Pitirim Sorokin began his scientific activity before the February Revolution. After the victory of October, the views of the Russian sociologist were criticized by the followers of Marxism. Subsequently, he was expelled from the country, after which he settled in the West. Here Sorokin continued his research in the field of cultural studies and sociology.
From the biography of Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin
The future Russian culturologist and sociologist was born on January 23 (according to the new style - February 4), 1889. The birthplace of Pitirim Sorokin is the village of Turia, Vologda Oblast.
In 1914 he graduated from St. Petersburg University, Faculty of Law. One of the teachers of Sorokin was the sociologist M. Kovalevsky. Soon after graduation, Pitirim Aleksandrovich published his first work - a study on forms of social behavior and morality. Sociologist touched on crime problems
Sorokin's views were formed under the influence of O. Comte and G. Spencer. The sociologist himself called himself an empirical positivist. The roots of crime in society, he saw in the "fragmentation" of the system of public relations. Humanity will be able to solve the problem of crime when it moves to a new level of consent, Sorokin believed.
The famous Russian sociologist
After the victory of the February Revolution, Sorokin was the editor of the newspaper Volya Naroda, which expressed the views of the right-wing Social Revolutionaries. He was also the secretary of Kerensky and a member of the Constituent Assembly.
Sorokin had a chance to teach at the University of Petrograd: in 1920 he was elected professor in the department of sociology.
In 1922, Pitirim Alexandrovich defended a dissertation in sociology. In the fall of the same year, he, together with a group of cultural figures, was expelled from Russia. After that, Sorokin taught at the University of Prague, continuing his scientific work.
Theory of Social Mobility
As a subject of sociology, Sorokin considered the interaction of social groups that operate in different cultural and historical conditions. Determining the causes of various types of social behavior, a sociologist must take into account a variety of motives, including the "pluralism of facts."
As part of his theory of social mobility, Sorokin put forward the proposition that society has a complex structure and is stratified by many criteria. Individual social groups are constantly changing their social status, showing "vertical" and "horizontal" mobility. In a closed society, the dynamics of social life are almost invisible.
