CC BY
16
DOI 10.23947/2414-1143-2021-28-4-3-8 UDC 316:004
INFORMATION SOCIETY IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS
© Svetlana S. Zubareva
South-Russian Institute of Management of Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation
The article is devoted to the study of the information society formation in the Russian Federation. The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that in our country the transformation of social reality has been observed throughout all historical development. At first, the transformation took place in line with socialist and communist ideologies, as opposed to global capitalism. Then, since 1991, its transformation had been taking place on the basis of the ultraliberal paradigm of Adam Smith. The sources and mechanisms of modern sociocultural changes are processes accompanying the intense trends of digital globalization, the digital transformation of social institutions, digital society, the primacy of a single global information space and digital technologies. The formation of the information society is presented as a point of bifurcation, which was preceded by transformations in the axiosphere of the Russian civilization. The synergistic approach to the analysis of the essence of the phenomenon of the reality of the information society is proposed. The purpose of the study is to analyze trends and prospects for the development of the information society as "social bifurcation." The author's attention is focused on scenarios of the evolution of information reality in the Russian Federation. Attention is drawn to the fact that the most acceptable development option is the globalization of our country, which allows us to ensure independence and national exclusivity through the national digital sovereignty and an appeal to the traditional Russian values.
Key words: information reality, digital generation, information society, globalization, social bifurcation.
[C.C. Зубарева Информационное общество в Российской Федерации: тенденции и перспективы развития]
Статья посвящена исследованию становления информационного общества в Российской Федерации. Актуальность темы обусловлена тем, что в нашей стране преобразование социальной реальности наблюдалось на протяжение всего исторического развития. Сперва трансформация происходила в русле социалистической и коммунистической идеологий, в противовес глобальному капитализму. Затем, с 1991 года, её преобразование происходило на основе ультралиберальной парадигмы Адама Смита. Источниками и механизмами современных социокультурных изменений выступают процессы, сопутствующие интенсивным тенденциям цифровой глобализации - цифровой трансформации социальных институтов, цифрового социума, примате единого глобального информационного пространства и цифровых технологий. Представлено становление информационного общества как точки бифуркации, которой предшествовали трансформации в аксиосфере российской цивилизации. Предложен си-нергетический подход к анализу сущности феномена реальности информационного общества. Целью исследования является анализ тенденций и перспектив развития информационного общества как «социальной бифуркации». Внимание автора сосредоточено на сценариях эволюции информационной реальности в Российской Федерации. Обращается внимание на то, что наиболее приемлемый вариант развития - глобализация нашей страны, позволяющая обеспечить самостоятельность и национальную исключительность через национальный цифровой суверенитет и обращение к традиционным российским ценностям.
Ключевые слова: информационная реальность, цифровое поколение, информационное общество, глобализация, социальная бифуркация.
Svetlana S. Zubareva - Lecturer, South-Russian Institute of Management of Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation.
Зубарева Светлана Сергеевна - преподаватель, Южно-Российский институт управления - филиал Российской академии народного хозяйства и государственной службы при Президенте РФ, г. Ростов-на-Дону, Российская Федерация.
The 21st century is a century of radical transformation of civilizational development. Modern civilization is in an unstable and crisis state followed by fundamental qualitative systemic changes. Perhaps this was due to the enormous influence that man-made civilization had on local societies seeking to achieve the level of development of Western countries by adopting innovations in the process of modernization. The consequences of the rapid technogenic type of civilizational development together led to the emergence of environmental and anthropological crises, interpreted by the author as the first stage of the phase transition, when bifurcation points and alternative development scenarios are indicated.
Our country has repeatedly experienced historical social bifurcations: the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Currently, the Russian Federation, in line with digital globalization, is undergoing a new social bifurcation, that is the construction of information reality. Information reality expresses the semantic content of the information society, which is a new type of the social system. It permeates all spheres of social life, becomes their integral part, a property that unites them and a quality that gives them an exceptional position in history. There is a direct relationship between the information society and the sociality formed by human activities in the unity of the components of information reality. The sociocultural space was filled with new values and meanings, as well as educational, professional and creative opportunities, in which the network principles of communication and personalization acquired fundamental importance. The change of traditional dominants in the axiosphere of society and personality during the formation of information reality became the most powerful fluctuation that influenced the Russian society. Random fluctuations at the time of the transformation of the Russian civilization formed attractors, which are, on the one hand, science, education and technology, and on the other, the intensity of information exchange, which at the time of convergence with society and culture determined the direction of the development of modern society.
The future of the Russian civilization in the context of the digital age: expert opinions
There are many futurological ideas of foreign and domestic scientists about the future of the Russian civilization in the context of the digital age.
The transformation of the concepts of "nature" as a biosphere, into which human society is included as a special subsystem, "power" as control over an object, a type of scientific rationality, postnonclassical, oriented towards the development of complex developing human-sized systems, is considered by V.S. Styopin as indicators of the transformation of the values of man-made society [5, p. 8].
According to Z. Bzezinski, Russia may become a part of Europe due to the completion of 70 years of isolation. According to R. Pipes, "Russia has a predominantly eastern past, but its future should be European" [4, p. 87]. A. Kachins says that the future of our country depends on two main factors: internal, that are the rate of export of gas and petroleum products, the level and quality of demographic indicators; external, that is the Russian political system. Taking these factors into account, he implies a relatively stable development of Russia in the long term. Professor of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington J. Kolomer, in turn, believes that in the global world today there are both large "empires" and small "self-governing communities" [7, p. 38]. In such a scenario of the world development, he sees that Russia, through the tendency to create "self-governing small communities," will strive to be included in democratic empires.
Modern scientists, especially political scientists (E.A. Pain, S.Yu. Fedyunin), reflecting on the future of our country, proceed from the fact that the policy of multiculturalism, popular at the end of the 20th century, is no longer relevant; they emphasize the need to replace it with a model of political governance that combines the advantages of multiculturalism, which
demonstrates its effectiveness in maintaining cultural diversity, and the need for social consolidation. The most successful and promising project is the policy of interculturalism, illustrating its effectiveness, but requiring further development in the practice of regulating intercultural relations at the national level [3, p. 127].
As we can see, despite the pluralism of opinions on this issue, the alleged scenarios have common features: positive social evolution is possible with indestructible political will; confidence in their choice and intellectual superiority. Thus, the future of the Russian society is considered according to several options for social development, determined at the moment of the highest point of the crisis and due to quantitative and qualitative factors, independent choice and potential capabilities of subsystems.
Scenarios of going through bifurcation in the Russian Federation
In our study, when considering social evolution in Russia, we highlight three possible trajectories of the Russian social development:
The first scenario is relative stagnation at this stage with a stable development of society. Extrapolating the conclusions of our study on the short-term perspective of the cultural development of our country until 2035, we come to the following conclusion: with such a development vector, that is, influenced by the trends of digital globalization, the Russian society will strive to reduce the lag in the field of high technology from developed countries through the comprehensive development of digital technologies and extensive introduction into existing social reality. However, we note that the information society is a product of Western European civilization, and according to Y.M. Lotman, the tradition that came as a result of the dialogue of cultures cannot be assimilated in another culture since it is outside the language. Such situation will be observed until there is a meta-language that can reflect its axiological interpretation. The sociocultural space will be determined by the combination of those values and orientations that arose as a result of cultural diffusion. In this regard, the value gap between civilizations is growing and the crisis of the axiosphere of the Russian society is intensifying in a situation where the system has crossed the point of bifurcation, but is not developing in accordance with global trends. Due to socio-demographic factors, low digital literacy and limited technical capabilities that slow down technological and economic development, there will be economic stagnation at least until 2035, with a favorable economic conjuncture, and again the moment when the virtual environment becomes a full-fledged sphere of social life for Russians will be indefinitely postponed. Scientists consider the spiritual state of the modern Russian society as risky, which needs to ensure spiritual security on the part of the state, the individual and the society with the support of civil society institutions, the family and education. The protection of national interests in the spiritual sphere, including through the formation of a new ideology based on unified generations spiritual for all modern, will eliminate internal and external threats. In the future, Russia will abstract from globalization processes, and as an alternative, the new project of a socioeconomic structure will arise, characterized by a humanistic, ecological and ethical orientation.
The second scenario is glocalization, regionalization of the Russian society and an attempt to maintain this local structure. In the course of this scenario, there will be an intensive provision of national digital sovereignty and an appeal to traditional Russian values that are a factor in national security in the era of globalization. Due to glocalization, Russia's national characteristics will enter the global world, which will ensure its development simultaneously at the global and regional levels. The specificity of glocalization is determined by its characteristic features: multilevel, momentariness, reversibility of information and energy connections from the particular individual to the global level. The glocalization of Russia as an independent holistic state contributes to its economic, social and cultural development.
On the one hand, Russia, of course, is a country belonging to European civilization. On the other hand, the historical commonality of the fate of the Slavic and Turkic peoples led to the formation of the national origins of the Russians in the Slavic-Turkic component of Eurasianism. This in its own way influenced the psychological, mental, cultural characteristics of the whole nation. Russia is a part of European civilization, open to the dialogue with its other branches, but, at present, political scientists and representatives of scientific elites speak more about the political nature of borders than about cultural ones between Russia and the European Union, noting that the existing differences are due to the perception of reality and the future of the global world [1, p.137]. Nevertheless, in the future, more productive dialogue between Russia and the European Union, in our opinion, is possible precisely in the context of the development and formation of information reality. Russia is the spiritual center of mankind, the junction of the East and the West. Moreover, the pace of growth and the impact of digital globalization on the Russian civilization represent a relatively stable system and open up new opportunities for development.
The third scenario is the formation of information reality as a new sphere of social being. In the context of digital globalization and the formation of the information society, the transformation of the existing social reality is natural. The social reality formed in the digital age is the basis of modern society, and digital technologies are an integral part of all social processes without exception. The social project of modernization of Russia is considered as leading the country to a new technological cycle, the development of industrial industries and, ultimately, the society of knowledge. With this version of social evolution, the depersonalization of the Russian civilization will occur due to the influence of digital globalization. Deep penetration and rooting of Western European cultural values in the Russian society will begin due to cultural diffusion. Contemporaries will witness a cultural socio-technological transformation in the Russian society, the digital environment will develop to the level when a person becomes its structural element, a unit for storing information and knowledge. The consciousness and behaviour of a person of the 21st century will become the object of manipulative influence and external management as far as the developed values allow, the values determined by the focus of the individual on creativity, development and self-improvement and behavioural standards necessary to ensure the sustainability of the new socio-cultural space. The negative social and moral consequences of information reality will also manifest themselves in the new totalitarianism of both authoritarian governments and transcontinental corporations, due to the formation of a big data system that allows systematic control over the actions of social actors.
Trends and prospects of information reality development
The basis of the new stage of social development is digital communication technologies, thanks to which it functions and is transformed into a single socio-cultural space containing innovative economic, social, political and spiritual relations. Acculturation and socialization in these conditions have formed a certain worldview and attitude to the artificial intellectual systems and the information they create, most often cyberphobia among older generations, and trust among young people. The observed situation can provoke social stratification on the basis of involvement/non-involvement in new technologies, as well as the possibility of using them in public life. The nature of the labour market will change significantly. According to experts, new popular professions that meet new challenges will arise: robotics engineers, genetic engineering specialists, programmers, developers of virtual reality interfaces and many others related to the introduction of artificial intelligence. In the future, robotic systems can create their own community by establishing communication with each other through wireless technologies. In this vein, many modern philosophers reflect on the future of mankind, for example, according to A. Nazaretian, the significant part of states and
civilizations "undermined the natural and organizational basis of their existence themselves" [2, p. 187].
Even more questions are raised by the intellectual development of a person in the light of the problem of "rent of knowledge." On the one hand, the American futurologist and inventor Ray Kurzweil says that artificial intelligence will make a person even more perfect intellectually [8, p. 287]. On the other hand, this is considered as the intellectual degradation of society, which constitutes the existential problem of the future, along with technological, economic and socio-political threats. Note also that concern about the development of artificial intelligence and the upcoming "singularity" in planetary development due to its speed and unpredictability of development, as well as the actual inability to control it, according to scientists, carries a threat to humanity. In the digital society, this exacerbates the problems of socialization and acculturation in the digital educational space of modern youth, the transformation of the needs and behaviour of young people, professional self-determination in the conditions of the transforming economy. Note that these threats are determined by the uncontrolled development of artificial intelligence, the systemic crisis of the modern model of the economy, government management based on Big Data. Nevertheless, researchers see the positive impact of modern trends in the fact that digitalization of society on a global scale contributes to the development of intercultural communications between various social actors, economic growth and real-time development.
If this scenario is implemented, Russia can be transformed either into a world cultural province or into a full member of the world community, which depends on the development of its digital social reality.
As we see, the scenarios of the future of Russia are fundamentally different in nature. According to VS. Stepin, any of the possible scenarios arising at the points of bifurcation can be implemented [5, p. 8]. The most acceptable development option for us is the glocal-ization of Russia, which allows us to ensure the independence and national exclusivity of the country through the national digital sovereignty and the appeal to traditional Russian values. However, the most likely, in our opinion, is the construction of information reality. It is more consistent with the current trends in the Russian society in which the axiosphere of society and social actors are changing. Despite the trajectory of social development, the "Russian State-civilization," demonstrating the priority of moral dominance, the system of universal moral values that are as fully consistent with the interests of survival and salvation of all mankind, can make a special contribution to the future, offering the world a path of universalism different from globalization.
Литература
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8 November, 2021
