The Laboratory for Applied Network Research joined the development of images of the future at the Grushin Conference
On March 26–27, 2026, the 16th International Grushin Sociological Conference was held in Moscow at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University Congress Center under the auspices of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center. This year, the conference was a collaborative exploration of the future as a practice—not an abstract category, but a subject for collective analysis and construction. Representatives from the scientific community and the research industry discussed how visions of the future are shaped, what forces influence them, and how they are embodied in social, economic, and technological practices.
The program was structured around discussions and interdisciplinary exchanges, focused less on presenting results than on developing new approaches and research agendas. The conference proposed viewing the future as an object of research: analyzing the mechanisms of its formation, identifying key trends in various fields—from economics and technology to culture and identity—and building a pool of ideas for future scientific and applied projects. Particular emphasis was placed on teamwork, the clash of positions, and the development of research initiatives.
On behalf of the Grushin Conference Program Committee, Sergey Davydov, an analyst at our laboratory, oversaw a series of events focused on artificial intelligence and its role in transforming research. At the section "Contours of the Future: Methodological Framework and Preliminary Results of the Future Research Foundation's Sectoral Foresight Session," he presented a paper titled "AI in Research: Discursive Fractures and Future Scenarios." Together with Maria Nezgovorova (OMI), he led an aquarium-style discussion on "AI and the Future of Research." Finally, at the foresight session "Code of Tomorrow: How AI is Designing Russia's Future," moderated by Olesya Maibach (HSE University), Sergey led the discussion on one of the thematic areas, "Values."
The discussion participants agreed that AI does not replace the researcher, but rather radically restructures their work. Unlike humans, AI cannot create new knowledge and is also poor at contextualization. However, it is premature to declare the death of telephone surveys; solutions exist (building databases of loyal respondents, reusing telephone numbers) that allow this type of data collection to be effectively used in the new reality. Much was said about synthetic respondent technology, which appears promising but requires methodological development.
In parallel, projects aimed at redefining research directions and methodologies were discussed within the "Research Routes of the Future" section under the auspices of the Future Research Foundation grant competition. The panel served as a mechanism for selecting and verifying initiatives capable of setting the direction for the field's development, combining proven solutions with new research ideas. This format allowed for the identification of the most promising projects for academic sociology and the practical study of a transforming society.
It was at this panel that Artem Oganyan, a junior research fellow in the laboratory and a graduate student, was awarded a grant for his paper, "The Relational Logic of Responsibility: Social Comparison and the Legitimacy of Moral Disengagement" (a joint paper with Inna Feliksovna Devyatko). This project proposes an experimental study of the complex relational and situational factors that influence the acceptability of moral disengagement, which allows people to violate their own moral principles without experiencing guilt. This project will not only fill an existing theoretical gap by drawing on a sociological relational perspective but also deepen our understanding of the conditions under which people find it acceptable to "act unacceptably," which is particularly important in the areas of corporate compliance and government public policy.
I am grateful to the Future Research Foundation team for supporting Inna Feliksovna and my research program. This grant will allow us to move on to a key empirical stage—collecting data on the large-scale OMI online panel, which will enable us to conduct a survey experiment on a significantly larger sample than is typically possible in such studies. This will not only enhance the reliability of our results but also open the door to a more nuanced discussion of the social mechanisms of moral disengagement—both in academia and in management practice. I hope this research will lead to a better understanding of how people make complex decisions in ambiguous situations—and how we can create an environment in which such decisions become more responsible and informed.
This year's Grushin Conference initiated a conversation about the future as a space where it is not predicted but produced—through competing images, institutional decisions, and everyday practices. The lab participants' contributions fit seamlessly into this framework: from a discussion of how AI is already "reprogramming" the very infrastructure of research and the logic of knowledge production to an analysis of how moral boundaries are constructed through situational social comparisons. From this perspective, the future emerged not as an abstract category, but as a multilayered process in which sociologists simultaneously act as analysts and co-authors of ongoing changes.
