Social types of Russian workers: on theory and practice of study

The article is devoted to the actualization of theoretical and methodological problems in typological analysis procedure of Russian workers. The authors rely on a functional approach to the “social type of employee” concept interpretation as an initial theoretical premise, the essence of which is to distinguish two connotations: social types as means of social cognition, the known in sociology of labor conceptual (theoretical) typologies which used as basis for preliminary typification (a priori typology) of the studied group of objects; Social types as a goal of social cognition when their existence requires empirical confirmation. The article introduces a basis for comparison of typological analysis research practices wherein various typological models are implemented. The core and periphery in the structure of the group of practices are distinguished. The accumulated experience is described via linguistic constructs, including the so-called basic concepts of typological analysis: a priori typology, the basis of typology, type-forming features, etc. It is via these concepts that serve as a “bridge” for the transition from theoretical models to empirical constructions. Their content and logic of formation determine the various kinds of research practices existence which allows us to summarize thetheoretical and methodological problems in typological models implementation and the most promising areas identification for the development of typological research in the field of labor.