Social mobilization. A challenge or a resource for socio-political change

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of the phenomenon of social mobilization and its assessment as a factor of progressive development of the state. It is based on the conceptual approach of H. Bloomer, which implies that any activity aimed at maintaining community is social mobilization. It analyzes the influence of new information dissemination technologies and the mediatization of political life in modern states on the processes of social mobilization. The individual types of social mobilization identified by the authors are considered in more detail: institutional, protest, hybrid and spontaneous. It is concluded that the Russian experience makes it possible to assume a special role of mobilization in the life of the state, which differs from its European counterparts. This is due to the fact that in modern Russia, over the years, the space of political activity has gradually come under the control of the state, and after the start of the Special military operation in 2022, public civic initiatives of groups beyond the control of officials and disapproved of by state authorities have been outside the legal right field. Regarded thereto on the one hand, we are witnessing patriotic self-organization around voluntary assistance to participants in hostilities. On the other hand, a part of society is focused on solving private, everyday emergencies, and its participation in the political life of the country is transformed into some kind of ritual actions. Here, social mobilization takes on specific forms: spontaneous outbursts triggered by non-political causes that cause mass outrage (cases of animal cruelty or environmental disasters, etc.).