Book
Russian Sociological Review: Social Order and Art Sources of Imaginations
Despite the fact that culture, aesthetics, and art were some of the main concerns of early classical sociology (e.g., Simmel’s essays are probably the most popular reference in this regard), later culture has become a matter of interest of a sub-discipline, that of the sociology of culture. The end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries brought a radical transformation of sociological understanding of culture, and it was Jeffrey Alexander who revived the notion and proposed a new understanding of sociological theory drawn on this notion. According to Alexander, culture should be treated as an autonomous realm being able to act and contribute to the social order. In (re)turning to this understanding, Alexander draws upon a variety of now-classical theories, but mainly on Durkheim’s theory of religion as explicated in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Clifford Geertz and his idea of thick description is one of the sources for the renewed cultural sociology. In Art as a Cultural System (1976), he wrote that “to study an art form is to explore a sensibility” and “such a sensibility is essentially a collective formation, and that the foundations of such a formation are as wide as social existence and as deep”. The special issue of the RSR is dedicated to empirical and theoretical discussion of how art can serve as a source of sociological imagination.
This collection of articles is devoted to the problems of philology, culture, philosophy and other humanitarian sciences which are of special interest now days.
The article addresses the views of G. Shpet, L. Vygotsky, M. Bakhtin andothers on art's influence on one's personality andcognitive andaffective spheres. They hadtheir own understanding of the whole issue andof catharsis in particular. The authors focuses on the analysis of inner andouter forms of works of art andassumes that, if reached, the inner form has the strongest influence on man: it enriches andbroadens one's own inner form of active contemplator of work of art.
Art, cultural consciousness, cultural-historical psychology, inner andouter form, Perception, Understanding, catharsis
The volume is organized into three main sections: "Art and Culture", "History" and "Language and Literature". Several authors address various aspects of Spanish-Russian relations: historical, political and cultural contacts at various times, the image of Russia in Spain, influences of Russian writers in Spanish literature, etc. In the field of painting, there are studies focusing on the great Spanish authors: El Greco, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, and Picasso. There are studies which are focused on other arts such as architecture and sculpture work. History issues cover topics and times, as the Christian Church in the time of the Muslim conquest, the Crown of Aragon in the 14th century, the Spanish Monarchy, and the Inquisition. Several studies deal with the works of Spanish literature.
The results of cross-cultural research of implicit theories of innovativeness among students and teachers, representatives of three ethnocultural groups: Russians, the people of the North Caucasus (Chechens and Ingushs) and Tuvinians (N=804) are presented. Intergroup differences in implicit theories of innovativeness are revealed: the ‘individual’ theories of innovativeness prevail among Russians and among the students, the ‘social’ theories of innovativeness are more expressed among respondents from the North Caucasus, Tuva and among the teachers. Using the structural equations modeling the universal model of values impact on implicit theories of innovativeness and attitudes towards innovations is constructed. Values of the Openness to changes and individual theories of innovativeness promote the positive relation to innovations. Results of research have shown that implicit theories of innovativeness differ in different cultures, and values make different impact on the attitudes towards innovations and innovative experience in different cultures.