Format: on Shaninka campus and online
Language: russian, english
Moderators: Ulyana Semovskikh (MSSES), Ioanna Remneva (MSSES), Polina Shipilova (MSSES)

There is a notion that culture is diffuse — it is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. According to J.L. Martin's apt remark, modern sociologists call culture «everything that is human that you can’t touch and three-fourths of what you can». Perhaps one of the most noteworthy attempts to define the essence of this concept has been made by cultural sociology, in particular, its cognitive branch. Few representatives of the latter refer to the explanatory capabilities of the cognitive sciences.

The cognitive turn has already affected the sciences adjacent to sociology. For example, behavioral economics and cognitive psychology are actively accumulating developments in research on thinking and cognition to constitute their basic assumptions. Sociology itself, however, has been somewhat less agile in this regard.
Cognitive theory of culture remains a somewhat marginal research area, despite the fact that the relationship between culture and cognition is a recurring theme in the works of classic figures in the discipline. The premise of cognitive sociology, among the pioneers of which are E. Zerubavel and P. DiMaggio, is the rejection of the Parsonian and Weberian definition of culture based on values. In the center of attention is the question of the relationship between culture and the mechanisms of cognition: perception, judgment and action. Culture acts as a link between discursive structures and the operation of consciousness.

The panel proposes to discuss the prospects of cognitive theory of culture becoming the frontier of sociological science as a whole. How is an explanatory model combining culture and cognitive processes possible? And can such a view of «culture in action» change the face of sociology? Both theoretical and empirical papers are welcome.

Researchers in the field of cognitive and cultural sociology, as well as postgraduate and undergraduate students interested in these topics are welcome to participate.