Department of General Sociology and Social Work

Faculty of social science

of Nizhniy Novgorod State University

 

Main

Participation in Scientific Projects

Scientific Research

Dissertation Council

Scientific conferences

International relations

Main publications

Russian

  

International relations of the Department

The Department of General Sociology and Social Work jointly with other departments of the Faculty of Social Sciences established co-operation with several scientific centers abroad. Our main partners were University of Essen ( Germany ) and the University of Warwick (UK). The accent in this co-operation was made on study visits of the Department members to partner universities in order to gain teaching experience and collect materials for new lecture courses. In addition, representatives of the partner universities visited Nizhniy Novgorod State University in order to teach lecture courses at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

University of Essen

The long-term co-operation between the Faculties of social sciences of University of Essen and Nizhniy Novgorod State University was originally based on the agreement funded by the German Service of Academic Exchange (DAAD). It was continued in the framework of the contract between Nizhniy Novgorod State University and National Training Foundation.

From 1999 to 2003 the following lecture courses were taught by professors of University of Essen to students of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Nizhniy Novgorod State University:

  • 'Micro-processes and macro-structure' (2000, 2002, 2003)
  • 'Foundations of sociological research' (1999, 2000)
  • 'Transformation processes from the viewpoint of modernization theory' (1999)
  • 'Political change in contemporary Europe' (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003)
  • 'Comparative analysis of political systems in western Europe' (2001)
  • 'Theory of social work' (1999, 2000, 2002)
  • 'Trust as a problem of social theory' (2002)
  • 'Communication and co-operation' (2000)
  • 'Social policy in contemporary Germany' (2001)
  • 'Contemporary sociological theories' (2001)

The University of Warwick

The University of Warwick is one of the leading academic and research centers in Britain. Since 1995 the Department of Sociology of that university organized study visits of Russian sociologists participating in several educational projects such as EU TEMPUS/TACIS project. Co-operation of our Department with the Department of Sociology of University of Warwick was based on the contract between Nizhniy Novgorod State University and National Training Foundation. The visits of our Department members to the University of Warwick permitted them to study methods of teaching and organisation of the training process, to upgrade curriculum in Sociology and to work out new lecture courses. The training materials designed on the base of the study visits included modern training and testing programs, modern methods of monitoring and knowledge control.

Civic Education Project

Civic Education Project was founded in 1991 as a private international educational organization supporting democratic reforms through co-operation with higher education institutions in Eastern Europe and republics of the former USSR. CEP sent lecturers from western universities to the universities in Russia and other post-Soviet states. CEP lecturers taught their courses and also helped to modernize the curricula and provide access to new scientific literature for departmental libraries, organizing students' conferences.

Co-operation of the Department of General Sociology and Social Work with CEP started in the beginning of the 1990s. About ten CEP lecturers from Canada , the USA , Austria , New Zealand taught at the department since that time. The subjects of their lecture courses included the following: social and political transformations, methodology of the social sciences, sociology of ethnic relations, demography, sociology of consumption, sociology of globalization. CEP lecturers participated in some joint research projects of the Faculty of Social Sciences such as comparative research of the students' life-stiles in Russia and Canada . They also participated in organizing several international scientific conferences.