Sociology as a Variety of Life Experience (Interview with N.E. Pokrovsky

In the form of an interview, the author reveals the methods used by a prominent Russian sociologist to formulate a sociological worldview. The text intertwines biographical motives and constructs the "building" of sociology against the background of historical events of the last 50 years. The narrative focuses primarily on the transition from a historical and philosophical view of the world to a scientific sociological analysis with a special emphasis on an objective scientific approach to social reality. The author examines the emergence and transformation of the globalization theory, the modification of the meaning and content of the institute of higher education, the evolution of the social group of the intelligentsia (e.g., the theory of the "death of the intelligentsia"), the proliferation of globalization processes at the cellular level of Russian society and the formation of new meanings of Russian spaces using the example of the Near North, the impending decline in the potential of megacities and the increasing societal tendencies in favor of de-urbanization. Special attention is paid to the current state and prospects of the evolution of sociology in Russia and in the world.