Ideas and Ideals

The research is devoted to philosophical reflection on the impact of socio-cultural factors on the modern theory of communication development. The source of the observed diversity of the disunity of modern communication research primarily contains in the multidimensional nature of the phenomenon. Multidirectionality of communication studies is also a consequence of the researchers’ aptitude to the influence of certain socio-cultural factors. The article offers the challenge to outline a number of socio-cultural determinants that caused the dynamics of communication studies of the XX – the beginning of the XXI centuries and to clarify the mechanisms, procedures of their influence on the formation of the theory of communication. As a result of linguistic and chronological approach to modern communication research in the article the author traces the genesis of certain intentions of the communicative theory generated by the state of social and cultural backgrounds of the implemented communication studies. There is a revealed number of significant socio-cultural determinants based on the analysis conducted by the author, such as: a high level of internal autonomy of researchers and research dissonance of cultural and linguistic chronotopes. The impact of social and cultural events from the outside (especially in cases when the events affect the deep layers of society) is located in the same row. Actually, the purpose of the article is a factual verification of generally known terms of the socio-cultural determination of modern communication studies. As a result, we plan to designate a number of socio-cultural factors behind a range of the research intentions in the framework of the theory of communication.

The article poses the problem of differentiation of sociology and social sciences. Though sociology refers to the social sciences, but now, it has become unclear what its specificity as a social science is. The traditional understanding of the subject of sociology as a social science has been criticized, and the new proposals are clearly unsatisfactory. In order to consider the stated problem, the author analyzes the works of Zygmunt Bauman and Bruno Latour, discussing this topic, he also considers the stages in the development of sociology, provides a methodological reconstruction of sociological thinking. In particular, the author shows that Bauman in his methodology implements three important principles. First, epistemic status of sociological knowledge, the second provision is, that social forms of life are multiple (populyativny) and sociology in its terms must seize this moment. Finally, the third, the sociologist considers human actions and relationships from the perspective of freedom (svoboda). The author tries to show that sociological knowledge and concepts are based on schemes and models; and then, on their basis ideal objects and concepts of sociology are formed. It is stated in the article, that a social phenomenon is not an object, but a process, a cycle beginning as an act of freedom and ending with the formation of social knowledge and creating the machine (usually a social institution), in which the freedom has been already limited by social norms. Sociological schemes and the based on them sociological concepts and theories are developed by different sociological schools and directions of sociology as a reflection of social experience that is plural, because different forms of social life are behind that experience. Sociological knowledge should not create additional frustration and anomie in the society. Therefore sociological creativity and thinking must pass the "test on the road", which is provided by methodological criticism, analysis of the possible consequences of sociological knowledge application in human life and society, and discussions involving the main interested users (sociologists, population, representatives of various social institutions).

This article is a critical response to the book by A. Davydov and M. Rosin "Discussion on Mediation". Davydov’s concept is the main idea of the book which is criticized. He suggests "mediation methodology of sociocultural analysis of the Russian society," where he uses the following categories: "split", "transition", "value dominance", "inversion", "traditional", "personal" etc. The main Davydov’s insight is the value of self-determination of a person in the terms of transition to a "humanistic" type of sociocultural system. A person has to leave the "inversion" of traditional thinking through "mediation". Rosin takes the position of a critic and a "realist" and he views Davydov’s position as "idealistic". The author of the article joined the discussion extending the context of it and introducing communicative-methodological space of modernity. It’s important for the author to show communicative-logic space of modernity, which is filled with strategic alternatives with complicated interrelations. This space is closely tied up with communicative-methodological space of modernity in general. The author presents his own project-system methodology of investigating “the logic of modernity”. According to this methodology modernity is understood as the tendency to develop “postcultural-intercultural” socio-cultural architecture. Modernity is a response to the life challenges, the main one among which is the challenge of the negative "cultural" architecture of the world. The deployment of “postcultural-intercultural” architecture of modernity defines a specific structure of its communicative - methodological space. The author shows how this relates to the logic of pro-modern, counter-modern and post-modern theories and practices.

Among the impasses of radical constructivism, one of the most problematic is the modern understanding of democracy. The newest theory of democracy, developed in the newly published book of A. Magun, is an obvious example. The choice of the method logically brings the author to the left radicalism, whose apology turns out to be a model of genuine democracy that corresponds to its historical meaning. Attempts to write this model into the historical and cultural context provide the possibility of several critical remarks. The main problem of the concept of "actual" democracy is the easiness with which historicism is sacrificed as a fundamental epistemological principle. This is expected, since historicism in constructivism loses its significance. To reach the historical reality, we need the will to reality as such, but in radical constructivism it is impossible. And then the arbitrarily designed optics with the blinded diaphragm, taken from the slogans of today's political establishment, transferred with uncontrolled energy to the view of the subjects of history, since we have rejected the very possibility of control along with the concept of reality, and then the historical reality begins to be judged according to the standards of fashionable templates. This is the prerequisite for the possibility of declaring any significance as "emptiness". This is how the warlike skepticism towards historical versions of democracy appears. The courage to go to the edge provides the dignity of A. Magun's concept, she is interested in the consistency, the readiness to firmly declare totalitarian violence by the meaning of democracy.

The article presents a sociophilosophical analysis of the problem of identity formation in contemporary society with its systemic transitional character. The idea of complex identity formation in sociospatial form is put forward and substantiated. Identity types, presented as a hierarchical structure in some conceptions, are positioned as components of sociospatial identity.  Due to highly dynamic social changes and processes the structure of sociospatial identity undergoes transformations, resulting in strengthening some components and loss of importance of the other ones. Factors, determining new identity types and transformations of the process of identification of the social actor are discussed. Major tendencies of its self-identification and their results are revealed. The most relevant of them are the following: identity fragmentation and, consequently, the breakdown of its hierarchy, transgressing the limits of national identity and formation of alternative identities (transnational, binational), strengthening of ethnic and cultural identities. Overall, the shift of identity formation from macro-social level and its dispersion to meso- and micro-social levels is established. The significance of the structure center loss is emphasized, indicating the state of chaos, which is analyzed from post-modernist viewpoint as a chance for plural identity formation in the contemporary society and, consequently, antinomic tendencies of the process.  The most relevant aspects of the presented issues, requiring further empirical investigation, are identified in the conclusion.

Within the concept of post-industrial society the accumulation of human capital is considered to be a major factor of accelerated economic development. Since the advent of the theory of "human capital" has been more than half a century. On the subject of many papers published. However, researchers still do not have a single point of view on the economic content of the concept of "human capital". Appeal to the essence of the category of "capital" leads to the conclusion about the illegality of the use of the term in the strict scientific terminology "human capital". The article reviews the definitions, that researchers offer to disclose the content of the concept. Analysis of the content presented definitions leads to the conclusion that in this case, refers to the human potential and the degree of its development. Within the framework of the theory of "human capital" great attention is paid to the measurement of its cost. However, the value of human potential is difficult to keep exclusively to the valuation, since the possibilities of direct measuring method does not exist in principle. In connection with this conclusion about the need for further research to develop methods to a greater extent based on qualitative rather than quantitative analysis of human potential.

  The article is devoted to the role of self-organization as an independent fact of the ethno-social stabilization in Siberia in the XVII-th century. As a methodological basis of research the authors propose a synthesis of structural and phenomenological paradigms, which allows using such concepts as social order, management and self-organization of local Siberian ethnic communities to describe their interethnic nature. In the authors’ opinion each local community forms up in the interaction between the institutes of social organization and self-organization. Due to the fact that the central government was at a distance and Siberian population was small, the social distance between the central government and local authorities, and, in general, between the government and the local community was not that important. Many problems had to be solved on the spot and the center only legitimized the decisions and orders. The local community solved the problems in the provinces and the central authority just legitimated the decisions and orders which had been made at the local level. The situation encouraged the actors (the participants of the processes) to play their roles freely depending not only on their formal duties but also using their personal and group interests, taking into consideration practical needs and welfare of the local communities. The authors suggest a hypothesis of the importance of horizontal relations, personal status in the formation of a new social order, which was not less important than the vertical power structure.

The article investigates the characteristics of socio-cultural manifestations of theoretical knowledge about socialization. The author identifies these manifestations with the theoretical images, which have three attributes. First, theoretical images are the results of (re-)construction of theoretical discourse which appropriately represents the main traits of reality. Second, the mentioned images correspond with the types of scientific and philosophic rationality, i. e. classical, non-classical, post-nonclassical rationality. Third, theoretical images rely on different versions of normative, interpretative or normative-interpretative methodological perspectives. The author argues that the listed attributes should be given a high priority while studying knowledge about socialization as phenomena of socio-cultural reality.

In the article the author suggests a new approach to the problem of anomie, which manifests itself in the form of deviant behavior. In his opinion inconsistence is a prerequisite for social anomie. The main social viability criterion of an individual is the official recognition of the value and necessity of his/her activities and functions which the person performs within social institutions. The main criterion of the social inability of an individual is non-recognition of activities and functions resulting from the imbalance between the consumed and produced products of his/her activities (labor) with the disbalance in favor of the consumed. It does not matter whether the individual produces more goods required from him/her or less. The very presence of the disbalance in the amount of the products of labor generates anomie. As the result of this imbalance the individual is first gradually alienated from the labor process by the society and then from people as the subjects of social life because of that disproportion in the produced and consumed goods, which doesn’t meet socially accepted norms. The alienation of the individual causes inadequate forms of adaptive reactions in the form of deviant behavior, with the aim of social adaptation, which guarantees safety. The author singles out an individual as the subject of anomie, who is a source of deviant behavior and social institutions in which the individual is not able to socialize. Planning his further work the author outlines the plan of his investigations: to define the socio-historical stages of social institutions development, as well as to determine the involvement of individuals in the activities of those institutions.

The article considers the problem of social adaptation of personality. The author investigates social thinking from the resource approach perspective as an individual social capital of a person. The introduction presents different opinions on the theme of investigations, highlights the main problems concerning human capital in modern science and defines the methodological foundation of the research. The main part of the article is devoted to the consideration of the adaptive function of social thinking as a vital ability of a person to improve the quality of his /her life. The author presents an overview of different interpretations of the issue given by outstanding scholars S.L. Rubinsteyn, K. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, E. Fromm. They view social thinking as a functional mechanism of consciousness. Thinking can be adaptive or ineffective. This is due to the individual interpretation of certain situations. These authors have noted a greater role of consciousness and social thinking in the identification and resolution of conflicts of personality and society. The rest of the article analyses the adaptive model of social thinking, which the author calls "socio-productive thinking," the main human resource, social capital of a person. The position of the author is based on humanistic values. The author’s contribution into the development of the problem consists in investigation of the less developed aspects of the problem of human capital and interpretation of the adaptive model of social thinking as a resource of a person.