Hybrid social technologies

The article provides analysis of social technologies and historical reconstruction of their development; it traces the appearance of the term «technology» in the social context. When studying social technologies and their development one can trace their dependence on the social models characterizing the functioning of society, the localization of certain social practices, the political, economic and technological order, the degree of industrial development, the general culture in the society and subcultures («solidarities»). The rapid and ubiquitous development of applied technologies, in particular digital technologies, leads to significant changes in the social sphere, while digital and information technologies themselves become an active tool for research and construction of social technologies, a trigger for their development. In the course of their development, there takes place a convergence of approaches and methodologies of various areas of applied science, ranging from modern digital technologies, data analysis, machine learning, and ending with biotechnology and advanced genomic engineering research. The author deems it necessary to introduce the concept «hybrid social technologies» as a central element of contemporary social technologies and analyzes the theoretical and methodological bases for the formation of hybrid social technologies which are deduced from the principles of complexity, non-linearity, interdisciplinary and convergence. The author outlines the main growth points for hybrid social technologies and highlights the increasing complexity in the development of such technologies, as well as the complexity and importance of predicting the consequences of using those.