The modern world is globally unstable. It is characterised by the permanent emergence of new challenges and risks, that in response leads to the emergence of a new type of civilizational development and the formation of a previously unknown integrity. The article reveals the mechanism and motives for choosing the path of development and the role of the sociological imagination in this process. Imagination becomes a general, interdisciplinary concept that performs in science, first of all, a cognitive function that helps to overcome ignorance. The study of modernity in the current conditions is becoming more problematic due to the emergence of theoretical and methodological uncertainties stipulated by the modern phase of the development of civilization, that has given rise to many risks and threats. However, without theoretical understanding, the abundance of empirical material does not always lead to the increment of new knowledge. Breakthroughs in empirical research, new methods of data collection, including working with big data, in the end only exacerbate uncertainty and critically complicate the process of creating new concepts.

Modern science reflects, comprehends its achievements and the need to go beyond the established approaches. The search for new paradigms in scientific cognition and practical activities is carried out taking into account the human dimension of development and in the search for a balance between man and nature. Penetration into the zone of ignorance is based on the possibility of creating new images based on previous experience, on reflection, where the possession of a developed imagination by the researcher becomes crucial. In the article, the process of functioning of sociology in the zone of ignorance is considered on the example of a hundred-year development of sociological science in Belarus: three stages in the development of sociology are identified, their content and features of the functioning of the problem field are revealed.

modernity, social reality, sociological imagination, zone of ignorance, problematic field, future

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