Ermolaeva U.V., Mastikova N.S., Usacheva O.A. The Besieged Aleppo as a Model of the Global Critical Situation

Текст статьи на официальном сайте журнала URL: http://rrsociology.ru/media/sociology/2017/3/37-54.pdf

Abstract

In this article, devoted to the consideration of the besieged city of Aleppo as a model of a crisis situation, the authors present the results of a study based on open sources of the media. The authors proceed from the assumption that the modern hybrid war in Syria, whose nature is determined by the influence of globalization and means increasingly close interaction between different-quality structures and processes, determines a problem-oriented approach to the study of the crisis situation. On the example of Aleppo, the socio-ecological, ethno-religious and informational components of the pre-crisis state and in the situation of a global-regional-local conflict were analyzed. A critical situation is understood as the ultimate stress of biosocial systems in urban war conditions, accompanied by a decrease in their sustainability, a widespread and accelerated reduction in the living space, a general decline in the social and environmental capital of the city. The article considers such manifestations accompanying the crisis situation as the destruction of life support systems for civilians with the maximization of the damaging metabolic effect, the growth of the risky nature of the debris as the crisis develops, leading to an imbalance of the ecosystem. The structure of military wastes in the besieged city is analyzed, the process of reducing social and cultural capital as an indicator of the internal ecological crisis of Aleppo is grounded in the data. It is shown that the ethno-confessional factor serves as a tool for inciting hatred for achieving political goals, both within the country and with the participation of external forces. Information on the flow of humanitarian aid to the inhabitants of the besieged city and its information component was collected and analyzed. The results of the conducted research show that the modern hybrid war, one of the epicenters of which is the besieged Aleppo, is conducted in two mutually intersecting spaces: material and virtual, affecting all the zones of the besieged city, drawing into the conflict, in addition to the direct participants in the conflict, global and regional opposing forces , including information environments.