Structural Features of Russian Sociologists’ Communication: an Online Community Case Study

Abstract

The article analyzes structural features of communication in sociological online communities. The author considers communicative activity, social composition and rules of interaction between the members of the largest Russian sociological online community used as an ethnographic case study. The study design combines quantitative and qualitative methods: content analysis, network analysis and online observation. The findings suggest that the community under consideration has strong features of online platforms. In fact, the community consists of a small core of relatively active users and a large number of peripheral participants (observers) who have no connections. Fragmentation based on regional and professional characteristics typical of the Russian sociological community in general was not revealed in the community under consideration. A lack of strict control over online discussion allows the participants to freely express their point of view.