Contents

Economic theory and practice

A New Look at an Old Topic (Money sources for Municipalities)
Boris Lavrovskiy
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-239-252
Abstract:

The article is devoted to some aspects of card games, and the evolution of casinos in modern Russia. It is shown that in connection with criminalization and other negative phenomena, the gambling business was equated with “alcoholization of the population”. The problem of criminalization could not be solved, since casinos and slot machines migrated largely underground. The internet has become another loophole.

In the mid-2000s, the loss of income from casinos to the state budget was a drop in the ocean. After 15 years, the situation has changed. Budget deficits of municipalities have become almost the norm, many subjects of the Federation have become chronic debtors. New non-trivial sources of state and municipal revenues are required. If, taking into account the pros and cons, it turns out to be possible to legalize the gambling business in the country, it should be based on new principles. Among them, locations far from cities, in regional centers, strict state control, a special (but not stifling) tax regime, no credits to players, and wide scale restrictions.

Comparative Analysis of Innovative Activity of Companies in High-Tech and Low-Tech Sectors
Anton Goryushkin
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-253-273
Abstract:

The level of innovation activity has not changed for a large number of years, despite the measures taken by the state. Based on empirical data, the article examines the dynamics of the following components of companies’ innovative activity in high-tech and low-tech sectors of the manufacturing industry: introduction of product and other types of innovations; activities to improve the qualifications of personnel; purchase of licensed foreign technologies and intangible assets. We also tested the statistical significance of differences in the levels of innovation activity of high-tech and low-tech companies in different economic conditions using the t-criterion.

The analysis showed a decrease in the share of companies engaged in any kind of innovative activity. During the period of economic growth, both high-tech and low-tech companies made equal use of opportunities to increase innovation activity. It was found that the level of innovation activity among high-tech companies declines to a lesser extent than among low-tech companies during the crisis. In these conditions, high-tech companies are more actively using "internal reserves": they are working more to improve the skill level of staff and implementing innovation processes. During periods of high and low rates of economic growth, high-tech companies often buy new technology, but it does not lead to greater innovation activity; companies are only updating their technological base. During the period of weak economic growth, companies in both sectors continued to reduce their innovative activity in all areas. The resumption of growth trends in innovative activities is possible only when companies see the prospects from the implementation of innovative activities.

Assessing the Preparedness to Work in an Active Company on the Basis of Sociological Research
Natalia Nizovkina,  Irina Kharchenko
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-274-290
Abstract:

Based on the statistics, because of the survey of Novosibirsk region residents, we studied data on personal readiness for activity in work, to flexibility, to adaptability. Employees should be able to assess the real situation, and should be able to be creative. Businesses are moving to a flexible organization, flexible working conditions. It is increasingly worrying workers and businesses. The article takes on special relevance in the context of the search and activation of new sources of economic development with the introduction of a new methodology for the management of Agile. The assessment was satisfactory. Self-assessment of the potential of workers has been reasonable. The level of independence was adequate. The desire to participate in a new type of economy with commercialization is unsatisfactory. The desire to participate in scientific developments, discoveries, inventions is unsatisfactory. The validity of the study's findings is based on self-assessments of ability, preparedness (competence) and desire (motivation) activities, mainly for work and continuous education.

Characteristics of the Dynamics of Living Standard Indicators of the Novosibirsk Region Population
Olga Voronkova,  Anastasia Garenskaya
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-291-315
Abstract:

The article presents a comparative analysis of the dynamics of indicators of living standards of the population in the Novosibirsk region, the Siberian Federal District and the Russian Federation as a whole. The aim of the study is to determine how the indicators of the standard of living of the population of the Novosibirsk region relate to similar indicators for the Russian Federation and the Siberian Federal District and to identify the presence of general and special trends, patterns in changes during the period under review. Data from the Federal State Statistics Service, including data from its territorial bodies and data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation were used as an information base. At the initial stage of the study, the authors calculated the share of the population with monetary incomes below the subsistence level for the Siberian Federal District, since Rosstat does not consider this indicator for the level of federal districts, and a number of nominal indicators adjusted for real prices. The growth rate of all the indicators under consideration for the study period was then calculated. The work used a dynamics analysis and an approach based on a combination of statistical, systemic and comparative analysis methods. Based on the study, we can say that most indicators of the standard of living of the population for the Novosibirsk region correspond to the trends observed in the Russian Federation and the Siberian Federal District. In the case of some indicators, such as the level of employment, the incidence per 1000 people, etc., it can be stated that the growth rate is multi-directional compared to the Russian Federation and the Siberian Federal district. In general, the authors did not see any patterns in the dynamics of changes in indicators for NSOs. The study covers 2011-2018, with few exceptions.

Methodology of Assessing the Comlectarity of Consumer Services in the Territory of Urban Aglomeration
Elena Razomasova
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-316-323
Abstract:

The article presents methodological approaches to the formation of a criteria of assessing the level of consumer services sphere development on the territory of an urban agglomeration, taking into account the determination of the indicative supply rate of companies providing services. The semantic basis of the category "complectarity" is formulated and the significance of this category in the approach of assessing the actual state of the development level of the consumer services sphere is shown, taking into account the actual set of services provided by enterprises in relation to the set of services, which serve as a measure of their number. The application of this methodology allows us to reveal the unevenness of the supply of consumer services relative to real demand of this services and to explain the formation of pricing policy of companies, providing services in conditions of deviation from the equilibrium of supply and demand, which fully meets the principles of the theory of pricing formation by formulating a coherent strategy of the consumer services sphere development. Research carried out on the basis of using methodology of complectarity makes it possible to more accurately determine the species and quantitative disparities in supply in any territory of an urban agglomeration, taking into account the size of the population living in it. Evaluation of the supply of consumer services relative to their real demand based on the application of the bundling methodology allows us to determine the specific and quantitative disproportions of the supply of consumer services in any territory of an urban agglomeration relative to the number of people living there, which corresponds to the theory of pricing, explains the possibility of forming an equilibrium price, subject to the presence or absence of a package offer of consumer services, including specific and quantitative indicators. Thus, a program or strategy for the development of consumer services should be aimed at bringing the indicator of integral completeness to one. It is with this meaning that economic equilibrium and the absolute achievement of the goals of strategic development of the consumer services sector take place. This condition corresponds to the concepts of "set", "ideal completeness" and serves as a criterion for assessing the level of development of consumer services in the territory under consideration.

According to Stalinist Templates: The Economic Strategy of Communist Construction in the Program Settings of the Khrushchev Leadership
Eugeny Artemov,  Evgeny Vodichev
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-324-347
Abstract:

The article is timed to the 60th anniversary of the XXII CPSU Congress, which has become an important milestone in the history of the late Soviet period. The 3rd programme of the CPSU was adopted on the Congress, which proclaimed that "the current generation of Soviet people will live under communism." The strategy for achieving this goal was justified as well. This article is devoted to the analysis of its economic aspects. The paper has four sections. In the first, the authors substantiate the need to identify the doctrinal continuity of the economic policy of late Stalinism and the time of Khrushchev’s “Thaw”. In the second section of the article, the authors note that traditional methodological approaches have many limitations in studies of this kind. Their non-critical use makes it difficult to find a response to the question of why the Khrushchev leadership failed to realise its ambitious plans. The authors see the solution of this issue in a comprehensive comparative analysis of the promotional ideologemes and practical policy. The main section outlines the results of the study. They are based on a detailed comparison of the main directions of creating a “material and technical basis” of communism contained in the Stalinist projects of the 3rd party programme and in Khrushchev’s version. As underlined, they are determined by a variety of dominant political myths and ideologemes in the public consciousness. At the same time, the practical policy was guided by completely different ideas and interests. In conclusion, it is stipulated that, with all the nuances, the economic “visions” that were reflected in the 3rd party programme were designed in accordance with patterns of the "Communist projections", formulated in Stalin’s epoch. They promised to build a society of universal benefits in the foreseeable future. However, in practice, the development of the economy, as before, was primarily focused on the expansion of military-industrial might. All other needs could be satisfied only in accordance with the "residual principle." This turned into a gap between the declarations of "steady increase of material well-being" of the population and reality. As a result, the strategy of the “communist construction” was discredited, and the authority of those in power was undermined.

Theory and history of culture

Overcoming “The Language Rubicon": Versions, Steps аnd Evolutionary Mechanisms
Nikolai Rozov
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-348-365
Abstract:

The most plausible hypotheses explaining the breakthrough of our distant ancestors to articulate speech and consciousness include: rituals of solidarity (singing, grooming, facial expressions, gestures), the role of "labor", teaching children, changes in gender relations, recruiting (mobilization for collective action), laryngeal transformation, brain growth, mirror neurons, neuronal overlap; dominance of coalitions over loners, self-domestication, the need to coordinate decisions; joint intentionality, development of normativity. The concretization of the principle of "cultural drive" leads to the following concept: new environmental, social and communicative challenges and concerns lead to multiple trials; successful behavior is consolidated in group practices, mental structures of participants, and hereditary inclinations with multilevel selection and change of many generations. Overcoming the "language Rubicon" took place in several steps, or stages, in which the structures that have developed to provide concerns lead to new concerns that require new structures. Such concerns as pacifying social order in the group, signaling general discontent, coordinating actions, etc., the following structures emerged: egalitarian coalitions with collective practices of intimidation, sound signals uttered in unison, training and self-training, self-domestication, shared intentionality, and normative rituals. The most plausible versions supplement this concept. Сhoral singing as a ritual of solidarity promoted the ability to imitate and articulate. Mirror neurons and neural overlaps have played the role of providing mechanisms for imitation and association processes. The connection between "labor" and speech was complex and interdependent, mediated by normativity. Recruiting as signals of mobilization for collective action also made its contribution but only under the already established normative order. Social learning is in fact a special ritual of constant trial and adjustment which has grown out of a normative ritual. The establishment of a new order of sexual relations also played a role: under the prohibition of violence and rape it was necessary to involve partners. Speech replaced grooming, and those who spoke clearly, convincingly and/or sang beautifully received benefits in sexual selection. The totality of all these processes reinforced the concerns of mutual understanding which were provided by the rituals of naming with the following multiplication of protowords and further growth of linguistic complexity.

Formation of a New Person as a Formational Meaning. The Era of Transformation in the History of Europe
Gennady Pikov
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-366-383
Abstract:

The article draws attention to the fact that the phenomenon of marginality is the formation of one's own environment, although not completely dissolving into it. Traditional culture goes into the "basements" of society or manifests itself in the life and mentality of marginals. In a society affected by crisis, several cultural trajectories collide: descending, ascending and, for the marginalized, breaking traditional ties and creating their own, completely different world. In fact, marginality is the third culture, a special socio-cultural state. The article discusses its corresponding components.

The prerequisites of global transformation are considered. The situation in Europe begins to change fundamentally at the turn of the I-II millennia. The formation of the era of European Transformation can begin with the XI-XIII centuries, when "Catholic" Europe appears. Phenomenal in its results was the "Renaissance of the XII century", the first truly pan-European Revival at the origins of the era of Transformation. With this, the movement towards a High Renaissance began. The Crusades (XI-XIII centuries) are particularly highlighted. After the Crusades, two variants of capitalism become promising and predominant in Europe and North America, and then their slow convergence continues.

The XIII century became a milestone for contemporaries. On the one hand, Europe, it would seem, reached the end of history by creating some kind of optimal model. On the other hand, the reverse side of the idea of the "end of history" became clearly visible. The Mongols, having captured most of Eurasia, reformatted the ethno-political space. In this century, capitalist Europe is born, in fact, as a special development option.

Highlighting the era of transformation does not mean that we should abandon the usual division of European history into known periods: antiquity, the Middle Ages, modern times. This periodization successfully emphasizes social and economic aspects and provides a chronological understanding of transitional processes. The era of Transformation is more voluminous, since we are talking about the transition from a centuries-old traditional society to a new stage of human development.

Neither the Renaissance nor the Reformation created a new culture, the so-called bourgeois culture will have many faces, both international and national. The main thing is seen in the liberation of man from the former powerful civilizational model, Latin-Christian, i.e. Imperial-ecclesiastical, and ultimately - in the formation of a new type of man.

On Art Contents оf Maqam
Mikhail Karpychev
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-384-399
Abstract:

Abstract

The article is devoted to researching Islamic professional oral music. Maqam is the most high form of this, its conception is spiritual catharsis. Maqam is a chain of ascending parts, each of them elaborating on the main theme of the music. It progresses to a culmination and then descends to the cuitial stage. Maqam’s spiritual contents are the sorrow of love in the form of improvisation first of all, but also songs and dances. Maqam unites dramatic and lyrical characters. Every maqam has its own semantic canon, which is actualized by means of the deepest research of human feelings. Semantic and structure canons connect with the performer’s liberty in emotional detail. Maqam represents a peculiar type of authority (not in absolute form of composer’s art) and is based on classical orient poetry. The highest form of maqam is instrumental (without singing), which expresses the character of its singing-instrumental “parent”. The maqam’s performers must have a special complement of musical abilities and study in music empirient schools. It is necessary to mark particular antithesises, which illustrate a “emotion–ratio” relation in macam’s dramaturgy: passionate contents and strict verified form; originality and canon; euphoria and self-control of a performer; melody and polyphony (instruments imitate singing). Maqam represents a penetrating, “endless” melody with its ability to develop. The elite character of maqam’s genesis and contemporary democracy of the genre are explored, as well as the relations between two forms of maqam: maqam-tune and maqam-genre.

The “Audible Word” In the Media Preferences of Youth
Svetlana Storozheva,  Natalia Mikidenko
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-400-419
Abstract:

The development of digital technologies creates the conditions for a new stage in the development and dissemination of audio culture. Radio plays have been replaced by audiobooks, audio podcasts, and audio series. The book market is experiencing an "audio explosion". There is a steady growth of interest in audiobooks, which compete with musical content. The authors of the article turn to the study of the current state of the culture of the "audible word". This article examines the audiobook reading of student readers, who were socialized under the conditions of the large-scale spread of digital technologies. The aim of the research: to consider audioreading in the context of leisure and educational practices of young people. The study is based on theoretical approaches that consider the phenomenon of audio consumption in modern media (V.Y. Bal', M.Y. Gudova, J.P. Melentieva, V. Erlmann, W. Hagen, A. Kassabian, J.F. Lehmann). The study examined students' perceptions of audiobook reading, its place in leisure and educational practices. The authors conducted a sociological study (December 2020) with the participation of 85 students in order to identify the perceptions of audiobook reading. Qualitative methodology of analysis of answers to open-ended questions was used for the study. The design questionnaire included questions on preferred types of reading, use of audiobook reading in educational and leisure practices, reasons for interest in audiobook reading and possibilities of audiobook reading as a type of educational content. The study identified students' preferences in the choice of book format (paper, electronic, audiobooks), students' ideas about the reasons for wide distribution of audiobooks, advantages and limitations of audiobooks, convenient contexts for daily life, practices of using audiobooks in educational and leisure activities. The authors consider the potential of audiobooks in the organization of educational and leisure activities of students.

Socio-Cultural Basis of the Consumption Act as a Purpose of Emotional Experiences during Everyday Practices of Interaction with the Urban Space
Polina Parshukova
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-420-441
Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic refreshes the view of urban spaces as objects of consumption. The article describes the constituent elements of urban space and the process of human interaction with it, mediated by sign-symbolic perception. The socio-philosophical analysis of the phenomenon of consumption as a phenomenon developing within the framework of understanding the praxeological relationship of human to world is presented. The study contains a synthesis of several modern concepts based on a sociocultural approach. Based on the concept of A. Warde, the author proposes that consumption be seen as a process that is a moment in the many practices of everyday life which is characterized by evaluation, use and appropriation. The act of consumption is viewed as an internally-oriented, goal-rational human behavior aimed at achieving emotional experiences, as a part of the self-determination of the individual (G. Schulze). The conceptual link explaining the articulation between emotion and consumption is to be found in the notion of “imagination”, understood, following E. Illouz, as the socially situated deployment of cultural fantasies. In everyday practices of the development of urban spaces by man, a combination of creation and use is found, which seems to be possible to conceptualize through the moment of appropriation, in the course of the act of consumption, considered as secondary production (M. de Certeau). Changes in everyday practices and human attitudes towards urban spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic are analyzed based on domestic and foreign research. The possibility of consolidating new forms of everyday practices is comprehended. Strengthening of a person's intrasubjective orientation is stated.

Psychopathy as a Modus of Human Destructiveness in the Literary and Philosophical Reflection of Postmodernity (based on the novels "A Clockwork Orange" by A. Burgess and "The Wasp Factory" by I. Banks)
Anastasia Kucherova
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-442-457
Abstract:

The sociopolitical circumstances of people's lives are constantly changing, which is studied by science, philosophy and art. The twentieth century is a time of great upheavals that changed the approach to the concept of man and the field of his existence. Philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century pay attention to the destructive nature of state power, its institutions are interpreted as suppressing freedom and consolidating violence as an ideology (the Frankfurt School, J. Baudrillard, S. Zizek, etc.). Another important concept is the interpretation of destructive impulses as a normal component of a person (J. Bataille, Z. Freud, E. Fromm, J. Deleuze, etc.). This idea creates a pattern of behavior that is considered psychopathic in the article. Psychopathy is a genetically determined type of antisocial personality. The phenomenon of psychopathy is a subject not only of scientific study, but also of art: the psychopath became a central character in many works of literature and cinema in the second half of the twentieth century. The article analyzes the novels "A Clockwork Orange" by E. Burgess (1962) and "The Wasp Factory" by I. Banks (1984), where the main characters are teenage psychopaths. The article concludes that these works complement each other, exploring two main areas of human life (the world of the state and the world of the family). It is suggested that by referring to the psychopathic hero, writers describe the changes that take place in society, these changes are also analyzed by philosophers. The fact that psychopathic traits in novels are concentrated in the images of teenagers indicates the possibility of psychopathy developing and spreading in the future.

Religion in modern culture

The After Life of the Buddha: Parinirvana Images in Eurasia
Rashmi Doraiswamy
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-458-475
Abstract:

This article examines religions in which the life of the spiritual leader is as important as the death, and where the narratives of death (and not just of life) enter the image cycles in art. The Buddha willed himself to die when he was eighty at Kushinagara. Buddhism is one of the rare world religions where there is a huge repertoire of mahaparinairvana images. Buddhism values the release from the cycle of rebirths and deaths. The sets and cycles of images that make up the representation of the death of the Buddha in sculpture and paintings in caves spread across Eurasia are described in detail. The death images are important spatially, materially and culturally. These images began to be made in Mathura, were perfected at Gandhara and travelled all the way across Central Asia to China and beyond. The relics left behind after cremation were enshrined in stupas. They represented a continuation of dharma, of the presence of the Buddha even after he had passed on. The article analyses in detail three caves – Cave 26 in Ajanta in Maharashtra, India; Cave 205 in Kizil in Kucha, Central Asia (East Turkestan) and Cave 148 in Mogao, Dunhuang, China. All three caves juxtapose monumental images of the Dying Buddha with different themes related to his death: The Temptation of Demon Mara in Cave 26, Ajanta;  how King Ajatashatru was told of Buddha’s passing along with the cremation of the coffin with the mahaparinirvana Buddha in it in Cave 205, Kizil. Cave 148 at Mogao contains the most complete set of scenes and images representing events pre- and post- Buddha’s death in sculptures and murals. In addition, there are Chinese interpretations of the Pure Lands in large murals.

Substantiation of the Testimonial Knowledge in the Religious Epistemology: The Approach of J. Greco
Svetlana Khmelevskaya,  Nataliya Yablokova
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-476-490
Abstract:

Currently, the study of religious knowledge is carried out mainly within the framework of religious epistemology, which does not exclude its consideration from the standpoint of a non-cognitive approach, for example, fideism. However, the greatest interest is in cognitivism, whose proponents explore the problems of religious knowledge using a number of standards of classical epistemology, yet at the same time modify them, creating standards of religious epistemology proper. One of the authors who develop this direction is J. Greco, who continues the tradition of studying evidence ("testimonial evidence") and its role in the formation and functioning of religious consciousness. In an effort to organize witness knowledge, he tries to typologize it, distinguishing, on the one hand, knowledge presented as a set of witness data, and, on the other hand, as knowledge transmitted and assimilated in the processes of communication that take place, for example, within a religious community. J. Greco criticizes the arguments of skeptics who claim that it is impossible that the evidence can serve as a sufficient basis for religious belief.

The article emphasizes the simplicity of such an approach, since J. Greco does not distinguish the types of knowledge that are formed as a result of evidence (in particular, reflexive and value-based knowledge, which are formed and assimilated in different ways), which are different in their epistemological characteristics. At the same time, he focuses on a problem that is significant not only for religious, but also for classical epistemology, namely, the influence of the moral authority of a particular form of comprehension of being (science, religion, etc.) and its specific representatives who develop the relevant knowledge on the assimilation of certain epistemic truths by both specialized communities (for example, the scientific community) and society as a whole.

The philosophical arguments of J. Greco shows that the theme of religious evidence within the framework of classical epistemology is not reduced to banal statements that they do not meet the criteria generated by scientific knowledge. These reflections touch upon a number of topics relevant to this epistemology. At the same time, these arguments point to the need to develop a religious epistemology based on the specifics of religious knowledge with its own verification criteria and methodology for obtaining it.

Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Russian religious philosophy, underground consciousness, dialogue, salvation
Kirill Rodin
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2021-13.4.2-491-501
Abstract:

The religious opposition of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky was formalized (or even created) and was significantly widened in the works of Russian religious philosophy. The almost unconditional acceptance (or at least sympathy) for Dostoevsky's religiosity, along with distrust and well-known criticism of Tolstoy's later religious works, was firmly entrenched in the Orthodox and general cultural consciousness for more than a century. However, the confrontation was never taken seriously. We want to outline the insurmountable chasm between two images of finding God using the example of the relationship between Raskolnikov and Sonya Marmeladova on the one hand, and Father Sergius (Stepan Kasatsky) and Pashenka (Praskovya Mikhailovna) on the other. These examples are of a paradigmatic nature and can be extended to other artistic and religious (in Dostoevsky's case, journalistic) works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. From the legacy of Russian religious philosophy for the consideration of the works selected in the article ("Crime and Punishment" and "Father Sergius"), Bulgakov's "The Man-God and the Man-Beast" has the greatest and characteristic value. The opposition set by Bulgakov between Tolstoy (using the example of later works) and Dostoevsky (using the figure of the elder Zosima) is considered a misunderstanding by us. Bulgakov biasedly understands the religious meaning of Tolstoy's later texts. We offer a different reading of "Father Sergius" and raise the question of different images of the attainment (finding) of God in the texts of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky anew.

Obituary