SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF F. TÖNNIES AS THEORETICAL BASIS OF INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND FUNCTIONING OF MODERN VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS’ STUDY

The relevance of the topic is determined by the need to find new approaches to the study of modern voluntary associations as a basic institute of civil society. The purpose of the study is to identify the heuristic potential of the key categories of F. Tönnies’ sociological concept in understanding the existence and functioning of a modern civil society. The system, structural and activity approaches are used. The works of classics of sociological thought and the works of modern sociologists, engaged in civil society issues, are used. The result of the study is a comprehensive analysis of F. Tönnies’ sociological concept in the context of the formation of the classical sociological theory. The community and the society as a polar social types and stages of social evolution are characterized. The general and specific features of the essential and selective types of will are revealed. The logic of the historical process as the gradual transition from a communal solidarity to social solidarity is analyzed. The thesis of the possibility of using the concepts community and society for describing and analyzing the mechanisms of the genesis and evolution of the institutions of a modern civil society is substantiated. A new look at the nature of civil society organizations as a natural-artificial structures is represented. The process of institutionalization of civil society organizations as the transformation of the natural spontaneous components under the influence of artificial factors is studied through the prism of the sociological concept of F. Tönnies.

“community”, “society”, essential will, selective will, civil society, non-governmental organizations