A. I
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF UKRAINE
DNIPROPETROVSK NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
them. OLESYA GONCHAR
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER MATHEMATICS
discipline: "Sociology"
on the topic: “Socialization processes in fairy tales”
Completed by: student gr. PZ-07-1
Kampen F.S.
Checked by: Legeza S.V.
Dnepropetrovsk
We will consider the processes of socialization using the example of the main character of Leprince de Beaumont's fairy tale Beauty and the Beast (retelling by G. Sergeeva).
Brief summary of the tale
This tale tells about a family of a once rich merchant who had three beautiful daughters. Once, when a merchant went overseas on trade business, in response to the requests of his daughters, he wanted to bring them gifts. He bought the eldest a sable cape and a new dress, the middle one a pearl necklace, and the youngest, whom everyone called Gorgeous I ordered a scarlet rose. The merchant found the last gift in one wonderful palace. After he plucked it from the yard, strewn with beautiful roses, the owner appeared, who turned out to be the Beast. The Beast told the merchant that the payment for his action would be the exchange of the merchant's life for the life of one of his daughters together with the Beast.
The youngest daughter agreed to live with the Beast in order to save her father's life. Thus, the youngest daughter Beauty became the mistress of the castle, which she shared with the monster. Soon Beauty became attached to the Beast and after some events happened, she agreed to marry the Beast. After this, the Beast turned into a handsome prince, because, as it turned out, the prince had previously been bewitched and only the girl who fell in love with him was able to disenchant him. After that, they had a fun wedding and lived happily ever after.
Stages of the Socialization Process
Socialization – the process of integration of the individual into society. Usually the socialization process is accompanied by socialization agents.
Primary socialization (social adaptation) – the period from infancy to early childhood. Associated with the acquisition of general cultural knowledge with the development of initial ideas about the world and the nature of human relationships. This period lasts from birth to early childhood.
Secondary socialization – usually this is a period of socialization after a person leaves the framework of primary contacts.
Resocialization – assimilation of a “new” value system to replace the “old” one.
Desocialization – partial or complete loss of learned norms and principles social interaction(stay in prison, disability, etc. isolation from society).
Socialization using the example of Beauty.
Primary socialization
This tale does not describe the process of primary socialization itself. But we can clearly see the results of this process. The beauty is called a daughter and she behaves accordingly. Based on this, I think it can be argued that Beauty has ideas about the nature of people’s relationships. This can also be understood from the words of the fairy tale: “... The beauty had not yet thought about suitors, she wanted to live longer with her father in her home.”
The agents of socialization at this stage of socialization were the girl’s family. I think that the role of the father (nothing is said about the mother in the retelling; she probably died at the birth of her youngest daughter) in the process of primary socialization is quite high. It seems to me that it would be logical to assume that the father, through his behavior and words, helped Beauty form an idea of the nature of relationships in the family. Probably, Beauty's sisters also helped her form an idea of the nature of interpersonal relationships within the circle of primary contacts. The fairy tale also mentions the presence of servants. Therefore, I think their role in the socialization of the child is also present, especially since one could assume that it was mainly the servants who raised the little daughter of a busy merchant.
Secondary socialization
After the once rich merchant went bankrupt, Beauty “worked tirelessly” (unlike the white-handed sisters). Her labors were related to the performance of daily duties. I attribute the above to some kind of professional socialization. Because As a result of changed circumstances, she had to acquire some special skills and knowledge. Undoubtedly, the girl’s range of social contacts expanded due to interaction with suppliers of products for the family and the range of social roles increased, as a result of which she became not just a sister and daughter, but also, in a sense, the mistress of the house.
I think we can call servants agents at this stage of socialization. The merchant had to pay for the servants earlier, but she undoubtedly played a role in transferring skills and certain special knowledge to the little mistress. In addition, it can be assumed that suppliers of products (both food and various household supplies) not only served as product transmitters, but also, in a sense, consultants.
I also think that secondary socialization can be classified as latest events fairy tales - a wedding, because as a result of this event
Desocialization
It seems to me that Beauty, being isolated after she ended up in the Beast’s castle, from her usual social circle, if she did not lose the previously learned norms and principles of social interaction, then at least could not implement and develop them. I would compare Beauty's stay in the Beast's castle to imprisonment.
Resocialization
Beauty had to deal with resocialization throughout her life (just like any other individual). The calculation of the servants mentioned in the fairy tale undoubtedly led to a change in her attitudes, goals, norms and values. Undoubtedly, Beauty's aesthetic values have changed. Due to the busyness of the young housewife, the focus on communication faded into the background.
Beauty also encountered resocialization while staying in the castle. Every day, seeing the Beast, her emotional assessment of the object changes. The once terrible monster, at the sight of which she lost her voice, becomes her friend, with whom she is now friends.
And the most striking example of resocialization occurs at the end of the fairy tale, after the girl, isolated by the monster from society, sees not only her former family as guests at the wedding, but also many guests, which indicates that now she is no longer a beauty imprisoned in the castle , but a public figure, and this brings with it big changes.
Conclusion
Throughout her life, Beauty goes through various stages of socialization. Her culture and idea of the world are changing, her understanding of the nature of relationships with people is expanding (what is the beginning of married life worth in this context), her social environment is changing, and, of course, the social role of Beauty is changing. I think that Beauty can serve as an excellent example for studying the stages of socialization based on her life.
Choose a short work of fiction (fairy tale, animated film, etc.). Analyze it from a sociological point of view, using the knowledge gained in the process of studying the discipline.
"Cinderella"
Cinderella is the daughter of a nobleman, she was part of the primary small group-family, which included: Cinderella, her father, stepmother, and her two daughters. In this family, the stepmother had authority and, according to the moral standards established by her, Cinderella had the prescribed social status - a servant and performed social role– did all the dirty work around the house. Despite the difficult work, informal negative sanctions were applied to her (the work was not rewarded in any way). Despite the social injustice towards her, Cinderella did her work tirelessly every day, hoping that her stepmother would take her with her to the ball given by the king's son.
Cinderella, having followed all her stepmother’s instructions, was never able to go to the ball. The stepmother deceived Cinderella, thereby causing her moral harm.
A fairy godmother appeared, who was the authority for Cinderella. She was not indifferent to her problem, dressed her up and helped her get to the ball. Provided that the girl returns home before midnight. At the ball, Cinderella made a splash on everyone around her and especially on the prince. Everything was amazing! But according to the terms of the contract, she had to return home before midnight. While running away from the ball, Cinderella lost her shoe. The prince in love found this shoe and went in search of the beautiful stranger.
The shoe fit only the maid, Cinderella. Despite her social status, the prince proposed marriage to her. She forgave all the insults to her sisters and stepmother, married the prince, migrating to his kingdom.
Thus, the maid Cinderella changed her social position by becoming a princess.
Anzhelika Mingaleva
"Little Red Riding Hood"
Once upon a time there was a girl, her name was Little Red Riding Hood, she was called that because her family were revolutionaries. One day a mother calls her daughter and says: “Little Red Riding Hood, go and get grandma some pies and take her book “Sociology for Dummies.” Little Red Riding Hood was a diligent daughter and an active individual in society.
She left the house, reached the forest, and a bourgeois wolf ran out to meet her. He approaches Little Red Riding Hood and says: “Hello, where are you going, is it to your grandmother?” “Yes,” she replies, “I’m bringing her some pies with her book, yes.”
After this, the wolf runs away along a short road. The gray one decided to visit his grandmother himself, put pressure on him with his authority and take away all the currency from the grandmother. He was from that social environment where there was violence. He runs to the house and begins to knock quietly on the door, introducing himself as Little Red Riding Hood. Grandmother was familiar with reflection firsthand, but she did not associate the knock on the door with anything suspicious. Grandma opened the door, a wolf broke into the house and immediately began asking questions: “Where do you hide your savings, give them to me, and you will live.” The grandmother was not at a loss and asked the wolf about his religion, what social group he belongs to and what his family model is. The wolf could not stand this and applied sanctions against the grandmother, namely, he swallowed her, believing that she would come to her senses and tell him what he wanted to know.
But soon a familiar knock was heard on the door. It's Little Red Riding Hood. The wolf was not afraid - he changed into his grandmother’s clothes, lay down in bed and picked up a book. This book was not simple, namely “Economy and Society”. In a quiet voice he whispered: “Come in, granddaughter, pull the string, the door will open.” She entered the house and asked:
- Grandma, what’s wrong with your skin, maybe you caught a virus?
- No, dear, I haven’t washed for a long time, that’s why my skin color is different.
- Grandma, why do you have such big eyes?
- Grandma, why do you need such big ears?
- This is to better listen to where I could have put my pension yesterday, in case you know.
- No, grandma, I don’t know. But why do you have such big teeth?
- To eat you.
The wolf jumped out of the bed and began to run after our heroine, only Little Red Riding Hood had time to press the panic button, when she was swallowed at that very second. A couple of minutes later two hunters from the company “ Middle class“, they saw the intruder, ripped open his stomach, and grandmother and Shapka crawled out, alive and unharmed. It all ended with the grandmother giving her granddaughter a lecture that the deviant behavior of the wolf was wrong, sharing her experience of how to build a family, and concluding that science is important and useful in life.
Nikolay Karnaukhov
K.D. Ushinsky called the fairy tales of the Russian people the first brilliant attempts at folk pedagogy. Admiring fairy tales as monuments of folk pedagogy, he wrote that no one is able to compete with the pedagogical genius of the people. The same should be said about fairy tales of other peoples.
Fairy tales, being artistic and literary works, were at the same time for workers and an area of theoretical generalizations in many branches of knowledge. They are a treasury of folk pedagogy; moreover, many fairy tales are pedagogical works, i.e. they contain pedagogical ideas.
Leading Russian teachers have always had a high opinion of the educational significance of folk tales and pointed out the need for their widespread use in pedagogical work. So, V.G. Belinsky valued their national character in fairy tales, their national character. He believed that in a fairy tale, behind fantasy and fiction there is real life, actual social relations. V.G. Belinsky, who deeply understood the nature of the child, believed that children have a highly developed desire for everything fantastic, that they do not need abstract ideas, but concrete images, colors, and sounds. ON THE. Dobrolyubov considered fairy tales to be works in which people reveal their attitude to life and to modernity. N.A. Dobrolyubov sought to understand from fairy tales and legends the views of the people and their psychology, he wanted “so that, according to folk legends, the living physiognomy of the people who preserved these traditions could be outlined to us.”
The great Russian teacher K.D. Ushinsky had such a high opinion of fairy tales that he included them in his pedagogical system. Ushinsky saw the reason for the success of fairy tales among children in the fact that the simplicity and spontaneity of folk art correspond to the same properties of child psychology. “In a folk tale,” he wrote, “a great and poetic child-people tells children his childhood dreams and, at least half, believes in these dreams.” In passing, a very significant fact should be noted. Ushinsky’s thoughts about fairy tales are very close in nature to K. Marx’s statements about them. In the introduction to “A Critique of Political Economy,” K. Marx wrote that the reason for the popularity of fairy tales among children is the correspondence between the child’s naivety and the unartificial truth folk poetry, which reflected childhood human society. According to Ushinsky, natural Russian teachers - grandmother, mother, grandfather, who never leaves the stove, understood instinctively and knew from experience what enormous educational and educational power a folk tale conceals. As is known, Ushinsky’s pedagogical ideal was a harmonious combination of mental and moral-aesthetic development. By firm conviction the great Russian teacher, this task can be successfully completed provided that the material of folk tales is widely used in education. Thanks to fairy tales, a beautiful poetic image grows together in a child’s soul with logical thought; the development of the mind goes hand in hand with the development of fantasy and feeling. Ushinsky developed in detail the question of the pedagogical significance of fairy tales and their psychological impact per child; he resolutely put folk tales above stories published in educational literature specifically for children, because the latter, as the great teacher believed, were still a fake: a child’s grimace on an senile face.
Fairy tales are an important educational tool, developed and tested by people over centuries. Life and folk education practices have convincingly proven the pedagogical value of fairy tales. Children and fairy tales are inseparable, they are created for each other, and therefore familiarity with the fairy tales of one’s people must be included in the education and upbringing of every child.
In Russian pedagogy there are thoughts about fairy tales not only as educational and educational material, but also as a pedagogical means and method. Thus, the nameless author of the article “The educational significance of the fairy tale,” in the monthly pedagogical leaflet “Education and Training (No. 1, 1894), writes that the fairy tale appeared in that distant time when the people were in a state of infancy. Revealing the significance of a fairy tale as a pedagogical tool, he admits that if children repeat the same moral maxim even a thousand times, it will still remain a dead letter for them; but if you tell them a fairy tale imbued with the same thought, the child will be excited and shocked by it. Further in the article comments on the story of A.P. Chekhov. A little boy decided to smoke. He is admonished, but he remains deaf to the convictions of his elders. The father tells him a touching story about how smoking had a harmful effect on the health of one boy, and the son, with tears, throws himself on his father’s neck and promises never to smoke. “There are many such facts from the lives of children,” the author of the article concludes, “and every teacher probably had to sometimes use this method of persuasion with children.”
Fairy tales as a method of persuasion were widely used in his pedagogical activity and the outstanding Chuvash teacher I.Ya. Yakovlev.
Many fairy tales, and even stories by I.Ya. Yakovlev, compiled by him in the manner everyday tales, are in the nature of ethical conversations, i.e. act as a means of persuasion in the moral education of children. In a number of fairy tales and stories, he admonishes children with reference to the objective conditions of life, and most often - to the natural consequences of children’s bad actions: he assures and convinces them of the importance of good behavior.
The educational role of fairy tales is great. There is a statement that pedagogical significance fairy tales lie on the emotional and aesthetic plane, but not on the cognitive plane. We cannot agree with this. The very opposition of cognitive activity to emotion is fundamentally wrong: emotional sphere And cognitive activity inseparable, without emotion, as is known, knowledge of the truth is impossible.
Fairy tales, depending on the topic and content, make listeners think and make them think. Often a child concludes: “This doesn’t happen in life.” The question involuntarily arises: “What happens in life?” Already the conversation between the narrator and the child, which contains the answer to this question, has educational significance. But fairy tales also contain educational material directly. It should be noted that the educational significance of fairy tales extends, in particular, to individual details of folk customs and traditions and even to everyday trifles.
For example, in the Chuvash fairy tale “He who does not honor the old will not see the good himself,” it is said that the daughter-in-law, not listening to her mother-in-law, decided to cook porridge not from millet, but from millet and not in water, but only in oil. What came of this? As soon as she opened the lid, millet grains, not boiled, but fried, jumped out and fell into her eyes and blinded her forever. The main thing in the fairy tale, of course, is the moral conclusion: you need to listen to the voice of the old, take into account their everyday experience, otherwise you will be punished. But for children it also contains educational material: they fry in oil, not boil, therefore, it is absurd to cook porridge without water, in oil alone. Children are usually not told about this, because no one does this in life, but in the fairy tale children are given instructions that everything has its place, that there should be order in everything.
Here's another example. The fairy tale “A penny for a miser” tells how a smart tailor agreed with a greedy old woman to pay her one penny for every “star” of fat in her soup. When the old woman was putting in the butter, the tailor encouraged her: “Put it in, put it in, old woman, don’t skimp on the butter, because it’s not for nothing that I ask you: for every “star” I’ll pay a penny.” The greedy old woman put more and more oil in order to get a lot of money for it. But all her efforts yielded an income of one kopeck. The moral of this story is simple: don't be greedy. This is the main idea of the fairy tale. But its educational meaning is also great. Why, the child will ask, did the old woman get one big “star”?
The fairy tale “Ivanushka the Fool” tells how he walked through the forest and reached a house. I entered the house, there were 12 stoves, 12 stoves - 12 boilers, 12 boilers - 12 pots. Ivan, hungry on the road, began to try food from all the pots in a row. Already trying, he was full. The educational significance of the given detail of the fairy tale is that it presents the listeners with the task: 12 x 12 x 12 =? Could Ivan have eaten? Not only could he, moreover, only a fairy-tale hero could eat so much: if he tried in all the pots, he ate 1728 spoons of food!
Of course, the educational value of fairy tales also depends on the storyteller. Skilled storytellers usually always try to use such moments, asking questions during the telling of the tale like: “What do you guys think, how many cauldrons were there in total? How many pots? and so on.
The educational significance of fairy tales in geographical and historical terms is well known.
So, in the fairy tale “May parents always be held in high esteem” the following is told. The son went to harvest peas and took his old mother with him to the field. The wife, a lazy, quarrelsome woman, stayed at home. Seeing her husband off, she said: “We don’t feed your mother properly at home; she, being hungry, wouldn’t eat all the peas there. Keep an eye on her." In fact, the son in the field did not take his eyes off his mother. As soon as the mother arrived at the field, she took one pea and put it in her mouth. She rolled the pea with her tongue, sucked, and tried with all her might, toothless, to taste the peas of the new harvest. The son, noticing this, remembered his wife’s order: “He doesn’t eat in the morning, so she will eat everything. She’s not much use on the field, I’d rather take her back home.” When we arrived home, the mother, while getting off the cart, dropped a single pea from her mouth and confessed this to her son with tears. The son, hearing about this, put his mother on the cart and hurried back to the field. But he was in a hurry in vain, by the time they arrived on his plot there was not only not a single pea, but also no straw left: the peas were eaten by a large flock of cranes, the straw was eaten by a large herd of cows, goats and sheep. So, a man who spared one pea for his own mother was left without a single pea.
The moral of the story is quite obvious. From her point of view educational value something else attracts attention. Many tellers of this tale present it as the “true truth”: they name the old woman’s son, not only the village where he lived, but also the place where his field (paddock) was. One of the storytellers reported that the old woman dropped a pea on a pothole known to the listeners, and not near the house, as recorded in the version of the fairy tale given by us. As a result, the fairy tale introduces the past of the village, some of its inhabitants, and talks about economic ties and relationships.
The fairy tale “How They Fell into the Underworld” tells how the mother of three sons and three daughters wanted to marry them to each other. She managed to marry her eldest and middle daughter to her eldest and middle son, respectively. The youngest daughter did not agree to marry her brother and ran away from home. By her return, their house with their mother, two sons and two daughters had fallen through the ground. “As soon as the earth bears him!” - they talk about a very bad person. So in the fairy tale, the earth could not withstand the criminal guilt of the mother, and the children who obeyed the immoral demands of the mother were also punished. It should be noted that the mother is shown to be disgusting in all respects: heartless, cruel, a drunkard, etc. Consequently, her action towards her own children is not an accident, but a consequence of her personal qualities. The moral of this tale is obvious: marriage between relatives is immoral, unnatural, and therefore unacceptable. But this tale at the same time also has educational significance: once in ancient times, marriage between relatives was allowed. The ancient fairy tale is a reflection of the struggle to abandon such marriages and to prohibit them. Such a tale, of course, could only have arisen in ancient times.
The short tale “Fishing” tells how the Chuvash, Russians and Mordovians fished on one large lake. The main idea and main purpose of the fairy tale is to develop and strengthen in children a sense of friendship between peoples: “Russian, Mordvin and Chuvash are all one: people.” But at the same time it also contains a little educational material. The Chuvash say: “Syukka” (No), the Mordovians “Aras” (“No”), the Russians also did not catch a single fish, therefore, essentially in this case the position of the Chuvash, Mordovians and Russians is the same. But the Russians heard the words “syukka” and “aras” as “pike” and “crucian carp”. People speak different languages, words can be similar friend on each other, but their meaning is different. To understand foreign languages, you need to study them. The tale assumes that the fishermen do not know each other's languages. But the listener learns from the fairy tale that “syukka” and “aras” mean “no” in Chuvash. The fairy tale, although it introduces only two words of other peoples, still arouses the child’s interest in foreign languages. It was the masterful combination of educational and cognitive in fairy tales that made them very effective pedagogical tools. In the preface to “The Tale of the Liberation of the Sun and the Moon from Captivity,” the writer of the tale admits that he heard it only once, when he was nine years old. The style of speech was not retained in the memory of the person who recorded it, but the content of the story was preserved. This recognition is significant: it is generally accepted that fairy tales are remembered due to a special style of speech, presentation, etc. It turns out that this is not always true. Undoubtedly, in memorizing fairy tales, their capacious meaning and the combination of educational and educational material in them play an important role. This combination contains the peculiar charm of fairy tales as ethno-pedagogical monuments; in them, the idea of the unity of teaching (education) and upbringing in folk pedagogy is realized to the maximum extent.
FEATURES OF FAIRY TALES AS FOLK EDUCATIONAL MEANS
Without being able to thoroughly analyze all the features of fairy tales, we will dwell only on their most characteristic features such as nationality, optimism, fascinating plot, imagery and fun, and, finally, didacticism.
The material for folk tales was the life of the people: their struggle for happiness, beliefs, customs, and the surrounding nature. There was a lot of superstition and darkness in the beliefs of the people. This is dark and reactionary - a consequence of the difficult historical past of the working people. Most fairy tales reflect the best features of the people: hard work, talent, loyalty in battle and work, boundless devotion to the people and homeland. Incarnation in fairy tales positive traits people and made fairy tales an effective means of transmitting these traits from generation to generation. Precisely because fairy tales reflect the life of a people, their best features, and cultivate these features in the younger generation, nationality turns out to be one of the most important characteristics fairy tales
Fairy tales, especially historical ones, trace interethnic ties between peoples and the joint struggle of workers against foreign enemies and exploiters. A number of fairy tales contain approving statements about neighboring peoples. Many fairy tales describe the journeys of heroes to foreign countries, and in these countries they, as a rule, find helpers and well-wishers; workers of all tribes and countries can agree among themselves; they have common interests. If a fairy-tale hero has to wage a fierce struggle in foreign countries with all kinds of monsters and evil wizards, then usually victory over them entails the liberation of people languishing in the underworld or in the dungeons of monsters. Moreover, those freed hated the monster just as much as the fairy-tale hero, but they did not have the strength to free themselves. And the interests and desires of the liberators and the liberated turned out to be almost the same.
Positive fairy-tale heroes, as a rule, are helped in their difficult struggle not only by people, but also by nature itself: a densely leafed tree hiding fugitives from the enemy, a river and lake that direct the pursuit along the wrong path, birds warning of danger, fish searching and finding a ring dropped into the river and passed on to other human assistants - a cat and a dog; an eagle that lifts the hero to a height inaccessible to man; not to mention the devoted fast horse, etc. All this reflected the age-old optimistic dream of the people to subjugate the forces of nature and force them to serve themselves.
Many folk tales inspire confidence in the triumph of truth, in the victory of good over evil. As a rule, in all fairy tales, the suffering of the positive hero and his friends is transitory, temporary, and they are usually followed by joy, and this joy is the result of struggle, the result of joint efforts. Optimism children especially like fairy tales and enhance educational value folk pedagogical means.
The fascination of the plot, imagery and fun make fairy tales a very effective pedagogical tool. Makarenko, characterizing the features of the style of children's literature, said that the plot of works for children should, if possible, strive for simplicity, the plot - for complexity. Fairy tales most fully meet this requirement. In fairy tales, the pattern of events, external clashes and struggles is very complex. This circumstance makes the plot fascinating and attracts the attention of children to the fairy tale. Therefore, it is legitimate to assert that tales take into account the mental characteristics of children, first of all, the instability and mobility of their attention.
Imagery- an important feature of fairy tales, which facilitates their perception by children who are not yet capable of abstract thinking. The hero usually very clearly and clearly shows those main character traits that bring him closer to national character people: courage, hard work, wit, etc. These features are revealed both in events and through various artistic means, such as hyperbolization. Thus, the trait of hard work as a result of hyperbolization reaches the utmost brightness and convexity of the image (in one night build a palace, a bridge from the hero’s house to the king’s palace, in one night sow flax, grow, process, spin, weave, sew and clothe the people, sow wheat , grow, harvest, thresh, thresh, bake and feed people, etc.). The same should be said about such traits as physical strength, courage, boldness, etc.
Imagery is complemented funnyness fairy tales The wise teacher-people took special care to ensure that fairy tales were interesting and entertaining. A folk tale contains not only bright and lively images, but also subtle and cheerful humor. All nations have fairy tales, the special purpose of which is to amuse the listener. For example, “changeling” fairy tales: “The Tale of Grandfather Mitrofan”, “What was his name?”, “Sarmandey”, etc.; or “endless” fairy tales, such as the Russian “About the White Bull.” In the Chuvash proverb “One had a smart cat,” the cat died. The owner buried her, put a cross on the grave and wrote on the cross: “One had a smart cat...”, etc. And so on until the listeners, with laughter and noise (“Enough!”, “No more!”) deprive the narrator of the opportunity to continue the tale.
Didacticism is one of the most important features of fairy tales. Fairy tales from all peoples of the world are always instructive and edifying. It was precisely noting their instructive character, their didacticism, that A.S. Pushkin wrote at the end of his “Tale of the Golden Cockerel”:
The fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it!
A lesson to good fellows.
Allusions in fairy tales are used precisely for the purpose of enhancing their didacticism. The peculiarity of the didacticism of fairy tales is that they give “good fellows a lesson” not with general reasoning and teachings, but with vivid images and convincing actions. Therefore, didacticism does not in any way reduce the artistry of fairy tales. This or that instructive experience seems to take shape completely independently in the minds of the listener. This is the source of the pedagogical effectiveness of fairy tales. Almost all fairy tales contain certain elements of didacticism, but at the same time there are fairy tales that are entirely devoted to one or another moral problem, for example, the Chuvash fairy tales “Smart Boy”, “What is learned in youth - on stone, what is learned in old age - in the snow”, “You can’t go far with a lie”, “ an old man- four people”, etc. There are many similar tales among all nations.
Due to the features noted above, fairy tales of all nations are an effective means of education. ABOUT educational value fairy tales were written by A.S. Pushkin: “...in the evening I listen to fairy tales and thereby compensate for the shortcomings of my damned upbringing.” Fairy tales are a treasury of pedagogical ideas, brilliant examples of folk pedagogical genius.
PEDAGOGICAL IDEAS OF FAIRY TALES
In a number of folk tales we encounter certain pedagogical concepts, conclusions, reasoning. First of all, it should be noted the people's desire for knowledge. In fairy tales there is an idea that books are a source of wisdom. The fairy tale “In the Land of Yellow Day” speaks of “one big book" IN short fairy tale“Disputing in vain” indicates that the book is needed only by those who can read. Therefore, this tale asserts the need to learn to read in order to have access to bookish wisdom.
In folk tales, some methods of influencing a person are reflected, and they are analyzed General terms family education, the approximate content is determined moral education and so on.
Once upon a time there lived an old man with his son and daughter-in-law. He also had a grandson. His son and daughter-in-law were tired of this old man; they did not want to look after him. And so the son, on the advice of his wife, put his father on a sled and decided to take him into a deep ravine. He was accompanied by the old man's grandson. The son pushed the sleigh with his father down into the ravine and was about to go back home. But he was delayed little son: he rushed into the ravine to get a sled, despite his father’s angry remark that he would buy him a new, better sled. The boy pulled the sled out of the ravine and said that his father should buy him a new sled. And he will take care of this sled so that many years later, when his father and mother are old, he can deliver them to this same ravine.
The main idea of the fairy tale is that a person should receive the punishment he deserves for his crime, that punishment is a natural consequence of his crime. The content of the Russian fairy tale, processed by L.N. Tolstoy, is completely similar, in which a child playing with wood chips tells his parents that he wants to make a tub in order to feed his father and mother from it, just as they wanted to do with his grandfather.
The power of example in education is emphasized in folk pedagogy to the maximum extent possible. In the fairy tale “Let parents always be held in high esteem,” the natural consequence of the daughter-in-law’s action is her blindness, and the son’s is that he is left without peas. In another fairy tale, “You Can't Get Far with a Lie,” a liar is severely punished: his neighbors did not come to his aid when his house was attacked by thieves. A similar tale Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, etc. have it.
The conditions of family education and measures of influence on the individual are discussed in the fairy tales “Blizzard”, “The Magic Sliver” and some others. The fairy tale “Blizzard” tells that disagreements and quarrels in the family are worse than the strongest snowstorm on the street; I want to run out of the house without looking at anything. In such conditions, naturally, proper upbringing of children is impossible. The fairy tale “The Magic Sliver” contains a hint that parents should engage in self-education, that family relationships should be built on mutual concessions.
There lived a husband and wife. The wife was grumpy. She constantly made scandals for her husband, which ended in fights. And this woman decided to turn to the wise old woman for advice: “What to do with a husband who offends me all the time.” This old woman already realized from her conversation with the woman that she was quarrelsome, and immediately said: “It’s not difficult to help you. Here, take this sliver, it’s magical, and as soon as husband will come from work, put it in your mouth and hold it tightly with your teeth. Don’t let me out for anything.” On the advice of the old woman, the woman did all this three times and after the third time she came with gratitude to the old woman: “My husband has stopped offending.” The fairy tale calls for compliance, accommodatingness, and complaisance.
In fairy tales, including the one cited, the problem of the personality of the teacher and the direction of his educational efforts are posed. In this case, the old woman is one of the folk master teachers. Fairy tales show that their distinctive feature is that they educate not only children and youth, but also their parents. This is quite typical.
The principle of conformity to nature, almost in the spirit of J. A. Komensky, is contained in the fairy tale “What is learned in youth - on stone, what is learned in old age - in snow.” Stone and snow - in this case - are images introduced to substantiate an empirically established objective physiological and psychological pattern. This pattern is that in childhood and youth a person assimilates educational material much more firmly than in old age. The grandfather tells his grandson: “Snow is carried away by the wind, melts from the heat, but the stone lies safe and sound for hundreds and thousands of years.” The same thing happens with knowledge: if it is acquired in youth, it is retained for a long time, often for a lifetime, but knowledge acquired in old age is quickly forgotten.
Fairy tales also raise many other problems of public education.
An amazing pedagogical masterpiece is the Kalmyk fairy tale “How the Lazy Old Man Started to Work,” which considers the gradual involvement of a person in work as the most effective method overcoming laziness. The fairy tale reveals in a fascinating way the method of accustoming to work: initiation to work begins with advance encouragement and the use of the first results of labor as reinforcement, then it is proposed to move on to the use of approval; internal motivation and habit of work are declared indicators of the final solution to the problem of instilling industriousness. The Chechen fairy tale “Hasan and Ahmed” teaches how to preserve the sacred bonds of brotherhood, calls for cherishing the feeling of gratitude, being hardworking and kind. In the Kalmyk fairy tale “Unresolved Court Cases,” even a kind of symbolic experiment is staged, proving the need for extremely gentle treatment of a newborn. “The brain of a newborn baby is like the froth of milk,” the tale goes. When the herds of Gelyung Gavang walked noisily to a watering place past the wagon, the child suffered a concussion and he died.”
Fairy tales comment on the pedagogical ideas of proverbs, sayings and aphorisms, and sometimes fairy tales argue for these ideas, revealing them on specific facts. For example, the Chuvash aphorism is known: “Work is the support of life” (options: “handle of fate”, “rule of life”, “basis of life”, “support of the universe”). Other nations also have many adequate proverbs about work. Thoughts similar to this aphorism are contained in fairy tales of many peoples. The author of this book at one time selected and translated into the Chuvash language Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Evenki, Nanai, Khakass, Kyrgyz, Lithuanian, Latvian, Vietnamese, Afghan, Brazilian, Tagalog, Hindu, Bandu, Lamba, Hausa, Iraqi, Dahomey, Ethiopian tales, the main idea of which corresponds to the above proverb. The title of the collection is taken from its second part - “Support of Life”. This small anthology of fairy tales from different nations shows the universal human nature of ideas about work and hard work.
The collection opens with the Kyrgyz fairy tale “Why is man the strongest in the world?” A similar plot is known to many peoples. The fairy tale is interesting because it contains the best answer to the riddle-question: “Who is the strongest in the world?”
The wild goose's wings are frozen to the ice, and he admires the power of the ice. Ice says in response that the rain is stronger, and the rain - that the earth is stronger, the earth - that the forest is stronger (“sucks the power of the earth and stands rustling with leaves”), the forest - that the fire is stronger, the fire - that the wind is stronger (it blows and puts out the fire , will uproot old trees), but the wind cannot overcome the low grass, it is stronger than the ram, and the gray wolf is stronger than that. The wolf says: “Man is the strongest in the world. He can catch a wild goose, melt ice, he is not afraid of rain, he plows the earth and makes it useful to himself, he extinguishes fire, conquers the wind and makes it work for himself, he mows grass for hay, that which cannot be mowed, he uproots and throws it away, slaughters a sheep and eats its meat, praising it. Even I am nothing to a man: he can kill me at any time, skin me and sew a fur coat for himself.”
The man in the Kyrgyz fairy tale is a hunter (catches birds at the beginning of the tale and hunts wolves at the end), a tiller, a mower, a cattle breeder, a butcher, a tailor... He also puts out fire - this is not an easy job. Thanks to work, man becomes the ruler of the universe, it is thanks to work that he conquers and subjugates the powerful forces of nature, becomes stronger and smarter than everyone else in the world, and acquires the ability to transform nature. The Chuvash fairy tale “Who is the strongest in the universe?” differs from the Kyrgyz fairy tale only in some details.
Other peoples also have similar tales in slightly modified versions. The Nanai fairy tale “Who is the strongest?” is unique and interesting. The boy fell while playing on the ice and decided to find out what the power of ice is. It turned out that the sun is stronger than ice, a cloud can cover the sun, the wind can disperse a cloud, but cannot move a mountain. But the mountain is not stronger than anyone else in the world; allows trees to grow on their top. Adults were aware of human strength and wanted children to know this and try to be worthy of the human race. The boy, playing, grows and prepares for work. But an adult is strong precisely through work, and he says to the boy: “It means that I am stronger than anyone if I knock down a tree growing on the top of a mountain.”
In Russian, Tatar, Ukrainian fairy tales, as well as in fairy tales of other peoples, the idea is clearly conveyed that only one who works can be called a person. Through work and struggle a person acquires his best qualities. Hard work is one of the main human characteristics. Without work, a person ceases to be a person. In this regard, the Nanai fairy tale “Ayoga” is interesting, which is a true masterpiece: a lazy girl who refuses to work ultimately turns into a goose. Man became himself through work; he may cease to be one if he stops working.
The main idea of the Dargin fairy tale “Sununa and Mesedu” is that work is joyful creativity, it makes a person strong, saves him from all everyday troubles. The central character of the fairy tale, Sununa, is brave, resourceful, honest, and generous. The leading idea of the fairy tale is clearly expressed: “... and Sununa’s friends helped him master all the skills that people knew, and Sununa became stronger than all his brothers, because even the Khanate can be lost, but you will never lose what your hands can do and head."
In the Ossetian fairy tale “What is more expensive?” one of the young men, by his personal example, proves to the other that the most valuable thing in the world is not wealth, but a faithful friend, and loyalty in friendship consists of joint work and struggle. The Udmurt fairy tale “The Lazy Woman” describes a whole system of measures to influence a lazy wife in order to instill in her hard work. The Koryak fairy tale “The Boy with a Bow” tells that “earlier fathers made bows for boys who started walking so that they could practice shooting.” The Yakut fairy tale “The Stupid Daughter-in-Law” contains a call to first learn work, then obedience, and consciousness is required from the obedient: “This is how those who want to obey everyone have to live - they even have to draw water with a sieve!” - the fairy tale ridicules the daughter-in-law, who has not learned the rule, known to the neighboring Nenets people: “You can’t scoop up water with a net.” The Bulgarian fairy tale “Reason Wins” shows that a person wins not with strength, but with his mind. The same idea is preached in Kyrgyz, Tatar and Chuvash fairy tales.
The hero of Chechen fairy tales is not afraid to go into battle with a huge serpent and sea monsters, a fire-breathing dragon and the terrible wolf Berza Kaza. His sword strikes the enemy, his arrow never misses. The horseman takes up arms to stand up for the offended and to subdue the one who sows misfortune. A true horseman is one who will never leave a friend in trouble, will not change this word. He is not afraid of danger, saving others, he is ready to lay down his own head. This self-forgetfulness, dedication and self-denial is a wonderful feature of a fairy-tale hero.
The themes of Chechen fairy tales are unexpected, some are unique. A Chechen sits on patrol for many days and nights. On his knees is a saber, point to face. He falls asleep for a moment, his face hits a sharp saber, and his neck is wounded - blood flows. The wounds do not allow him to sleep. Bleeding, he will not let the enemy pass. Here's another tale. “There lived two friends - Mavsur and Magomed. They became friends as boys. Years passed, Mavsur and Magomed grew up, and their friendship grew stronger along with them.” This is how the fairy tale begins, and ends: “Magomed could only be saved by a friend who was ready to die with him. Mavsur proved this and saved Magomed. And they began to live and get along, and were never separated again. And no one knew their friendship stronger.” To die with him, for him, is a typical manifestation of friendship for Chechens. Devotion in friendship is the highest human value for a Chechen. The theme of another fairy tale is the hero's help to his father's friend. The sons said to their father in one voice: “If there is something between heaven and earth that can help your friend, we will get it and help your friend out of trouble.”
There is nothing on earth more valuable than the Motherland. A horse hurries towards his native mountains - and he understands the Chechen.
The coat of arms and flag of the Chechen Republic - Ichkeria - depicts a Wolf... This is a symbol of courage, nobility and generosity. The tiger and the eagle attack the weak. The wolf is the only animal that dares to attack the strong. He replaces the lack of strength with courage and dexterity. If the wolf loses the battle, he does not die like a dog, he dies silently, without making a sound. And, dying, he turns his face to his enemy. The wolf is especially revered by the Vainakhs.
Fairy tales simply and naturally pose the problems of instilling a sense of beauty in young people, developing moral traits, etc. In one ancient Chuvash fairy tale, “The Doll,” the main character sets off to look for a groom. What interests her in her future groom? She asks everyone two questions: “What are your songs and dances?” and “What are the daily routines and rules?” When the sparrow expressed a desire to become the doll’s groom and performed a dance and song, talking about living conditions, the doll ridiculed his songs and dances (“The song is very short, and its words are not poetic”), and she did not like the sparrow’s rules of life and everyday routines . The fairy tale does not deny the importance of good dancing and beautiful songs in life, but at the same time, in a witty form, it very angrily ridicules those slackers who, without working, want to spend time in fun and entertainment; the fairy tale inspires children that life cruelly punishes the frivolity of those , who does not appreciate the main thing in life - everyday, hard work and does not understand the basic value of a person - hard work.
The Ossetian fairy tales “The Magic Papakha” and “The Twins” give the moral code of the highlander. In them, the covenants of hospitality are cultivated, good wishes are confirmed by the example of the father, the means of combating need are declared to be work combined with intelligence and kindness: “To drink and eat alone, without friends, is a disgrace for a good mountaineer”; “When my father was alive, he did not spare churek or salt, not only for his friends, but also for his enemies. I am my father’s son”; “May your morning be happy!”; “May your path be straight!” Harzafid, “a good mountaineer,” “harnessed oxen and a cart and worked day and night. A day passed, a year passed, and the poor man drove away his need.” The characterization of the young man, the son of a poor widow, her hope and support, is noteworthy: “He is as brave as a leopard. Like a ray of sunshine, his speech is direct. His arrow hits without missing."
The three virtues of the young mountaineer are clothed in a beautiful form - an implicit call for beauty is added to the formulated virtues. This, in turn, enhances the harmony of the perfect personality. Such an implicit presence of individual features of a perfect person characterizes the oral creativity of many peoples. So, for example, the highly poetic Mansi fairy tale “Sparrow”, from beginning to end in the form of a dialogue, consists of nine riddles-questions and nine guesses-answers: “Sparrow, sparrow, what is your head? - A ladle for drinking spring water. - What is your nose? - Crowbar for chiselling spring ice... - What are your legs? “Supports in the spring house...” The wise, the kind, the beautiful appear in a fairy tale in poetic unity. The highly poetic form of the fairy tale itself immerses its listeners into the world of beauty. And at the same time, it vividly depicts the life of the Mansi people in its smallest details: it tells about a painted paddle for riding up the river, a lasso for catching seven deer, a trough for feeding seven dogs, etc. And all this fits into eighty-five words of the fairy tale, including prepositions.
The pedagogical role of fairy tales was presented most generally in his works by V.A. Sukhomlinsky. He effectively used them in the educational process; in Pavlysh the children themselves created fairy tales. The great democratic teachers of the past, including Ushinsky, included fairy tales in their educational books, reader.
Sukhomlinsky's fairy tales became integral part his theoretical heritage. Such a synthesis of folk principles with science becomes a powerful factor in enriching the country’s pedagogical culture. Sukhomlinsky achieved the greatest success in educational work primarily due to the fact that he was the first of the Soviet teachers to begin to widely use the pedagogical treasures of the people. Progressive folk traditions of education were implemented by him to the maximum extent.
The formation of Sukhomlinsky himself was greatly influenced by folk pedagogy. He brilliantly transferred his experience to his students. Thus, the experience of self-education becomes a support in education. The book “Methods of Collective Education,” published in Kyiv in 1971, contains an amazing fairy tale, based on which Sukhomlinsky makes important pedagogical generalizations.
What is love?... When God created light, he taught all living things to continue their race - to give birth to others like themselves. God placed a man and a woman in a field, taught them to build a hut, and gave the man a shovel and the woman a handful of grain.
Live: continue your lineage, - said God, - and I will go about the housework. I'll come back in a year and see how you're doing here...
God comes to people a year later with the Archangel Gabriel. Comes early in the morning, before sunrise. He sees a man and a woman sitting near a hut, in front of them there is bread ripening in the field, under the hut there is a cradle, and in it a child is sleeping. And the man and woman look first at the orange field, then into each other’s eyes. The minute their eyes met, God saw in them some kind of unprecedented strength, a beauty unusual for him. This beauty was more beautiful than the sky and the sun, the earth and the stars - more beautiful than everything that God blinded and made, more beautiful than God himself. This beauty surprised God so much that his Godly soul trembled with fear and envy: how is it that I created the foundation of the earth, molded a man out of clay and breathed life into him, but apparently I could not create this beauty, where did it come from and what kind of beauty is this?
This is love, said Archangel Gabriel.
What is love? - asked God.
The Archangel shrugged.
God approached the man, touched his shoulder with his senile hand and began to ask: teach me to love, Man. The man did not even notice the touch of the hand of God. It seemed to him that a fly had landed on his shoulder. He looked into the eyes of a woman - his wife, the mother of his child. God was a weak, but evil and vengeful grandfather. He got angry and shouted:
Yeah, so you don’t want to teach me how to love, Human? You will remember me! From now on, grow old. Let every hour of your life take away your youth and strength, drop by drop. Become a wreck. Let your brain dry out and your mind become impoverished. Let your heart become empty. And I will come in fifty years and see what remains in your eyes, Man.
God came with the Archangel Gabriel fifty years later. He looks - instead of a hut there is a little white house, a garden has grown in a vacant lot, wheat is heading in the field, sons are plowing the field, daughters are harvesting flax, and grandchildren are playing in the meadow. Grandfather and grandmother are sitting near the house, looking first at the morning dawn, then into each other’s eyes. And God saw in the eyes of the man and woman a beauty even stronger, eternal and invincible. God saw not only Love, but also Fidelity. God is angry, he screams, his hands are shaking, foam is flying from his mouth, his eyes are rolling out of his head:
Is old age not enough for you, Man? So die, die in agony and strive for life, for your love, go to the ground, turn into dust and decay. And I will come and see what your love will turn into.
God came with the Archangel Gabriel three years later. He looks: a man is sitting over a small grave, his eyes are sad, but in them there is an even stronger, extraordinary and terrible human beauty for God. God saw not only Love, not only Fidelity, but also the Memory of the Heart. God’s hands trembled from fear and powerlessness, he approached the Man, fell to his knees and begged:
Give me, O Man, this beauty. Ask whatever you want for her, but just give me her, give me this beauty.
“I can’t,” answered the Man. - This beauty comes at a very high price. Its price is death, and you, they say, are immortal.
I will give you immortality, I will give you youth, but just give me Love.
No, don't. Neither eternal youth nor immortality can compare with Love,” answered the Man.
God stood up, grabbed his beard in his fist, walked away from his grandfather, who was sitting near the grave, and turned to face wheat field, towards the pink dawn and saw: a young man and a girl were standing near the golden ears of wheat and looking first at the pink sky, then into each other’s eyes. God grabbed his head with his hands and went from earth to heaven. Since then, Man has become God on Earth.
This is what love means. She is more than God. This - eternal beauty and human immortality. We turn into a handful of dust, but Love remains forever...
Based on the fairy tale, Sukhomlinsky makes very important pedagogical conclusions: “When I told future mothers and fathers about love, I sought to establish in their hearts a sense of self-worth and honor. True love is the true beauty of a person. Love is the flowers of morality; If there is no healthy moral root in a person, there is no noble love.” Stories about love are the hours of “our happiest spiritual unity.” Boys and girls are waiting for this time, according to Sukhomlinsky, with hidden hopes: but in the words of the teacher they are looking for answers to their questions - those questions that a person will never tell anyone about. But when a teenager asks what love is, he has completely different questions in his thoughts and heart: how should I deal with my love? These intimate corners of the heart must be touched with special care. “Never interfere in personal matters,” advises Sukhomlinsky, “do not make the subject of general discussion what a person wants to hide most deeply. Love is noble only when it is bashful. Do not concentrate the spiritual efforts of men and women on increasing the "knowledge of love." In the thoughts and heart of a person, love should always be surrounded by an aura of romance and inviolability. You should not hold debates in the team “on the topic” of love. This is simply unacceptable, this is a deep moral lack of culture. You, father and mother, talk about love, but let them be silent. Best Conversation young people talk about love - this is silence.”
The conclusions of the talented Soviet teacher indicate that the pedagogical treasures of the people are far from exhausted. The spiritual charge accumulated by the people over thousands of years can serve humanity for a very long time. Moreover, it will constantly increase and become even more powerful. This is the immortality of humanity. This is the eternity of education, symbolizing the eternity of humanity’s movement towards its spiritual and moral progress.
FAIRY TALES AS A MANIFESTATION OF NATIONAL PEDAGOGICAL GENIUS
A folk tale contributes to the formation of certain moral values and ideals. For girls, this is a beautiful maiden (clever, needlewoman...), and for boys, a good fellow (brave, strong, honest, kind, hardworking, loving the Motherland). The ideal for a child is a distant prospect, to which he will strive, comparing his deeds and actions with it. The ideal acquired in childhood will largely determine him as a person. At the same time, the teacher needs to find out what the child’s ideal is and eliminate negative aspects. Of course, this is not easy, but this is the skill of a teacher: to try to understand each student.
Working with fairy tales has various forms: reading fairy tales, retelling them, discussing the behavior of fairy-tale characters and the reasons for their successes or failures, theatrical performances of fairy tales, holding a competition for experts in fairy tales, exhibitions of children's drawings based on fairy tales, and much more*.
* Baturina G.I.. Kuzina T.F. Folk pedagogy in the education of preschool children. M.. 1995. P. 41-45.
It’s good if, when preparing a dramatization of fairy tales, the children themselves choose them musical accompaniment, sew their own costumes, assign roles. With this approach, even small fairy tales have a huge educational resonance. Such “trying on” the roles of fairy-tale heroes, empathizing with them, makes the problems of the characters even more familiar and understandable even for a long time and well-known “Turnip”.
TURNIP
Grandfather planted a turnip and said:
- Grow, grow, sweet turnip! Grow, grow, turnip, strong!
The turnip grew sweet, strong, and big.
Grandfather went to pick a turnip: he pulled and pulled, but couldn’t pull it out. Grandfather called grandma.
Grandma for grandfather
Grandfather for the turnip -
The grandmother called her granddaughter.
Granddaughter for grandmother,
Grandma for grandfather
Grandfather for the turnip -
They pull and pull, but they can’t pull it out.
The granddaughter called Zhuchka.
A bug for my granddaughter,
Granddaughter for grandmother,
Grandma for grandfather
Grandfather for the turnip -
They pull and pull, but they can’t pull it out.
Bug called the cat.
Cat for Bug,
A bug for my granddaughter,
Granddaughter for grandmother,
Grandma for grandfather
Grandfather for the turnip -
They pull and pull, but they can’t pull it out.
The cat called the mouse.
A mouse for a cat
Cat for Bug,
A bug for my granddaughter,
Granddaughter for grandmother,
Grandma for grandfather
Grandfather for the turnip -
They pull and pull - they pulled out the turnip.
I was lucky enough to attend an unforgettable performance of the fairy tale “Turnip” at the Shorshenskaya secondary school, brilliantly performed by teacher Lidia Ivanovna Mikhailova. It was a musical tragicomedy, with songs and dances, where the simple plot was expanded by the dialogues of the characters.
In the graduating class, an hour-long lecture is given on the topic “The wise pedagogical philosophy of “Turnip”.” In the same school, in the tenth grade, a discussion was held “One Hundred Questions about the Turnip.” We collected our own questions, those heard by chance, and those from children. They also arose spontaneously, in the course of reasoning.
Everything in this tiny tale makes sense. You can talk about this with your children. For example, why did grandfather plant a turnip? Not carrots, not beets, not radishes. The latter would be much more difficult to pull out. The turnip is all outward, holding onto the ground only with its tail. The primary action is important here - sowing a single tiny seed, barely visible to the eye, having a round, spherical shape; the turnip itself almost exactly reproduces the ball, increasing in size thousands of times. This is very similar to Christ's parable of the mustard seed: it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows, it becomes the largest of all garden plants. Infinitely small and infinitely large. The fairy tale reveals resources, reserves of endless, universal development. And the mouse is from the same category of relationships: the infinitely small has its own meaning, its own meaning in the world, the infinitely large is made up of the infinitely small, without the latter there is no first: “Mouse urine is a help to the sea,” say the Chuvash. The Buryats have a similar proverb.
So, in “Turnip” a whole philosophical concept, wise and highly poetic, is revealed, as well as enormous resources of words, verbal means and methods. This fairy tale is evidence of the extraordinary capabilities and spiritual potential of the Russian language, the fact that the Russian language has rightfully become the language of interethnic communication. Therefore, no matter how the situation in the country and in the world changes, we must under no circumstances allow the study of the Russian language and Russian culture to deteriorate.
Formation of sociological knowledge
The sociological workshop is intended to consolidate theoretical material, presented by the teacher in lectures or obtained by students from educational, scientific reference or scientific monographic literature. Some tasks are aimed only at consolidating the lecture material, while others, which go beyond its scope, require painstaking independent work with additional literature.
The teacher indicates accurate sources or guides students in what type of literature should be used to complete homework. Indicating accurate data has not only advantages (they are obvious), but also disadvantages, since at home or public library These very sources may not be available. In addition, the teacher may not know the entire range of literature, which is constantly replenished and updated. In such cases, it is advisable not to hamper students’ initiative in choosing preferred sources.
Topic 1 of this book addressed the following issues:
History of sociology.
Interdisciplinary matrix of sociology.
Intradisciplinary structure of sociology.
Spontaneous sociology and everyday consciousness.
It is advisable to discuss the first and fourth topics practical lesson, and leave the second and third for independent study. As my experience shows, they are the most difficult for students to complete, since they require deepening into professional knowledge related to fundamental science.
On the history of sociology, you can offer to prepare an abstract. Let's say about the contribution of O. Comte to the development of sociological thought. The names of sociologists are chosen either by the teacher or given to the students themselves. Using the available literature, they easily cope with the task. Below we present to your attention the works of students devoted to the analysis of the main problems in the works of M. Weber and F. Tönnies. In addition, you will become familiar with how students perform tasks related to the methodology of social science. We will talk about drawing up sociological tales, analysis of common sense and science, search for sociological issues in fiction.
Task 1 Ideal type of M. Weber
It is more difficult to understand the peculiarities of the teaching of one or another sociologist, say, the same M. Weber. As an example, I will give independent works on ideal types by M. Weber. They were executed twice. The first time, the teacher did not explain what they were and suggested reading about ideal types in reference literature. The result was amazing: the vast majority of students correctly copied definitions from the available literature, but gave completely erroneous examples. The second time, having become acquainted with the completed work, the teacher explained the mistakes and asked those who considered their work incorrect to redo it. As a result, most students completed the task correctly again, but some of them either did not notice the mistakes they had made or were too lazy to correct them. Let me give you a few examples.
Task formulation. Get acquainted with the description of M. Weber's ideal type in scientific, reference or educational literature. Summarize the main provisions of this teaching and create your own examples of ideal types.
A. Correct description of the ideal type, borrowed by students from literature.
An ideal type is a methodological means of sociological (or historical) research, which is a theoretical construct. This design is not extracted from social reality, but is constructed as a theoretical scheme, the elements of which are aspects of social reality, taken in their individual originality, logical consistency and rational correctness. That is, “scientists of society select as defining characteristics of an ideal type certain aspects of behavior or institutions observed in the real world, and then, through a certain exaggeration, elevate them into the form of an ideal construct.” The ideal type serves to construct a logical model of the aspect of social reality to be studied, which a) would contribute to a clearer identification of this aspect, b) would serve as a kind of standard, by comparison with which one could judge the degree of distance or approach of the studied empirical reality.
The ideal type is precisely a standard, a prototype, a prototype, something not real, but only possible, and only logically possible.
The ideal type is built by bringing its elements to the maximum possible logical interconnectedness and coherence. This system of connections represents a utopia, built from real education by replacing empirical dependencies with purely logical ones. And “the sharper and more unambiguous the ideal types are constructed, the more alien they are in this sense to the world, the better they fulfill their purpose.”
Weber emphasizes that the ideal type taken in its pure form cannot be found anywhere in empirical reality: such mental constructions “are as rare in reality as physical reactions, which are calculated only under the assumption of absolutely empty space.” Thus, analogues of the ideal type in sociology can serve as mental formations in physics, for example, the concept of an “ideal gas” or “a body on which no forces act.” So, for example, in reality it is impossible to find a purely goal-oriented action (that is, an action characterized by the unambiguity and clarity of the acting subject’s awareness of his goal, rationally correlated with clearly meaningful means, etc.).
This individual-typical construction does not say how this or that process actually proceeds, but speaks about something else - what this process would be like and what the circumstances of its occurrence could be. By comparing the way processes actually proceed with this ideal construction, we find out the degree of deviation of the actual from the possible, as well as the reasons for such a deviation. In any case, it is easier to interpret any particular phenomenon of social reality by comparing it with some ideal type.
Weber believed that a significant discrepancy between ideal types and reality may entail redefining a given ideal type, but he also argued that ideal types are not models that should necessarily be tested. According to Weber, ideal types are such general, abstract concepts as “pure competitive market”, “church”, “bureaucracy”, “economic exchange”, “craft”, “capitalism”, “Christianity”.
Literature
Abercrombie N., Hill S., Turner B. S. Sociological Dictionary / Transl. from English, ed. S. A. Erofeeva. Kazan: Publishing house Kazan, unta, 1997.
Weber M. Selected works. M.: Progress, 1990.
History of theoretical sociology. In 4 volumes / Answer, ed. and compiled by Yu. N. Davydov. M.: Kanon+, 1997. T. 2.
Russian Sociological Encyclopedia / Edited by. ed. G. V. Osipova. M.: Publishing group NORMA-INFRA, 1998. P. 575-576.
B. Examples of ideal types invented by students.
Company. The basic principles of its activities will be the following: a) employees work in such a way that they can be interchangeable, each is required to perform only one task; b) the behavior of the performers is completely determined by a rational scheme, which ensures accuracy and unambiguousness of actions, avoiding prejudice and personal sympathy in relationships; c) the enterprise is free to choose any means to ensure its sustainability; d) all employees comply with safety regulations; e) there is a system of rewarding the most capable workers; f) the enterprise takes care of the health and rest of its employees.
Student. He must attend all lectures, regardless of his interests, be able to write quickly, listen carefully, think quickly, successfully pass tests and exams, otherwise the student will be called a poor student and then we should talk about the ideal type of “low student.” It is accepted that a student receives a scholarship depending on his academic performance, and there is hardly a student who does not know at least a small part, so to speak, of student jargon.
Open society (When creating this ideal type, the student used the book by R. Dahrendorf “After 1989”, which he noted in the note.). This concept as an ideal type has the following characteristics:
there are institutions that make it possible to change the government without resorting to violence;
there is no single body or position through which the activities of many people are coordinated;
everything is permitted that is not expressly prohibited, and little is prohibited;
what is permitted is left to individual choice;
roles are not given at birth, but are the result of personal achievements in all areas.
These, of course, are not all the characteristics of an “open society,” but they may be a description of the ideal type of open society.
Russian village in the outback. Her ideal typical features:
a small group of people, predominantly elderly;
poverty;
lack of interest in events in the country;
everyone knows everything about the others;
cordiality towards guests, even strangers, lack of motivation for profit.
Salesman. His ideal typical features:
man or woman about 30–45 years old;
balanced, polite;
honest, not trying to deceive the buyer;
serving conscientiously, not keeping you waiting;
With good taste who knows how to give the right advice;
neatly dressed in a special uniform;
interested in selling;
loving his job.
Passenger. The ideal passenger always pays for his or her fare and gives up his or her seat to disabled people, passengers with children, and residents. Such a passenger does not carry bulky luggage, does not violate public order in the cabin (does not be rude to other passengers, does not distract the driver while the vehicle is moving). When boarding, he waits for other passengers to get off, lets women (if he is a man) go ahead, and helps elderly and disabled people get in or out.
Strike. Any strike must begin with the dissatisfaction of the masses due to political, economic or other motives. If you look at the reasons for all the strikes, they began either due to non-payment of wages, or because the workers sought a reduction in working hours, an increase in wages, a change in management, etc. Then the conditions under which the strike would end should be presented. Next comes the final stage, when the authorities either make concessions to the strikers or suppress the strike. The mechanism for the emergence of strikes is as follows: among the dissatisfied masses there are activists who incite people, throw slogans at the masses and try to help the indignation spill out. Basically, such people know the psychology of the masses well. They subtly sense the moments when the people are ready to follow them. They know how to unite people with sweet slogans and words. The clearest examples of such people are Lenin, Trotsky, Stepan Razin, etc. This is the type of typical strike.
Private company. Its characteristic features in modern Russian society– hides taxes; has one general director and several deputies; has commercial departments; recruits personnel “from the street”, and in most cases “through acquaintances”; has contacts with criminal groups.
A comment. All students, in setting the conditions of the task (descriptions of the ideal type borrowed from the literature), quite correctly emphasized that Weber’s instrument of cognition is a theoretical construct that does not exist in reality, but notices the most characteristic, essential features in it. The ideal type indicates what a given phenomenon should be, and not what it actually is.
However, it is in understanding what should be that most distortions arise. Most often, students understand obligation in a moral and ethical sense, rather than in a theoretical and methodological sense. That is why the seller is a conscientious and honest worker, and the passenger is a citizen who pays his fare on time (examples 5 and 6). In fact, the ideal-typical construction of the seller and the passenger, if we are talking about Russian reality, should include directly opposite properties. The ideal type, although constructed before the sociologist conducts a survey or observation, should not be detached from, much less distort, reality. From my life experience We know that many Russian sellers behave impolitely, and many passengers do not pay for their fares. It is possible that in Western European society everything is different, but the sociologist constructs his concepts based on the reality in which he lives.
If, for example, a boorish salesman is typical for our society, then this is an ideal-typical construction. It remains only to describe the empirical signs of this variable. The ideal must be understood as theoretical, and not as the best. And the term “type” in Weber’s formulation denotes a set of the most common features of reality. The sociologist knows about them, he described them, and the next step is a theoretical substantiation of why a transitional society, such as the Russian one, is characterized not by helpful and attentive sellers, but by completely different ones. Thanks to the ideal type, the sociologist does not move away from current reality, does not idealize it, but more deeply and accurately understands the world as it is.
You will have to analyze the remaining examples using the above notes on your own.
Task 2 “Community and Society” by F. Tennis
Task formulation. Read the work of F. Tennis “Community and Society” from the source: Sociological Journal. 1998. No. 3-4. pp. 206-229.
You need to: a) express the essence of the concept of Tennis, b) explain the lecture material using his ideas.
Option 1.
Ferdinand Tönnies was one of the founders of German classical sociology, contributed to the formation of sociology as a scientific discipline and its institutionalization in Germany. He conducted extensive empirical research and studied the history of philosophy and social thought. However, his main contribution to sociology was the development of a system theoretical concepts, which began in the book “Community and Society” (“Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft” (1887). The Tennis system was finally outlined in 1931 in the book “Introduction to Sociology.”
A. F. Tennis at the beginning of the article (“Community and Society” from the “Desktop Dictionary of Sociology”) makes the following distinctions:
between familiarity and strangeness
between sympathy and antipathy
between trust and mistrust
between connectedness and disconnectedness.
Here, binding is the opposite of freedom, it means obligation, obligation, prohibition. “A person is connected with other people insofar as he knows that he is connected with him.” He knows this more sensually or mentally. The connection can be, for example, sexual, baby and mother, slave and slave owner.
Social connectedness tends to become mutual dependence, that is, if the will of one person coincides and unites with the will of another, then a common will arises, a kind of unified will (here it should be said that, according to Tennis, in any interaction people are driven by will). The will of each individual person is part of the total will and is determined by it. Each person can imagine himself as a single natural personality or in a variety of such personalities. The social will “determines the interacting individual wills, partly granting rights, partly imposing duties, and establishing the right of one person as the duty of another.”
Any mutual activity can be understood as an exchange. In accordance with this, any living together there is an exchange of mutual activity, and the motive may be:
expectation and demand of activity from another;
one's own desire and desire for the benefit of another.
Types of social connectedness contain the following elements:
mutual assistance, mutual assistance (or at least peaceful activity);
the associated (social) will that determines the individual will.
Social essence is a product of human thinking, which exists only for human thinking. She is thought of socially connected people as “Something dominating them... and appears to them as a person endowed with will and capable of acting.” These social entities (for example, the church or the state) are inherent (or rather, attributed) with something divine, which is under the special protection of the gods. In fact, these imaginary entities are only the result of human thinking and human will, they are based on hopes and fears, needs and wants. This is a universal human will, the ability to want is understood as a natural, original ability, which is fulfilled in the ability to be able. Will can be divided into two ideal types:
"Essential Will". Such volition is formed not only under the influence of the received teaching, but under the influence of the way of thinking and feeling inherited from ancestors and predecessors. In connection with this type, all emotional, affective, semi-instinctive drives that are realized in activity are considered.
"Electoral will". In it, thinking plays a predominant, leading role; it is a rational will, focused only on the means.
“All types of connectedness in which the essential will predominates, I call community (Gemeinschaft), all those that are formed through the selective will or are essentially conditioned by it, society (Gesellschaft).”
Relationships that are given by nature and are essentially reciprocal, peculiar natural relationships that seem self-evident (for example, the relationship of brothers) fall under the concept of community. The relationships that arise between disparate individuals through the conclusion of an abstract (not necessarily formal) agreement (according to the principle: what I do for you is only to provoke a response) fall under the concept of society. This is the difference between communal and social relations. Community relations are divided into comradely, by the type of dominance (relationship between father and son) and mixed. Such division is inherent in social relations (Table 1.1).
A totality is a certain set of interconnected things, as a result of which common feelings and common images of thoughts arise, but the totality is not capable of actual volition or decision-making. The totality can be natural, mental and social (consciously accepted, desired natural and mental relationships). The concepts of community and society are applicable to the totality. Social aggregates are of a communal nature if they are recognized as given by nature or created by God (castes in India, classes in general), or social in nature if they do not recognize any data from the nature of masters and subordinates. “People”, class have a more communal character, class – more social.
A corporation is not something natural, it exists due to the fact that “many people think about it together,” it is capable of a single will and action, making decisions. A corporation can arise (stages of emergence):
from natural relationships if they have become social. Arise based on tribal community, tribal union or clan. Characterized by the fact that from a simple feeling of cohesion grows a permanent sense of “I”;
land and cohabitation. These are ties that bind people together with ties of origin, but the latter weaken over time;
closer life together (city).
Such a phenomenon as individualism lies in the fact that it is not just social life, but a communal social life, in return for which a life is built that comes from the needs, interests, desires, and decisions of acting individuals. These are the conditions for the emergence of “civil society”, based on the concept of “society” by F. Tönnies. In accordance with this, the state can either be more close to a community (in which case it is thought of as an organism) or to society, in which case it is a machine, a mechanism for ordering rational, calculating individuals.
B. The concept of F. Tennis is related to the problem of the relationship between society and community that we have considered. The fact is that the title of Tönnies’s article “Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft” and, accordingly, the concepts introduced by him can be translated in different ways. "Gemeinschaft" is traditionally translated as "community", however in Lately“community” or “community” is most often used. Therefore, in essence, both we and Tennis used the same words (society and community) to refer to different phenomena. Although the concepts of Tennis have been discussed above, I consider it necessary to distinguish them from lecture ones (to avoid confusion, I will use the terms of Tennis in German - Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft).
First of all, society and community give us ideas about a certain totality social connections(on a “quantitative” basis: a community is only a person’s immediate environment, or a small model of society, a “subsociety”; society is both a person’s immediate and distant environment), while Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are about a special type of these connections. Although, in some cases, the concepts, for example, community and Gemeinschaft will coincide. For example, a group such as relatives. This is a person’s immediate environment, that is, a community, and provided that its members are guided in their behavior by instinct, habit and memory, then this will be Gemeinschaft. If suddenly these relatives decide to start a business and come to an agreement for this, then it will most likely be a community like Gesellschaft.
That is, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are rather properties, types, characteristics of associations, and not the names of associations themselves, which Tönnies calls social entities, dividing them into relationships, aggregates, corporations. Accordingly, if the community is part of society, then this cannot be the case with Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. A community cannot turn into a society (a community is part of a society), while there is an opinion that Gemeinschaft can “evolve and change”, and then one can “view Gesellschaft as a perverted, degenerate Gemeinschaft.”
We defined society as an association that satisfies the characteristics noted by E. Shils; it is a social organization, where the basis is the social structure and social institutions, and the initial “building blocks” are statuses and roles. Using the terminology of Tennis, we can add that society (modern) is a Gesellschaft type totality, or a Gemeinschaft type totality (for example, the caste society of India).
Unambiguously explain the concept of social organization in in a broad sense words (as a form of ordered human activity, proceeding according to clear laws) using the terminology of Tennis, is almost impossible. It could be everyone social entities type Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.
A social organization in the narrow sense of the word is most likely a corporation of the Gesellschaft type (for example, an enterprise, a university, etc.).
Social institutions also cannot be defined unambiguously. If we consider the traditional example of a state or a church, then these concepts would have to be deciphered differently in different times(for example, the church in the Middle Ages is a Gemeinschaft - a relationship of the type of domination). But if we take social institution at any particular point in time, then we automatically replace it with specific organizations.
Thus, we can say that the concepts of “Gesellschaft” and “society”, “Gemeinschaft” and “community” are completely different concepts, but sometimes characterize the same phenomenon of social reality.
Literature
Tennis F. Community and society // Sociological Journal. 1998. No. 3-4. pp. 206-229.
History of theoretical sociology. In 4 volumes / Answer, ed. and compiled by Yu. N. Davydov. M.: Kanon+, 1997. T. 1. P. 340–352.
Option 2.
The essence of the concept of Ferdinand Tönnies. Within the framework of social evolutionism, a number of theories arose that set themselves the goal of reflecting the progressive development of society based on a comparison of its past and current state. The first attempt to create such a theory was made by the German sociologist F. Tönnies (1855 - 1936) in his famous book"Community and Society". F. Tönnies uses the German terms Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft to differentiate between traditional and modern society based on 5 main types of social relationships. The concept Gemeinschaft (community) applies to the peasant village community, and the concept Gesellschaft (society) to the industrial urban society. The main differences between them are as follows: 1) Gemeinschaft assumes that people live in accordance with the communal principle and worldly values, and a Gesellschaft type society is based on the pursuit of personal gain; 2) Gemeinschaft gives the main importance to customs, while Gesellschaft is based on formal laws; 3) Gemeinschaft presupposes limited and undeveloped specialization, while in Gesellschaft specialized professional roles are manifested; 4) Gemeinschaft is based on religious, and Gesellschaft is based on secular values; 5) Gemeinschaft is based on family and community, and Gesellschaft is based on large corporate and associative forms of association of people. The evolutionist theory of Tennis, like other theories, is based on the idea of social progress. The criterion of progress for Ferdinand Tönnies is a change in the system of social connections and the type of regulation of social relations.
Lecture material using the concept of F. Tönnies. At the lecture we discussed concepts such as “society” and “community”. Having analyzed these concepts, we came to the conclusion that “society” is much broader than “community”. Since community is a person’s immediate environment, which includes family, relatives, friends (that is, those people with whom a person comes into close contact every day); and society – the immediate and distant environments (Fig. 1.5).
We also found out that any society must satisfy the eight characteristics identified by Shils, and the community must satisfy only a few.
An important difference between community and society is that society is always a social organization, community is not always. Society satisfies the five basic fundamental needs and non-fundamental needs of people who have existed historically for a long time.
If we analyze the topic material and the concept of Tennis, we can draw some conclusions. The concepts of “community” or “Gemeinschaft” and “community” are essentially identical words. Members of a community or community may be related by blood, friendship, or neighbors. These connections are purely emotional, although it is possible that such a group is trying to achieve a specific goal. The community is distinguished by the unity of its “essential will.” The will can be reasonable, but irrational. The basis of relationships in society is rational will. Since society is the totality of all interpersonal relationships, a certain management system is required. It should consist in the fact that the will of one member of society or a limited circle of people guides the will of others. Each society has its own historically established values, norms, and rules of behavior that are used by members of this society. The concepts of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are schematically depicted in Fig. 1.6.
If we compare Fig. 1.5 and 1.6, we will see that we can put an equal sign between the Tennis community and the community and between the Tennis community and society as we consider it.
A comment. I have chosen those tasks that reflect his creative approach to completion. Most homework on this topic was a summary, and sometimes a verbatim retelling of an article published in the relevant journal. Many works lacked analysis and comparison with lecture material. Both published works differ and creative approach, and the ability to conduct comparative analysis. True, one of them did not indicate the sources, for which it lost several tenths of a point.
Activity 4 Common Sense and Science
Task formulation. Find 5 examples that show how common sense judgments differ from scientific judgments, and describe why this happens.
Option 1.
In the reality around us, one can find many discrepancies between the judgments of common sense and science.
Common sense tells us that alcohol consumption is more common in women with a low level of education than in women with a high level of education. However, research in this area has refuted this assertion. “As the level of education increases, the relative frequency of alcohol consumption decreases in men and increases in women. Women with incomplete secondary and secondary education drink less often than men with the same educational status, and women with secondary specialized and higher education drink more often.” Explanation: “...In men, a low educational level is associated with alcohol abuse. Women with the same educational status tend to adhere to the norm. In general, conformism and the desire to correspond to the norm in all areas of life are most developed among women with a low level of education.” (Sociological journal. 1996. No. 1–2.)
Based on common sense judgments that are familiar to us, we will call a person who has lost a home “homeless” or “homeless,” that is, first a person loses a home and then becomes homeless. However, Dr. P. Henri, a consultant at a Paris center for helping the homeless, has a different opinion: “A homeless person, first of all, is in his mind, and a person’s material collapse hides personal failure, vulnerability, instability, loneliness, and even psychiatric problems have already left their mark on those whom the crisis is pushing towards collapse.”
These words are confirmed by the following data: 91% of homeless men are unmarried, 85% of them come from disadvantaged social classes, 13% of homeless people experience serious neuropsychological problems. (Questions of Statistics. 1977. No. 2.)
There is a belief that men and women are “naturally” created for certain roles, that is, work, hobbies, etc. are divided into male and female. This judgment was refuted by the American anthropologist Margaret Mead in 1935. She observed the lives of three tribes in New Guinea and found that, contrary to expectations: “In each of the three tribes, men and women performed completely different roles, sometimes in direct opposition to the generally accepted stereotypes considered “natural” for each sex.” (Smelser N. Sociology. M., 1994).
If we are asked “How do businessmen spend their leisure time?”, we will immediately think of restaurants and bars, because based on common sense, business people are the wealthiest part of the population, what else should they do in free time How not to have fun from the heart, if only there was money. However, sociological studies show a completely different picture: 88% of surveyed businessmen never visit bars and restaurants in their free time, 10.2% sometimes and only 1.8% often.
In the course of a study of leisure time, businessmen were divided into six groups according to the style (type) of leisure behavior: “workaholics”, “family-oriented”, “sociable”, “having fun”, “individualistic introverts” and “economic”, from these six groups In terms of the frequency of visiting restaurants and bars, the “having fun” group stands out sharply; in the remaining groups, other interests predominate; it turns out that many simply have neither the time nor the desire for such entertainment. (Sociological journal. 1995. No. 3.)
Finally, another myth is about the incompatibility of women’s business with a full-fledged family life. 80% of the surveyed female managers consider themselves happy in their family life, and they manage to compensate for their employment in the business sphere either through the help of their parents, or through the redistribution of family concerns between their husband and growing children. Only 2 out of 15 women did not have husbands, one of whom separated from her husband because of business. Everyone knows how difficult it is to combine responsible work and family life, therefore, it is not surprising that such a judgment arises; on the contrary, these studies are surprising. ( Sociological research. 1996. №3).
Conclusions. Common sense judgments are based on a subjective view of reality, which, as we see, is often unfounded and groundless, and this is not accidental. Often such judgments are expressed by incompetent people who have not the slightest connection to this issue. Judgments of science, based exclusively on verified facts, are objective nature. Often their results are opposite to common sense judgments, but this does not mean that they never coincide. Hypotheses put forward by scientists a priori are, in their source, judgments of common sense, and only when they are confirmed or not confirmed by experience do they become judgments of science.
Option 2.
Since the beginning of the 90s, a new factor has appeared in stabilizing the standard of living of students - Additional income. What motivates a student to go to work? Anyone could answer this question: the student’s strong need for money or poor family. But it turns out that a poor family does not play a role in additional earnings.
In 1992, a study “Socio-economic foundations of student life” was conducted among students from the CIS countries.
The following fact turned out to be somewhat unexpected: there is no direct connection with the standard of living of the student’s family, that is, both those in dire need and those who have high level life. For 14% of respondents, money is very important, because it allows them to achieve at least a basic standard of living; for 40%, it allows them to have “pocket money.” And only for 5% do they provide a high level of well-being. These students turn into “correspondence students” because their work takes precedence over their studies.
I would like to consider an example that in one way or another is closely related to this topic. Everywhere there is an opinion that humor is just something incidental in the life of society and does not carry any meaning. Everyone believes that humor exists for the people, and science is not at all interested in it. But this opinion is wrong. This topic has long been of interest to scientists.
The journal “Sociological Research” has repeatedly and in various forms addressed this topic, and the beginning was made in 1986 with the publication of Paramonov’s humorous notes “The Tale of an Unlucky Respondent.” Then, from time to time, journalistic notes and analytical articles about humor appeared on the pages of the magazine. For example, the book by A.V. Dmitriev “The Sociology of Humor. Essays" is entirely devoted to this problem.
Obviously, the topic of humor is quite interesting to study. Much work has been written on this topic, so the idea that science is not involved in humor is incorrect.
There is a popular assumption that there are more unemployed women than unemployed men. Hence the expression “unemployment has a woman’s face.” However, studies show that the difference is very small and it can be said that the unemployment rate of men and women is almost the same. The journal Sociological Research provides figures confirming this fact: 5% of unemployed women, 4.8% of unemployed men were in the economically active population in 1992. 5.5% of unemployed women, 5.4% of unemployed men - in 1993. There is an obvious tendency towards equalization of the unemployment rate of men and women. So public opinion may be wrong.
The media is considered the most prestigious disseminator of information. There used to be radio, and now there is television. It is worth considering that people spend most of their lives in front of their television screens. Few people doubt the information they receive from the media. Although in vain. A 1995 study found that the biggest carrier false information or rumors is television and radio. It is worth considering the results of the study and everything will become clear. Below are the answer options and their percentages. How do rumors spread? When communicating with neighbors – 17%. In a conversation with workmates - 30%. When meeting with friends -11%. When talking with friends on the phone – 3%. On the streets, in transport – 24%. In queues – 15%. In the media - 32%.
As a result, we have another excuse to say that the media often misinforms people.
Due to the advent of television, there are fewer people reading books. Now many people believe that people in general have stopped reading. And what can we say about the attitude towards literacy of the upper strata. After all, we believe that there are only “new Russians” there. Research conducted in 1996 helped clarify the situation. They were held among representatives of the Soviet nomenklatura and the new Russian intelligentsia. Here are the data obtained from the study.
Education:
Technical disciplines – 28%.
Economy – 18%.
Humanitarian – 12%.
Natural – 9%.
Didn’t graduate from university – 3%.
Scientific degree – 21%.
Have their own business – 23%.
Reading books:
Read more than once a week – 52%.
Once a month – 27%.
They don’t read – 2%.
For comparison, here are the data from a mass survey study:
Never read – 23%.
Several times a year – 20%.
Once or several times a month – 30%.
Repeatedly a week – 25%.
It is clear that our elite is much more educated than we imagine.
Literature
Efendiev A.G., Dudina O.M. Moscow students during the period of reform of Russian society // Sociol. research 1997. No. 9. pp. 41-56.
Butenko IL. Humor as a subject of sociology // Sociol. research 1997. No. 5. pp. 135-141.
Rzhanitsyna L.S., Sergeev G.G. Woman on the Russian labor market // Sociol. research 1995. No. 7. pp. 57–62.
Khlopyev A. T. Crooked rumors in Russia // Sociol. research 1995. No. 1. P.21-33.
Golovachev B.V., Kosova L.B. High-status groups: touches to the social portrait // Sociol. research 1996. No. 1. P. 45–51.
Task 5 Sociology in fiction
Task formulation. From fiction(Russian and foreign classics) find fragments illustrating any sociological concepts, situations, processes from the course “ General sociology", for example, by stratification, socialization, subculture, mobility, etc.
Option 1.
A visual sketch of the “social ladder” of a Russian city of the last century is N. V. Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General”. The features of the Russian bureaucracy are especially clearly depicted: bribery by the greyhound puppies of Tyapkin-Lyapkin, embezzlement (the church, which was stolen in parts), the gross arbitrariness of the mayor in relation to the merchants (“he will come to the shop and, whatever he gets, he will take everything ...”) and etc. These fragments illustrate not only the social stratification of Russian society, but also the special subculture of the bureaucratic corporation.
In an allegorical form, the process of socialization (rather, however, negative) appears before the reader in I. A. Krylov’s fable “Quartet”: “And you, friends, no matter how you sit down, you are not fit to be musicians.” This conclusion by Nightingale about the attempts of a monkey, a donkey, a bear and a goat to create a musical group reflects all the difficulties of the process of socialization (in this case, in a professional sense).
Example social conflict The plot of A. S. Pushkin’s story “Dubrovsky” can serve as an example. Growing out of a personal resentment (Dubrovsky speaks disapprovingly of the living conditions of Troekurov’s servants compared to dogs, and one of the hounds declares that “it would be nice for another master to exchange his estate for a dog kennel”), the conflict develops into a fierce confrontation not only with the landowners, but also with them. courtyards and serfs. The peasants of Vladimir Dubrovsky’s late father refuse to go over to someone else’s master and set fire to the estate (chapter 6).
It has become traditional to turn to the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time" to illustrate the process of socialization " extra person" But in the context of modern problems in Russia, the question of national specificity and originality of the mentality of mountain peoples is no less interesting. An eloquent example of this is the description of the wedding of a local prince and the life story of Kazbich.
A vivid picture of the peasant life of serf Russia is the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” The sociological concepts of “poverty” and “misery” acquire their own blood and flesh: “A peasant family is terrible at the hour when it has to lose its breadwinner.” Poverty also dictates a special line of behavior. A man who drank away all the money at the fair, instead of buying gifts for his family, evokes sympathy, but not a desire to help: “So you’ll be left with nothing.” An indispensable companion to poverty and the “impassability” of the life of the lower social classes depicted by the poet is drunkenness: “Russian peasants are smart, the only bad thing is that they drink to the point of stupor, they fall into ditches, it’s a shame to look at!” And this phenomenon is more of a social order: “Great sadness will come as soon as we stop drinking!”
Option 2.
I believe that almost any work of art can be viewed from a sociological perspective. And in almost any one you can find sociological aspects, situations, processes. I decided to try to look at several works from a sociological point of view.
Let's take, for example, the well-known novel by I. Turgenev “Fathers and Sons.” The novel contrasts two generations, that is, the generation of fathers and the generation of children. Two different views on life and how one should live are considered, one view from the older generation, and the other from the youth. This shows the youth subculture.
This subculture prescribed the denial of human living feelings and emotions; only natural sciences were recognized. Man turned into a typical mechanism. But people of the older generation, that is, the generation of fathers, had a completely different subculture. Some lived according to the dry laws of nihilism, denying the mental and psychological aspects of man, others, on the contrary, recognizing the individuality and the possibility of different internal experiences of each individual.
Let's move on to another classic work of Russian literature - the comedy in verse “Woe from Wit” by A. Griboedov. The comedy shows a society where all its members strive to achieve higher statuses and the most advantageous position. They achieve prestige by “being served”, not by serving, but by “serving”. It all depends on who pleases whom the most. We are not talking about honest service. As for education, society considered it a waste of time. In this society, life consisted of constant entertainment, balls and dinner parties.
We see a striking example of social mobility in A. Pushkin’s fairy tale “About the Fisherman and the Fish.” When the fisherman caught goldfish, she promised to fulfill any of his wishes if he would set her free. First he asked for a trough for the old woman, then the old woman wished to become a lady, and the old man, accordingly, became a gentleman. Although they were a poor old man and old woman. He is a simple fisherman. And with the help of the goldfish, they managed to change their status and move to a higher class. Here we see an example of vertical upward mobility. But what happens to the old man and the old woman? The old woman's desires become more and more demanding; she cannot stop at what she already has and wants more and more. And as a result, she is punished, turning into the same old woman at a broken trough that she was from the very beginning. Here is an example of vertical downward mobility. In general, here we can talk about intragenerational mobility, since this process - first an increase in position, and then a decrease - is observed within one generation.
Using the example of M. Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" I want to try to show that in any society there are social norms, that is, instructions, demands, wishes and expectations of appropriate (socially approved) behavior, and that non-compliance or compliance with social norms is followed by social sanctions. Social norms dictate how and what a person should do, and sometimes what to think, as for example in “The Master and Margarita.” This novel depicts the creative intelligentsia, in which atheism was considered the norm, which was promoted in all literary works. Here, other forms of thinking were not even allowed, and, accordingly, works that were different in content were not recognized. Strict censorship is shown, prescribing what to write and how, a standard and unoriginal train of thought. A society in which there was no place for kindness and warmth was accepted as the norm. And the Master, who created a work that was not like the others, in which he expressed different views, lived a different life, not like the others. And as a result, he is punished by society for what he has done. He ends up in a psychiatric hospital. That is, negative social sanctions were taken against him. Informal - non-recognition of his thoughts and writings, and formal - isolation from society in a psychiatric hospital. His behavior and thoughts were not the norm for this society.
On the other hand, we see the use negative sanctions in relation to a society that did not accept the Master, using the example of the struggle of Evil with evil, that is, supernatural Evil (in the person of Woland) and earthly, human evil. From the side of Evil, we see the application of positive informal sanctions to the Master: a meeting with Margarita, the meeting and union of their hearts at Satan’s ball.
We can also find an example of the use of social sanctions in E. Zamyatin’s novel “We”. When a person leaves the control of a mechanistic and mathematical society, he is deprived of imagination and he is likened to a machine, which is easier to control than a person endowed with dreams, feelings, and hopes. This happens to the main character of the novel. He is frightened by what he begins to notice in himself. He thinks that he is not healthy, because in this society it is not customary to think and feel this way; social norms dictate something completely different. And he is punished, formal negative social norms are applied to him - he is deprived of his imagination, which is usually what happens in such cases in a given society.
I tried to look at several works and find something sociological in them. It seems to me that you can always see sociological aspects in a work of art, even if there is only one character in this work. His example can show the life of an entire society or a certain layer. And even if he is not a typical representative of a particular environment, it means that he is opposed to it, and accordingly, we will still be talking about some group of people.
Option Z.
Status mismatch. F. Kafka, “America”.
- How? – Karl was surprised. – Are you a salesperson during the day, and study at night?
- Yes, there is no other way out. I have already tried all the options, but this is still the best. Several years ago I was just studying, day and night, and you know, I was almost starving, I slept in an old dirty cell, and my suit was such that I was afraid to enter the classroom. But that’s a thing of the past.”
This fragment very well and clearly shows how the rights and responsibilities of one status interfere with the fulfillment of the rights and responsibilities of another.
Social mobility. A. Dumas, “Twenty Years Later.”
“The one who arranged this whole thing (took Cardinal Mazarin hostage) should, I think, be appointed commander of some guards unit, for example, captain of the musketeers.
“You are asking me for de Treville’s place!”
– This position is vacant; It's been a year since Treville freed her, and she's still not involved with anyone.
– But this is one of the first positions at the royal court!
“Tréville was a simple Gascon cadet (as the younger sons of noble families were called), like me, Your Majesty, and yet he held this position for twenty years.
“You have an answer to everything,” said Anna of Austria.
And taking the patent form from the table, she filled it out and signed it.”
To this we can add that at the end of the trilogy “The Vicomte de Bragelonne” d'Artagnan dies, holding the marshal's baton of France in his hands.
We can say that Dumas' hero made a social career. Social mobility has occurred:
intergenerational (d'Artagnan the elder was only a simple Gascon nobleman; his son gradually rose to a higher social level - he became a marshal of France);
intragenerational (d'Artagnan first becomes a guardsman of Mr. Dezessar's company, then a simple royal musketeer - a lieutenant of the royal musketeers - a captain of the royal musketeers, and finally - a marshal of France. Here is the social career of the hero Dumas!).
So, we have before us an example of social mobility, and a multi-layered one.
Social stratification. M. Gorky, “Passion-Faces”.
“She led me to the courtyard of a large, two-story house; Carefully, like a blind woman, she walked between carts, barrels, boxes, scattered woodpiles, stopped in front of some hole in the foundation and suggested to me:
Sticking to the sticky wall, hugging the woman around the waist, barely holding her spreading body, I went down the slippery steps, felt for the felt and door bracket, opened it and stood on the threshold of the black pit, not daring to step further.
– She doesn’t hit you?
- Is she? Here's another! She can't live without me. She’s kind, but she’s a drunkard, well, on our street everyone is a drunkard. She is beautiful, cheerful too... She is a very drunkard, a whore! I tell her: stop drinking this vodka, you fool, you’ll be rich, and she laughs. Grandma, what a stupid thing! And she’s good, if she sleeps it off, you’ll see.”
We have a problem of poverty. We see: tramps and homeless people; two people who are unable to work: she is a chronic alcoholic, he is disabled; single-parent family headed by a woman; unemployed.
This fragment of Gorky’s story is a wonderful sketch of the everyday life of the “underclass”.
Workshop 1
Formation of sociological knowledge
The sociological workshop is designed to consolidate the theoretical material presented by the teacher in lectures or obtained by students from educational, scientific reference or scientific monographic literature. Some tasks are aimed only at consolidating the lecture material, while others, which go beyond its scope, require painstaking independent work with additional literature.
The teacher indicates accurate sources or guides students in what type of literature should be used to complete homework. Indicating accurate data has not only advantages (they are obvious), but also disadvantages, since these particular sources may not be available in your home or public library. In addition, the teacher may not know the entire range of literature, which is constantly replenished and updated. In such cases, it is advisable not to hamper students’ initiative in choosing preferred sources.
Topic 1 of this book addressed the following issues:
History of sociology.
Interdisciplinary matrix of sociology.
Intradisciplinary structure of sociology.
Spontaneous sociology and everyday consciousness.
It is advisable to include the first and fourth topics in a practical lesson, and leave the second and third topics for independent study. As my experience shows, they are the most difficult for students to complete, since they require deepening into professional knowledge related to fundamental science.
On the history of sociology, you can offer to prepare an abstract. Let's say about the contribution of O. Comte to the development of sociological thought. The names of sociologists are chosen either by the teacher or given to the students themselves. Using the available literature, they easily cope with the task. Below we present to your attention the works of students devoted to the analysis of the main problems in the works of M. Weber and F. Tönnies. In addition, you will become familiar with how students perform tasks related to the methodology of social science. We will talk about composing sociological tales, analyzing common sense and science, and searching for sociological issues in fiction.
Task 1 Ideal type of M. Weber
It is more difficult to understand the peculiarities of the teaching of one or another sociologist, say, the same M. Weber. As an example, I will give independent works on ideal types by M. Weber. They were executed twice. The first time, the teacher did not explain what they were and suggested reading about ideal types in reference literature. The result was amazing: the vast majority of students correctly copied definitions from the available literature, but gave completely erroneous examples. The second time, having become acquainted with the completed work, the teacher explained the mistakes and asked those who considered their work incorrect to redo it. As a result, most students completed the task correctly again, but some of them either did not notice the mistakes they had made or were too lazy to correct them. Let me give you a few examples.
Task formulation. Get acquainted with the description of M. Weber's ideal type in scientific, reference or educational literature. Summarize the main provisions of this teaching and create your own examples of ideal types.
A. Correct description of the ideal type, borrowed by students from literature.
An ideal type is a methodological means of sociological (or historical) research, which is a theoretical construct. This construction is not extracted from social reality, but is constructed as a theoretical scheme, the elements of which are aspects of social reality, taken in their individual originality, logical consistency and rational correctness. That is, “scientists of society select as defining characteristics of an ideal type certain aspects of behavior or institutions observed in the real world, and then, through a certain exaggeration, elevate them into the form of an ideal construct.” The ideal type serves to construct a logical model of the aspect of social reality to be studied, which a) would contribute to a clearer identification of this aspect, b) would serve as a kind of standard, by comparison with which one could judge the extent to which the empirical reality under study is moving away or approaching.
The ideal type is precisely a standard, a prototype, a prototype, something not real, but only possible, and only logically possible.
The ideal type is built by bringing its elements to the maximum possible logical interconnectedness and coherence. This system of connections represents a utopia, built from real education by replacing empirical dependencies with purely logical ones. And “the sharper and more unambiguous the ideal types are constructed, the more alien they are in this sense to the world, the better they fulfill their purpose.”
Weber emphasizes that the ideal type taken in its pure form cannot be found anywhere in empirical reality: such mental constructions “are as rare in reality as physical reactions, which are calculated only under the assumption of absolutely empty space.” Thus, analogues of the ideal type in sociology can serve as mental formations in physics, for example, the concept of an “ideal gas” or “a body on which no forces act.” So, for example, in reality it is impossible to find a purely goal-oriented action (that is, an action characterized by the unambiguity and clarity of the acting subject’s awareness of his goal, rationally correlated with clearly meaningful means, etc.).
This individual-typical construction does not say how this or that process actually proceeds, but speaks about something else - what this process would be like and what the circumstances of its occurrence could be. By comparing the way processes actually proceed with this ideal construction, we find out the degree of deviation of the actual from the possible, as well as the reasons for such a deviation. In any case, it is easier to interpret any particular phenomenon of social reality by comparing it with some ideal type.
Weber believed that a significant discrepancy between ideal types and reality may entail redefining a given ideal type, but he also argued that ideal types are not models that should necessarily be tested. According to Weber, ideal types are such general, abstract concepts as “pure competitive market”, “church”, “bureaucracy”, “economic exchange”, “craft”, “capitalism”, “Christianity”.
Literature
Abercrombie N., Hill S., Turner B. S. Sociological Dictionary / Transl. from English, ed. S. A. Erofeeva. Kazan: Publishing house Kazan, unta, 1997.
Weber M. Selected works. M.: Progress, 1990.
History of theoretical sociology. In 4 volumes / Answer, ed. and compiled by Yu. N. Davydov. M.: Kanon+, 1997. T. 2.
Russian Sociological Encyclopedia / Edited by. ed. G. V. Osipova. M.: Publishing group NORMA-INFRA, 1998. P. 575-576.
B. Examples of ideal types invented by students.
Company. The basic principles of its activities will be the following: a) employees work in such a way that they can be interchangeable, each is required to perform only one task; b) the behavior of the performers is completely determined by a rational scheme, which ensures accuracy and unambiguousness of actions, avoiding prejudice and personal sympathy in relationships; c) the enterprise is free to choose any means to ensure its sustainability; d) all employees comply with safety regulations; e) there is a system of rewarding the most capable workers; f) the enterprise takes care of the health and rest of its employees.
Student. He must attend all lectures, regardless of his interests, be able to write quickly, listen carefully, think quickly, successfully pass tests and exams, otherwise the student will be called a poor student and then we should talk about the ideal type of “low student.” It is accepted that a student receives a scholarship depending on his academic performance, and there is hardly a student who does not know at least a small part, so to speak, of student jargon.
Open society (When creating this ideal type, the student used the book by R. Dahrendorf “After 1989”, which he noted in the note.). This concept as an ideal type has the following characteristics:
there are institutions that make it possible to change the government without resorting to violence;
there is no single body or position through which the activities of many people are coordinated;
everything is permitted that is not expressly prohibited, and little is prohibited;
what is permitted is left to individual choice;
roles are not given at birth, but are the result of personal achievements in all areas.
These, of course, are not all the characteristics of an “open society,” but they may be a description of the ideal type of open society.
Russian village in the outback. Her ideal typical features:
a small group of people, predominantly elderly;
poverty;
lack of interest in events in the country;
everyone knows everything about the others;
cordiality towards guests, even strangers, lack of motivation for profit.
Salesman. His ideal typical features:
man or woman about 30–45 years old;
balanced, polite;
honest, not trying to deceive the buyer;
serving conscientiously, not keeping you waiting;
with good taste, able to give correct advice;
neatly dressed in a special uniform;
interested in selling;
loving his job.
Passenger. The ideal passenger always pays for his or her fare and gives up his or her seat to disabled people, passengers with children, and residents. Such a passenger does not carry bulky luggage, does not violate public order in the cabin (does not be rude to other passengers, does not distract the driver while the vehicle is moving). When boarding, he waits for other passengers to get off, lets women (if he is a man) go ahead, and helps elderly and disabled people get in or out.
Strike. Any strike must begin with the dissatisfaction of the masses due to political, economic or other motives. If you look at the reasons for all the strikes, they began either due to non-payment of wages, or because the workers sought a reduction in working hours, an increase in wages, a change in management, etc. Then the conditions under which the strike would end should be presented. Next comes the final stage, when the authorities either make concessions to the strikers or suppress the strike. The mechanism for the emergence of strikes is as follows: among the dissatisfied masses there are activists who incite people, throw slogans at the masses and try to help the indignation spill out. Basically, such people know the psychology of the masses well. They subtly sense the moments when the people are ready to follow them. They know how to unite people with sweet slogans and words. The clearest examples of such people are Lenin, Trotsky, Stepan Razin, etc. This is the type of typical strike.
Private company. Its characteristic features in modern Russian society are hiding taxes; has one general director and several deputies; has commercial departments; recruits personnel “from the street”, and in most cases “through acquaintances”; has contacts with criminal groups.
