Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

The Address to the People of Kazakhstan by President

of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

Unity of the people and systemic reforms are a solid foundation for the nation’s prosperity

Our course is immutable, the goal is clear. We know what must be done to achieve it

In December 24, 2020, the final meeting of the Scientific Council of WCIOM on the topic "Social and political results of 2020 and forecasts for 2021" took place. Members of the Scientific Council and invited experts made presentations and discussed the most important topics of the outgoing year and the main points of development, forecasts for the coming year in three key aspects: social, economic and political.

The event was opened by Valery Fedorov, General Director of WCIOM, with a report “2020: main trends. Report on the results of a sociological survey. " In his speech, he cited the results of monitoring the social well-being of Russian society. The dynamics over the past year (November 2019 - November 2020) was shown. Data for previous years were also presented, which made it possible to retrospectively trace the dynamics of changes in social attitudes and assessments.

Academic Supervisor of the Department of World Economy, Head of the Master's Program in World Economy at FMEMP NRU HSE, Chief Advisor to the Head of the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation Leonid Grigoriev and Head of the Expert Council of the EISR Gleb Kuznetsov outlined in their speeches the topics: "The social face of the global pandemic and recession 2020 and Politics in and around covid. Risks and lessons of a pandemic ”.

“Understanding sociology: a conservative turnaround” - this is how the Russian economist and sociologist Iosif Diskin outlined the problem in his speech. He noted that recent events have updated the discussion on the theoretical and methodological role of sociology. In turn, the head of the ZIRCON Research Group, Igor Zadorin, drew attention to the fact that WCIOM data show surprising stability, which does not correspond to the information background in the media. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown a social "disruptive" technology, in which values ​​are replaced, the concept of the norm changes. A global company with the slogan "The world must not be the same" has achieved success. Although up to 70% of the world in social practices and existing problems has not changed.

During the discussion, Russian political scientist, president of the Center for Political Technologies Boris Makarenko drew the attention of the participants to the deepening of two divisions in Russian society: 1) where is a person employed, in the public sector or in the non-state? This determines the stability of income and the corresponding consequences; 2) the main contradiction - for or against the government? The speaker noted that there will be no protests during the crisis, they will begin after the situation stabilizes, and experts need to be prepared for this period.

Director Zarema Shaukenova, Head of the Sociological Studies Department (SSD) Madina Nurgaliyeva, Chief Expert of SSD Darina Danenova, Head of the Social and Political Studies Department Alua Zholdybalina, Head of the Social and Economic Studies Department Zhanna Karimova, Head Department of Information and Analytical work of Asara Mukanova.

The online broadcast of the Scientific Council meeting is available on the official WCIOM Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=148482900117622&ref=watch_permalink