Culture is the main sections studied. Cultural studies and sociology

Subject of cultural studies

In a broad sense, cultural studies is a complex of individual sciences, as well as theological and philosophical concepts of culture; other elephants, these are all those teachings about culture, its history, essence, patterns of functioning and development that can be found in the works of scientists presenting various options for understanding the phenomenon of culture. In addition, cultural sciences study the system cultural institutions, with the help of which a person’s upbringing and education are carried out and which produce, store and transmit cultural information.

From this point of view, the subject of cultural studies forms a set of various disciplines, which include history, sociology of culture and a complex of anthropological knowledge. In addition, the subject field of cultural studies in a broad sense should include: history of cultural studies, ecology of culture, psychology of culture, ethnology (ethnography), theology (theology) of culture. However, with such a broad approach, the subject of cultural studies appears as a set of various disciplines or sciences that study culture, and can be identified with the subject of philosophy of culture, sociology of culture, cultural anthropology and other middle-level theories. In this case, cultural studies is deprived of its own subject of research and becomes an integral part of the noted disciplines.

A more balanced approach seems to understand the subject of cultural studies in in the narrow sense and representing it as a separate independent science, a certain system of knowledge. With this approach, cultural studies acts as a general theory of culture, based in its generalizations and conclusions on the knowledge of specific sciences, such as the theory of artistic culture, cultural history and other special sciences about culture. With this approach, the initial basis is the consideration of culture in its specific forms, in which it manifests itself as an essential characteristic of a person, the form and method of his life.

Thus, subject of cultural studies is a set of issues of the origin, functioning and development of culture as a specifically human way of life, different from the world of living nature. It is designed to study the most general patterns of cultural development, its manifestations present in all famous cultures humanity.

With this understanding of the subject of cultural studies, its main tasks are:

the most profound, complete and holistic explanation of culture, its
essence, content, characteristics and functions;
the study of the genesis (origin and development) of culture as a whole, as well as individual phenomena and processes in culture;
determining the place and role of man in cultural processes;
development of categorical apparatus, methods and means of studying culture;
interaction with other sciences studying culture;
studying information about culture that comes from art, philosophy, religion and other areas related to non-scientific knowledge of culture;
study of the development of individual cultures.

The purpose of cultural studies

The purpose of cultural studies becomes such a study on the basis of which its understanding is formed. To do this, it is necessary to identify and analyze: cultural facts that together make up the system cultural phenomena; connections between cultural elements; dynamics of cultural systems; methods of production and assimilation of cultural phenomena; types of cultures and their underlying norms, values and symbols (cultural codes); cultural codes and communications between them.

The goals and objectives of cultural studies determine the functions of this science.

Functions of cultural studies

The functions of cultural studies can be combined into several main groups according to the tasks being implemented:

educational function - study and understanding of the essence and role of culture in the life of society, its structure and functions, its typology, differentiation into branches, types and forms, the human-creative purpose of culture;
conceptual-descriptive function - development of theoretical systems, concepts and categories that make it possible to compose complete picture the formation and development of culture, and the formulation of description rules that reflect the peculiarities of the development of sociocultural processes;
evaluative function - carrying out an adequate assessment of the influence of the holistic phenomenon of culture, its various types, branches, types and forms on the formation of social and spiritual qualities of the individual, social community, society as a whole;
explanatory function - scientific explanation of the characteristics of cultural complexes, phenomena and events, mechanisms of functioning of cultural agents and institutions, their socializing impact on the formation of personality on the basis of scientific understanding of the identified facts, trends and patterns of development of sociocultural processes;
ideological function - implementation of socio-political ideals in the development of fundamental and applied problems the development of culture, the regulating influence of its values and norms on the behavior of individuals and social communities;
educational(educational) function - dissemination of cultural knowledge and assessments, which helps students, specialists, as well as those interested in cultural problems, learn the features of this social phenomenon, its role in the development of man and society.

The subject of cultural studies, its tasks, goals and functions determine the general contours of cultural studies as a science. Each of them in turn requires in-depth study.

The historical path traversed by humanity from antiquity to the present time has been complex and contradictory. On this path, progressive and regressive phenomena were often combined, the desire for something new and adherence to familiar forms of life, the desire for change and the idealization of the past. At the same time, in all situations, the main role in people’s lives has always been played by culture, which helped a person adapt to the constantly changing conditions of life, find its meaning and purpose, and preserve the humanity in a person. Because of this, people have always been interested in this area of the surrounding world, which resulted in the emergence of a special branch human knowledge— cultural studies and the corresponding academic discipline that studies culture. Culturology is primarily the science of culture. This specific subject distinguishes it from other social and humanitarian disciplines and explains the need for its existence as a special branch of knowledge.

The formation of cultural studies as a science

In modern humanities The concept of “culture” belongs to the category of fundamental ones. Among the many scientific categories and terms, there is hardly another concept that would have so many shades of meaning and be used in so many different contexts. This situation is not accidental, since culture is the subject of research in many scientific disciplines, each of which highlights its own aspects of the study of culture and gives its own understanding and definition of culture. At the same time, culture itself is multifunctional, therefore each science singles out one of its sides or parts as the subject of its study, approaches the study with its own methods and methods, ultimately formulating its own understanding and definition of culture.

Attempts to provide a scientific explanation for the phenomenon of culture have a short history. The first such attempt was made in

XVII century English philosopher T. Hobbes and German jurist S. Puffenlorf, who expressed the idea that a person can be in two states - natural, which is the lowest stage of his development, since he is creatively passive, and cultural, which they considered as a higher level human development, since it is creatively productive.

The doctrine of culture developed at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. in the works of the German educator I.G. Herder, who viewed culture from a historical perspective. The development of culture, but in its opinion, constitutes the content and meaning historical process. Culture is the revelation of the essential forces of man, which different nations vary significantly, so real life There are various stages and eras in the development of culture. At the same time, the opinion was established that the core of culture is the spiritual life of a person, his spiritual abilities. This situation persisted for quite a long time.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Therefore, works appeared in which the analysis of cultural problems was the main task, and not a secondary one, as it had been until now. In many ways, these works were related to the awareness of the crisis of European culture, the search for its causes and ways out of it. As a result, philosophers and scientists realized the need for an integrative science of culture. It was equally important to concentrate and systematize the enormous and varied information about the cultural history of different peoples, the relationships of social groups and individuals, styles of behavior, thinking and art.

This served as the basis for the emergence of an independent science of culture. Around the same time, the term “cultural studies” appeared. It was first used by the German scientist W. Ostwald in 1915 in his book “System of Sciences,” but then the term was not widely used. This happened later and is associated with the name of the American cultural anthropologist L.A. White, who in his works “The Science of Culture” (1949), “The Evolution of Culture” (1959), “The Concept of Culture” (1973) substantiated the need to isolate all knowledge about culture in separate science, laid its general theoretical foundations, made an attempt to isolate its subject of research, delimiting it from related sciences, to which he included psychology and sociology. If psychology, White argued, studies the psychological reaction of the human body to external factors, and sociology studies the patterns of relationships between the individual and society, then the subject of cultural studies should be an understanding of the relationship between such cultural phenomena as custom, tradition, and ideology. He predicted a great future for cultural studies, believing that it represents a new, qualitatively higher level in understanding man and the world. This is why the term “cultural studies” is associated with White’s name.

Despite the fact that cultural studies is gradually occupying an increasingly firm position among other social and human sciences, disputes about its scientific status do not stop. In the West, this term was not immediately accepted and culture there continued to be studied by such disciplines as social and cultural anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics, etc. This situation indicates that the process of self-determination of cultural studies as a scientific and educational discipline has not yet been completed. Today, cultural science is in the process of formation, its content and structure have not yet acquired clear scientific boundaries, research in it is contradictory, there are many methodological approaches to its subject. All this suggests that this direction scientific knowledge is in the process of formation and creative search.

Thus, cultural studies is a young science that is in its infancy. The biggest obstacle for her further development is the lack of a point of view on the subject of the study with which most researchers would agree. The identification of the subject of cultural studies is happening before our eyes, in the struggle of different opinions and points of view.

The status of cultural studies and its place among other sciences

One of the main issues in identifying the specifics of cultural knowledge and the subject of its research is to understand the relationship of cultural studies with other related or similar areas of scientific knowledge. If we define culture as everything that is created by man and humanity (this definition is very common), it will become clear why determining the status of cultural studies is difficult. Then it turns out that in the world in which we live, there is only the world of culture, which exists by the will of man, and the world of nature, which arose without the influence of people. Accordingly, all sciences existing today are divided into two groups - sciences about nature (natural science) and sciences about the world of culture - social and human sciences. In other words, all social and human sciences are ultimately cultural sciences - knowledge about the types, forms and results of human activity. At the same time, it is not clear where cultural studies fits among these sciences and what it should study.

To answer these questions, we can divide the social sciences and humanities into two unequal groups:

1. sciences about specialized types of human activity, distinguished by the subject of this activity, namely:

sciences about forms of social organization and regulation - legal, political, military, economic;
sciences about forms of social communication and transmission of experience - philological, pedagogical, art sciences and religious studies;
sciences about the types of materially transforming human activities - technical and agricultural;

2. sciences about the general aspects of human activity, regardless of its subject, namely:

historical sciences that study the emergence and development of human activity in any field, regardless of its subject;
psychological sciences that study the patterns of mental activity, individual and group behavior;
sociological sciences, which discover forms and methods of unification and interaction of people in their joint life activities;
cultural sciences that analyze norms, values, signs and symbols as conditions for the formation and functioning of peoples (culture), showing the essence of man.

We can say that the presence of cultural studies in the system of scientific knowledge is revealed in two aspects.

Firstly, as a specific cultural method and level of generalization of any analyzed material within the framework of any social or human science, i.e. How component any science. At this level, model conceptual constructions are created that describe not how a given area of life functions in general and what are the boundaries of its existence, but how it adapts to changing conditions, how it reproduces itself, what are the causes and mechanisms of its orderliness. Within each science, one can identify a field of research that concerns the mechanisms and methods of organization, regulation and communication of people in the relevant areas of their life. This is what is commonly called economic, political, religious, linguistic, etc. culture.

Secondly, as an independent area of social and humanitarian knowledge society and its culture. In this aspect, cultural studies can be considered as a separate group of sciences, and as a separate, independent science. In other words, cultural studies can be considered in a narrow and broad sense. Depending on this, the subject of cultural studies and its structure, as well as its connection with other sciences, will be highlighted.

Connection of cultural studies with other sciences

Culturology arose at the intersection of history, philosophy, sociology, ethnology, anthropology, social psychology, art history, etc., therefore, culturology is a complex socio-humanitarian science. Its interdisciplinary nature corresponds to the general tendency of modern science towards integration, mutual influence and interpenetration of various fields of knowledge when studying a common object of research. In relation to cultural studies, the development of scientific knowledge leads to the synthesis of cultural sciences, the formation of an interrelated complex scientific ideas about culture as an integral system. At the same time, each of the sciences with which cultural studies comes into contact deepens the understanding of culture, supplementing it with its own research and knowledge. The most closely related to cultural studies are the philosophy of culture, philosophical, social and cultural anthropology, cultural history and sociology.

Culturology and philosophy of culture

As a branch of knowledge that emerged from philosophy, cultural studies has retained its connection with the philosophy of culture, which acts as an organic component of philosophy, as one of the relatively autonomous theories. Philosophy as such, strives to develop a systematic and holistic view of the world, tries to answer the question of whether the world is knowable, what are the possibilities and boundaries of knowledge, its goals, levels, forms and methods, and philosophy of culture must show what place culture occupies in this general picture of existence, strives to determine the originality and methodology of cognition of cultural phenomena, representing the highest, most abstract level of cultural research. Acting as the methodological basis of cultural studies, it determines the general cognitive guidelines of cultural studies, explains the essence of culture and poses problems that are significant for human life, for example, about the meaning of culture, the conditions of its existence, the structure of culture, the reasons for its changes, etc.

Philosophy of culture and cultural studies differ in the attitudes with which they approach the study of culture. Cultural studies looks at culture in its internal communications as an independent system, and the philosophy of culture analyzes culture in accordance with the subject and functions of philosophy in the context of philosophical categories, such as being, consciousness, cognition, personality, society. Philosophy examines culture in all specific forms, while in cultural studies the emphasis is on explaining various forms of culture with the help of middle-level philosophical theories based on anthropological and historical materials. With this approach, cultural studies allows you to create a holistic picture human world taking into account the diversity and variety of processes occurring in it.

Culturology and cultural history

Story studies human society in its specific forms and conditions of existence.

These forms and conditions do not remain unchanged once and for all, i.e. united and universal for all humanity. They are constantly changing, and history studies society from the point of view of these changes. That's why cultural history identifies historical types of cultures, compares them, reveals general cultural patterns of the historical process, on the basis of which it is possible to describe and explain specific historical features of the development of culture. A generalized view of the history of mankind made it possible to formulate the principle of historicism, according to which culture is viewed not as a frozen and unchanging formation, but as a dynamic system local cultures, being in development and replacing each other. We can say that the historical process acts as a set of specific forms of culture. Each of them is determined by ethnic, religious and historical factors and therefore represents a relatively independent whole. Each culture has its own original story, conditioned by a complex of unique conditions of its existence.

Cultural studies in turn, studies the general laws of culture and reveals it typological features, is developing a system of its own categories. In this context, historical data helps to build a theory of the emergence of culture and identify the laws of its historical development. To do this, cultural studies studies the historical diversity of cultural facts of the past and present, which allows it to understand and explain modern culture. It is in this way that the history of culture is formed, which studies the development of the culture of individual countries, regions, and peoples.

Cultural studies and sociology

Culture is a product of human social life and is impossible without human society. Representing social phenomenon, it develops according to its own laws. In this sense, culture is a subject of study for sociology.

Sociology of culture explores the process of functioning of culture in society; trends cultural development, manifested in the consciousness, behavior and lifestyle of social groups. In the social structure of society, there are groups of different levels - macrogroups, layers, classes, nations, ethnic groups, each of which is distinguished by its own cultural characteristics, value preferences, tastes, style and way of life, and many microgroups that form various subcultures. Such groups are formed for various reasons - gender, age, professional, religious, etc. The multiplicity of group cultures creates a “mosaic” picture of cultural life.

The sociology of culture in its research relies on many special sociological theories that are close in the object of study and significantly complement ideas about cultural processes, establishing interdisciplinary connections with various branches of sociological knowledge - the sociology of art, the sociology of morality, the sociology of religion, the sociology of science, the sociology of law, ethnosociology, sociology of age and social groups, sociology of crime and deviant behavior, sociology of leisure, sociology of the city, etc. Each of them is unable to create a holistic idea of cultural reality. Thus, the sociology of art will provide rich information about artistic life society, and the sociology of leisure shows how different groups of the population use their free time. This is very important, but partial information. Obviously, a higher level of generalization of cultural knowledge is required, and this task is performed by the sociology of culture.

Cultural studies and anthropology

Anthropology - a field of scientific knowledge within which the fundamental problems of human existence in the natural and artificial environment are studied. In this area today there are several directions: physical anthropology, the main subject of which is man as a biological species, as well as modern and fossil apes; social and cultural anthropology, the main subject of which is the comparative study of human societies; philosophical and religious anthropology, which are not empirical sciences, but a set of philosophical and theological teachings about human nature, respectively.

Cultural anthropology deals with the study of man as a subject of culture, gives a description of the life of various societies at different stages of development, their way of life, morals, customs, etc., studies specific cultural values, forms of cultural relationships, mechanisms for transmitting cultural skills from person to person. This is important for cultural studies, because it allows us to understand what lies behind the facts of culture, what needs are expressed by its specific historical, social or personal forms. We can say that cultural anthropology studies ethnic cultures, describing their cultural phenomena, systematizing them and comparing them. In essence, it examines a person in the aspect of expressing his inner world in the facts of cultural activity.

Within the framework of cultural anthropology, the historical process of the relationship between man and culture, human adaptation to the surrounding cultural environment, the formation of the spiritual world of the individual, embodiment creative potentials in activities and their results. Cultural anthropology reveals the “key” moments of socialization and inculturation of a person, the specifics of each stage of the life path, studies the influence of the cultural environment, education and upbringing systems and adaptation to them; the role of family, peers, generation, paying special attention to the psychological justification of such universal phenomena as life, soul, death, love, friendship, faith, meaning, spiritual world men and women.

Cultural studies(lat. culture

Culturology sections:

Sections of cultural studies	Areas of research
Fundamental cultural studies
Target: theoretical knowledge cultural phenomenon, development of categorical apparatus and research methods
Ontology and epistemology of culture	The diversity of definitions of culture and perspectives of knowledge, social functions and parameters. Foundations of cultural knowledge and its place in the system of sciences, internal structure and methodology
Morphology of culture	The main parameters of the functional structure of culture as a system of forms of social organization, regulation and communication, cognition, accumulation and transmission of social experience
Cultural semantics	Ideas about symbols, signs and images, languages and cultural texts, mechanisms of cultural communication
Anthropology of culture	Ideas about the personal parameters of culture, about a person as a “producer” and “consumer” of culture
Sociology of culture	Ideas about social stratification and spatio-temporal differentiation of culture, about culture as a system social interaction
Social dynamics culture	Ideas about the main types of sociocultural processes, the genesis and variability of cultural phenomena and systems
Historical dynamics of culture	Ideas about the evolution of forms of sociocultural organization
Applied cultural studies
Goal: forecasting, designing and regulating current cultural processes taking place in social practice
Applied aspects of cultural studies	Ideas about cultural policy, functions of cultural institutions, goals and methods of operation of a network of cultural institutions, tasks and technologies of sociocultural interaction, including the protection and use of cultural heritage

2. Culture as a subject of interdisciplinary research (connection of cultural studies with other sciences).

An important place in the system of cultural sciences occupies philosophy of culture. For a long time, general theoretical problems of culture were developed within the framework of the philosophy of culture. Now, as already noted, cultural studies is acquiring an independent status, but still maintains close theoretical relationships with the philosophy of culture. The philosophy of culture acts as an organic component of philosophy, as one of its relatively autonomous theories. Philosophy of culture represents the highest, most abstract level of cultural research. She acts as methodological basis of cultural studies.

At the same time, philosophy of culture and cultural studies differ in the attitudes with which they approach the study of culture. Culturology considers culture in its internal connections, as an independent system, and philosophy of culture analyzes culture in accordance with the subject and functions of philosophy in the context of philosophical categories - such as being, consciousness, cognition, personality, society.

Philosophy is the science of the most general principles and the laws of existence and knowledge. She strives to develop a systematic and holistic view of the world. And the philosophy of culture seeks to show what place does culture occupy in this general picture of existence?. Philosophy tries to answer the question of whether the world is knowable, what are the possibilities and boundaries of knowledge, its goals, levels, forms and methods. Philosophy of culture, in turn, seeks to determine originality and methodology of cognition of cultural phenomena. An important branch of philosophy is dialectics as a doctrine of universal connection and development. The philosophy of culture reveals how dialectical principles and laws manifest themselves in the cultural and historical process. It defines the concepts of cultural progress, regression, continuity, heritage. Thus, the philosophy of culture considers culture in a system of philosophical categories and this is its difference from cultural studies.

In the system of knowledge about culture, a special place occupies sociology of culture. The importance of this science has recently increased. The specificity of the sociological approach to society lies in the study of it as an integral system. All social sciences, within the framework of their subject, try to present the sphere and aspect of social life they study as a whole. Sociology (and this is its specificity) studies society as a whole in two directions:

1. Clarifies the connections of coordination and subordination between the components of the social system.
2. Analyzes the place and role of individual components of the system in the life of society, their structural and functional status in social system.

In accordance with the specifics of the sociological approach sociology of culture

Explores the place of individual elements and spheres of culture, as well as culture as a whole in the social system;
- studies culture as a social phenomenon generated by the needs of society;
- considers culture as a system of norms, values, ways of life of individuals and various communities, as well as social institutions that develop and disseminate these values.

Like sociology in general, sociology of culture is multi-level. The difference between its levels lies in the degree of historical commonality of the phenomena being analyzed. Within the sociology of culture, there are three levels:

1. General sociological theory of culture, which studies the place and role of culture in the life of society.
2. Particular sociological theories of culture (sociology of religion, sociology of education, sociology of art, etc.). They are exploring the place and role of individual spheres and types of culture in the life of society, their social functions. For example, the sociology of art studies the relationship between art and the viewer, the influence of social conditions on the process of creation and functioning of works of art, problems of perception and artistic taste. In addition, cultural problems are considered in the form of certain aspects in industrial sociology, urban sociology, rural sociology, youth sociology, family sociology and other particular sociological theories.
3. Specific sociological studies of culture. They collect and analyze specific facts of cultural life.

Unlike the philosophy of culture, the sociology of culture is distinguished by its practical orientation. The sociology of culture is directly related to solving practical problems. It is designed to explore ways and means of managing cultural processes, to develop recommendations regarding the comprehensive development of culture.

Close connections exist between cultural studies and cultural history. Cultural history studies spatially - temporary modifications of the world cultural and historical process, the development of the culture of individual countries, regions, peoples. Stage - regional type of culture, historical era, cultural space, cultural time, cultural picture world - key concepts of historical and cultural research. The history of culture is at the intersection historical sciences and, on the one hand, and cultural studies, on the other.

A fruitful approach to the analysis of cultural history was proposed by French historians who united around the journal Annals of Economic and Social History. It was founded in 1929 M. Blok(1876 - 1944). The research of the Annales school made it possible to look at the problem of history as the relationship between different cultures. There must be dialogue of cultures, when one culture asks questions and receives answers from another culture through a historian striving for extreme objectivity, paying attention to texts, the vocabulary of culture, tools, maps taken from ancient fields, and folklore. All this was done in the works of M. Blok. In his classic work “Feudal Society,” he uses not only legal and economic documents, but also literary works, epic, heroic legends.

Thus, The Annales school developed a multifactorial approach to the analysis of historical phenomena. Representatives of this trend believed that social facts should be studied in a comprehensive manner. The main role here is played by the connection of social and cultural analysis. The ideas of this school were picked up by historians from many countries, and today this direction is considered the most productive. Data methodological principles Russian scientists also use it in their research. This is work on medieval culture West A.Ya. Gurevich, according to the European Renaissance L.M. Batkina, ancient and Byzantine culture S.S. Averintseva, historical cultural studies MM. Bakhtin.

Adaptive function of culture

The most important function of culture is adaptive, allowing a person to adapt to the environment, which is a necessary condition for the survival of all living organisms in the process of evolution. But man does not adapt to changes in the environment, as other living organisms do, but changes his environment in accordance with his needs, adapting it to himself. At the same time, a new, artificial world is created - culture. In other words, a person cannot lead a natural lifestyle like animals, and in order to survive, he creates an artificial habitat around himself.

Of course, a person cannot achieve complete independence from the environment, since each specific form of culture is largely determined natural conditions. The type of economy, housing, traditions and customs, beliefs, rites and rituals of peoples will depend on natural and climatic conditions.

As culture develops, humanity provides itself with increasing security and comfort. But, having gotten rid of previous fears and dangers, a person comes face to face with new threats that he creates for himself. So, today there is no need to be afraid of such formidable diseases of the past as the plague or smallpox, but new diseases have appeared, such as AIDS, for which no cure has yet been found, and in military laboratories other deadly diseases created by man himself are waiting in the wings. Thus, a person needs to protect himself not only from the natural environment, but also from the world of culture.

The adaptive function has a dual nature. On the one hand, it manifests itself in the creation of the necessary means of protection for a person from the outside world. These are all cultural products that help primitive, and later civilized man to survive and feel confident in the world: the use of fire, the creation of productive agriculture, medicine, etc. These are the so-called specific means of protection person. These include not only objects of material culture, but also those specific means that a person develops to adapt to life in society, keeping him from mutual destruction and death. These are government structures, laws, customs, traditions, moral standards, etc.

There are also nonspecific means of protection human being is culture as a whole, existing as a picture of the world. Understanding culture as a “second nature”, a world created by man, we emphasize the most important property of human activity and culture - the ability to “double” the world, highlighting sensory-objective and ideal-imaginative layers in it. Culture as a picture of the world makes it possible to see the world not as a continuous flow of information, but to receive this information in an ordered and structured form.

Significative function

Culture as a picture of the world is connected with another function of culture - iconic, significative, those. naming function. The formation of names and titles is very important for a person. If some object or phenomenon is not named, does not have a name, is not designated by a person, they do not exist for us. By assigning a name to an object or phenomenon and assessing it, for example, as threatening, we simultaneously receive the necessary information that allows us to act to avoid danger. After all, when labeling a threat, we not only give it a name, but enter it into the hierarchy of existence.

Thus, culture as an image and picture of the world represents an orderly and balanced scheme of the cosmos, serving as the prism through which a person looks at the world. This scheme is expressed through philosophy, literature, mythology, ideology, as well as in the actions of people. Its content is understood fragmentarily by the majority of members of the ethnos; it is fully accessible only to a small number of cultural specialists. The basis of this picture of the world are ethnic constants - the values and norms of ethnic culture.

2.3 Cognitive (epistemological) function.

An important function of culture is also cognitive (epistemological) function. Culture concentrates the experience and skills of many generations of people, accumulates rich knowledge about the world and thereby creates favorable opportunities for its further knowledge and development. This function manifests itself most fully in science and scientific knowledge. Of course, knowledge is acquired in other areas of culture, but there it is a by-product of human activity, and in science, obtaining objective knowledge about the world is the main goal.

Science for a long time remained a phenomenon only of European civilization and culture, while other peoples chose a different path to understanding the world around them. Thus, in the East, the most complex systems of philosophy and psychotechnics were created for this purpose. They seriously discussed such ways of understanding the world, unusual for rational European minds, as telepathy (transfer of thoughts at a distance), telekinesis (the ability to influence objects with thought), clairvoyance (the ability to predict the future) and much more.

Cognitive function is inextricably linked with function of accumulation and storage of information, since knowledge and information are the results of cognition of the world. A natural condition for the life of both an individual and society as a whole is the need for information on a variety of issues. We must remember our past, be able to evaluate it correctly, and admit our mistakes. A person must know who he is, where he comes from and where he is going. In connection with these issues, the information function of culture was formed.

Culture has become a specifically human form of production, accumulation, storage and transmission of knowledge. Unlike animals, in which the transfer of information from one generation to another occurs mainly genetically, in humans information is encoded in a variety of sign systems. Thanks to this, information is separated from the individuals who obtained it and acquires an independent existence without disappearing after their death. It becomes a public property, and each new generation does not start its life journey from scratch, but actively masters the experience accumulated by previous generations.

Information is transmitted not only in a temporal aspect - from generation to generation, but also within one generation - as a process of exchange of experience between societies, social groups, and individuals. There are reflective(conscious) and unreflective(unconscious) forms of translation of cultural experience. Reflexive forms include targeted training and education. Non-reflective - spontaneous assimilation of cultural norms, which occurs unconsciously, through direct imitation of others.

Sociocultural experience is transmitted through the action of such social institutions as the family, the education system, mass media, and cultural institutions. Over time, the production and accumulation of knowledge is becoming more and more at a fast pace. In the modern era, information doubles every 15 years. Thus, culture, performing an information function, makes possible the process of cultural continuity, the connection of peoples, eras and generations.

Axiological function

People's value orientations are related to axiological (evaluative) function their cultures. Since the degree of significance of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world for the life of people is not the same, a certain system of values of a society or social group is formed. Values imply the choice of a particular object, state, need, goal in accordance with the criterion of their usefulness for human life. Values serve as the foundation of culture, helping society and each person to separate good from bad, truth from error, fair from unfair, permissible from forbidden -

The selection of values occurs in the process of practical activity. As experience accumulates, values form and disappear, are revised and enriched. Different peoples have different concepts of good and evil; it is the values that provide the specificity of each culture. What is important to one culture may not be important to another. Each nation develops its own pyramid, hierarchy of values, although the set of values itself is of a universal human nature. The core values can be roughly divided (classified) into:

* vital- life, health, safety, welfare, strength, etc.;

* social- position in society, status, work, profession, personal independence, family, gender equality;

* political- freedom of speech, civil liberties, legality, civil peace;

* moral- goodness, goodness, love, drrkba, duty, honor, selflessness, decency, loyalty, justice, respect for elders, love for children;

* aesthetic- beauty, ideal, style, harmony, fashion, originality.

Many of the values mentioned above may not be present in a given culture. In addition, each culture represents certain values in its own way. Thus, the ideals of beauty differ quite greatly among different nations. For example, according to the ideal of beauty in medieval China, aristocratic women were expected to have tiny legs. The desired was achieved through painful foot-binding procedures, subjecting girls from the age of five to it, as a result of which these women became crippled.

With the help of values, people navigate the world, society, determine their actions, their attitude towards others. Most people believe that they strive for goodness, truth, love. Of course, what seems good to some people may be evil to others. And this again indicates the cultural specificity of values. All our lives we act as “evaluators” of the world around us, based on our own ideas about good and evil.

Professional culture

Professional culture characterizes the level and quality vocational training. The state of society is certainly not influenced by the quality of professional culture. Since this requires appropriate educational institutions that provide qualified education, institutes and laboratories, studios and workshops, etc. therefore, a high level of professional culture is an indicator of a developed society.

In principle, everyone who is engaged in paid work, whether in the public or private sector, should have it. Professional culture includes a set of special theoretical knowledge and practical skills associated with a specific type of work. The degree of proficiency in professional culture is expressed in qualifications and qualification ranks. It is necessary to distinguish between a) formal qualifications, which are certified by a certificate (diploma, certificate, certificate) of completion of a certain educational institution and imply a system of theoretical knowledge necessary for a given profession, b) real qualifications, obtained after several years of work in a given field, including a set of practical skills and skills, i.e. professional experience

Eastern type of culture

Eastern culture refers primarily to its two varieties: Indian culture and Chinese culture.

Indian culture- this is, first of all, Vedic culture. It is based on Vedic literature, on ancient texts - the Vedas, written in Sanskrit and dating back to the 5th millennium BC. The oldest period of Indian culture is called Vedic. The Vedas contain people's first ideas about reality. The Vedas (from the Sanskrit word “veda” - “knowledge”) is knowledge about man and the world, about good and evil, an idea about the soul. Here for the first time it is said about the law of karma, i.e. about the dependence of a person’s life on his actions. The Vedas convey knowledge about systems for achieving perfection and liberating a person from various kinds of addictions. The Vedas also give subject symbols (such as a circle, a swastika - the sign of infinity, the wheel of Buddha and other symbols of perpetual motion).

Vedic literature is the oldest in human history. The most ancient of the books - the Vedas - is the Rig Veda. Her hymns anticipate the Bible. The human world, according to the Vedas, was subordinated to a strict cosmic hierarchy. Since ancient times, there was a division into varnas (colors and categories). Brahmins are sages, interpreters of the Vedas, their symbolic color is white, the color of goodness and holiness. Kshatriyas are warriors and rulers, their symbol is the color red - power and passions. Vaishyas are farmers, cattle breeders, their symbol is yellow, the color of moderation and hard work. Shudras are servants, the color black is ignorance. The cycle of birth, life and death corresponded to natural cycles.

According to the Vedas, the cycle of births, lives and deaths of people corresponds to natural cycles. The idea of the eternal cycle of life and the idea of an eternal spiritual Source are the foundation of ideas about the eternal immortal soul. According to these ideas, the soul continues to live after the death of the body, moving into the body of the born creature. But what body? This depends on many circumstances and is consistent with the so-called. the law of karma. It states that the sum of a person’s good and evil deeds (i.e. his karma), received in previous lives, determines the form of subsequent births. You can be born a slave, an animal, a worm, a roadside stone. The cause of all your suffering is in you. This idea of karma is the most important; it is a powerful ethical incentive that determines a benevolent attitude towards nature (since in every natural creation one can see a reborn person, perhaps a recently deceased relative or friend).

Vedic books provide methods and means of liberation from the law of karma. This is a moral and ascetic life, hermitage, yoga(the word is translated as connection, connection). Yoga is given great importance. It forms a system of self-preparation of a person for a special spiritual life and getting rid of addictions.

Eastern culture is largely based on mythology. Thus, ancient Egyptian sculpture produces a religious and mystical impression. The greatness of the pyramids and the mysterious sphinxes inspired the idea of the insignificance of man before the powerful forces of the universe. Ancient Egypt peculiar to the cult of the pharaoh and the cult of the dead, immortalized in mummies and pyramids. Indian culture was not as religious as Egyptian culture; it was more drawn to the world of the living, and therefore paid a lot of attention to the development of moral requirements for man, the formation of a moral law (dharma) and the search for ways of human unity.

Indian culture, more than other eastern cultures, is focused on self-development person and society, concentration of efforts to develop internal and external culture. God's intervention is only the completion of human activity aimed at improving the world. In Eastern culture, prosperity does not come from outside, but is prepared by the entire cultural work of humanity.

Apparently, here lie the origins of inner depth and psychologism oriental culture compared to the West. It is focused on self-comprehension, in-depth, internal, immanent religiosity, intuitionism and irrationalism. This is generally the difference between Eastern culture and Western culture.

This specificity is reflected in modern manifestations of Indian culture. We are also deeply interested in Tibetan medicine; and methods of healing modernized to European thinking (“Raja Yoga”, Hatha Yoga, Transcendental Meditation), and the activities of the Krishna Consciousness Society, and the philosophy of life under Rajnesha and others. Vl. Soloviev, in his work “Historical Affairs of Philosophy,” spoke about the “living fruits” of Indian philosophy, which continues to nourish world human thought with life-giving juices. No philosophy has had such an influence on Western culture as Indian. Russian cultural figures N. Roerich also became its followers and D. Andreev, and German thinkers and writers - R. Steiner and G. Hesse, and many, many others G. Hesse, author of the world-famous novels “Steppenwolf” and “The Glass Bead Game”, in the poem “Siddhardha”. " expressed his great love for Indian culture.

The spiritual potential of ancient Indian culture and its moral values have remained almost unchanged to this day. India gave the world the culture of Buddhism and excellent literature. Love for man, admiration for nature, the ideals of tolerance, forgiveness and understanding are reflected in the teachings of the great humanist of our time - M. Gandhi. The beauty and uniqueness of Indian culture are embodied in the creativity of Russians and European artists and thinkers.

Ancient Chineseculture- another important culture of the East. Comparing it with Indian shows how different ethnic groups are capable of creating qualitatively different cultures. The Chinese ethnos has given rise to a socially oriented culture, in contrast to the Indian one, which is focused mainly on the inner world of man and his capabilities.

The same role that Buddhism and Hinduism played in Indian culture was played in Chinese culture. Confucianism. This religious and philosophical system was founded by one of the most famous sages of antiquity - Confucius. His name comes from the Latin transcription of the Chinese Kunzi - "teacher Kun". Confucius lived from 551-479 BC. and created a doctrine that was the ideological basis of the Chinese empire for more than 2 thousand years. Confucius continued the traditions of Chinese culture, laid down in the 2nd millennium BC. Special attention he devoted not to issues of cosmology, but to practical philosophy: what a person needs to do in order to live with all people in peace and harmony.

The main content of Confucius's books is related to moral teachings and justification of ethical standards. Within the framework of Confucianism, a system of state-political and individual ethics, norms of regulation and ritual life was developed. The patriarchal nature of Confucian culture is reflected in its requirement of filial piety (xiao), which extended to both family and state relations. Confucius wrote: “It rarely happens that a person full of filial piety and obedience to elders would like to annoy the ruler. And it does not happen at all that someone who does not like to annoy the ruler would have a tendency to rebellion. A noble husband takes care of the root; when it is laid root, then the path is born, filial piety and obedience to elders - isn’t it in these that humanity is rooted?”

In addition to Confucianism, a special role was played in ancient Chinese culture Taoism, whose ideals were in many ways similar to the moral quest Vedic culture India.

One of the features of Chinese culture was excessive bureaucratization. Since ancient times (at least since the 18th century BC), a bureaucratic system of government has developed in China. Even then, a layer of educated bureaucrats emerged, concentrating in their hands state power and regulated the entire life of ancient Chinese society with the help of moral and legal norms and principles of etiquette.

The bureaucracy monopolized the education system, since literacy provided higher social status and advancement on the government ladder. Lengthy training and a system of complex examinations had no equal in the ancient world. Chinese culture gave the world gunpowder and paper, unique martial arts systems and unique philosophical doctrines.

Eastern culture contains such a wealth of human thought that leaves few people indifferent, both in the East and in the West. The peculiarity of Eastern culture is especially pronounced when compared with Western culture.

Western type of culture

The European (Western) cultural and historical tradition, correlated with the East, shows us, first of all, a unique sequence of eras (stages) in the development of civilization that arose in the Aegean Sea basin as a result of the collapse and on the basis of the Kritomycenaean culture. This sequence historical eras is this:

classical Hellenic culture;

Hellenistic-Roman stage;

Romano-Germanic culture of the Christian Middle Ages;

new European culture.

The last three stages can be considered (against the background of the ancient Greek classics) as unique variable forms of Westernization of the traditional culture of the Romans and Germans, and then of the entire Romano-Germanic Europe. In Hegel and Toynbee, the first two and two second eras are combined into independent civilizational-historical formations (ancient and western worlds). For Marx, European antiquity and the Middle Ages, although they form a parallel to the societies of the East, based on the Asian mode of production, still constitute with them a single pre-capitalist stage of historical development, followed by the sharply opposed universal capitalist era of modern times.

One way or another, but at the origins and in the very foundations of all societies and cultures of the European (Western) civilizational tradition there is something unimaginable from a normal (traditional or Eastern) point of view: an economy, society, state, culture, lying entirely on the shoulders of one single person, independently , at his own peril and risk, carrying out his “works and days”, his activities and communication as a person. Man-society, man-state, man-worldview, indeed whole personality, free and independent in thoughts, words and actions, Odyssey (as M.K. Petrov says). And, perhaps, it is not at all by chance that the paths traversed by European spiritual culture begin and end with Homer’s “Odyssey” and James Joyce’s “Ulysses”: together with the Odysseys, the market and democracy, civil society and a free personal worldview entered and strengthened in European culture .

The most important inventions European culture at the linguistic and symbolic level of its representation in the spiritual and ideological sphere is philosophy in the above meaning of this concept and science as specific form cognitive activity, characteristic of last era existence of Western cultural tradition. The line between the “Sophian” and “scientific” forms of culture in general (as well as in relation to the specifics of the corresponding ideological forms) is so significant that very often only two major periods are distinguished in the movement of European culture, taken in its relative independence from the socio-economic and national culture. ethnic areas of manifestation of civilizational and historical life. Namely:

from the middle of the 1st millennium BC n until the 17th century;

period XVII-XX centuries. (two main terms are used to designate it: the period of modern European culture or the period of technogenic civilization).

Taking into account other criteria, and, above all, representation in European culture Christianity, this simple periodization becomes more complicated: usually in this case they speak (meaning the first large period) about the eras of ancient, Greek and Roman culture, about the culture of the Middle Ages and the culture of the Renaissance (from this last era, some authors begin the countdown of modern European culture) . Within the framework of the second large period, the culture of the Enlightenment, romanticism and the classical German cultural era of the late XVIII - early XIX V. This initial segment of new European culture coincides chronologically with the era of bourgeois and national revolutions in Western Europe and America. It is also the time of approval of the economic formation of society (capitalism).

Second half of the 19th - 20th centuries. are characterized differently. But it is quite obvious that over these one and a half centuries the situation in culture and public spheres Western technogenic civilization - despite the constant flow of updates and a number of social and national-state cataclysms - is stabilizing. Including in relation to the ever wider coverage of the value orientations of Western civilization of non-European cultures. As a result, modern western culture is assessed either in line with Spengler's mythology of "The Decline of Europe", or in optimistic and at the same time clearly Eurocentric tones.

Cultural studies as a science. Characteristics of the main sections.

Cultural studies(lat. culture- cultivation, agriculture, education, veneration;

Culturology as a science began to take shape in the 18th century. It was mainly formed at the end of the 19th century. The name of the science was finally established by the American scientist White in 1947.
Culturology studies culture in all its forms and manifestations, the relationship and interaction of various forms of culture, the functions and laws of its development, the interaction of man, culture and society.

Culturology sections:

social - studies the functional mechanisms of the sociocultural organization of people's lives.
- Humanitarian - concentrates on the study of the forms and processes of self-knowledge of culture, embodied in various “texts” of culture.”
- Fundamental - develops a categorical apparatus and research methods, studies culture with the aim of theoretical and historical knowledge of this subject.
- Applied - uses fundamental knowledge about culture to solve practical problems, as well as for forecasting, designing and regulating cultural processes.

Table No. 3. Sections of cultural studies

Topic 1.

Structure and composition of modern cultural knowledge

1. The place of cultural studies in the system of sciences, object, subject, goals of cultural studies. Related disciplines. Sections of cultural studies.

2. The concept of “culture”, classification of culture

3. Functions of culture

Until the 20th century the study of culture was within the framework of philosophical and historical sciences. The identification of cultural studies as a separate scientific block at the end of the 20th century. associated with the accumulation of a large amount of knowledge about culture and the need to systematize it.

The term "culturology" is derived from the Latin. cultura (which in turn came from colo, cultum, colere - “to cultivate, process”) and from Greek. logos (word, concept, doctrine, theory, reason, thought, knowledge). If we take translation as “knowledge about culture” as a basis, this means that cultural studies studies both the theory of culture and the history of culture, but if we take it as “theory of culture”, then only theory. For the first time, the word “cultural studies” was proposed to be used as a scientific term by the American researcher Leslie White.

There are several views on the question of the status of cultural knowledge:

1. Cultural studies – academic discipline , which examines man, society and culture, using the knowledge of various sciences: philosophy, aesthetics, ethics, history, art history, religious studies, ethnography, archaeology, psychology, linguistics, etc. This humanitarian discipline was introduced in Russia in specific conditions (1980s), when there was a crisis in the Marxist system of social science, and it was intended mainly for students of non-humanitarian universities. After economics, political science, sociology, and philosophy acquired their own place and significance in the system of humanitarian knowledge, cultural studies began to play the role of a preparatory course for the disciplines of the social and humanitarian cycle.

2. Cultural studies– an independent branch of scientific knowledge, which has its own object and subject of knowledge, methods and approaches of research., i.e. cultural studies is science about culture (only in Russia).

Object of study:

o sociocultural environment (including culture)

o the most general patterns of culture;

o principles of the functioning of culture in society;

o relationship and dialogue different cultures;

o common trends in the cultural development of humanity.

Subject of research:

· the result of people's activities;

· cultural models;

· attitudes that regulate the life of society, manifesting themselves in customs, laws, norms and values;

· communication connections between people, forming special languages of interpersonal communication;

Goals of cultural studies:

1. Forecasting and designing spiritual processes social development, analysis of the sociocultural consequences of social processes;

2. Search for new methods of socialization (social formation) and inculturation (i.e. mastering the content of culture) of the individual;

3. Providing knowledge about national culture;

4. Comparative analysis of cultures (comparative method of cultural research).

Disciplines related to cultural studies

Anthropology of culture (cultural anthropology) shows that cultural theory deals with ethnic communities that have their own original culture. Focuses on social structure, political organization, economic system, kinship system, characteristics of food, housing, clothing, tools, religion, mythology of a particular culture. Cultural anthropology relies on a large amount of ethnographic material.

Philosophy of culture (cultural philosophy)– acting as an independent direction, remains a section in philosophy aimed at understanding the essence and meaning of culture. Philosophy of culture is the maximum possible level generalizations of cultural processes. Studies culture in the context of fundamental philosophical problems– being (ontology of culture), consciousness, society, personality.

Sociology of culture– a specific branch of knowledge that is at the intersection of the fields of sociology and culture and, accordingly, studies social patterns in human activity. In sociology, the concept of “culture” refers to the artificial environment of existence created by people: things, symbolic systems, customs, beliefs, values, norms, which are expressed in subject environment, patterns of behavior that are learned by people and passed on from generation to generation, are an important source of communication, regulation of social interaction and behavior.

Highlight 2 sections in cultural studies

Fundamental cultural studies studies the processes and forms of integration and interaction of people based on their common values, creates a categorical apparatus.

1. Applied cultural studies studies, plans and develops methods for targeted forecasting and management of socio-cultural processes within the framework of state, social and cultural policies. Goal: forecasting and regulation of current cultural processes, development of social technologies for the transfer of cultural experience, management and protection of culture, cultural, educational and leisure activities.

Today there are about 600 definitions of the term “culture”, the word “culture” is one of the most used in modern language. But this speaks more about its polysemy than its knowledge. Why so many?

– Diversity of the phenomenon of culture

– The definition was given by scientists from different fields of knowledge

– Definitions were formulated based on different methodological grounds

The term “culture” is of Latin origin, which means “cultivation”, “processing”, “care”. Cicero (1st century BC) said: “Culture is the cultivation of the human mind through a process of purposeful influence.” That is, the main object of “cultivation” becomes the person himself, his inner world. And therefore, the very concept of “culture” begins to narrow to its size: it begins to be understood only as spiritual culture - the area of the highest achievements of a person in the spiritual sphere.

A broader and more dominant approach in understanding culture is when the emphasis is transferred to the human world around us and thus culture expands, covering along with spiritual and material sphere. Thus, culture can be defined as the totality of the achievements (and losses) of humanity in the material and spiritual sphere.

Related information.

culturology¸ science, status of culturologists, significance, integrativeness

Annotation:

One of the most discussed issues modern education, is the question of the scientific status of cultural studies. Culturology is a recognized scientific discipline that has long proven its necessity, validity and effectiveness throughout the world. At the same time, it is a fairly young science that raises a significant number of open questions.

Article text:

Interest in culture accompanies the entire history of mankind. But never before has it attracted such close attention as it does today. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the emergence of a special branch of human knowledge that studies culture, and cultural studies, a corresponding academic discipline.

One of the most discussed issues in modern education is the question of the scientific status of cultural studies. Cultural studies is a recognized scientific discipline. It has long proven its necessity, validity and effectiveness throughout the world. In Russia the situation is somewhat different. Culturology is a fairly young science that causes a huge amount of controversy. Russian researchers face a number of numerous questions. Is Russian cultural studies needed in the modern world, is cultural studies a marginal science, what is a cultural approach?

This sociological study on the topic “Social understanding of culturology” was carried out with the aim of finding out the attitude of society towards the culturology of modern education and culturology as a scientific discipline.

Respondents were offered a questionnaire with a number of questions relevant to this topic. During the study, 50 people aged 18 to 40 years were interviewed. This age category of respondents is most suitable for this survey, since people over 18 years of age already have knowledge behind them that determines their predisposition to certain sciences that can answer the proposed questions. People under 40 who have already received an education, working in one field or another, may be continuing their education, or are in the scientific field.

The data obtained during the research allows us to say that the topic of culturalization of education is relevant for society. 87% of respondents showed sufficiently deep knowledge in the field of this research topic. 2% - low level of knowledge in this area, and 11% of respondents showed superficial knowledge.

The respondents who turned out to be more knowledgeable on the proposed topic belong to the age category from 20 to 30 years old, studying at universities. It is worth noting that the ongoing humanitarization of education, the introduction of cultural disciplines into higher educational institutions, the creation of a humanitarian sphere at the university, contributes to self-realization and self-determination of the student’s personality in the space of modern culture. This number of respondents are in the process of mastering professional disciplines, including cultural ones.

Respondents aged 30 to 40 showed fairly superficial knowledge. 11% of total number respondents did not study cultural studies at a university, so they form their opinion on this topic based on independently acquired knowledge.

It is worth noting that the activities of the respondents and the age category in which they are located play an important role in the knowledge that they were guided by when answering the proposed questions.

The question of the status and social understanding of cultural studies, its role in the humanitarization of education, divided the opinions of respondents in such a way that some believe that cultural studies fundamentally cannot be an independent science, attributing to it an interdisciplinary character. Others insist that this is a synthesis of other fundamental sciences, providing new knowledge and having its own specific approach, which, in general, gives every reason to define cultural studies as a science. The arguments of both are not unfounded, and, when trying detailed consideration it turns out that they are so intertwined with each other that they ultimately form a single whole. This can be seen in the many aspects that can be criticized. In particular, using the example of methodology, the existence of which is often controversial. On the one hand, it is stated that cultural studies does not have its own research method, but only uses those borrowed from other fundamental sciences, primarily history. However, it is very reasonable to note on the other hand that this state of affairs only plays into the hands of cultural studies as a science, since it once again shows all the scientific breadth and depth, which come precisely from the use of diverse methods.

Any science uses its own specific methods, methods of considering certain processes and phenomena that it studies. The methods used in physics are different from the methods used in sociology or other sciences. But sometimes similar methods are used, identical for different sciences. The boundary between methods is fluid; techniques developed within one science begin to be successfully applied in others. It used to be believed that just as any science has its own subject of study, it should also have its own specific method. Later it turned out that this does not apply to all sciences, especially social and humanities.

It is worth noting that since the social and human sciences have a common object of research and study, all these sciences closely interact with each other in the study of this object (Table No. 1).

Table No. 1. Specifics of social and humanitarian knowledge

Social knowledge	Humanitarian knowledge
*Peculiarities:* clarification of patterns that determine stability and changes in sociocultural life, analysis of factors influencing people’s behavior	*Peculiarities:* distinguishing between scientific humanitarian knowledge and esoteric knowledge based on feeling, intuition, faith
*Object:* society (person)	*Object:* person (society)
*Item:* social connections and interactions, features of the functioning of social groups	*Item:* unique, inimitable, in connection with the concept of personality; problems of the inner world of man, the life of his spirit.
*Sciences:* sociology, political science, law, political economy, philosophy, sociology of culture, etc.	*Sciences:* philology, art history, history, cultural anthropology, psychology, etc.
- built on an empirical and rational methodological foundation, social facts are considered as “things” (E. Durkheim); — takes on the character of applied research; — includes the development of models, projects, programs for regional sociocultural development.	*Leading cognitive orientation:* - reflects on the sociocultural meaning of this fact; — considers as a text any sign-symbolic system that has a sociocultural meaning; - assumes dialog.

Natural science and socio-humanitarian knowledge also have similarities and interconnections in the area of their specifics (Table No. 2).

Table No. 2. Specifics of natural science and socio-humanitarian knowledge

Natural science knowledge	Socio-humanitarian knowledge
*Object of knowledge:* nature	*Object of knowledge:* Human
*Subject of knowledge:* Human	*Subject of knowledge:* Human
*"Objective" character*	*Evaluative nature*
*Methods of cognition:* quantitative and experimental	*Methods of cognition:* historical-descriptive, historical-comparative, functional, etc., involve the author’s interpretation
*Setting in methodology:* analysis	*Setting in methodology:* synthesis

This predetermines the fact that cultural studies, as a humanitarian science, has close ties with other sciences: philosophy, history, literary criticism, art criticism, etc. All these sciences exchange knowledge and methods with each other, mutually enriching, complementing each other, affirming in human cognition, a picture of the world and society that is most consistent with the real processes that characterize human communities in their functioning and development. Regarding methodology, we can say: this scientific field is general in the humanities, therefore it can use the methods and methodology of almost all the humanities.

As for the categorical apparatus, here cultural studies is often accused of not having its own, specific set of categories, of borrowing from similar scientific fields, mainly from philosophy. But there is nothing reprehensible in this borrowing - cultural knowledge has separated from philosophy. Therefore, the continuity of categories here is natural and justified. But cultural studies not only has these borrowed categories; researchers also identify a specific categorical apparatus of this knowledge. The subject field of cultural studies is clearly defined - this is culture. This is its specific subject, distinguishing it from other social and humanitarian disciplines, necessitating its existence as a special branch of knowledge. The very understanding of culture is quite broad. And although there is no single definition of culture, all scientists agree on the concept of culture as a subject of study.

And finally, about fundamental scientific research. For my a little story cultural studies already has authors and their works, which are studied as separate cultural phenomena, and theoretical issues of cultural studies. It is worth highlighting the main sections of cultural studies, which have their own field of study (Table No. 3).

Table No. 3. Sections of cultural studies

Sections of cultural studies	Areas of research
Fundamental cultural studies
Target: theoretical knowledge of the phenomenon of culture, development of categorical apparatus and research methods
*Ontology and epistemology of culture*	The variety of definitions of culture and perspectives of cognition, social functions and parameters. Foundations of cultural knowledge and its place in the system of sciences, internal structure and methodology
*Morphology of culture*	The main parameters of the functional structure of culture as a system of forms of social organization, regulation and communication, cognition, accumulation and transmission of social experience
*Cultural semantics*	Ideas about symbols, signs and images, languages and cultural texts, mechanisms of cultural communication
*Anthropology of culture*	Ideas about the personal parameters of culture, about a person as a “producer” and “consumer” of culture
*Sociology of culture*	Ideas about social stratification and spatio-temporal differentiation of culture, about culture as a system of social interaction
*Social dynamics of culture*	Ideas about the main types of sociocultural processes, the genesis and variability of cultural phenomena and systems
*Historical dynamics of culture*	Ideas about the evolution of forms of sociocultural organization
Applied cultural studies
Target: forecasting, designing and regulating current cultural processes taking place in social practice
*Applied aspects of cultural studies*	Ideas about cultural policy, functions of cultural institutions, goals and methods of operation of a network of cultural institutions, tasks and technologies of sociocultural interaction, including the protection and use of cultural heritage

85% of respondents consider it necessary to teach cultural studies in non-humanitarian universities. This is explained by the fact that the level of students’ general culture has become so low that it calls into question their personal worth, civic qualities, and even their future professional suitability. In other words, it makes no sense to train a specialist from a person who has not defined himself as a person. The essence of humanitarian education lies in mastering those aspects of culture that provide the individual with the ability to self-knowledge and understand other people and their communities. Such aspects of culture include: the totality of people’s relationships to nature, to each other, to themselves; system of social norms and institutions, spiritual values; products of spiritual labor in the field of language, art, social sciences. The level of education and professionalism is understood as a personality quality, which is characterized by the ability to solve problems of cognitive, orientation, communicative and transformative activities, relying on acquired social experience. The ability to apply a cultural approach to specific professional activities significantly influences the features and characteristics of a specialist’s professional culture, the structural element of which is sociocultural competence (Table No. 4).

Table No. 4. Culturology of professional fields of activity.

Sections of cultural studies	Spheres of knowledge
Fundamental Aspect
Target: theoretical knowledge of the phenomenon of culture in the conditions of technogenic civilization, development of categorical apparatus and research methods
Ontology of engineering culture	Diversity of definitions of culture and perspectives of cognition, social functions and parameters
Epistemology of professional culture	Foundations of knowledge about engineering activities and their place in the system of sciences, internal structure and methodology
Morphology of professional culture	The main parameters of the functional structure of engineering culture as a system of forms of social organization, regulation and communication, cognition, accumulation and transmission of social experience
Semantics of engineering culture	Ideas about symbols, signs and images, languages and cultural texts, mechanisms of cultural interaction
Anthropology of engineering culture	Ideas about the personal parameters of culture, about the engineer as a “producer” and “consumer” of the technosphere
Sociology of culture	Ideas about social stratification within professional culture, about professional culture as a system of social interaction
Social dynamics of professional culture	Ideas about the main types of sociocultural processes within the framework of technogenic civilization, the genesis and variability of cultural phenomena and systems
Historical dynamics of professional culture	Ideas about the evolution of forms of sociocultural organization within the framework of engineering activities
Application aspect
Target: forecasting, designing and regulating current cultural processes taking place in the practice of the technosphere
Applied aspects of cultural science of technology	Ideas about cultural policy, the functions of cultural institutions, develops methods, foundations and technologies for forecasting, designing and regulating socio-cultural processes related to the technosphere

In this regard, cultural studies can be considered the basis of any professional knowledge, since it best suits the tasks of forming creative individuality, reflecting reality in the human mind in the form of rational and non-rational ideas, concepts, judgments, theories, acquiring skills in creating and accumulating knowledge, development cognitive qualities of the individual.

80% of respondents are inclined to believe that cultural studies subjects must be taught in schools. 30% of respondents from this number, who did not study cultural studies in schools, believe that university students find it difficult to understand the disciplines of the cultural cycle, since the school does not prepare them for this. Education itself as a whole, both secondary and higher education, should become humanitarian; any special subject must be taught from a humanitarian perspective, emphasizing its importance. This can be achieved by creating a unified educational concept for schools and universities. Based on the culture-forming property of cultural studies, its inherent integrativeness and systematicity, this science should be considered as a basic one, introducing the student into the boundless world of high values. The main cultural category here is the formation of personality. The world of values, presented as a set of multiple artifacts, allows the student to focus on proper quality indicators. The priority importance of the principle of cultural conformity in a modern school opens up the possibility of theoretical justification and practical implementation of a new type of education, which is defined as culturally personal-oriented. Based on the analysis of innovative processes associated with the humanization and humanization of education, the features of the cultural school are determined. In this school, priority is given to the study of culture and man as its subject, the image of culture is formed, the general picture of the world is associated with the general picture of culture (Table No. 5).

Table No. 5. A number of desirable cultural disciplines for teaching in schools.

Name disciplines	Goals
MHC (World Art Culture)	Formation of a holistic, multidimensional picture in students spiritual development humanity in the mirror of world artistic culture; development of abilities of aesthetic perception; development of individual ideological positions.
Local history	The expansion and deepening of historical and cultural knowledge, based on local history material, fosters love for one’s land.
Introduction to cultural philosophy	Formation of philosophical thinking skills, getting acquainted with different cultures through the manifestation of their thoughts, on the basis of this, to develop ideological, spiritual, moral, aesthetic attitudes and values.
Culture and religions of the world	Possession of at least a minimum of information about the religious heritage of mankind will help schoolchildren understand many phenomena of world artistic culture.
Cultural history	This discipline is aimed at developing in schoolchildren a holistic understanding of the cultural history of human society. Promotes students' mastery of historical and cultural heritage, historically established traditions and values.

In general, the results of the study suggest that cultural studies, as a scientific discipline, has established itself in the scientific community quite firmly. Naturally, the questions proposed in the questionnaire cannot fully reveal the depth of knowledge of the respondent in this area. These questions were compiled taking into account the fact that not every respondent has high knowledge on this topic; when selecting questions, it was also taken into account that the study itself did not require the respondent to be involved in cultural studies. It was important and necessary to clarify the attitude towards this problem.

Based on the results of this sociological study, it can be noted that many of the respondents, even without deep knowledge of the proposed topic, showed interest and desire to participate in this survey.

The results of the study can be called positive; ultimately, the goal was achieved. Also, I would like to note that this topic of research, as shown by the results of the survey, has prospects for further development and conducting a similar study on the chosen topic.

Lecture 1. Structure and composition of modern cultural knowledge

1. General characteristics of modern culture

Signs of modern culture: dynamism, eclecticism, polysemy, mosaic, diversity of the overall picture, polycentricity, a break in its structure and the holistic hierarchy of the organization of its space.

The development of information technology and the approval of the media shape public opinion and public spirit. The media reflect external, consumer, spiritual life, create certain ideas about the world, form the destruction of traditionally valued qualities, and provide the effect of suggestion.

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980), in his work The Gutenberg Galaxy, divides history into three stages:

1) pre-written stage of communication;

2) codified written communication;

3) cudivisual.

Modern society is called information society, because information provides a connection between different levels and plans of its existence and activity. Information processes underlie the functioning of all its systems. The development of mass media has strengthened the quality of mass character and given it certain features of a sociocultural phenomenon. Profit is ensured not through production, but through the circulation of capital, power is exercised through special information operations, information itself acquires the status of a commodity, becoming a valuable business object.

Post-industrial civilization is a civilization of new technologies. The means of communication begin not only to influence the masses, but also to produce them.

The last decades of development of modern society have led to the emergence of the phenomenon of mass man. The phenomenon of mass man is characterized by:

1) a person of mass is a large group in size, which influences sociocultural processes;

2) the factor of unification into a mass is determined by the presence of the information field, the influence of the media;

3) modern mass people do not feel any cultural deficiency in terms of their level of development, etc.;

4) the mass person today is in demand by the modern way of life and is adapted to it.

Mass man- a person with mass consciousness and at the same time an individualist.

A person perceives real reality through the system of creating media myths. Mythologized- a characteristic feature of modern popular culture, staying in the realm of myths is a characteristic feature of the life of a modern person.

2. Composition and structure of cultural knowledge

Culturology as a science arose in the middle of the 20th century. One of the main tasks of this science is to identify patterns of cultural development that differ from the laws of nature and from the laws of human material life and determine the specifics of culture as an intrinsically valuable sphere of existence.

Modern cultural studies represent a large complex of scientific disciplines, various areas of scientific work, various approaches to cultural problems, methodology, scientific schools, etc. There is no need to talk about a clear or intelligible structure of cultural knowledge. Very often it is preliminary. And yet, now we can identify the most significant components of the structure of cultural knowledge.

Firstly, this is a theory of culture, which shows us all the variety of attempts at a general understanding of culture, versions of “pictures” of culture, variants of systems of concepts, categories, theoretical schemes with the help of which one can try to describe culture and its development.

In this area, a special place is occupied by the philosophy of culture, which solves the problem of creating a theory of culture using methods and concepts characteristic of philosophy.

Secondly, this is the sociology of culture, which is a union of sociology (studying the social system) and cultural science.

Research in the field of sociology of culture has both theoretical and practical orientation. In the latter case, one can point to the concepts of cultural policy and the activity of cultural instincts (structures of society associated with culture), sociocultural forecasting, design and regulation, the study of cultural education in Russia and other countries, problems of socialization and inculturation of the individual (a person’s adaptation to the socio-cultural system ), protection of cultural heritage.

Thirdly, these are historical and cultural studies, which are not only based on the achievements of the humanities (history, philology, literary criticism, art history, history of religion, etc.), but also use new cultural approaches. Here we can highlight:

1) historical and cultural studies of a general profile, studies of the culture of mentalities (i.e., the ways people perceive the world that were formed in various cultures);

2) research into the religious aspect of culture;

3) cultural aspects of linguistics, semiotics (theory of sign systems), art history and aesthetics. Fourthly, this is cultural anthropology - a field of cultural knowledge, in many ways close to the sociology of culture, but paying more attention ethnic elements culture, processes of interaction between cultures of different peoples, studying the characteristics of linguistic and other means of communication (communication, exchange of information) in different cultures.

The interests of cultural anthropology are not limited to the above issues.

In accordance with its name (translated from Greek, anthropology means “the science of man”), its main task is to create the most complete picture of human life in cultural environment, i.e. in an environment created by man himself. To solve this problem, cultural anthropology makes extensive use of data natural sciences those dealing with human life, as well as archaeology, ethnography, linguistics, sociology, history of religion and mythology, folkloristics, philosophy.

All these areas of cultural sciences can be called basic, or basic. However, in addition to them, other special and non-traditional areas of research are emerging. Many of them are of particular importance.

For example, within the framework of the theory of culture, detailed theories of the dynamics (changes, development) of culture, morphology (formation of a system of types and forms) of culture, typology (study of types) of cultures, hermeneutics (the science of interpretation) of culture, cultural patterns and people (archetypes) appeared. , paradigms, cinversalia). Methods of cultural studies are also studied separately here.

Synthesis on the basis of cultural studies, historical-cultural, sociological, psychological knowledge allows you to develop problems of mentality, psychological characteristics individual cultures, “somatic” (bodily) culture among different peoples, etc. Great value For the development of cultural studies there are comparative cultural studies. In recent decades, the ecological-cultural direction (“cultural ecology”) has been developing dynamically, studying the relationship of various cultures to the natural environment. The system of cultural knowledge is in constant development.

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