To the problem of the study of the intellectuals' role in modern society

The paper analyzes the modern conditions of cooperation between intellectuals and civil society activists as independent social actors in various states in typologically similar historical cases. The research is based on the theoretical position-historical approach of Nikolay S. Rozov, the coalition conflict theory of Robert Wuthnow, and modern concepts of the sociology of social movements' paradigm. These methodological approaches provide a modern assessment to the phenomenon of cooperation between intellectuals and civil society activists. The author interprets the role of intellectuals in the development of civil self-organization processes as a variable, whose value is determined by the severity of causal factors. The level of influence is high in a situation of increasing the intensity of the intellectuals' integration into civil self-organization processes. Thus, the components of the integration success should be considered as indicators of the growth of the intellectuals' influence on the studied processes. The empirical basis of the study is made up of cases of cooperation between intellectuals and social movements' activists in Latin America (Brazil, Mexico), Eastern Europe, and Russia in the second half of the twentieth century. The author identifies social conditions that are significant for the success of interaction between intellectuals and civil society activists. They are the political opportunity structure, the level of organizational potential of subjects of civic engagement, features of the social status of intellectuals, the formation of a social interaction channel, the content of communicative practices of intellectuals and civil society activists. The case study shows that the successful intellectuals' integration to the practices of civil self-organization is possible not only in a situation of political competition, but also in a closed political system with the absence of political opposition. Theoretical and historical analysis allows noticing the instability of the intellectuals' social status and signs of their stigmatization, such as non-recognition of their projects, loss of social status and repressions by the political elite. The study of the intellectuals' integration into the grassroots practices suggests that the success of cooperation in most of the cases depends on the lack of access for the groups of civic interests to the centers of political decision making; the development of a "stalemate situation" characterized by a lingering balance of power between representatives of the political and economic elite of states; the requirement to movements' resource mobilization. The author concludes that the development of self-organization also contributes to the formation of alternative material foundations of cultural production through the establishment of cooperative relations with intellectuals.

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