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 issue of the Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik is comprising the full papers of the international symposium on Gothic language, history and culture “The Goths Compared: East Germanic communities between Balticum, Pontus and the West” which was held on November 5–6, 2019 at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (hse) in Moscow. The symposium was organised by the Centre for Medieval Studies, HSE.

Science, technology and innovation (STI) studies are interrelated, as are STI policies and policy studies. This series of books aims to contribute to improved understanding of these interrelations. Their importance has become more widely recognized, as the role of innovation in driving economic development and fostering societal welfare has become almost conventional wisdom. Interdisciplinary in coverage, the series focuses on the links between STI, business, and the broader economy and society. The series includes conceptual and empirical contributions, which aim to extend our theoretical grasp while offering practical relevance. Relevant topics include the economic and social impacts of STI, STI policy design and implementation, technology and innovation management, entrepreneurship (and related policies), foresight studies, and analysis of emerging technologies. The series is addressed to professionals in research and teaching, consultancies and industry, government and international organizations.

This book is dedicated to Viktor Shklovsky literary and theoretical legacy

This collection of essays was published in a form of a catalogue for one of the propgrams screened at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Fstival in October 2019. The program entitled "The Creative Treatment of Grierson in Wartime Japan" was co-organized by the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and the National Film Archive of Japan and presented a broad variety of wartime Japanese documentaries as well as British and Soviet films that have influenced them. The collection of essays explores the development of wartime Japanese documentary cinema from variety of historical and theoretical perspectives.

This collection of thirteen vignettes addresses several important episodes in the history of Russian temporary architecture and public art, from the royal festivals during the times of Peter the Great up to the recent venues including the Sochi Winter Olympics. The forms and the circumstances of their design were drastically different; however, the projects discussed in the book share a common feature: they have been instrumental in the construction of Russia’s national identity, with its perception of the West - simultaneously, a foe and a paragon - looming high over this process. The book offers a history of multidirectional relationships between diplomacy, propaganda, and architecture.

Looking at pictures can be a delightful, exciting or moving experience, but some pictures – and these are often the most rewarding – require some explanation before they can be fully understood. Delving into the origins, designs and themes of over 100 pictures from different periods and places, this book illuminates the art of looking at – and talking about – pictures. Woodford shows how you can read a picture by examining the formal and stylistic devices used by an artist, and explores popular themes and subject matters, and the relationship of pictures to the societies that produced them. The book is supplemented by a glossary of key terms, ranging from art movements and technical terms to religious and classical terminology, to give readers all the information they need at their fingertips.

What is it to be a work of art? Renowned author and critic Arthur C. Danto addresses this fundamental, complex question. Part philosophical monograph and part memoiristic meditation, What Art Is challenges the popular interpretation that art is an indefinable concept, instead bringing to light the properties that constitute universal meaning. Danto argues that despite varied approaches, a work of art is always defined by two essential criteria: meaning and embodiment, as well as one additional criterion contributed by the viewer: interpretation. Danto crafts his argument in an accessible manner that engages with both philosophy and art across genres and eras, beginning with Plato’s definition of art in The Republic, and continuing through the progress of art as a series of discoveries, including such innovations as perspective, chiaroscuro, and physiognomy. Danto concludes with a fascinating discussion of Andy Warhol’s famous shipping cartons, which are visually indistinguishable from the everyday objects they represent.

This book explores how artistic strategies of resistance have survived under the conservative-authoritarian regime which has been in place in Russia since 2012. It discusses the conditions under which artists work as the state spells out a new state cultural policy, aesthetics change and the state attempts to define what constitutes good taste. It examines the approaches artists are adopting to resist state oppression and to question the present system and attitudes to art. The book addresses a wide range of issues related to these themes, considers the work of individual artists and includes besides its focus on the visual arts also some discussion of contemporary theatre. The book is interdisciplinary: its authors include artists, art historians, theatre critics, historians, linguists, sociologists and political scientists from Russia, Europe and the United States.

Contemporary art biennials are sites of prestige, innovation and experimentation, where the category of art is meant to be in perpetual motion, rearranged and redefined, opening itself to the world and its contradictions. They are sites of a seemingly peaceful cohabitation between the elitist and the popular, where the likes of Jeff Koons encounter the likes of Guy Debord, where Angela Davis and Frantz Fanon share the same ground with neoliberal cultural policy makers and creative entrepreneurs. Building on the legacy of events that conjoin art, critical theory and counterculture, from Nova Convention to documenta X, the new biennial blends the modalities of protest with a neoliberal politics of creativity.

This book examines a strained period for these high art institutions, a period when their politics are brought into question and often boycotted in the context of austerity, crisis and the rise of Occupy cultures. Using the 3rd Athens Biennale and the 7th Berlin Biennale as its main case studies, it looks at how the in-built tensions between the domains of art and politics take shape when spectacular displays attempt to operate as immediate activist sites. Drawing on ethnographic research and contemporary cultural theory, this book argues that biennials both denunciate the aesthetic as bourgeois category and simultaneously replicate and diffuse an exclusive sociability across social landscapes.

 

This textbook on Instructional Design for Learning is a must for all education and teaching students and specialists. It provides a comprehensive overview about the theoretical foundations of the various models of Instructional Design and Technology from its very beginning to the most recent approaches. It elaborates Instructional Design (ID) as a science of educational planning. The book expands on this general understanding of ID and presents an up-to-date perspective on the theories and models for the creation of detailed and precise blueprints for effective instruction. It integrates different theoretical aspects and practical approaches, such as conceptual ID models, technology-based ID, and research-based ID. In doing so, this book takes a multi-perspective view on the questions that are central for professional ID: How to analyze the relevant characteristics of the learner and the environment? How to create precise goals and adequate instruments of assessment? How to design classroom and technology-supported learning environments? How to ensure effective teaching and learning by employing formative and summative evaluation? Furthermore, this book presents empirical findings on the processes that enable effective instructional designing. Finally, this book demonstrates two different fields of application by addressing ID for teaching and learning at secondary schools and colleges, as well as for higher education.

The issue of capital city relocation is a topic of debate for more than forty countries around the world. In this first book to discuss the issue, Vadim Rossman offers an in-depth analysis of the subject, highlighting the global trends and the key factors that motivate different countries to consider such projects, analyzing the outcomes and drawing lessons from recent capital city transfers worldwide for governments and policy-makers.

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Academic Bibliography of Syriac and Christian Arabic Studies in Russian published in 2020.

The article studies how domestic screenwriters and directors are exploring the web series format that started actively developing in Russia only five years ago. Both series produced for major internet platforms and indie projects created by independent studios in the past five years are reviewed. The article analyses how Russian authors understand and take into account in their work the specifics of the new field, as well as the format-forming features of web series that have developed abroad. Such aspects as the lack of censorship, freedom from severe restrictions on story genres and heroes’ types have a significant impact on the dramaturgy of native web series. Those are the things that determine the attractiveness of this new format for experienced Russian authors moving to the internet from related fields: cinema and television. The results of the study show that Russian dramatists and directors rely on foreign experience of creating web series, but at the same time they try to modify certain features of this format and sometimes manage to find their own unique solutions.

The editorial introduction outlines the theoretical framework of the special issue by indicating main ideas that shape the research agenda. Alexander Filippov and Nail Farkhatdinov provide the grounds for the cultural sociological understanding of the arts and literature in relation to the problems of sociological knowledge. The editorial is completed with the overview of the contributions. 

The Church of St. Nicholas in Ribița is currently located in Hunedoara County (Romania), which belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary (Zaránd County) during the Middle Ages. It was most likely built during the second half of the 14th century, according to a typology often encountered in the region’s religious architecture derived from both Orthodox and Catholic models. The rectangular, vaulted sanctuary is separated from the nave by a built iconostasis, whereas the single-nave structure is dominated by a tall tower at the west end. Only a few stone carvings displaying unpretentious Gothic forms attest today to the medieval origin of the monument, which houses inside a rich and valuable ensemble of Byzantine frescoes.

Lacking state-imposed quarantines, we’ve been abandoned to personal choices. Advising us to save ourselves and our neighbors by staying home, our governments struggle to keep the wrong doubts from going viral. The Russian state, in particular, has announced crackdowns on fake news: citing the danger of Covid-19, new laws harshly penalize the “spread of false information.” But accusations of falsity are as bottomless as the hoaxes they try to contain. States accuse each other of spreading disinformation, and scholars show that these accusations are themselves often false, that “an EU-funded body set up to fight disinformation ends up producing it.” The falsity of such accusations of falsity gives fodder for new accusations. And thus the battle against an infectious pandemic becomes overshadowed by the battle for faith, against doubt. In this “infodemic,” America’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urges citizens to do these “three easy things: Don’t believe the rumors; Don’t pass them along; Go to trusted sources of information to get the facts about the federal (COVID-19) response.”

Can a state agency order citizens (not) to believe?

Academic Bibliography of Syriac and Christian Arabic Studies in Russian published in 2019.

The legacy of Russian psychologist Lev Semenovich Vygotsky is most closely associated with the cultural-historical paradigm and, in the West, has found its most extensive application in contemporary developmental and educational psychology. However, Vygotsky’s project was far more ambitious than this perspective implies—in fact, he conceived a new, original program of general psychology that could address human beings in their full measure, foregrounding the human potential for freedom and agency. The distinctive characteristic of Vygotsky’s approach was his profound interdisciplinarity and, specifically, his evolving dialogue with art practices and aesthetics, the scope of which has only become clear with the recent publication of previously unpublished archival material and his writings as an art and literary critic. This article has two aims: to outline a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of Vygotsky’s views on general psychology, on the basis of recent archival discoveries and publications, and attending to these materials closely, to explicate the role that Vygotsky allocated to art in his radical project of creating the “height psychology.”

During recent decades, interest in different facets of contemporary Arab art has increased significantly (Shabout, 2007). Although this interest has brought modern and contemporary Arab art into wider focus, significant gaps remain in the scholarly discussion. Speaking to one such absence, this essay analyzes the new artistic practices and art heritage of Arab artists from Syria, Lebanon and Algeria who graduated from the Vasily Surikov Moscow State Art Institute. It examines artists who graduated or were continuing as postgraduate students between 1959, when the first group of Arab art students arrived in the USSR, and 19791.

During recent decades, interest in different facets of contemporary Arab art has significantly increased. Although recent developments have played a key role in bringing Arab art into wider focus, gaps remain in scholarly discussions, such as the subject of Arab art and artists in the Soviet Union—a cultural transfer and migration of ideas across time and space. This article discusses the first Iraqi modern art exhibition in the USSR, in 1959. It was organized and carried out within the framework of the 1959 bilateral agreement signed between Iraq and the Soviet Union promoting mutual understanding and cultural exchange. More than 200 artworks were exhibited in Moscow, Baku, and Odessa for nearly three months. The exhibition’s paintings, graphics, and sculptures represented both figurative and abstract art schools. Unintentionally, the show triggered heated debates: cross-regional conversations erupted not only in the official media but also on the pages of the guest books of its venues, Moscow’s State Museum of Oriental Art and the Azerbaijan National Museum of Art in Baku. By looking at the debates around the exhibition content, this article seeks to shed light on how such an exhibition was made possible and how it was perceived in the USSR in the context of the inculcated ideology of socialist realism. What was the purpose of this exhibition and who were the cultural agents behind its organization? What was the role of official cultural players in the USSR in selecting the works and promoting the exhibition? How was the Iraqi exhibition received by the Soviet public? What was the reaction of the official press? How did the ideology of socialist realism affect people’s perception of Iraqi modern art? For insights into the history of the exhibition planning and setup, as well as the debates around the show, I relied mostly on previously unpublished archival material from the Ministry of Culture of the USSR and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, as well as other archival material from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts and the State Archive of the Russian Federation. Additional information was obtained from major collections of press clippings from Soviet newspapers, journals, and magazines from the 1950s and ’60s.

In the past 20 years, the increasing number of papers in cultural studies, sociology of the arts and industrial sociology has been focused on creative/cultural workers. They critically reconsidered the over-optimistic view on creative workforce presented earlier by the cultural economists as R. Florida, C. Landry and others. However, there are still many topics, which remain understudied. First, most of the studies were focused on free-lancers, short contract and self-employed workers and still exclude those who are employed full-time or strongly tied with an institutional organization. Furthermore, while much research has been devoted to the UK, other regions or global concerns have gained little attention. This paper aims to bridge abovementioned gap at least partly by presenting an empirical case of full-time workers in Moscow art-centres, based on 20  in-depth interviews and 20 observations at the workplaces and public events of these centres.   

The preprint is dedicated to the Ukrainian architectural features of 18th century Russsian buildings. Many of these were built in the milieu of intense cultural exchange between Russia and Ukraine. The research aims to discuss how exactly and why Ukrainian elements were used in Russian architecture. Volume organization and decoration of Russian buildings having Ukrainian features are analyzed and compared. The results reveal a clear distinction between the buildings which intentionally copy Ukrainian models or singular elements and those unintentionally using some Ukrainian features as elements of architectural fashion. The detailed analysis of such cases is invaluable for the understanding of Russian architectural transformation in the 18th century.

Throughout history Chinese artistic culture has developed a fairly complex system of diverse art forms and styles. Chinese export art, being created particularly to satiate constantly growing appetite of the Western world for Chinese goods, holds a specific place among them. In spite of being considered as insignificant in terms of artistic merits, nevertheless, Chinese export painting succeeded to cover a modest segment in the European market in the XVIII – XIX centuries. Unlike most other types of Chinese decorative and applied arts, Chinese export painting until recently has never been taken as a subject of scientific research. The collection of the National Library of Russia possesses a number of Chinese painting albums. Comprehensive study of these art works might bridge lacunas for research of other multitudinous kinds of Chinese export arts and crafts of the XVIII-XIX centuries.

Clothing and fashion play significant role in the process of ageing, and help put bodily experiences in the context of culture. It is especially important for young people as social subjects, who are starting to become independent but do not have sufficient experience and social competences to do this.    This paper explores how youth of middle and working class in Russia use clothing to denote their social identity and construct boundaries.The paper is based on materials of 81 IDI with young people from St. Petersburg.

The paper examines social features and cultural profile of the audience of Manifesta 10, first global scaled art-event ever hold in St. Petersburg and Russia as well. Based on the empirical study of 400 formalized interviews with biennale visitors (July-September 2014), this paper compares the audience of Manifesta 10 with visitors of European art-events, firstly previous edition of Manifesta. Despite the democratization of the field of contemporary art (including the elimination of the financial barrier to access to the exhibition), the research shows that the majority of visitors are people with higher education and income slightly exceeding national average. The significant differences were found also: Russian audience is biased towards younger visitors (more than 70% is younger than 35) and gender misbalanced. The study also shows the differences between the patterns of art-tourism in Russia and Europe:  European event attracts larger flows from neighboring regions, in Russia there is a long tail: small groups from many distant locations.   

The paper aims to explore how aesthetic objects are constituted in the process of perception. Most of the studies of arts in social sciences take an artwork for granted and assume that it is seen because it is meant to be seen. Using examples of recent works in the sociology of art, I demonstrate that this question is usually ignored by the researchers, even though their empirical data reveals its importance. To overcome this disadvantage I suggest a theoretical analysis which includes Simmel’s aesthetic theory, phenomenological concepts of attention and contemporary approaches to perception in the sociology of art. As a result, I formulate a set of guiding conceptual principles and apply them to the study of the architectural festival “Arkhstoyanie”. The empirical cases provided in this paper show how and why certain artworks become an object of contemplation, disappear, or achieve a multiple presence.

The paper aims to provide analysis of the most general problems of the music industry in the digital age. It poses a question about the possibility of innovation and conceptual development in contemporary popular music, overflowed with retromania. A growing popularity of such form as a “concept album” and its transformation into concept multimedia projects is regarded as a positive sign of the changes in music production and distribution. Detailed cultural analysis of one particular case, the multimedia concept project by the British band Gorillaz, demonstrates how a substantial cultural and musical innovation can exist today in the framework of popular entertainment. The last studio album by Gorillaz, called Plastic Beach (2010) works with the concept of Utopia and utopian imagery, presenting music as a space for free and meaningful collaboration among musicians and for the creation of the diverse community of listeners.  

Hokusai  Manga  (HM)  is  the  biggest  and  the  best  known  work  of  Katsushika  Hokusai  (1760-1849)  which  consists  of  ca.  900  pp.  published  in  15  volumes  from  1814  to  1875.  This  publication  discusses  the  phenomenon  of  HM  and  its  place  in  the  context  of  Japanese  picture  books. Was it a drawing manual or comic cartoons or perhaps a pictorial encyclopedia? What are  the historical meanings and etymology of the word manga? The special attention is devoted to the principles of compilation of HM and to the ways of  organization of the compositional unity of its volumes. This research  offers a major revision of  the textual nature of this famous, yet insufficiently studied, masterpiece. Contrary to the common  belief  that  HM  is  a  chaotic  jumble  of  random  disjointed  pictures,  every  volume  is  act ually  composed as a sophisticated whole with the help of elaborate schemata  deeply imbedded in the  traditional Japanese ways of textual organization.