The purpose of the discussion is to discuss the prospects for the development of Russian sociology: its possibilities to explain what is happening in Russian society, to respond to social challenges and to represent the interests of those social strata that are crowded out to the periphery along with global market development. Russian sociologists who study social inequality from di?erent perspectives and develop critical discourse in Russian sociology participate in the discussion: Vladimir Ilyin (St. Petersburg State University), Karin Clement (St. Petersburg State University), Irina Olimpieva (Centre for Independent Social Research), Elena Zdravomyslova and Anna Temkina (European University St. Petersburg), Alexander Kondakov (European University St. Petersburg), with closing remarks - Michael Burawoy (University of California, Berkeley). Moderator of the discussion - Svetlana Yaroshenko (St. Petersburg State University). Can sociology be independent of society and the processes occurring in it? What is th