Socio-cultural environment, its levels, characteristics, potential. Cultural level of personality
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The division of culture into levels, no matter how conventional it may be, is expedient. The level of culture is an indicator of its real state, the ultimate possibilities of its implementation in life. Using the material of the lectures of Professor V.V.Selivanov, read at the RGI at St.
When a person began to feel like a person, passing from a biological state to a social one, the first of the perceived needs was vital (from the Latin “vita” - life), the need for his own life, the desire to live and survive. This need should not be equated with the biological instincts of survival and procreation in animals. In humans, even at the starting point of cultural genesis, the forms and methods of realizing this need fundamentally distinguish it from the animal's desire for survival. Of course, human life is also provided with food, reproduction, clothing, and elementary comfort. But people have vital needs, although they are original, in relation to other needs (for with care, say about beauty, you will not be full and you will not be hungry), but they themselves have become more complicated. They were important not only at the beginning of human history, but are essential now. And they represent the base of the lowest level of culture, which VV Selivanov conventionally calls “vital”.
This level is primary, necessary, but limited. A person in any era, at any age can remain at this level of culture. Then all elements of reality and culture exist in relation to vital needs, as ensuring their satisfaction. All interests and passions can go here. A businessman, just an ordinary person, will strive to saturate his life as much as possible with conditions of comfort, relaxation, entertainment, support and restoration of his life. At the same time, an egocentric consciousness is naturally formed, when it is “I” and those who are associated with me, who are important to me (a corporation of friends, a family) that are valuable. Around himself, a person forms a layer of culture, where sometimes all its spheres and elements are represented: morality, religion, law, art, love, friendship. But everything is dominated by pragmatic tendencies of use, including culture, in their immediate life interests. The stratum of people at this level is characterized by the use of everything prestigious, spectacular, and often forbidden. The “vitalists” usually have a keen interest in power, in its presence and use for oneself. In this layer, a person feels satisfied and actively acts to expand his practical capabilities. The main thing is that a person of this level of culture is characterized by an attitude towards other people, including those at higher levels of culture, as objects of self-interest and profit. This level, namely the lowest, it directly borders on lack of culture, on the absence of culture. People of this level master only a minimum of culture. They are characterized by culture mainly in its external manifestations (required by society), and up to the limit to which these manifestations do not interfere with a good life, satisfying vital needs. Therefore, attempts at a real moral or aesthetic education of people of this level are almost meaningless. In order for them to manifest an awareness of their cultural imperfection, so that they have access to a higher level of culture, it is necessary to change the basic need. And this basic need, if rooted, is very strong.
The second, higher level can (also conditionally) be designated as the level of specialized culture. It is based on the dominance of interest in life itself, in some of its sides, the need for self-realization. A person who reaches this level of culture usually knows something that delights others, and for which he himself acquires a strong and stable interest. This manifests itself as the realization of their needs and capabilities with a passion for some business, skill, profession or even a hobby. In this way, the need to live the life of one's abilities is satisfied. This, to a certain extent, determines the whole system of human values. Really interesting and valuable is what is relevant to the case where a person manifests himself. In the name of the cause, in the name of passion for it, a person can make sacrifices and even self-sacrifice. This, it would seem, is a very high level of culture, which is often characteristic of scientists, artists, politicians, etc., who sometimes believe that their personal passion is extremely important for humanity or a particular society. I. Kant once remarked: “Scientists think that everything exists for their sake. The nobles think the same. ” For people of this level of culture, another person is interesting and valuable not as an object of self-interest, but as an object of professional aspiration, or only in connection with it. And, for example, it turns out to be possible to step over a person in the name of serving art, science, for the sake of political interests. A deed, as a self-manifestation, turns out to be valuable in itself, more valuable than any person who stands outside of this business, and even more so interferes with it. Of course, everything in life is much more complicated, including the manifestations of this level of culture. Any schemes are crude. There are apparently intermediate levels between the first and the second, the second and the third.
V.V.Selivanov conventionally designates the third level as the level of full-fledged culture. The dominant basic need of this level is the need for the life of another person, passion for the life of another. This is not about activities, so to speak, for the good of society, not about altruism. A vivid manifestation of reaching the highest level of culture (which is possible for everyone) is true love when you want to bring joy to another person. But such an attitude (close to this) can manifest itself through a profession, and through a hobby, and through anything. In morality, for example, this is an orientation towards the other even in self-assessments, this is a sharpened conscience, this is tact, delicacy, tolerance. The highest level is characterized by a focus on cultural self-enrichment, a keen interest in various cultural phenomena, not limited to professional one-sidedness. The third level of culture in society is usually reached by a few, really cultural elite. But the possibility of reaching it and the cases of realization, even if only partial, of this possibility are extremely important.
Unfortunately, in life, culture can be and is often not realized at the highest level. If the lower (vital) level of culture is dominant, then nature, for example, is simply a useful or harmful “thing” for a person that can and should be used in his own interests. Civilize, equip, decorate, creating a separate artificial natural world (farm, vegetable garden, plot, flowers and fish in the house). And at the same time (if not mine) - you can deplete, litter, poison, destroy, when it is profitable. The attitude towards nature in this case is purely egoistic and always active. Bazarov in Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons" said that nature is not a temple, but a workshop, and a person is a worker in it. The older generation of people in our country remembered, taken out of context, the phrase of the famous gardener I. Michurin, which was replicated as a slogan: we cannot wait for favors from nature, it is our task to take them from her!
The second level of culture (specialized) presupposes a disinterested, non-utilitarian interest in nature, a desire to study it and preserve it in the most original form. And if you redo it, then you really need to arrange it, including artistically, improve it, and enrich it. Just such people as the aforementioned Michurin, and all those for whom nature is more a temple than a workshop, reach this level. However, the deification of nature can become excessive both in itself and, most importantly, in combination with complete or partial indifference to the people who inhabit it. Often this is expressed in empty calls to stop progress, in fact, returning life to long and hopelessly gone forms of civilization, or even to a pre-civilizational supposedly “paradise” state.
The highest level, real culture is manifested not in this, but in the fact that nature is a human value, a value precisely in relation to the people living in it. In this case, she is not a workshop or a temple, not someone's prayer house, but our common home. The house in which they live, which is not destroyed, but they are settled in it, preferably more comfortable, they decorate it. A person, living in nature, feeling its greatness and beauty, must spiritualize himself and spiritualize nature, making it more and more beautiful and humane. And not only nature as the environment, but also yourself as a natural being: your body, your mind, your soul.
Physical culture, and the so-called mental, and the culture of feelings, are also of different levels. The lower level is characterized by the use of both body and mind, and even mental strength, for the sake of profit, self-interest, prestige. For example, in sports, especially professional ones. The lowest level of mental culture is found in everyday intelligence, common sense, “second mind” (cunning).
At a specialized level, physical and mental development turn out to be two possible spheres of self-manifestation of a person, for whom skill itself, “art” (including mental), the game itself (both in sports and in thought), the realization of abilities becomes vital: in dexterity of movements or in a blaze of wit. Moreover, both physical abilities and mental activity usually develop in special directions... Reinforced physical development does not imply an equally powerful mental, and vice versa. Technicians think differently from the humanities. Both of them sometimes have difficulty understanding each other. The same goes for scientists and artists. People specialize, both in possible forms of procreation, and in the form of expression of thought.
But the main thing is that the play of body and mind at this level can turn out to be valuable in itself. A person, although he does not show selfish aspirations in this case, is simply not very interesting and valuable to him others, whose existence is not connected with the sphere of self-manifestation he has chosen.
Physical and mental culture becomes a culture proper, at its highest level only if they acquire an orientation towards another person, moral and aesthetic meaning. So, the body must be healthy and beautiful (including freedom of movement) so that your ill health and deformity does not burden the lives of others, does not offend their sight and taste. It is important that your physicality is joyful both for you and for those around you.
The culture of thought at this level presupposes the ability of a person to fly freely with the characteristic: integrity of coverage of reality, breadth of horizons, noble ability to think and express a thought in this way (according to its subject, task, conditions) so that it is available to other people, worries them, as interesting and necessary for them.
In general, in culture, the ability to express oneself is very important: in words, postures, gestures, views, actions, relationships - in what is called behavior. Let me remind you once again that culture is in many ways and there are forms, various (sign and significant) forms of expression in which spiritual values can exist. But the forms created in the life of people that become stable (traditional) can be filled with different content in different ways. And they can remain almost empty, culturally empty, formalizing to the limit.
For the lower level of culture, it is precisely the poverty of forms of expressing oneself that is characteristic: poor mastery of them, their distortion. While there is a developed expressive literary language, many people use sloppy, rude, abusive (sometimes unnecessarily, out of habit and only), confused speech, with the wrong use of words, expressions, stresses.
There are many etiquette traditions and rules. But the mass of people still do not know how to eat culturally, sit beautifully and freely, stand, move, wear clothes. All this coarsens, impoverishes the atmosphere of communication between people. In all this, the level of culture, bordering on lack of culture, is manifested.
However, one can be able to speak correctly, behave according to etiquette and not be at a high level of culture, having mastered only the appearance of cultural forms and pragmatically using them, since it is beneficial. High culture manifests itself when, firstly, these forms are internally organic for a person, have become completely his forms of behavior: he simply cannot behave otherwise. And secondly, when they help him to remain truly human in any situation - meaningfully, in relations with other people who may have other cultural forms, other forms of self-expression.
Relationships between people are important. It is important how culture at all three levels is realized precisely in them and about them. So, in relation to the relationship between the sexes, it is obvious that at the lowest level of culture, the main thing is the use of another person for the purpose of childbearing, achieving psychological or physical comfort (sex for one's own pleasure). In the best case, the use is reciprocal and in a modern “technically competent” way. But the feelings and forms of their expression at the same time are rude and poor.
At the second level, we are already talking about love as the most important self-manifestation of a person. Then, when sexual love in his life is one of the most important values. And this is so serious that because of love a person can sacrifice his life (true, and a stranger too!). Researchers of love noted that in this case love can act almost as a kind of religion.
Passion here is disinterested, sincere and strong. And love seems to be extremely sublime. But for her sake, it turns out to be possible not only to torture or kill another person, but also to offend parents, leave children, deceive a friend, be merciless. Not by calculation, but by obeying the dictates of passion.
Love at the highest level of culture is different in essence. She shows, first of all, the desire and ability to bring joy to another person. It does not matter here whether it is sexual love, although it can also manifest itself as a completely carnal, tender and joyful feeling. It is important that this is love for a neighbor, a specific person, from which both you and your neighbor and those around you become warm and light in this world. Such love does not dominate either you or the other. It gives the highest freedom: in feeling and in the actions that manifest it.
And if we are talking about freedom, then it can be realized in different ways, in relation to culture. Again, the lowest level is found if freedom is valuable as and insofar as it is convenient and beneficial. Within the framework of the norms existing in society (if these norms have not become internally organic for a person) - freedom or not, or it is significantly limited, for the good of the cause.
At the second level of culture, freedom (will!) Is valuable in itself. And he is tempted to exercise freedom at any cost. Including in love. And this is sometimes scary. And only at the third level of culture, freedom manifests itself as an unconnected expression of a person's humanity. This is his ability and ability, desire and ability to realize himself (to live!) In a natural human way in relation to the world, to other people. And it is not at all necessary at the same time to oppose oneself to existing traditions and norms. To the extent that existing traditions and norms contribute to the existence and development of culture, they can be their own for a cultured person, not interfering with his freedom, but helping her to take shape.
Living people do not fit well even into good schemes. A particular person is most often in some relationship at one level of culture, in some at another. But dominates in the personality, is essentially significant, always some one of the levels. In any society, culture exists in all three. The easiest, the most accessible, and the most commonplace, of course, is the lower level, the vital. Already being at the specialized level, life is usually more difficult, although more interesting. The third level for most people is attainable only in private moments of life. For individuals, it can be quite organic, but it is often very difficult for such people to live in our always imperfect world. Culture in general requires tension; a person of little culture has an easier life. True, there is a widespread idea that it is possible and necessary to make (educate) cultured people all the same, that culture should be accessible to everyone. With regard to accessibility, as the absence of restrictions on the introduction to culture, this is true. But it will probably never be possible to make everyone equally cultured. In every society there is a limited cultural stratum, for whose representatives cultural development is the raison d'être. V socially this layer can be helpless, in politics - naive, in the economy and in everyday life - impractical. Generally, social significance a person does not coincide with his culture. At the same time, a huge mass of society is content with the subculture of poverty - a type of existence in which the limitedness of cultural needs is comfortable, spiritually impoverished being is convenient. And this mass of cultural values are used more or less accidentally (during a "run" through the Hermitage), although signs of near-cultural existence in such an environment are valued (unreadable, but "prestigious" books, a cross on the neck, without faith). The assimilation of cultural values (previous eras and periods, and new ones that are being born) by people of different levels of culture is a separate and complex problem, both practical and theoretical. After all, even an understanding of what is a cultural value and what is a pseudo-value is not easy. There is no unambiguity in different interpretations of what values are in general and, in particular, the values of culture. And at the same time, apparently not without reason they assert that: "It is value that serves as the basis and foundation of any culture."
The culture of peoples and states, reflecting the degree of material and spiritual mastery of nature or the level of development of productive forces, is the most capacious indicator of the scientific, technical and social maturity of a socio-economic formation.
It serves not only as a measure of the conformity of the level of social development of world civilization, but also as a forecast of its prospects, a prerequisite for future social culture.
The main subjects of the culture of society are the family and the work collective, where the first, as a socio-demographic, and the second, as a socio-economic unit of society, represent almost the entire cultural environment of the individual, i.e., they reflect the development of individual culture. As for the culture of individuals and groups, it is not only an indicator of socialization, but also a criterion for the possibilities of personality development. Acting as a condition for the development of an individual, the cultural environment acquires the property of a determinant of human development and behavior.
The spiritual aspect of personality culture is considered. The point is not that its material aspect has already found its light, but that the spiritual is closer to the subjective side of individual behavior. Ultimately, spiritual culture shows the degree to which the masses have mastered the Marxist worldview, which, as Lenin noted, “be the correct expression of the interests, point of view, and culture of the revolutionary proletariat”.
Incarnating into specific abilities and properties, the spiritual culture of an individual in normal conditions strives for conformity with the culture of his environment, which, reflecting social culture, acts as a formal standard for the development of abilities and personality traits. Representing a pronounced social deviation, a dysfunctional family creates its own specific cultural or, more precisely, anticultural environment. Objectively developing according to the above scheme, the child involuntarily takes possession of the culture of family trouble, exacerbating the already low spiritual potential of his family.
The methodological basis for solving questions about assessing the level, goals of development and education of the individual is the well-known position of K. Marx and F. Engels that "... the vocation, purpose, task of the whole person is to comprehensively develop all his abilities ...". Attaching exceptional importance to the problem of the all-round development of man, the founders of Marxism-Leninism saw this as the only way to master the diverse and rich spiritual heritage of society. Since man is the main productive force of society, his "vocation, purpose, task" become a condition for the development of productive forces, a condition for social progress. It follows from this that the all-round development of man becomes "the universal law of social production." Consequently, one of the main and most universal criteria for assessing the level and determining the goals of the cultural development of everyone, including minors from disadvantaged families, is the comprehensiveness of personality development. This criterion cannot be spontaneously transferred to minors from dysfunctional families without a corresponding adjustment to the present level of personality development and the peculiarities of the immediate cultural environment. In order for this criterion to "work", it is necessary to determine its content, as well as to establish a really achievable natural and figurative standard of the cultural environment of the object
As for the substantive aspect of the criterion for assessing the level and defining the goals of the cultural development of the personality of minors from disadvantaged families, then it should undoubtedly be based on the ideology of the working class. Occupying a leading position in social production, the working class under socialism becomes an "intellectual and moral engine", the main subject of socialist ideology. Concentrating on the basis of division and cooperation of labor into large and small production collectives, exploiting the means of production, creating all material goods, including the means of production of spiritual values, the working class becomes not only the dominant material, but also the spiritual force of society. "A class that has at its disposal the means of material production, - noted K. Marx and F. Engels," also has the means of spiritual production. " The production team can serve as a standard of the cultural environment for the subjects of family trouble. As for the choice of such a standard for minors from dysfunctional families, then the team of a class, school, study group Vocational school or production team.
Reflecting the degree of people's mastery of the laws of the development of nature and society and being embodied in the ideals of the ruling class, spiritual culture manifests itself in all spheres of the life of individuals as their attitude to work, science, knowledge, ethics, aesthetics, ideology, politics and man. In this sense, it acquires not only the value of an interdisciplinary aggregate indicator of the social maturity of a person and society, but also a catalyst for the development of their needs, that is, the improvement of relations themselves. Moreover, assimilating social experience, knowledge and skills in the process of labor, scientific, educational or other activities, a person, willingly or unwittingly, develops and multiplies his abilities and properties. In other words, dialectically and historically conditioning the development of the abilities and properties of the individual, spiritual culture becomes an indicator of subjective capabilities and a source of all-round development of the individual.
Spiritual culture is a complexly organized phenomenon, consisting of many subjective attitudes of a person to the spiritual values of society, manifested in abilities, skills and personality traits. An exhaustive assessment of the level of spiritual culture can be either based on the analysis of most of these elements, or those that can be grouped into a conditional model of the spiritual culture of an individual. These elements included those that determine the development and behavior of minors. All these elements-indicators of spiritual culture were (again conditionally) divided into basic and instrumental.
The main elements included those in the sphere of which most of the behavioral structures of the individual are formed (needs, interests, moral and legal views and education). The instrumental ones were those that fill the basic constructions with subjective content (intelligence, mental abilities, aesthetic views and feelings).
Based on the fact that human development is based on spiritual heritage society and its transformation into the properties, abilities and skills of the individual lie knowledge, it can be assumed that the level of development general education and the very attitude to mastering it are the initial factors and defining indicators of spiritual culture, the level and prospects of personality development. Being in direct proportion to the acquisition of any knowledge, the level of general education has a direct impact on the behavior of the individual. In this regard, the thesis of I.S.Kon that “the higher education and social status personality, the later it acquires a sense of social maturity. "
The data of our research show that only a steady increase in the level of education and maintaining a connection with the school can neutralize the influence of family problems and reorient a minor to such a standard of the cultural environment that is formed at school.
It is the influence of the school and the level of education that can explain the fact that the bulk of minors from dysfunctional families who graduated from grade 8, other things being equal with those who prematurely left school, oriented their future life on a socially positive path of development. On average, 40% of them go to vocational schools, almost 20% become workers in industrial enterprises, 24% - workers in the non-production sphere, 2% continue their studies at school and only slightly more than 1.6% fall into the category of “non-working and non-students”. The latter figure is only 5% higher than that of adolescents from families of the control group and almost 3 times less compared with minors from (disadvantaged families who left school prematurely. classes, there are almost 2 times less offenses and crimes and almost 1.5 times less - administrative and disciplinary offenses than on all minors from disadvantaged families. In short, for minors from disadvantaged families, education and study are the main (if not the only) factor in the socialization of an individual.
One of the characteristic indicators of the level of education of minors is the distance between age and the number of grades completed in school (or the year of study at a vocational school). Increasing with age (after the "break" with school), it not only complicates the possibility of obtaining an education, but also puts the minor in an atypical position. Sooner or later, this will necessarily lead to "tough" restrictions in the choice of profession and place of work, in creating a family, determining the circle of friends, mastering the spiritual heritage of society, and the possibility of legal satisfaction of one's needs. Ultimately, this is one of the causes of personality degradation, conflict with morality and law, and the reproduction of family trouble.
Of course, the lag in the level of education affects every minor in different ways, but, depending on the type of employment, it has characteristic manifestations. For students in school, it serves as the main prerequisite for premature graduation. Among vocational school students, the distance between age and the number of grades completed in school is on average 1 year. In a vocational school, the distance between age and. the level of education manifests itself as a disadapting factor or as a factor opposing the merger of the individual with the collective of the study group. On the one hand, having a significantly lower potential for knowledge (with an equal number of completed classes), minors from disadvantaged families cannot cope with the curriculum. This, knowingly or not, puts them at a disadvantage, which is expressed in relation to them as an undesirable phenomenon destabilizing the educational process and the performance of the team. On the other hand, the age difference forms a structure of interests different from that of the bulk of students. Giving preference to contacts with “old” friends, peers, people of the opposite sex, habitual forms of spending leisure time, minors from disadvantaged families develop a “tolerant” but not interested in the collective attitude.
Thus, it can be assumed that one of the reasons for the high dropout rate of minors from disadvantaged families from vocational schools (up to 75%) is mutual disinterest friend-in-friend personality and team. Such extreme form For the majority of minors from disadvantaged families, disadaptation is actually the loss of the last opportunity to receive secondary education (at least before the age of eighteen). The fact is that of all those who, after “dropping out” from vocational schools, came to work, only 2% continued their studies at a general education school in their free time. ” Leaving school leads to an increase in this distance for another 3-4 years.
The distance between age and level of education in vocational school is manifested in the same way as a condition of general age-related disharmony in personality development. Expressed in the later introduction of the individual to certain types of activity (including studying at vocational schools, serving in the ranks of the Soviet Army, labor activity and so on), she puts him in an equal, and sometimes in a lower position with the younger in age, securing it as a tendency that requires great volitional, moral, mental and physical costs for its change. Unable or unwilling to change the course of events, one part of the students from dysfunctional families resigns themselves to this and follows in line with the named tendency, the other part, acutely reacting to the seeming injustice to it, chooses the usual conflict situations way. Solving the problem of self-assertion in an antisocial way, these adolescents further aggravate the disharmony of personality development. This category accounts for up to 78% of all crimes, offenses and misdemeanors committed by students of vocational schools.
As for the distance between the age and educational level of working minors from dysfunctional families, although it does not have strong legal and psychological consequences, it is 2 years old and turns into a regularity for this category. Most of them (87%) do not suffer from a low level of education (in connection with the acquisition of independent earnings, independence from school, college, family, etc.), they reject the need for further education. The reluctance to study was also influenced by memorable difficulties at school and, of course, the large gap between the end of school and the beginning of a permanent job, which for 9% of the surveyed was 4 years, for 12% -3 years, for 27% -2 years and for the rest - 1 year. The gap increases over the years and, taking into account the characterological characteristics of the object, becomes irreversible. And although this category does not experience any damage in the low level of education, the distance between age and level of education is directly related to the lower, compared to the control group, qualifications, their characteristic negligence in the norms of production, the regime and discipline of work, offenses and crimes that they commit outside the enterprise. According to research data, working adolescents from disadvantaged families account for almost 52% of all delinquencies and crimes committed by working minors.
The most pernicious distance between age and educational level is manifested in relation to those minors from disadvantaged families who belong to the category of “non-working and non-students”. Equal to an average of 3 years (i.e., the highest in comparison with all categories of minors from disadvantaged families), it acts as a factor paralyzing general development personality. This is explained by the extreme form of degradation that "brings up" this category of minors, the family in a state of "protracted collapse", as well as the situation of the teenager actually "left to the mercy of fate".
Drunkenness and other factors of family trouble have practically become obsolete from the everyday life and vocabulary of parents: the concept of upbringing and teaching children. It is no coincidence that in the families of non-working and non-studying adolescents there are those who have stopped their studies since the fifth grade. In other words, the extreme form of family trouble deprives minors not only of childhood, but also of the initial basis for personal development, that is, of the opportunity to receive an education.
Having the lowest level of education among all categories of minors, non-working and non-studying adolescents are characterized by extremely low (1.4 points versus 3.8 points in the control group) interest in learning. At the same time, the “need” not to learn has a character that frankly progresses with age. If 12-13-year-olds still express (at least in words) some desire to get an education, then 82% of 16-17-year-olds categorically reject even the expediency of general educational training.
In this sense, the distance between age and educational level should probably be considered as a condition of personality degradation. Being the smallest group, non-working and non-working adolescents provide an almost absolute number of juveniles engaged in vagrancy. In addition, they are the most delinquent (in terms of the number of cases per 100 people) among minors. Speaking about the great importance of the level of education for the development of personality, one cannot but pay attention to the role of an objective factor in the formation of a negative attitude of minors from dysfunctional families to study. The fact that the interest in learning in this category occupies one of the last places in the scale of values is primarily to blame for the family and the low level of education of the parents. In this sense, minors from socialized families had great advantages, for the mere fact that their parents have a significantly higher level of education than parents from disadvantaged families significantly increases the guarantee of their secondary education. So rightly noted I. S. Kon, "the higher the level of education of parents, the greater the likelihood that some of them are going to continue their studies after school and that these plans will be implemented." As for family trouble, it actually deprives the prospects of obtaining secondary education and reduces this probability to an accidental coincidence, independent of the family, of circumstances.
The importance of education for a person in general and a minor in particular is also evidenced by the fact that under the influence and with the participation of education, one of the most important socio-psychological properties of a person is formed - her intellect. Forming, along with other properties and qualities, the spiritual culture of the individual, the intellect occupies a special position among them: it becomes the leading internal catalyst for the individual's self-development, an indicator of the level of development of his spiritual culture, mental activity. Forming under the influence environment and in the process of concrete theoretical or practical activity), it ultimately determines the subjective aspect of their transformation and thereby becomes one of the factors in the development of the productive forces of society.
Thus, the analysis of intelligence in the context of the spiritual culture of an individual is the most important means of identifying specific opportunities for the development and resocialization of the personality of minors from dysfunctional families. In this sense, the definition of the nature, concept, criterion and indicators of the analyzed phenomenon in relation to the object of this research is of particular importance. Unfortunately, in psychology, sociology and in the theory of culture, these questions have not yet found their solution. They did not receive proper development in criminology either.
Since in psychology, consistently solving the problem of intelligence, the prevailing opinion is that it is reduced to the mental and general abilities of the individual, the genesis of abilities automatically extends to intelligence as a whole. But intelligence cannot be reduced to abilities alone. Abilities as a state of psychophysiological readiness of an organism for any activity is better considered only as one of the conditions for the formation of intelligence and other socio-psychological properties of an individual. In addition, intelligence is characterized not by all, but only by specifically defined abilities. In addition to them, knowledge and social experience, environment and activities, needs and interests, morality and legal awareness, and much more are involved in the formation of intelligence, which are able to compensate, develop or restrain the development of abilities. “Having accepted that abilities exist only in development,” noted BM Teploe, “we should not lose sight of the fact that this development is carried out only in the process of one or another practical or theoretical activity. And from this it follows that the ability cannot arise outside the corresponding concrete activity. " In other words, abilities become an intrinsic property of an individual or a condition of his further development... The assessment of the developmental capabilities of intelligence consists of the achievements obtained with the participation of abilities, and ideas about possible achievements in the projected conditions of life of the person being assessed.
Since the spontaneous development of intelligence is unrealistic, the assessment of these capabilities is carried out taking into account the presence and level of development of needs that determine mental activity, the degree of development of instrumental (in relation to intelligence) abilities (writing, counting, reading, etc.), types of activities and those external conditions (characteristic, atypical or extreme) in which this individual will live. The decisive word in this subjective assessment remains with the external conditions of life, which (especially in relation to minors) determines the development of intellectual needs and instrumental abilities.
It can be assumed that the state of the immediate environment, intellectual needs and instrumental abilities, as well as the characteristics of the individual's activity, refracted through the prism of his achievements (as the most reliable indicator mental abilities), give an answer to the question about the possibilities of intellectual development. Then the criterion of the intellectual development of the individual could be called the effectiveness of mental activity, the reason - the needs, the condition - the state of the immediate environment, and the means - the specific activity. In other words, the indicators of the level of intellectual development include the level of development of intellectual needs, instrumental abilities, knowledge, memory and rational thinking.
Noting the significance and breadth of the sphere of influence of the intellect, one cannot but pay attention to the need to delimit it from other components of spiritual culture. This is necessary in order to avoid an expansive interpretation of the intellect and confusion of its functions with the functions of other socio-psychological formations of the personality. The fact is that a broad interpretation of this concept can lead to unjustified duplication and substitution of the tasks facing intellectual education. In this regard, it seems to be an erroneous opinion, according to which the number of indicators of intelligence (and the most important) includes "the need to do the best possible task for oneself, for others, or to obtain a product as such."
Under socialism, intelligence cannot be regarded as an abstract or morally neutral category, since society is not indifferent to what matters this social value will be directed to. Each discipline, including intellectual education, has its own subject area, outlined by the listed indicators of the level of an individual's intellectual development. The problem of the best or worst attitude a person to perform any task belongs to the number of moral categories and is the subject of moral education.
Assessment of the level of development of needs was carried out through the analysis of preferred activities in their free time. The fact is that free time, the least regulated, is spent by minors mainly at their own discretion, that is, in accordance with personal needs. Therefore, the types of activities in free time are the most accurate sign of actual needs, and therefore the volume and content of mental energy spent on their implementation.
The need to analyze activities in their free time is also evidenced by the fact that minors from dysfunctional families only during this period can show their abilities, since there are almost no ones among them who would study in schools with a mathematical, chess, foreign language or other bias. , unwittingly requiring high mental costs. Studying or working out of necessity, that is, in opposition to needs, they cannot mobilize mental energy for these types of activities.
According to the previously given characteristics of minors from disadvantaged families in their free time and the data of an expert assessment, it is possible to draw conclusions regarding the presence and level of needs. Conditioning mental activity. First, in relation to the structure of needs, almost 57% of those surveyed did not have any intellectual needs; in general, 35% of the costs of mental energy were associated with the need for entertainment and. only 8% had needs that really stimulate socially positive mental activity. Secondly, giving preference to physical methods of realizing the needs for self-affirmation, mentally unproductive; passive-contemplative forms of pastime, they inevitably lose in intellectual development to their peers who actively use their mental potential, they are deprived of the prospects for the intellectual all-round development of the individual.
Speaking about the level of development of general instrumental abilities or the skills of reading, writing and counting that provide mental activity in minors from disadvantaged families, it should be noted that all of them are much less developed than in minors from the control group. For example, for the former, the volume of reading is 4.2 times, the writing speed is 1.3 times, the literacy of writing is 2.8 times, and the correctness of the count (according to the multiplication table) is 1.9 times lower than that of the latter. At the same time, the difference in the levels of development of all these skills has a pronounced tendency to increase (together with an increase in age). As for the level of development of special instrumental abilities (playing chess, playing musical instruments, modeling, etc.), here it can be stated: without the need for these types of activity and without participating in them, adolescents, naturally, cannot have and relevant skills.
Thus, the irrational use of free time, largely due to the underdevelopment of the needs for mental activity, deprives minors from disadvantaged families of the instrumental basis of intellectual development. This calls into question the very possibility spiritual development this category, because "free time as the greatest productive force" predetermines everything, and above all the intellectual development of the individual.
The instrumental quality is also possessed by such a component of intelligence as memory. Having a nature other than instrumental abilities, memory as a property of the nervous system ensures the assimilation, accumulation and consolidation of skills, needs, knowledge and experience of mental activity, becomes a tool or means of transforming them into mental neoplasms, into the properties of intelligence. Of course, it is not the only means of intellectual development, but, depending on its state, it determines the boundaries of the possibilities of this development or its quantitative aspect.
According to the weighted average values of the assessments given by experts to each type of memory of minors from disadvantaged families, sensory and affective memory received 3.5 points (versus 3.1 points in the control group), figurative - 3.6 versus 3.7 points, logical - 2. 2 versus 3.8 points, symbolic - 2.4 versus 3.3 points and motor - 2.7 versus 3.4 points, i.e. sensory memory in minors from disadvantaged families is developed higher, figurative memory has almost no differences, and here motor, sign and especially logical developed are much worse than in adolescents in the control group.
This picture is not accidental. According to the survey of polar profiles, it is the emotional sphere of the subjects that is most deformed and characterized as unbalanced and aggravated. Hot temper, resentment and ambition of character, rancor and vindictiveness confirm the hypothesis about the predominance of emotional regulation of behavior. Probably, the combination of a heightened sense memory and an underdeveloped logical memory generates a functional dissonance of the nervous system, when its one, more developed subsystem suppresses the less developed ones. All types of memory, performing certain mental functions, constitute an integral integrity, the violation of which leads to an irrational, monofunctional regulation of behavior.
As for the question of the direction of sensory memory, which introduces antisocial goal-stimulating images into the consciousness and behavior of an individual, the answer to it, probably, must be sought in the genesis of its formation and, again, in the ratio of the levels of development of all components of memory. Upbringing in conditions of family trouble determines the one-sided orientation of the memory of children, the accumulation and preservation of such sensory experience, which is most often reproduced in the family and causes the strongest emotional experiences in the child. Since in these families a combination of methods of physical punishment with carelessness and even indifference to the fate of their children prevails, predominantly negative emotions are recorded in the memory of minors, essentially negative experience of interpersonal relations, which they subsequently transfer to their relationship with society.
Everyday negative experience of family relationships causes high neuropsychic stress, accumulation and accentuation of images of objective reality, which ensures a relatively high development of figurative memory in minors. The images fixed in memory are objective, that is, they adequately reflect the realities of family trouble; figurative memory introduces into the consciousness and behavior of the individual the habitual sensory images materializing in the corresponding actions. The combination of heightened sensory memory with figurative memory with imperfection of logical and other types of memory aggravates the functional dissonance of the nervous system and determines the irrational behavior of the individual. In other words, what kind of memory is developed, what images it evokes, such a sign and modality contain concepts, judgments and inferences that underlie the practical activity of the individual.
The development of rational thinking abilities, considered as one of the indicators of the level of intelligence, is directly related to memory. Proceeding from the fact that rational thinking is a specific type and function of mental activity, manifested in goal-stimulating (cognitive and behavioral) motives, the assessment of the level of its development was carried out taking into account the motives of the mental or cognitive activity of minors. “The presence and functioning of cognitive human thinking! motivation is associated with the highest forms of development of intellectual abilities and with the most significant achievements of human thought. " Internal motivation of cognitive activity is a criterion for assessing the level of development of rational thinking. According to an expert assessment, the positive cognitive activity of adolescents from disadvantaged families * is only 1.8 points (versus 3.8 points in the control group).
The underdevelopment of the emotionally stimulating sphere of cognitive activity and rational thinking in general reduces intellectual activity, inhibits the development of general educational and special knowledge. Probably, this can largely explain the low expert assessment of the level of erudition of the studied category (1.9 versus 3.2 points in the control group). An analysis of the motives for leaving school or a negative attitude towards it shows that for 80% of the respondents, studying at school and vocational school was a forced measure.
It can be argued quite definitely that minors from disadvantaged families are deprived of objective opportunities for the development of intelligence (without radical external interference). The same can be said about the organization of free time, which, according to Karl Marx, “is both leisure” and time for more lofty activities ”, but in conditions of family trouble it acts as an independent, active factor of personality degradation.
Another component of the spiritual culture and the all-round development of the individual is aesthetic views. Understanding by the aesthetic "... the common in the beautiful, the sublime, the tragic, the comic, as well as in the ugly, the base, which reflects their uniqueness in the world of life phenomena and causes certain sensory and emotional experiences" we can assume that the target function of Marxist-Leninist aesthetics is the formation of a harmony of spirit, embodied in the feelings and thoughts of a person, capable of not only feeling and reproducing, but also creating beautiful, kind, sublime.
Paying tribute to the importance of spiritual harmony in the socialization of the individual, the Communist Party raised this problem to the level of state policy, writing in new edition of its program that “the party will take care of the aesthetic education of the working people and the younger generations on the best examples of national and world artistic culture. Aesthetic beginning labor will spiritualize even more, it will elevate a person, it will decorate his life ”. In other words, aesthetic feelings as the most important psychic tool for reflecting objective reality are not only an indicator of an individual's spiritual culture, but also a means of regulating behavior.
It is clear that it is extremely difficult to talk about the aesthetic views of minors from dysfunctional families, where being itself and the spiritual atmosphere are the clear opposite of the beautiful, kind, sublime, where even the education of elementary skills is left to chance, it is extremely difficult, and it would be easier to say that they are poorly developed : according to peer review, 1.9 points versus 3.6 in the control group. This can also be judged by the high level of offenses and crimes committed by them, by the cruelty that they sometimes show towards people and things and the crimes, crimes and misdemeanors committed.
Apparently, the aesthetic feelings they have are not. meet the socially necessary level and therefore do not provide their regulatory function. In addition, the entire analysis proves that the development of any one human property in the absence or deformation of others is not able to realize its purpose. Speaking about the aesthetic views of minors from dysfunctional families, one cannot but take into account the peculiarities of their immediate environment. Therefore, a low level of aesthetic views is, most likely, not a fault, but a misfortune of the studied category. All research data indicate that a person's sensual infantilism is a natural consequence of the spiritual hunger experienced in childhood, the result of selfishness or carelessness of parents.
Be that as it may, the aesthetic views of minors in conditions of family trouble have no prospects and, in their deformed state, can stimulate everything, just not the development of spiritual culture. And yet we are far from thinking that this category is doomed. Practice knows not isolated examples when timely, radical and consistent measures of re-socialization of minors from disadvantaged families gave positive results.
Exercise.
1. Describe the personal models introduced into the public consciousness by modern mass culture.
2. We often hear “ successful person"," An accomplished person. " What do you mean by these concepts?
3. Try to give a verbal portrait of the hero of your generation - a normative model that you would like to resemble (you can replace it with a description of an anti-sample).
4. What institutions of modern culture (family, school, university, literature, cinema, television, theater, religious community) have the greatest educational opportunities and why?
5. Compare your conclusions with the judgments of the Russian philosopher KN Leontiev (1831-1891): “In my opinion, this is how the family is stronger than the school; literature is much stronger than schools and families. In our family, no matter how we love it, there is something everyday and familiar; the most good family acts more on the heart than on the mind; in a family there is little for a young man that is called "prestige." Parents are their people, in most cases they are quite ordinary: their weaknesses, their bad habits are known to us; and the kindest young men often love and pity their father and mother, rather than admire them. Very good children often honor their parents with their hearts rather than respect them with their minds. ... In a crowded educational institution there is always a lot of official, inevitably formal and also - everyday ... Poetry (this soul) is not enough in any big school ... , will and order, are still boring .... The school, too, cannot so overwhelmingly subjugate the mind and will of a young man. As an outsider and remote from him in all the greatness of his glory, a writer. ... Only one literature of all these three instruments of influence is omnipotent; she alone is endowed with a tremendous "prestige" of importance, fame, freedom and removal. ... He himself is looking for her, he chooses, he himself lovingly obeys her. "
Cultural level of personality
How to determine the cultural level of a person? It should be noted right away that a mathematically accurate, completely objective definition of a person's “culturedness” is impossible, since there are no clear and generally valid criteria. Nevertheless, there is a practical need to demonstrate one's cultural level and judge the level of culture of other people, since this directly or indirectly forms the social status of a person. The elite of modern societies is reproduced not so much through the direct transfer of the status of older generations to the younger, but through investments in the “cultural capital” (a concept proposed by the sociologist P. Bourdieu) of children, which they convert into social capital (inclusion in status groups), and then can be easily converted to economic or political capital. However, considerations of social prestige are not the only and certainly not the main reason for a person's desire to master culture.
The definition of the cultural level presupposes: firstly, the idea of culture as a hierarchical system consisting of numerous stages, each of which corresponds to a certain set of values, and secondly, the idea that a given person at a certain moment can only be on one of these steps. They have already passed the lower levels, the upper ones are not yet available. Introduction to high culture is similar to mountaineering. At the same time, she herself is understood as some kind of obstacle, like a mountain slope, the ascent of which is fraught with significant difficulties. Of course, this is only a diagram, an auxiliary model, which, however, cannot be dispensed with. After all, if you take the position “they don't argue about tastes,” then the concept of the level of culture will lose its meaning.
The indicators of the cultural level are:
· The nature of the objects chosen for cultural consumption (what a person reads, listens, looks);
The intensity of cultural life (how often a person is in theaters, museums, concerts, etc.)
· The breadth of knowledge regarding these objects;
· The intensity of the experienced emotions (the degree of interest, pleasure);
· Refinement of judgments of taste.
The assessment is complicated by the fact that neither aesthetic feelings, nor erudition, nor the quality of taste are outwardly observable.
In everyday communication, people are periodically faced with the need to substantiate their claims to a certain "cultural level" in front of a new audience. In such situations, it is more important not what is actually mastered - felt and comprehended, but what can be demonstrated to others. We deal with symbols or indicators cultural status, verbal and non-verbal. However, symbols are not always reliable as they can be counterfeited.
Thus, a person may attend cultural events that are not particularly attractive to him, but which are known to attract “cultured people”. Information where they go " cultured people What they read or watch can easily be obtained from numerous special editions. Anyone who claims to be a theater-goer knows that the status of a premiere is higher than that of an ordinary performance, and strives to attend precisely the premiere. Awareness can be simulated using a specific set of clichés. For example, one can say about any translated book that it has lost a lot in translation - the opposite is practically unprovable. So the speaker makes it clear that he read not only the translation, but also the original and that his knowledge of foreign languages and taste is sufficient for comparison. About any new group or musical composition we can say that they are "very famous" (indeed, they are probably very well known to someone and, if not to everyone, then only to a select few). This gives the impression that the speaker is familiar with the very latest innovations. The author of the book "Music: Pretend to be a Connoisseur" gives ironic advice to anyone who wants to portray himself as a real connoisseur and connoisseur of music: he "must first of all try to find a composer, about whom no one knows anything, and collect all kinds of information about him." Indeed, school and university curricula rank aesthetic objects on a scale of recognized cultural significance. At first, students master the most famous works, the number of which is small, at the next stage of training - less well-known and more numerous, and so on to the most little-known and insignificant, which are studied only by senior art students. Therefore, it is assumed that those who are aware of the secondary things know the more significant ones. One who wants to play on these expectations can sometimes skip what everyone knows and start with what is known to fewer people. In this sense, Grunewald, as a favorite artist, is preferable to Raphael, and Magritte is better than Dali.
Such imitations of "culturedness", of course, achieve their goal in situations of short-term contact with a new audience, and are easily exposed in the future. Of all the symbols of the "cultural level", the most time and effort is required to acquire a general outlook, and, accordingly, it is the most difficult to counterfeit.
Sociologists who study the cultural level of various groups of the population often use tests similar to those used in educational institutions ("Who is the creator of the Bronze Horseman?", "How many times in Last year Have you been to the Philharmonic? Etc.". But the form of dialogue, corresponding to testing, is practically not used in everyday communication, since it is too straightforward and rather tactless. It is being successfully replaced by another strategy. For example, at the Valkyrie at the Mariinsky Theater, two elderly ladies, getting up from their seats on the third tier immediately after the end of the first act, exchange remarks:
First: The scenery is somewhat faded.
Second: They have the same on the Rhine Gold. Modern style.
First: No, well, after all, I like it more as on "Parsifal", bright, rich.
For all its artlessness, this dialogue carries information about the "culture" of the interlocutors: the performances attended by the participants are listed, judgments of taste are expressed about the works of art. The model for such dialogues is musical, theatrical or literary criticism, the first examples of which a person meets in school textbooks.
In addition to direct evidence of the intensity of cultural life, there are also indirect ones. First of all, it is awareness of the location, opening hours and prices of the respective institutions. A Petersburg resident who will lead his guests to the Hermites on Monday runs the risk of causing irreparable damage to his reputation as a resident of the cultural capital of Russia. It is also an acquaintance with the unspoken rules of conduct and possession of cultural codes that exist in institutions of high culture. So, it is permissible to take a bar of chocolate with you to the theater, but, say, not marmalade. There are several ideologies regarding the appearance of visitors in cultural institutions. One of them demands to appear in such places in clothes that emphasize the sacred status of familiarizing with beauty - men in suits, women in elegant evening dresses. The opposite ideology encourages, on the contrary, informality and looseness in appearance, which shows that the current event is not an extraordinary event. From the point of view of the latter, reverence for what is happening, expressed through the official appearance, betrays alienation from cultural events and the limitations of cultural capital. Note that the problem with choosing a costume reflects the duality that characterizes the attitude towards high art among connoisseurs. It should be reverently serious and at the same time somewhat familiar, careless and self-ironic.
Question
1) What do you think motivates people to join high culture? Representatives of which social groups are more inclined towards this - schoolchildren, students, workers, entrepreneurs, intellectuals, pensioners?
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1. Root and high, democratic and elite culture. Mass culture. In this case, we are talking about dividing culture by levels. At the same time, the primordial, original, root (folk) culture, on the one hand, and high (professional) culture, on the other, are distinguished. The root culture is the result of folk art, it grows out of everyday work and everyday life. Its most important characteristic is anonymity, the absence of an author. High culture is created by professionals in the field of cultural creativity - painters and sculptors, scientists and inventors, religious reformers and political leaders. As a rule, the names of these people are widely known, and their creations will forever remain in the memory of descendants.
Social stratification of society underlies the division of culture into democratic and elite. Democratic culture is inextricably linked with the activities of the bulk of the population, directly producing material benefits for people working in the service sector. Stratum elite culture associated with the life and activities of the "top" of society - the clan aristocracy, political leaders, large businessmen. Typically, these people can afford the best quality items and products that are unique and of high value. In addition, today the creative intelligentsia - workers of art and science who create new cultural values - are also referred to as the elite (from the French elite - the best). With regard to artistic culture, new trends in art that are incomprehensible to the general consumer, designed for a highly educated person, are becoming elite. Thus, an elite culture is associated with the part of society that is most capable of spiritual activity or possesses powerful capabilities due to its position. On the one hand, it is this part of society that ensures social progress and the development of culture. But, on the other hand, elite groups often arrogantly treat “ordinary” people, distance themselves from them. As a rule, for this, certain rituals and features of etiquette, some cultural standards that are inaccessible to ordinary people, are adopted in their environment.
But lately, the boundaries between elite and democratic culture have begun to blur. First of all, this applies to the sphere of artistic culture. It happened more than once that an elite trend or work of art turned over time into an example of democratic culture, and vice versa. In addition, works of high and elite culture are becoming available to ever wider masses of the population thanks to modern media and communication. Therefore, more and more often, speaking about modern modernized culture, its state is characterized by the term "mass culture". Popular culture is called a set of global consumer elements of culture, produced in large volumes industrially. It is a culture of everyday life, provided to a large part of society through a variety of channels, including the media and communications with which it is closely associated. Therefore, the content of mass culture is made up of products of modern industrial production, cinema, television, books, newspapers and magazines, sports, tourism, etc. The consumption of these products is mass consumption, because the audience that perceives this culture is the mass audience of large halls, stadiums, millions of television and movie viewers.
The formation of mass culture is associated with the formation industrial society... The prerequisites for this were a gradual rise in the status of the urban working class and the expansion of democratic institutions - a wider entry of workers into active civil life. The spread of universal literacy of the population played a huge role in its formation. Therefore, the existence of mass culture is counted from the 1870s-1890s, when, first in Great Britain, and then in other European countries, laws on compulsory universal literacy of the population were adopted. Because of this, mass culture is inextricably linked with the mass media. Initially, she used the technical capabilities of the printing industry - cheap popular newspapers and magazines, as well as cheap books - fiction (love and detective novels) and comics. V late XIX v. cinematography was invented, which still remains the most important means of mass art. At the same time, the gramophone appeared, which gave rise to light music - another genre of mass culture. By the 1960s, the technical capabilities of mass culture had increased many times over - the massive use of television, satellite communications began, tens of millions of records, cassettes, and CDs appeared. Recently, the capabilities of personal computers and the Internet have been added to this.
The emergence of mass culture meant not just the emergence of another type of culture, it was a change in the way the whole culture functioned. The old forms of sociality, patriarchal ties between people who lived in small towns and villages with customary orientations and traditional values gradually disappeared. Active migration began from village to city, from the Old World to the New World. Began to appear big cities, whose life was very different from the usual, giving rise to a great mental and intellectual load. This happened in parallel with the increase in the time for rest - both due to the reduction of working hours, and due to the development of technology, which freed a person from many previously necessary labor operations, especially in household... The result was the emergence of new ways of relaxation and mental relaxation. At the same time, the possibilities of mass culture turned out to be irreplaceable.
Today, most people, especially young people, get ideas about the necessary style of behavior, lifestyle, career, relationships between people from mass culture. Food, clothing, housing, household appliances, household items, education - all this also comes to a person through the mechanisms of mass culture. Today any product becomes prestigious and valuable when it becomes a subject of mass demand. Thus, popular culture becomes a means of stimulating consumption, for which advertising is actively used, on which huge amounts of money are being spent today. At the same time, national borders are being erased and eliminated, mass culture becomes the foundation of world culture.
The negative aspects of mass culture led to the fact that for a long time, evaluating popular culture, critics spoke only of its negative aspects, emphasized the low quality, vulgarity of its products, created for the needs of an undemanding and undeveloped public. It also emphasizes the orientation of mass culture towards the formation of a spiritual standard, "fooling" a person, bringing up low needs in the field of art, its focus on consumption, and not on creativity.
There is a certain amount of truth in these statements. But we must not forget about the positive that mass culture brings with it. Its main achievement is the spread of universal literacy of the population, the availability of cultural values to a large number of people. Of course, at the same time, quite a lot of low-quality products are created, but indisputable masterpieces are also replicated, which do not become worse from this, but can push a person to a deeper study of these and other works. We must not forget about the role of mass culture in the modern recreational mechanism for relieving stress and tension. In addition, in recent years, mass culture has become more and more focused on the so-called "midcult" - a culture of the middle level, within which many classic literary works are filmed, a fashion for samples of genuine artistic creation, popular science, classical music. Therefore, the general level of modern mass culture is increasing all the time.
Among the main manifestations and directions of mass culture of our time, the following can be distinguished:
- the industry of "subculture of childhood" (children's literature and art, industrially produced toys and games, children's clubs and camps, paramilitary and other organizations, collective education technologies, etc.), which pursues the goal of universalizing the upbringing of children, introducing standardized norms, ideologically oriented worldviews that lay the foundations for basic value attitudes, officially promoted in this community;
- mass general education school, familiarizing children with the foundations of scientific knowledge, forms a picture of the world based on the value orientations of a given society, bringing up the same stereotypes of behavior in all children;
- the mass media, broadcasting current relevant information to the population, “explaining” to an ordinary person the meaning of the events, judgments and actions of various political figures and interpreting this information in accordance with the interests of the “customer” engaging this media, i.e. actually forming public opinion on certain problems in the interests of this "customer";
- the system of national (state) ideology and propaganda, which controls and forms the political and ideological orientations of the population, manipulates its consciousness in the interests of the ruling elites, and ensures political reliability and the desired electoral behavior of people;
- mass political movements and parties, created by the ruling or opposition elites in order to involve broad strata of the population in mass political actions, most of them very far from politics and the interests of the elites, who do not understand the meaning of the political programs they are proposing, to support which they are mobilized by forcing a collective political or nationalist psychosis;
- world social mythology (national chauvinism and "pseudo-patriotism", social demagoguery, quasi-religious and parascientific teachings, idol addiction, etc.), simplifying the complex system of human value orientations and the diversity of shades of world perceptions to elementary oppositions ("ours are not ours"), replacing the analysis of complex multifactorial causal - investigative connections between phenomena and events, an appeal to simple and, as a rule, fantastic explanations ("world conspiracy", "searches for aliens", etc.), which ultimately frees people from efforts to rationally comprehend exciting problems, gives an outlet to emotions in their most infantile manifestation;
- a system for organizing and stimulating mass consumer demand (advertising, fashion, sex industry and other forms of provoking consumer excitement around things, ideas, services, etc.), which forms in the public consciousness the standards of prestigious interests and needs, lifestyle and lifestyle, imitating mass and affordable models of the form of "elite" models that control the demand of an ordinary consumer for consumer goods and models of behavior, transforming the process of non-stop consumption of various social benefits into an end in itself;
- the industry of forming an image and "improving" the physical data of an individual (mass physical culture movement, bodybuilding, aerobics, sports tourism, the industry of physical rehabilitation services, the sphere of medical services and pharmaceuticals for changing appearance, gender, etc.), which is a specific area of general the service industry, which standardizes the physical data of a person in accordance with the current fashion for the image, gender demand, etc., or on the basis of the ideological attitudes of the authorities to form a nation of potential warriors with proper sports and physical fitness;
Thus, mass culture is a new, more developed form of cultural competence of a modern person, new mechanisms of inculturation and socialization, a new system of management and manipulation of his consciousness, interests and needs. This is the way modern culture exists.
2. "Basic culture" and subculture. Counterculture. The set of values, beliefs, traditions and customs by which most members of a given society are guided is called the dominant, or dominant, culture.
The dominant culture can be national or ethnic, depending on how complex the society is and how populous the country is.
Ethnic culture is a set of cultural features related mainly to everyday life, everyday culture. It has a core and a periphery. Ethnic culture includes tools, customs, customs, customary law, values, buildings, clothing, food, vehicles, housing, knowledge, beliefs, types folk art... Experts distinguish two layers in ethnic culture:
- historically early (lower), formed by cultural elements inherited from the past;
- historically late (upper), consisting of new formations, modern cultural phenomena.
The lower layer includes the most stable elements, enshrined in a centuries-old tradition. Therefore, it is believed that they constitute the framework of ethnic culture. With this approach, ethnic culture appears as a unity of continuity and renewal. The renewal of culture can be exogenous (borrowed) and endogenous (arising within the culture without outside influence). The continuity, stability of ethnic culture rests on the action of two types of mechanisms for the transmission of traditions: intragenerational traditions that have been in effect for several years or decades and cover only a part of the ethnic group (adjacent age groups); intergenerational traditions that have existed for a historically long time and serve as a mechanism for the transmission of values from generation to generation.
Ethnic culture is the culture of people connected by a common origin (blood relationship) and jointly carried out economic activities, unity, so to speak, "blood and soil", which is why it changes from one locality to another. Local limitations, rigid localization, isolation in a relatively narrow social space (tribe, community, ethnic group) Is one of the main features of this culture. It is dominated by the power of tradition, habit, once and for all accepted customs, passed down from generation to generation at the family or neighbor level.
If ethnos indicates the socio-cultural community of people, then the nation denotes the territorial, economic and linguistic association of people with a social structure and political organization.
The structure of the national culture is more complex than the ethnic one. National culture includes, along with the traditional, everyday, professional and everyday, also specialized areas of culture. And since the nation encompasses society, and society has a stratification and social structure, the concept of national culture encompasses the subcultures of all large groups that ethnic groups may not have. Moreover, ethnic cultures are part of the national one. Take such young nations as the United States or Brazil, nicknamed ethnic cauldrons. American national culture is extremely heterogeneous, it includes Irish, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Russian, Jewish and other ethnic cultures. Most modern national cultures are multi-ethnic.
National culture is not reduced to the mechanical sum of ethnic cultures. It has something beyond that. She has her own national traits cultures that arose when representatives of all ethnic groups realized their belonging to a new nation. For example, both Africans and whites are equally enthusiastic about singing the US anthem and honoring the American flag, respecting its laws and National holidays... The awareness of large social groups of their adherence to the territory of their settlement, the national literary language, national traditions and symbols constitutes the content of the national culture.
Unlike ethnic culture, national culture unites people who live in large areas and are not necessarily related by kinship. A prerequisite the emergence of national culture, experts believe new type social communication associated with the invention of writing, with the moment of the birth of the literary language and national literature... It is thanks to the written language that the ideas necessary for national unification are gaining popularity among the literate part of the population.
Thus, a national culture is built on the foundation of a written culture, while an ethnic culture can be completely non-written, for example, the culture of backward tribes that have survived to this day. But that and the other culture, in relation to all other types of culture in a given territory, should be called dominant. That is why national culture is studied primarily by philology, which deals with literary monuments, and ethnic culture - by ethnography and anthropology, dealing primarily with preliterary literature.
An integral part of culture are also those of its elements that are in opposition to the dominant patterns or completely deny them. Such sociocultural attitudes, opposed to the fundamental principles underlying a particular culture, are called countercultures. This term appeared in Western literature in 1960. It was introduced by the American sociologist Theodore Rozzak, who tried to combine the various spiritual influences against the mainstream culture into a relatively holistic phenomenon.
The most famous example of counterculture was the youth movements of the 1960s and 1970s - the beatniks and hippies, which concentrated anti-bourgeois ideas that opposed the Western way of life and bourgeois morality. It all started back in the mid-1940s, when the founders of beatism D. Kerouac, W. Burroughs and A. Ginsberg met each other and began to experiment with the concepts of friendship, new vision and new consciousness. And in the 1950s, their books will appear in which they will try to substantiate a new worldview associated with poetry. masculine, masculinity and rebelliousness, rejection of the puritanism and hypocrisy of bourgeois morality and traditions of the consumer society. The same search led them to the East, instilling in subsequent generations an interest in Buddhism, psychedelic practices, which hippies were especially fond of. They protested against the technocratism of the modern consumer society, the Vietnam War, strong government and advocated a life of love in the bosom of nature.
By the 1960s, the spectrum of various youth movements had grown wider. At the same time, teenagers - adolescents from 13 to 19 years old - increasingly acted as their creators. This is how rockers appeared - motorcyclists dressed in leather, terrifying ordinary people. They cultivate a "masculine spirit", cruelty and directness of interpersonal relationships, relying only on physical strength. They are aggressive, rude, noisy and self-confident. Rock music became the embodiment of their lifestyle, the heavy and simple rhythm of which fits well into their life.
Then the punks came along. This word is translated as "spoiled", "worthless". The punk movement became especially popular in the 1970s and 1980s. Punks shocked respectable people with their outfits - old school uniforms, garbage bags, toilet chains, safety pins, mind-blowing hairstyles in color and design, and curses. They were opposed by the "teds" ("teddy-boys"), who declared themselves the guardians of social order, and "fashion" ("modernists"), who strove to approach the middle class. At the same time, movements appeared oriented to the East, using oriental attributes, and most importantly - the ideas of oriental philosophy and religions. Later, the "skinheads" or "skinheads" split off from the "mods", aggressively disposed towards all deviant, from their point of view, groups.
In other words, these movements arise, then decline, new movements are born, which await the same fate. But they do not disappear without a trace. Their value orientations dissolve in the bosom of the dominant culture, which, under their influence, begins to change. In this way, countercultures have a powerful creative charge that fosters cultural dynamics.
One should not think that the emergence of counterculture is a specific feature of the 20th century. Opposition to the dominant culture, the birth of new values constantly occurs in world culture. As a counterculture arose, for example, Christianity in the Roman Empire, secular culture in the Renaissance, romanticism at the end of the Enlightenment. We can say that any new culture is born as a result of the awareness of the crisis of the culture of the previous period on the basis of the countercultural attitudes existing there.
But along with the counterculture in any culture there are numerous subcultures that must be distinguished from each other. Subcultures are large constituent parts of integral local cultures (ethnic, national, social) that differ in certain local specifics of certain features. As a rule, subcultures are associated with large, compactly located and relatively isolated groups of people. Usually subcultures are located on the outskirts of the distribution area of a holistic culture, which is associated with the specific conditions prevailing there.
The existence of subcultures is due to the fact that no society, like no culture, can be absolutely homogeneous. In addition to the central core, they include other groups with specific cultural characteristics. Moreover, the bulk of the cultural elements of these groups is identical or close to the basic culture, from which they differ only in some elements or features of culture.
The formation of subcultures occurs according to ethnographic, class, confessional, professional, functional characteristics, based on age or social specifics.
Thus, Russian Old Believers differ from the basic culture by the specifics of their religious beliefs. For example, the specific way of life of the Cossacks is associated with their special professional functions as defenders of the country's borders. The subculture of prisoners arises from the isolation of these people from the bulk of the population. Subcultures of youth and pensioners arise in connection with age differences. You can also highlight the subcultures of people with disabilities, subcultures of representatives of sexual minorities, etc.
As a rule, subcultures strive to maintain a certain autonomy from other cultural strata and groups, do not claim the universality of their culture, their way of life. Due to this, they are distinguished by some locality and a certain isolation, while maintaining loyalty to the main value orientations of the main culture. Subcultures are only deviations from the main path of cultural development. They do not set themselves the goal of remaking the dominant culture, but in their own way adapt to it. This is how they differ from a counterculture that seeks to remake the world.
It is necessary to clearly separate anticulture from the concepts of counterculture and subculture. The latter is the antagonistic opposite of culture as such. Anticulture is such a form of being of a person and society, which is deliberately aimed at destruction, destruction, destruction of spirituality and culture. Sometimes anti-culture can manifest itself under the guise of an official culture (for example, fascism.).
3. The culture of organizations. Considering organizations as communities with a uniform understanding of their goals, meaning and place, values and behavior, gave rise to the concept of organizational culture.
Organizational culture is a system of socially progressive formal and informal rules and norms of activity, customs and traditions, individual and group interests, characteristics of the behavior of personnel of a given organizational structure, leadership style, indicators of employee satisfaction with working conditions, the level of mutual cooperation and compatibility of employees with each other and with the organization, development prospects. The main function of organizational culture is to create a sense of the identity of all members of the organization, the image of a collective "we", to ensure the harmonization of collective and individual interests.
How does culture affect the performance of an organization? Effectiveness requires that an organization's culture, strategy, environment (external environment) and technology (internal environment) are aligned. An organisation's strategy that is market driven and more appropriate in a dynamic environment implies a culture based on individual initiative, risk, high integration, normal perception of conflict and wide horizontal communication. The strategy dictated by the prospects for the development of production of products focuses on efficiency, better work in a stable environment. It is more successful when the culture of the organization provides for responsible control, minimizes risk and conflicts.
Organizational values play a leading role in enterprise culture. Organizational values are objects, phenomena and processes aimed at meeting the needs of members of the organization and are recognized as such by the majority of members of the organization.
1) the general values of enterprises, objectively growing from the conditions entrepreneurial activity and determining the functioning of industrial organizations. However, in each enterprise, these values have their own modifications. These modifications can manifest themselves in the placement of different accents, and some of these values acquire the character of the most important principles in a given enterprise.
2) intra-organizational values. An organization well fulfills its assigned goals only if it adheres to a certain functional and structural order, which is a factor in its stability. Discipline, diligence, and a high sense of responsibility for the performance of their professional and status duties are important internal organizational values. All these values are, as it were, the conservative qualities of a production organization. But organizations have a need to innovate, to change structure, technology, relationships, functions. This means that innovation, initiative, creative inclinations in a sense can act as intra-organizational values. At the same time, studies show that officials with the status of leaders, in words, value innovation and initiative very highly, but among their subordinates they give preference to such qualities as personal loyalty, conformity, obedience, etc. Consequently, these qualities are also should be considered as intra-organizational values.
French sociologists R. Blake and J. Mouton proposed a typology of enterprise culture based on value orientations. In their opinion, there are two main vectors of value orientations in the cultures of enterprises: the first is product orientation, efficiency and economic results; the second is an orientation towards personality, satisfaction of its needs, realization of its capabilities and abilities. According to these orientations, four main types of cultures are possible: 1) the most viable one combines a strong orientation towards personality with a strong orientation towards economic efficiency; 2) the most unviable combines a weak orientation towards personality with a weak orientation towards economic efficiency; 3) the intermediate one combines a strong orientation towards personality and a weak one towards economic efficiency; 4) intermediate combines a strong orientation towards economic efficiency and a weak orientation towards personality.
Dominant cultures and subcultures are distinguished depending on the attitude to basic values. The dominant culture expresses the basic (central) values that are accepted by the majority of the organization's members. It is a macro approach to culture that expresses the distinctive characteristic of an organization.
Subcultures are developed in large organizations and reflect common problems, situations that employees face, or experience in solving them. They develop geographically or in separate divisions, vertically or horizontally. When one production department of a conglomerate has a unique culture that differs from other departments of the organization, then there is a vertical subculture. When a specific department of functional specialists (such as accounting or trade) has a set of generally accepted concepts, a horizontal subculture is formed. Any group in an organization can create a subculture, but most subcultures are determined by departmental (segmental) structural framework or geographic division. It will include the core values of the dominant culture plus additional values that are unique to the members of that department.
Organizations can also have subcultures that are quite stubborn about rejecting what the organization as a whole wants to achieve. Among these organizational countercultures, the following types can be distinguished:
• direct opposition to the values of the dominant organizational culture;
• opposition to the structure of power within the dominant culture of the organization;
• opposition to patterns of relationships and interactions supported by organizational culture.
Countercultures in an organization usually appear when individuals or groups are in conditions that they feel cannot provide them with the usual or desired satisfaction. In a sense, organizational countercultures are a call for help in times of stress or crisis, i.e. when the existing support system collapses and people are trying to regain at least some control over their lives in the organization. Some "countercultural" groups can become quite influential in the course of large-scale transformations associated with significant changes in the nature, design and nature of the organization.
Depending on the degree of distribution and support of the basic values, a strong and a weak culture are distinguished. The more members of the organization share the core values, recognize the degree of their importance and are committed to them, the stronger the culture. Organizational cultures are considered weak if they are highly fragmented and disconnected from common values and beliefs. A company can suffer if the subcultures that characterize its various divisions are unrelated or in conflict with each other. However, a strong culture does more than just create benefits for the organization. It should be borne in mind that a strong culture is at the same time a serious obstacle to change in the organization. “New” in culture is always weaker at the beginning. Therefore, it is considered best to have a moderately strong culture in the organization.
In close interaction with the value aspect of culture is its sign-symbolic component, which in the developed cultures of enterprises acquires the character of an integral system. The sign-symbolic system is the form through which the production and reproduction of the enterprise culture, its constant functioning is carried out. An important role in this system is played by ceremonies and rituals, which are aimed at giving special importance to events associated with significant events in the life of the organization. It can be:
1) solemn meetings associated with the anniversary dates of the activities of the companies;
2) initiation rites, which are carried out when accepting newcomers. During these ceremonies, they are introduced to the core values developed in the company, they seek to instill a sense of belonging to the large team of the company and thereby additionally mobilize their internal reserves;
3) the ceremony of seeing off the veterans of the company to their well-deserved rest. Seeing off is always accompanied by solemn speeches and gifts: During this ceremony, it is emphasized in every possible way that loyalty to the company, conscientious work for its benefit does not go unnoticed and is highly appreciated;
4) rites of passage, through which changes in the status position of individuals are noted. The rite of passage, in contrast to the other two rites, is a quick and modest ceremony, which may consist in the presentation by a superior superior of a person who has been transferred to a new position to his new team, courtesy visits from fellow associates, etc.
It is very common in companies to have annual receptions in which senior management, major shareholders, some employees - "situational heroes", major clients, and so on participate. At many enterprises, joint dinners are regularly held once a month, once a week, in which the top management of the company and specially invited workers and employees, most often take part. The main purpose of such events is to symbolize the community, the unity of all links of the enterprise hierarchy, to present the enterprise as a kind of identical structure. The sign-symbolic system of enterprise culture also includes such as clothing style, insignia, status, awards, etc. All these elements are intended to symbolize the values of the enterprise.
The largest American specialist on the problem of management and sociology of organizations I. Ouchi proposed his own version of the typology of organizations, which are based on differences in the regulation of interactions and relations. According to Ouchi, there are three common types of enterprise culture: market, bureaucratic, and clan. Market culture is based on the dominance of value relations. The management and staff of this type of organization are primarily focused on profitability. The performance of a particular department and employees is determined on the basis of cost indicators associated primarily with production costs. An enterprise with a culture of this type focuses on the problem of reducing production costs. Market mechanisms are quite effective and enterprises with this type of culture can function normally for quite a long time.
Bureaucratic culture is based on a system of power that regulates all activities of an enterprise in the form of rules, instructions and procedures. The source of power in this organization is competence. This culture effective in stable, well-predictable situations. In a situation of increasing uncertainty, in moments of crisis, its effectiveness falls.
Clan culture Ouchi sees not as an alternative to the first two cultures, but as their complement. This type of culture can exist both within a market culture and within a bureaucratic culture. Clan culture spreads in informal organizations. A clan is formed on the basis of a system of values shared by all its members. This system of values is not imposed from the outside, but is created by the organization itself. Therefore, it is more adaptable to changing situations. Unlike rules and instructions, values do not strictly regulate actions, but only direct them in a certain direction, and this creates a greater degree of freedom of behavior, and hence adaptation to changing conditions. Power in organizations with this type of culture is obtained by virtue of personal advantages, or on credit from other leaders of the organization.