ON THE ISSUE OF POSSIBILITIES OF THE THEORY OF SOCIAL NICHE
IN THE STUDY OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES 

Podlesnaya Mariya Aleksandrovna, Candidate of sociological sciences, vice-director of the information analytical center at the Faculty of social sciences, Orthodox Svyato-Tikhonovsky Humanitarian University (Moscow, 9 Ilovayskaya str., building 2); associate of the department of study of socio-cultural development of Russian regions, Institute of sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, 24/35 Krzhizhanovskogo str., building 5), mpodlesnaya@mail.ru

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The goal of the article is to throw light upon theoretical and methodological features and application possibilities of the sparsely presented and practically untranslated in Russian sociology theory of social niche. At the same time the author considers the principles of the theory of social niche with regard to studying such re-ligious groups and communities which function in special conditions of interconfessional environment. The present work is a theoretical one and appears to be of stage research nature offering a reader an answer to a question of application possibilities of the theory of social niche in studying religious communities. The present work is based on translations of foreign sources devoted to the theory of social niche. The theory of social niche is being successfully implemented by sociologists in the USA and Western Europe in research of social groups of various orientations, including closed, semiclosed and marginal, over last several decades. In the Russian sociology the present theory has not yet obtained such significance. The present article describes the theory of social niche: its main authors, background, and development of basic provisions of the theory at various stages of its formation. The second objective of the article is an attempt to implement the basic provisions of the theory in research of religious orthodox communities abroad. The article includes the views of such sociologists as Simmel, Park, McKenzie, Hawley, who introduce the concept of a social type «stranger», «marginal individual», and accomplish the statement of a question in sociology on the role of group belonging in social group structuring and in behavior reaction containment in conditions of a unique social environment. Besides that the author adduces the ideas of the founder of the theory of social niche, Hutchinson, development of the present theory in empirical studies of McPherson etc. The article includes short reviews of the fields, in studying of which the theory of social niche is used, as well as describes the potential of the present theory in studying religious communities in the interconfessional environment.

theory of social niche, Orthodox community abroad, religiously determined migrant, stranger, marginal individual.

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