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This article is devoted to the theoretical understanding of the social network phenomenon and the methodology of its research. A social network is considered as an abstract, ideal-typical construct which makes it possible to get to the level of extreme generalization of already-existing knowledge concerning networks, and to develop the universal tools of conducting analytical operations with the objects exhibiting network characteristics. The methodology of social topology can be referred to with these tools. The criteria of demarcating the systematic and network approach from the systematic and topological approach have been defined. The application of the topological tools of social network analysis, relational sociology, and actor-network theory in studying the main branches of network approach was analyzed from the authors’ positions concerning the conditional division of social topology into the topology of space and the topology of form based on the works of Rene Thom, Kurt Levin, and Pierre Bourdieu. It has been discovered that the research of social network analysis and relational sociology makes use of spatial topology at different rates. The topology of form, in its turn, is developed only in the context of the actor-network theory, first of all, in the works of John Law and his followers. The conclusions made on the basis of analytical operations prove that there is an urgent need to develop the complex synthetic topology involving all quantitative and qualitative achievements made by those separate researchers who deal with topology. Eventually, the use of this theoretical and methodological framework can reveal new facets of understanding social networks.

Current trends in modernization of present-day higher education determine the demand for the development of network processes and practices in ensuring the key tasks of training initiative and competent specialists. Herewith, it is necessary to develop scientifically based ways and means of social adaptation of an individual under the conditions of evolving network reality of education. The present paper covers social, theoretical and practical relevance of the problem. The authors describe the existing approaches to its solution in an interdisciplinary context. Special attention is paid to the peculiarities of the network approach and aspects of its development in line with creating conditions for the individual’s social adaptation in education. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the theoretical and methodological foundations of the heuristic potential of the network approach to the problems of social adaptation and individual’s viability in higher education. Current approaches to the analysis and improvement of individuals’ social adaptation strategies under current conditions of network practices demonstrate an insufficient level of methodological problem understanding. The study of the methodological foundations of the network problems of individual social adaptation in education is based on the general methodological principle of the normative and interpretive analysis, which allows integrating the data of modern social and humanitarian knowledge in the construction of theoretical images of social phenomena. The article describes the novelty and the theoretical significance of the problem.

The network activity is not only part and parcel of the modern university, but it also demonstrates the level of its success. There appeared an urgent need for understanding the nature of universities’ network interactions and finding the most effective models of their network cooperation. The article analyzes partnership network communities with higher educational establishments (universities’) participation, which are being actively created nowadays. The conditions for successful network activities of a university in scientific, academic and professional network communities are presented.