CC BY
0DYNAMICS OF SOCIO-CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE YOUTH ENVIRONMENT
The relevance of the problem under study is associated with intensive changes in modern society, including cultural processes in the youth environment. The purpose of the article is to identify the main modern trends, processes and factors affecting the culture of youth, their values and needs. The article uses sociocultural approach and system analysis to study the dynamics of cultural processes in the youth environment. The article shows that the young generation creates conditions for a multicultural environment and actively forms new values and attitudes that meet the requirements of modern society. The materials of the article can form a conceptual basis for specific research based on system analysis, which allows us to identify the interrelationships of various forms of activity of modern youth communities and show the conditions for the formation of new sociocultural practices in post-information society.
Keywords
sociocultural processes, youth culture, cultural environment,
multiculturalism
AUTHORS
Svetlana G. Gutova,
Doctor of Philosophy, Professor,
Senior Researcher at the Scientific Research Laboratory of Simulation Modeling, Nizhnevartovsk State University, Nizhnevartovsk [email protected]
DOI: 10.24412/2311-8806-2024-3-19-24 Introduction
The relevance of the study of modern sociocultural processes in the youth environment is due to several factors at once. Firstly, youth is currently one of the main creative elements of the newest forms of cultural creation and scientific progress in general. Secondly, it creates new values and attitudes that meet the requirements of the information society. Thirdly, the young generation takes an active position in terms of creating new activities. Thus, the transformation of modern society requires comprehension of the genesis, dynamics and causes of changes in the cultural environment in which young people today realize themselves and which they reproduce anew.
The aim of this research is to show how the main modern tendencies and processes change the socio-cultural environment and influence the consciousness and new cultural needs of young people.
As a result of identifying and describing the specifics of sociocultural processes in youth, a number of issues arise that require systemic analysis. For example, such questions include the following:
1. The effectiveness of existing in modern Russian society ways of solving problems arising as a result of the accelerating dynamics of sociocultural processes;
2. The need to identify the main trends in the socio-cultural development of young people, taking into account the heterogeneous formation of various regions;
3. Identification of key factors influencing the development of socio-cultural processes in the youth environment.
4. Objective analysis of cultural transformations in modern Russian society, affecting different segments of the population (taking into account the noticeable polarization in social and economic terms)
Obviously, these are by no means all the issues that allow us to explore more fully the topic of sociocultural development of youth, since most of them require specific sociological research in this area.
Modern multicultural space is characterized by specificity in terms of ethno-cultural and age structure of the population, migration dynamics and mechanisms of functioning of sociocultural space. At the same time, it should be emphasized that it is young people today who determine the high level of mobility and the overall dynamics of sociocultural processes. The young generation mainly perceives multicultural environment as natural. However, we should not forget that in general: «The state of the cultural environment of modern Russian society today is extremely contradictory» [1, p.83]. For example, the current uneven dynamics of cultural processes in different regions of our country is obvious. Along with the typical for modern Russia socio-cultural processes at the regional level there are specific ones, characteristic for this or that region (for example, the pronounced marginalization of youth culture). This trend only complicates the solution of the main problems in the field of culture.
Materials and Methods
Rapid changes in the modern world encompass all spheres of society and cannot be considered in isolation, which is why it is so important to study society in its dynamics and, with the help of comprehensive analysis, to create a holistic picture that allows us to see the prevailing trends, set goals and anticipate negative consequences in time. The study of social and cultural dynamics of modern processes in the youth environment implies the mandatory application of an interdisciplinary approach based on sociological and philosophical understanding of the most significant problems and trends
Sociocultural transformations have affected the change in the value orientations of young people, their social and spiritual needs, and obviously need constant scientific analysis by the intellectual community. A comprehensive analysis of the main trends in the development of social processes in the youth environment of modern Russian society is necessary in order to successfully overcome the existing and possible problems associated with the transformation of Russian society.
Increased interest in the study of modern social processes is today an important part not only of special scientific developments, but also of education, where the work with youth is concentrated. In methodological terms, youth research requires a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to solving major problems, which in the near future will allow us to obtain positive results in the social, cultural, political and economic spheres.
Therefore, the study of sociocultural processes in the youth environment cannot be conducted within narrowly defined boundaries, outside of its focus on holistic and systemic analysis. Today, scientists consider «Sociocultural integrity as an immanent feature of social reality» [2, p. 72].
Such research can be realized only if interdisciplinary research is conducted at the intersection of sociology, philosophy, cultural studies and other social sciences.
The process of studying sociocultural transformations is largely determined by the methodology used, which in turn sets the specifics of understanding the main social relations, as well as external and internal factors that determine the social and cultural dy-
namics of society as a whole, and also allows us to cognize the main processes and phenomena not only in their development, dynamics, but most importantly in their integrity [3, p.127-131].
It is the sociocultural approach applied to the study of youth that makes it possible to come to an understanding of the unity of social and cultural, determining the basic parameters of human activity. For the study of youth, it is important that: «The sociocultural approach is applicable to the study of the dynamics of not only macro-social objects and phenomena (humanity, local civilizations, globalization), but also other, more specific objects: ethnic groups, territorial communities, separate spheres or subsystems of social life of mankind» [4, p. 72].
Results
In modern society, the process of stratification on social and cultural grounds is not as pronounced as the blurring of boundaries within formerly relatively independent cultural formations, which is quite intensive. An attempt to objectively analyze sociocultural pro-cesses in the youth environment is a rather difficult task in terms of both substantive anal-ysis and choice of research methodology. However, this kind of research allows us to identify certain regularities in the dynamics of sociocultural processes occurring in the cul-tural space of youth, while emphasizing the most significant factors.
In modern society there is no intergenerational conflict in its traditional sense, because the gradual replacement (substitution) of the values of the older generation with values that meet the new demands of society is obvious. Such a change of value orientation is associated with the fact that: "Cultural development, cultural demands of young people do not always correspond both to the offer of traditional cultural institutions and public perceptions of true cultural values» [5, p.84].
The interconnection of everyday life and virtual worlds, traditional culture and modern information space, classical examples of art and products of mass culture, modern tech-nologies and increasingly growing "quasi-science" — all this suggests that nowadays cul-tural transformations not only reflect the specifics of the changing world, but are them-selves a powerful catalyst of these transformations. Dominating in the minds of young people «The culture of innovative thinking links the past and the future in the present, "converts" traditions (needs) into innovations (interests)» [ 6, p. 305]. Youth is particularly sensitive to the ongoing changes in the socio-cultural space, being at the same time a catalyst for their development. The changes that are taking place in information technolo-gy and the latest communications are especially important for the younger generation.
Young people are particularly sensitive to changes in the socio-cultural space, being at the same time a catalyst for their development. For the young generation, the changes that are taking place in the sphere of information technologies and in the field of the latest communications are especially important.
Mohl especially emphasized the importance for sociocultural dynamics of these very factors: "Society as a whole possesses a certain social culture, which is embodied in a 'network of knowledge' that is in one way or another formed from the multitude of cultural materials produced by society. The totality of these materials, which could be collected in some "universal library", can be conditionally called «the memory of the world» [7, pp. 55-56]. However, Mohl emphasized that in reality events and mass communications unite and create cultural facts [8, p. 56]. For the young generation, these facts gradually become the only reality, supplanting all others as less significant. This, in turn, prepares the ground for the transition to the virtual world, where the consciousness of a modern individual feels quite comfortable. At the same time, it should be noted that: «...cultural dynamics is asso-ciated not only with the birth of the new, the development of culture is unthinkable without the selection of cultural heritage» [9, p. 86]. The main characteristics
of modern culture are rapidly moving away from traditional culture and this gap is especially noticeable in the example of cultural transmission between generations.
Sociocultural analysis allows us to identify a number of hidden factors affecting changes in the cultural environment of young people. Let us outline the most significant of them, significantly affecting the processes of transformation of youth culture: Firstly, as a primary factor, one can identify the processes of globalization that actively reshape the communicative and especially educational space in which modern youth primarily live and develop. Secondly, among these types of factors, one can consider the marginalization of the younger generation, leading directly to negative sociocultural transformations. Another factor to consider is the emergence of new, more advanced and complex cultural and so-cial transformations.
In addition to these factors, we can also mention such factors as: demographic processes, multiculturalism, synthesis of national and religious values of representatives of different peoples, the influence of information technology on the formation of cultural val-ues, changes in the structure of intercultural communications and, as a consequence, a new type of "cultural man", the connection between traditions and the latest achievements in the field of cultural policy.
For a holistic understanding and identification of the specifics of sociocultural development of youth, it is important to emphasize the problems that first of all need to be solved, because there are quite far-fetched or formally prescribed "dangers" for the future of our society. Thus, the problem of subcultural and countercultural movements is obviously exaggerated, and the problem of marginalization of the cultural environment, which has become more and more widespread recently for a number of reasons, is not sufficiently studied by the scientific community and, consequently, is not solved at the level of state cultural institutions in some regions.
However, it should be taken into account that all factors are closely interrelated. For example, the ethnic and religious factor has not been independent for a long time; it di-rectly depends not only on cultural and social policy in Russia as a whole, but also on spe-cific political attitudes, the peculiarities of the media conjuncture (performance of tasks), the spread of new economic needs and the influence of technogenic factors on the per-sonality. The most indicative example in this regard is the study and description of the main tendencies in sociocultural development through the prism of youth culture, which analyzes the main cultural values that influence the behavior and life priorities of young people.
Discussions
Since it is very important for society what it will be in the near future, the study of young people, their values and needs should be a priority [10, p. 215]. It is especially important to understand what needs of young people dominate in the field of culture, which as a result will help to identify the most significant problems in the field of cultural and so-cial development of the country, as well as the main causes of deformation of basic spir-itual values, certainly forming the possible contours of a new culture in Russia.
The general process of modernization suggests that today: «It should be noted that not only the level of development in the field of technology and material production determines the potential of society in the future, but also what foundations and fundamental principles of our worldview will become basic and dominant in the information culture. Sci-entific and technological progress shows us with concrete examples that certain innovative ideas become socially viable only when they are organically incorporated into the cultural environment and become an important part of society's culture» [11, p.550].
It should be noted that not only the level of development in the field of technology and material production determines the potential of society in the future, but also what foundations and fundamental principles of our worldview will become basic and dominant
in the information culture. «At the same time, young people themselves consider technologies related to manipulation, coercion and other methods of improper influence on their choice as unacceptable ways of work young people themselves consider technologies related to manipulation, coercion and other methods of improper influence on their choice, which representatives of today's young generation have learned to identify and ignore, as unacceptable ways of work, have learned to identify and ignore» [12, p.45].
Scientific and technological progress shows us with concrete examples that certain innovative ideas become socially viable only when they are organically incorporated into the cultural environment and become an important part of society's culture. Thus, today there is a need for a fundamental socio-philosophical understanding of cultural processes in the youth environment. In this regard, cultural changes in the youth environment are of particular interest, where these trends are most prominently represented.
Conclusion
It should be borne in mind that it is especially important for today's young people to acquire an independent social status and fulfill a certain set of significant social roles in accordance with it. The analysis of the role and place of youth in society, conducted by authoritative Western and domestic research centers in recent decades, has shown that changes in various social structures (economic, political, stratification, demographic, socio-cultural, socio-territorial) directly affect the features of its formation, development and self-determination as a specific social community. The special position of youth as a social community is due to a number of objective reasons.
First, the fact that in the total composition of the young generation there is a significant proportion of young men and women (pupils, students) who do not have their own social status in the full sense and are characterized either by their past social status - the social status of their parents - or by their future status related to professional training and planned professional activity.
Second, the social uniqueness of young people is determined by their propensity to form various formal and informal associations and their more pronounced desire to be part of any ideological, cultural and other social communities. This is often associated with the desire of young people to be directly involved in various youth movements and groupings - political, subcultural, territorial, religious.
Third, the specificity of youth as a social community is determined by the fact that it is mobile, easily susceptible to informational influence and at the same time often oriented to protest behavior. This is due to the fact that young people are still in the process of forming their beliefs and ideals.
Fourthly, we should note the difficulties that arise among young people in the process of gradual age-related changes in social status, which is associated with a large number of factors simultaneously affecting their attitudes, ideals, priorities and value orientations.
Thus, youth is an open social system, included in the diversity of ties, relations and interactions existing in society. The most characteristic functions for it are socialization, reproductive, translational and innovative. Youth in the process of socialization is actively involved in the formation of social relations that affect the entire structure of society, is the most important and basic element in the process of social reproduction, because it is re-sponsible for the continuous renewal of the production of spiritual and material goods. In addition, young people carry out the function of transmitting cultural and social experience, associated with the assimilation, transfer and dissemination of knowledge, achievements, skills of older generations. At the same time, young people do not simply borrow other people's experience; they transform it, innovate and preserve its peculiarity.
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