The place of man in Russia’s social space (possibilities of empirical research)

The article considers concepts and phenomena that provide an understanding of the social space of the country, which encompasses individuals with their abilities, needs, life circumstances, assessments, and opinions. The study is based on P. Bourdieu’s theory of social space as a set of social fields: economic, political, bureaucratic, religious, national, regional, and value-based. The study of the last three fields, which Bourdieu did not specifically address, is explained by the specifics of the Russian situation. Without taking these fields into account, the study of mass consciousness and the positions of actors and groups in social space would be incomplete. The article aims at presenting a holistic view of social space on the basis of empirical indicators. Fields of social space are considered as multi-component objects that cannot be reduced to a single whole due to different foundations, sets of features/indicators and different influences on the position of the individual in society. The author considers social space through the prism of mass consciousness (assessments of social fields and one’s positions in them), which provides an insight into the qualities of these fields, which contribute to or hinder the development of society and human well-being. The empirical data of the study consists of the all-Russian monitoring of the Center for the Study of Social-Cultural Changes of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CSSC IF RAS) (1990-2023), European Social Survey (ESS), in which Russia participated, surveys conducted by the leading Russian public opinion centers in 2024-2025 and the Russian Social Survey (RSI) in 2024. The article shows that the fields of social space in Russia are heterogeneous and dynamic, which makes its study an urgent task under the current internal and external, economic and social-political challenges.