The chair of General Sociology was founded in 1989 at the Department of Economics as a base chair of the subdivision of Sociology. All the sociological disciplines at the Department are taught by the the chair staff.

Novosibirsk State University was one of the seven Russian educational institutions where in 1989 Departments or Subdivisions of Sociology were opened (apart from NSU these were Moscow, Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg), Rostov, Ural State Universities, Leningrad Financial and Economic Institute, Moscow Institute of Management. Five more departments were founded at state universities in the capitals of the USSR republics. This was the beginning of training students in Sociology branch in Russian higher education.

The subdivision of Sociology has historically close linked to the Department of Economics and the chair of general sociology transmits and develops the ideas and traditions of Novosibirsk school of economic sociology which has a forty-year history. Today, at the first stage of training (undergraduate studies) students receive basic education in sociology. The first master program of the chair was Economic Sociology (started in 2005). The second master program - Communication Sociology - was opened in 2009.

Over the past twenty years the chair has prepared about 400 graduate sociologists, including more than twenty who have received two degrees – Bachelor’s (Specialist’s) and Master's degrees. More than ten of our graduates have received a Candidate degree. The teaching staff traditionally consists of members of the Department of Social Affairs of Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering of the Siberian Branch of RAS. This allows students to combine getting academic knowledge in university classrooms with research practice in the specific projects of their teachers.