Aksenova O.V., Levchenko N.V. The Phenomenon of “Field Resistance”: Problems of Agency of the Object of Sociological Research

Текст статьи.

Abstract

The article examines the problem of failures in empirical sociological research due to various obstacles to data collection. According to the authors, there is a phenomenon of an increase in the number of these failures in the last two decades. It is proposed to consider all their diversity within the framework of the “observerobject of observation” research system created by the sociologist, in which the observer is objectified, and the object has varying degrees of agency, and is able to respond to internal and external influences in the framework of this system. This approach is based on subjectivist methodologies (the method of sociological intervention by A. Touraine, the idea of objectification of the observer by P. Bourdieu), which made it possible to connect the observer and the object of observation. The most significant obstacles that cause failures are the following ones: the appearance of professional respondents, the formation of a fictitious field, the stereotyping of interview responses, and the refusal to participate in surveys, interviews, and focus groups. The authors shows several attempts to reduce the agency of the object of observation, that are leading to the opposite results. In particular, the unification of methods, leads to their simplification, multiplies the number of professional respondents. The conclusions are hypothetical and need further investigation. According to the authors, the increase in the number of failures makes it possible to formulate hypotheses about the hidden conflict potential in Russian society, about the tendency of its “closure”, about the decrease in the possibilities of its self-reflection