. E. Environmental Sociology: A New Paradigm. American Sociologist, 1978, Vol. 13, pp. 41–49.

Deelstra T., Yanitzky O., eds. Cities of Europe: The Public’s Role in Shaping the Urban Environment. Moscow, Mezhdunarudnye Otnosheniya, 1991. 393 p.

Dowty R. A., Allen B. L., eds. Dynamics of Disaster. Lessons on Risk, Response and Recovery. London, Washington, DC, Earthscan, 2010. 219 p.

Fisher-Kowalski M., Haberl H. Socioecological Transitions and Global Change. Trajectories of Social Metabolism and Land Use. Wien, Klagenfurt University, 2007. 263 p.

Gadzhiev K. S. Razmyshlenija o konce evrocentristskogo mira i novoy konfiguracii politicheskikh sil [[Reflections on the End of the Eurocentrical World and the New Configuration of the geopolitical Forces] Part II. Sociologicheskie issledovanija, 1993, no 6, pp. 84–91.

Gareev M. Mobilizacija umov [Mobilization of minds]. Voenno-promyshlenny courier, 2017, no 12. URL: http://vpk-news.ru/articles/35876 [date of visit: 01.06.2017].

Gorshkov M. K. Rossiyskoe obschestvo kak ono est' (opyt sociologicheskoy diagnostiki) [Russian Society as it is (experience of sociological diagnostics]. Second ed. Moscow, Novy Khronograf, 2016. 416 p.

Inozemcev V. L. Knigochey: biblioteka sovremennoy obschestvovedcheskoy literatury v recenzijah [Knigochey: a Library of Modern Social Science Literature in Reviews]. Moscow, Ladomir, 2005. 435 p.

Korneev N. R., Mishhenko A. S., Tihonov A. V., Travin I. I. Sociokul'turnye transformacii v kontexte social'nyh izmeneniy [Sociocultural Transformations in the Context of Social Change]. Rossija v global'nyh processah: poiski perspektivy. Ed. by M. K. Gorshkov. Moscow, IS RAS publ., 2008, pp. 119–135.

Mihaylionok O. M. Rossija v globalizirujuschemsia mire: poiski koordinat [Russia in the Globalizing World: Finding Coordinates]. Rossija v global'nyh processah: poiski perspektivy. Ed. by M. K. Gorshkov. Moscow, IS RAS publ., 2008, pp. 263–274.

Oganisijan J. S. Rossija pered vyzovami globalizacii: problemy identifikacii [Russia Facing the Challenges of Globalization: problems of identification]. Rossija v global'nyh processah: poiski perspektivy. Ed. by M. K. Gorshkov. Moscow, IS RAS publ., 2008, pp. 166–194.

Pokrovsky N. E. Globalizacionnye processy i vozmozhny scenariy ih vozdeystvija na rossiyskoe obschestvo [Globalization Processes and a Possible Scenario of Their Impact on Russian Society]. Social'nye transformacii v Rossii: teorii, praktiki, sravnitel'ny analiz. Moscow, Flinta, 2005, pp. 87–96.

Pokrovsky N. E. Vifleemskie zvezdy «globalizacii» [Vifleem's Stars of "Globalization"]. Sociologicheskie issledovanija, 1995, no 2, pp. 88–97.

Rossija v global'nyh processah: poiski perspektivy [Russia in Global Processes: Finding Perspectives]. Ed. by M. K. Gorshkov. Moscow, IS RAS publ., 2008. 319 p.

Shvab K. Chetviortaja promyshlennaja revoliucija [The Fourth Industrial Revolution]. Moscow, E publ., 2017. 208 p.

Sistemny monitoring global'nykh i regional'nykh riskov: Arabskaja vesna 2011 goda [Systemic Monitoring of Global and Regional Risks: Arab Spring 2011]. Ed. by A. V. Korotaev, A. S. Zinkina, A. S. Hodunov. Moscow, LKI, 2012. 464 p.

Stepanova E. A. Global'nye tendencii v oblasti odnostoronnego nasilija protiv grazhdanskogo naselenija [Global Trends in Unilateral Violence Against Civilians]. Obschestvennye nauki i sovremennost', 2010, no 6, pp. 81–89.

The Global Risks Report 2015. Geneva, World Economic Forum. World economic forum official website. URL: www.weforum.org/risks [date of visit: 13.04.2017].

Urry J. Mobilities. Cambridge, Polity Press, 2008. 275 p.

Yanitzky O. N. Sociology of Critical Areas. Open Journal of Social Science Research. 2014, Vol. 2 (3), pp. 112–118. URL: http://manuscript.sciknow.org/uploads/ojssr/pub/ojssr_140963345.pdf [date of visit: 13.04.2017].

Yanitzky O. N. Social'no-informacionnye processy v obschestve i urbanizacija [Socio-information Processes in Society and Urbanization]. Urbanizacija, NTR i rabochiy class. Moscow, Nauka, 1972, pp. 76–96.

Yanitzky O. N. Sociobiotehnicheskie sistemy: novy vzgliad na vzaimodeystvie cheloveka i prirody [Sociobiotechnical Systems: A New Approach to Humanity-Nature Interaction]. Sociologicheskaja nauka i social'naja praktika, 2016, no 3, pp. 5–22.

Zdravomyslov A. Pole sociologii v sovremennom mire [The Field of Sociology in the Modern World]. Moscow, Logos, 2010. 408 p.

Zhelezniakov A. S. Civilizacionnye prostranstva: problemy glokalizacii [Civilizational Spaces: Problems of Globalization]. Rossija v global'nykh processah: poiski perspektivy. Ed. by M. K. Gorshkov. Moscow, IS RAS publ., 2008, pp. 297–315.