The potential of modern foreign sociology in the study of social suffering

Abstract

The article focuses on the conceptualization of the sociology of suffering. The foreign experience of the development of the sociology of suffering in theoretical and applied aspects is considered. Modern researchers in understanding social suffering focus on psychological or anthropological interpretations, but the potential of the relevant branch of sociological knowledge is increasing over time. Meanwhile, the scientific problem is connected with two circumstances, which are reflected in this article. First, we are talking about the need to concretize the role of sociology in the study of the phenomenon of social suffering. Often the prevailing philosophical and psychological interpretations of suffering do not allow this to be done. In them, social suffering appears as an existential state of individuals or a phenomenon of their emotional and sensual tension and experience. However, in sociology, suffering needs to be objectified and considering it only as an existence cannot be productive for relevant sociological research. Secondly, modern studies of social suffering are mainly interdisciplinary in nature and do not reflect the special role of sociology in them. The article shows that the foreign sociology of suffering draws attention to a fairly wide range of phenomena associated with the emergence of social suffering. Here we mean the civilizational aspect, value-normative, sociocultural and others. The role of qualitative and quantitative methods in the study of social suffering is also assessed. Qualitative methods (for example, event analysis, intentional analysis, and others) allow us to present social suffering through the prism of object-subject relations. In this regard, some modern studies of social suffering are analyzed, which allow us to talk about the active development of the relevant branch of sociological knowledge.