Socio-Professional Group of IT Specialists: Conceptualization of the Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of the Study

Introduction. For sociology, it is important to understand the content and forms of integration of IT specialists as one of the types of social associations. Such an analysis is important to carry out since the interpretation and content characteristics of this community subsequently guide all other elements of the strategy of theoretical and empirical research. In particular, it is relevant to identify: in what capacity of a “professional community” or “professional group” IT specialists act as a real social phenomenon.Methodology and sources. Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of IT specialists involved identifying the nature and forms of their social integration: as socioprofessional groups, or as socio-professional communities. Based on the analysis of the fundamental provisions of foreign and Russian sociologists F. Tennis, J. Shchepansky, R. Merton, K. Manheim, T.M. Mills, P.A. Sorokin, V.A. Yadov, and many others, the differences in the understanding of “community” and “group” are revealed as a reflection of the special essential characteristics of these forms of integration.Results and discussion. The results of the analysis of statistical data show that the concept of a social group is used much more often than the concept of community in characterizing integration processes; this is a more relevant category for modern research. The results confirm the significant connection between the concept of “group” and the concepts of “values”, “common goal”, and “professional”. Exploring the numerous features of IT specialists, such as self-education, the desire to organize training based on introspection, significant differences from other specialists in the system of professions “human-sign system”, such as erudition and logical thinking, mastering mathematics, English language, the Internet as necessary starting conditions for entering the profession, the authors use the definition of a professional or social group.Conclusion. IT professionals should be considered a special socio-professional group with all the signs of such social integration. IT professionals operate in today's multidimensional social space. As a social group, IT specialists are united by the presence of a common feature – activities in a special environment – in the information and digital space, common social values.