Industrial and communication paradigms of social engineering: history of Ukrainian school of scientific organization of labour

This study looks at the history of Ukrainian school of social engineering in the age of “forced” industrialization, with particular focus on the concept of modernization of Ukrainian society in the works by F. Dunaevsky, P. Yesmansky and L. Zhdanov. The analysis of the Ukrainian researchers’ conceptual models has been made with the regard to the recent developments in the Western science and European social engineering practices. The study provides an objective historical description of the development of management science in Ukraine and emphasizes the fact of emergence of social engineering in this state. This research argues that the development of industrial engineering, which may be regarded as a predecessor of social engineering, was prompted by the general social and political trends in the history of human civilization. Aggressive industrialization along with the aftermath of the World War I and the October revolution gave rise to irreversible changes in social life, mass consciousness and behavior. The research highlights that the closing of the national programme for the development of scientific organization of labour started as early as 1926. A conclusion has been made that innovative ideas of the talented engineers from different parts of the Soviet Union remained unrealized in the history of the country. This research introduces the findings of such representatives of Ukrainian social engineering school as F. Dunaevsky and P. Yesmansky into the ge­ne­ral scientific context. The study debunks conventional approaches to the historical de­velopment of social engineering in the Soviet Union, which dominate the national and Rus­sian scientific research. Research findings comprehensively represent the phe­no­me­non of social engineering in the context of communication paradigm, thus enri­ching the research strategies of journalism studies.

Keywords: industrialization, communication, scientific management, scientific organization of labour, social engineering, social technology.

doi: 10.32403/0554-4866-2018-2-76-108-118