As part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Eurasian National University, one of the first events held under the auspices of the jubilee was an international online round table on the current topic «Socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kazakhstan». The round table was organized by the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Eurasian National University and the PHOENIX Club. The authors of this initiative were the Head of the Department of Sociology Otar Elmira Sakenovna and the teacher of the Department Zhanadilova Aigul Ermekovna. The round table was attended by domestic and foreign scientists and specialists, department staff, Ph.D students, master’s students of the Faculty of Social Sciences. The total number of participants exceeded 50 people.
The main speakers of the online event were: Khambar Bakhytgul, Ph.D in Economics, Director of the Center for Strategic Research and Sustainable Development, JSC «Institute of Economic Research» (Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan) with the theme of the speech «The impact of the pandemic on the labor market»; Elmira Sakenovna Otar, Ph.D in Sociology, Head of the Department of Sociology of ENU named after L.N. Gumilyova, who presented a report on the topic: «The positive and negative impact of Covid-19 on families in Kazakhstan»; Kenshilik Tyshan, Ph.D in Philosophy, Head of the Department of Religious Studies of ENU, spoke on the topic: «Religion and society in a pandemic»; Rinat Sattaruli Salykzhanov, Ph.D in Sociology, shared statistics as part of a report on «Health risks: what is more harmful - real threats or deliberate escalation of the situation».
Foreign scientists also took part in the round table. Veysel Bozkurt, Professor, Head of the Department of Economic Sociology of Faculty of Economics in Istanbul University (Istanbul, Turkey), Editor-in-Chief of the «Journal of Economy, Culture and Society» made a presentation on the subject: «Salgının belirsizliği huzursuzluğu artırdı» («Increased public concern in the face of uncertainty about the pandemic»). Since the report was in Turkish, senior lecturer of the Department of Sociology, Tazhibaeva Gulnar Duysenbaevna, translated the presentation directly.
Another foreign scientist Petro Tokar (Uzhhorod, Ukraine), director of the Research Institute of Migration and Demography of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Uzhgorod (Ukraine), spoke about the attitude of Ukrainian citizens to state security measures during a pandemic.
The moderator of the round table was the associate professor of the Department of «Sociology» of ENU, Ph.D, Nurlan Oralbaiuly Baigabylov, who presented a report on the topic: «Threats and opportunities expected from the Covid 19».
Considering that the speeches of each speaker directly related to the current situation in society, the online round table acquired the format of a discussion, where each presentation aroused genuine interest of the audience. At the end of the speeches, the participants shared their views and opinions, drew attention to important scientific issues and made effective suggestions.
