Ideas and Ideals

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the phenomenon of the ‘New Sin­cerity’ as a kind of new ethics and its problematisation in relation to the consum­er society. Is the so-called ‘New Sincerity’ really a qualitative change in the human sensibility of 21st century society in a globalised world, or, on the contrary, is it becoming another trademark where signs of naturalness are successfully com­mercialised?

A genealogical analysis of the concept of New Sincerity was carried out inorder to realise the objective. Semiological analysis and hermeneutics of cor­poreal signs were then used to demonstrate the artificiality of the notion of‘naturalness’ itself. A critique of representational theory, on which the NewSincerity relies as an accurate external reflection of internal processes, was also undertaken.

The study revealed that the representatives of the New Sincerity are embed­ded in the capitalist logic of communication. Using various examples, particu­larly from the blogosphere, the signs of naturalness and sincerity that are suc­cessfully commercialised in contemporary show business and the blogospherewere identified. In particular, the difference between the showbiz epatage ofthe ‘old’ and the ‘new’ ethics of Lady Gaga and Ashley Halsey was revealed. Inthe first case, the outrage is a well-considered part of the stage persona, in thesecond case, it is a consequence caused by the affective behaviour of the staras a manifestation of the New Sincerity. Using the example of a video fromthe everyday life of the Korean K-Pop group BTS, it was found that successfulediting creates a feeling of the idols’ life ‘as if in the palm’ for the fans, at thesame time it removes such important aspects of everyday life as, for example,the sexual life.

The theoretical significance of this study lies in the attempt to reflect on the new cultural trends that are unfolding in contemporary society. The practical sig­nificance of the study lies in the possibility of applying the findings to self-reflec­tion and the formation of a clear view of the world in which we live.

The purpose of the article is to establish the peculiarities of the habitus ofthe ruling elite in modern Russia. The methodological basis is the position ac­cording to which certain points of view, type of thinking, habitus correspond to the social position. As a method of collecting information, one of the varieties of document analysis is thematic analysis. According to the results of the study, the following characteristic of the habitus of the ruling elite of modern Russia was given. The ideological attitudes of the Russian elite are oriented towards the patterns of Western culture, but the stability and depth of the referential orien­tation towards the West of the Russian elite groups depends on the political and economic situation. The ruling elite of Russia is conservative, it is generally sat­isfied with its position in Russia. The same reason leads to its negative attitude to any significant social transformations. The conservatism of the Russian elite leads to the rejection of analytical thinking, with the help of which reality is de­composed in order to construct from its parts the future that is fundamentally different from the present. The ruling elite strives to see the world as integral and organic. The elite strata, at least, are suspicious and distrustful of the intel­lectual abilities and moral qualities of the Russian population. Attributing certain stable socio-psychological qualities to the population (irresponsibility, low ability to self-organize and adapt to changing socio-economic conditions, infantilism, inadequate assessment of reality) indicates a deep gap between the elite and oth­er social groups, which, given such an obvious stigmatization, becomes not only political or economic, but also psychological. And this, in turn, is an additional conflictogenic factor. Failure to take into account the peculiarities of the situa­tion of opposing social groups, which is a consequence of socially determined stigmatization, will be perceived as an arrogant and dismissive attitude, which often becomes the detonator of social clashes. Such a negative and exaggerated assessment of the socio-psychological qualities of the population is reflected in the quality of public administration. In the latter, there is a tendency to primitiv­ization and one-sidedness of influence, a constant search for simple solutions. The failures caused by this are justified by the immaturity of the people, their low moral qualities, which only intensifies the social gap and differentiation.

         The article analyzes the European utopias of the XVII century on the ba­sis of the actor-network approach. The assemblage point of a utopian society is directly the idea of a social order, which is formed on the basis of scientific knowledge embodying instrumental reason. The study of man, societies, and natural phenomena allows the authors of utopias to offer a more rationally or­ganized, ordered, from their point of view, social world that provides satisfac­tion of the needs of both the individual and society. The social order based on scientific knowledge is conceived by the authors of utopias as a marker of civili­zation, thanks to which the utopian society as another (‘alien’) social order is en­dowed with positive characteristics. The authors believe that the construction ofthe utopian ‘social’ takes place within a closed network in space and time, which prevents the threat of the collapse of order, isolating cultural influence from the outside, as well as guaranteeing the immutability/stability of a given algorithm of social relations in a chronological perspective. The authors identify the func­tioning in utopias of the regime of everyday life reproduction, excluding mo­bilization, orienting the inhabitants of utopia on the values of everyday work, moderation and harmony. The article shows that the construction of a society based on scientific knowledge determines the features of social stratifi cation in the form of a meritocracy of knowledge legitimized by natural religion. The au­thors believe that the ‘assembly of the social’ based on egalitarian principles ex­tends mainly to economic processes, while the public sphere is designated in the form of an aristocracy of intellectual labor. The expert community carries out total regulation of the activities of archaic/primitive by nature social institutions. The authors think of the collected models of utopian society as universal, po­tentially suitable for all communities experiencing problems with building a so­cial order.

Numerous publications indicate the presence of a deep political crisis in the United States. One of the most obvious indicators of the crisis is the authoritarian tendency in the development of the political system. Polarization between the two major parties has reached its peak. Polls show, with both sides perceiving the opposing party not just as a political rival, but as an enemy of the nation. The divergence of positions between them on important issues has greatly increased, which gives rise to extreme partisanship in decision-making. This article is the fi rst in a series about the “end of America”. The topic of “the end of America” or “the death of America” has become especially relevant in the publications of the last 20 years. These phrases are used so often that many people no longer notice that they are compound metaphors. The article analyzes the framework or fi elds of meaning in which these metaphors acquire their context and content. The following meanings of “America” are identifi ed and described in the article: a sovereign country, a social and political-economic system, civilization and culture, a geopolitical player, a superpower, and, fi nally, the “American experiment,” that is, a unique political and social project for self-government in the state. The answer to the question “is America dying” (“died”) depends on what features of America, what values and principles of its structure are considered the main or system-forming ones. Most modern authors call democracy the main characteristic of the political system and understand by the “death of America” the “death of democracy,” or more precisely, the degeneration of democracy from liberal to authoritarian. The article contains examples confi rming this trend. Predictions of the “death of America” do not mean its inevitable end, since not all changes are irreversible. The current crisis in the history of the United States is far from the fi rst in the history; its political system contains opportunities and mechanisms for resolving crises and restoring the foundations of the “American project.”

Studies of Chinese stratagem thinking in Russia still do not take into account works created in line with the Confucian philosophical tradition. “A Complete Book of Wisdom” by Feng Menglong (1574–1646) can be regarded as a collection of stratagems. The grounds for this assessment may be found in traditional bibliographic descriptions and the modern research and publishing tradition.

The fi rst edition was published in 1626, the supplemented edition – in 1634.

Formally, “A Complete Book of Wisdom” can be referred to encyclopediasleishu. The text is not a continuous narrative, but consists of individual short stories; the number depends on the edition, from 1061 to 1236. Each story describes a precedent for the application of a stratagem. The period of the narration covers years from ancient times to the Ming Dynasty. Feng Menglong selected proper stories, edited them, and added his own comments. Typologically, similar stories are organized into separate sections (28 in total), which, in turn, are organized into chapters (10 in total). One chapter contains from two to four sections.

“A Complete Book of Wisdom” retains the features of the “A New Account of Tales of the World” by Liu Yiqing (403–444), which are characterized by a value classifi cation of people’s deeds. All the stories are arranged according to the principle of “from the best to the worst”.

Feng Menglong wrote a large preface to the entire work, and provided extended prefaces to each chapter. Each section is preceded by a brief explanation. Feng Manlong’s own ideological views can be discovered as the paratextual elements: prefaces and commentaries.

The article consists of two parts. The fi rst part is devoted to the description of the peculiarities of the narrative language of “A Complete Book of Wisdom”, as well as the analysis of the socio-philosophical issues that stimulated the creation of this work. On the basis of quotation from classics in Feng Menglong’s works two types of author’s meaning formation are revealed. The author of the paper shows transformation of ethical models of Sung neo-Confucianism and the changing status of the category ‘wisdom’ in Feng Menglong’s ideological program. The second part of the article offers the author’s commented translation of Feng Menglong’s general preface to “A Complete Book of Wisdom” and ten prefaces to each chapter.

The article raises the problem of the lack of strategic planning in relation to the development of territories in the east of Russia. The author highlights the special status of the Siberian macro-region in terms of the integrity of the Russian Federation as well as the heuristic value of the concept “Asian Russia”, referring to the geopolitical risks of the early 20th century. The author analyses the challenges of its development that have not been overcome so far. These include the geographical remoteness of the center from the territorially vast periphery, the social alienation of the provinces from the capital enclaves, and the cultural distance between representatives of different ethnic groups. The resources of human potential in the east of Russia, the civilizational multi-vector nature of its Ural-Siberian core, and the stability of interethnic communities are designated as opportunities for the accelerated development of the macroregion.

The methodological basis of the study is the concept of V.L. Tsymbursky “Island of Russia”. On the basis of Rosstat data and the discursive analysis of the “Strategy for the socio-economic development of the Siberian Federal District until 2035”, the risks of underestimation of human capital for the future of Asian Russia and the country as a whole are shown. The main management risk in the long term may be the focus on “raw materials” specialization, which threatens to depopulate vast areas. It is concluded that there is no alternative to a real “turn to the East” and the accelerated development of the Asian regions of Russia as the core of the “Great Eurasia” project.

The problem statement concerns the actual issues of raising the status of the intellectual component of the Humanities education within the framework of the author’s investigation on “Cultural self-determination of the individual in the space of realization of intercultural communication”. The conditions of modeling communicative situations of the ecosystem of multicultural education are determined in the paradigm “From observation to generalization and replication through cooperation”.

The focus of this paper is on the strategic and tactic directions of the development of Russian education within the methodology and technology of the Self as a cultural personality.

Socio-philosophical perception and theoretical justifi cation of the problem under consideration have given grounds for mastering the communicative culture of the individual in the frames of intellectual architectonics of multilingual culture as the methodological basis of the many years of activity. The multicultural intellectual architectonics refl ects a humanizing core of the regional information and educational spaces. The social signifi cance of the formation of a multicultural mindset of the personality initiates creating of one of the possible models of the ecosystems of the synergetic effect of co-management in a communicative society.

The presentation of the effects of cooperation of the Department of the Institute of Continuing Education, educational organizations of Novosibirsk and Novosibirsk region, domestic publishers, as well as the effects of cooperation of regional, All-Russian and international universities is carried out within the framework of the project “Creating a unifi ed information and educational secure communication environment”. As the fi nal result of the generalization, the corpus of case-studies is considered, and the system of conditions for their implementation is substantiated as a multidimensional humanitarian project in the aspect of the integration of society and the reproduction of culture within the humanitarian educational practices. Such features of students’ perception of a different culture as the development of multilingualism and multicultures in artifi cial conditions of mastering the communicative skills of implementing the basics of intercultural communication are noted. Special emphasis focuses on the social signifi cance and cultural mission of educational organizations in the aspect of modeling the corpus of vital communicative situations/events in the space of scientifi c and methodological support within the socio-humanitarian sphere of regional events.

In conclusion, the system of methodological, pedagogical and methodological conditions for the effective implementation of the author’s model for the formation of intercultural skills and teaching/learning techniques of intercultural communication, which form the basis for the development of additional professional programs in the system of continuing professional education of specialists in various fi elds, is formulated.

The education system includes the main social institutions that perform the functions of upbringing and education. A common characteristic of any education system is the orientation towards the transfer of knowledge and the formation of skills in order to develop students. At the same time, each stage of social development corresponds to an education system that meets the requirements for the results and goals of education in a particular society. Historically, the evolution of educational systems is interconnected with the transformation of the socio-political structure.

The need for a serious reform of the Russian educational system arose under the infl uence of two interrelated factors: the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and its education system, and the rejection of the existing ideology of educating the younger generation. The protracted reform of the Russian education system is currently causing a lot of criticism from experts and the public, one of which is the deviation from humanistic traditions in teaching practice. The subject of analysis in the article is the conditions that ensure the implementation of the idea of developing the humanistic orientation of the modern education system in Russia.

At the origins of the implementation of any idea is a person, innovations in educational practice are embodied by a teacher. Consequently, the backbone components capable of ensuring the embodiment of the idea of a humanistic orientation of the modern education system in Russia are the goals of education that are consonant with this orientation and the pedagogical staff that ensure their achievement.

At the same time, the reforms of domestic education in the post-Soviet period led to the loss of the primacy of the educational component in the educational process. Currently, society and the state are making efforts to make up for this mistake. However, a signifi cant obstacle to solving this problem is often the unpreparedness of teachers to implement the educational functions of education based on the humane principles of pedagogy, the basis of which is to take into account the individual characteristics and personal needs of the pupil. The introduction of new forms and methods of working with students will not provide long-term results if it does not affect the foundations of the education system. The purpose of the article is to systematize and supplement information about the conditions that contribute to the development of the humanistic orientation of the modern education system in Russia.

The author evaluates the evolution of two ideas: the humanization of education and the formation of a professional orientation in the system of teacher training. The humanistic orientation is substantiated by the author as part of a professional orientation. The origins, problems and approaches to the scientifi c analysis of the idea of the formation and development of the humanistic orientation of future teachers in the conditions of university education are analyzed. To obtain substantiated scientifi c results, the author analyses the normative documentation of the Russian education system, dissertation research, current periodicals and the educational environment of the university. The paper also indicates the reasons preventing the mass dissemination of humanistic ideas in modern Russian education.

Thus, the author draws reasonable conclusions about the set of conditions necessary for the development of the humanistic orientation of the education system of modern Russia. Among the conditions mediated by the system of training of pedagogical personnel are: respectful relations of the subjects of the educational process; selection of the content of education; use of active forms and methods of training and education; participation of students in volunteer activities, including leader activities; creation of a special educational environment of the university. The general conclusion of the article is the emphasis on the dependence of the embodiment of the idea of developing the humanistic orientation of the Russian education system on the organizational and pedagogical conditions of the modern system of training teachers. The teaching staff in this historical period is a system-forming component of the Russian education system, on which the results of its transformation depend.

This article examines the phenomenon of open education, its infl uence, and prospects within the context of contemporary education. An in-depth exploration of this pedagogical approach offers invaluable insights for educators, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders intrigued by advanced methodologies and ideas in the educational realm. The primary objective of the research is to ascertain how the principles of open education facilitate the transformation of traditional educational frameworks and how they can promote educational equity. To achieve this aim, the author employs a method of analyzing diverse sources and practical examples. It is posited that open education represents a signifi cant stride towards creating a more inclusive and accessible educational milieu, anchored in the principles of democracy, self-organization, and knowledge equality. The article’s key fi ndings encompass the understanding that open education, rooted in principles of accessibility, inclusivity, self-organization, and knowledge democratization, offers novel opportunities for the transformation of conventional education and the realization of educational fairness. Challenges in implementing open education, including digital disparity, content quality, accreditation, and student motivation, are also illuminated. Open education introduces pedagogical innovations, infusing elements of fl exibility and individualization. Novelty contributions of the research encompass delineating the impact of open education on transforming educational frameworks, a profound comprehension of open education principles and their application for ensuring educational equity, and the formulation of new methodological approaches to studying the open education phenomenon. In conclusion, the study offers valuable perspectives on the role and position of open education in the current educational landscape and its potential for further exploration. This work will be of interest to those seeking to understand and probe the possibilities that open education presents for today’s educational environment.

This article examines the relationship between the occurrence of non-communicable diseases and the level of physical activity in regions with various cultures. The World Health Organization statistics on diseases such as obesity and hypertension and physical activity data are taken as indicators. Particular attention is given to describing the cultural factors motivating the population to get engaged in sport and physical activity in countries such as Japan, India, China and the USA. The author touches upon the philosophical and religious foundations of the individual’s and society’s attitude to improving physical abilities in Eastern and Western cultures, as well as the special attitude of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism to the interaction between the individual and society. In her reasoning the author relies on the differences in the priority goals of the individual in different cultural spaces. The author highlights the role of the collective-individual in the mass enthusiasm for physical exercise in the East and the development of professional sport in the West. The key factor here is the pronounced individualism of modern culture in Western Europe and North America. Particular attention is paid to educational approaches and the infl uence of the family on the development of positive attitudes towards physical activity. And also how orientation on family values infl uences formation of high level motivation to physical self-improvement. The article briefl y points out the reasons for the decline of physical activity and sports in modern Russia. The author concludes that cultural differences are a key factor that should be taken into account when planning social policy with regard to health and sport.