Socio-Cultural Potential of Rural Lifestyle from the Perspective of New Civilizational Relations: A View from Siberia

Abstract

The research interest in the rural lifestyle is due to several trends. On the one hand, it is the deepening depopulation of rural areas and the growth of crisis phenomena. On the other hand, there is a trend of deurbanization, which it is legitimate to consider not only as a temporary consequence of the pandemic situation, but as an aspect of the formation of fundamentally new civilizational relations, the need for which is stated both internationally and at the Russian level. Thus, the reports of the Club of Rome argue for the inevitability of the transition to a new paradigm of development. In the Russian scientific and philosophical literature, one of the alternative civilizational models has been called noospheric or spiritual-ecological, which should replace the prevailing technogenic-consumer model today. At the same time, the values and attitudes that dominate today are criticized first of all, and a return to a number of basic traditional values, preserved, in particular, in the rural way of life, is asserted at a new level. The purpose of the study is divided into three main ones: to isolate the basic values and socio-cultural traditions of the Russian and, above all, the Siberian peasantry, which correspond to the spiritual and ecological civilizational relations; to identify the degree of prevalence of these values in the modern youth environment of Siberia; to give a general assessment of what is happening and offer their recommendations. As a result of the conducted survey of students of agricultural universities in Siberia, it was noted that the key socio-cultural attitudes and values of the rural lifestyle, namely: nature centrism, hard work, the dominance of direct human communication and mutual assistance, nepotism and the continuity of generations have largely been preserved. The rural way of life still retains its deep potential for the reproduction of the cultural, social and family way of life. But at the same time, it is actively undergoing destruction and transformation, which requires the adoption of appropriate socio-economic measures and infrastructural transformations, taking into account global trends in the development of a “smart village”. A significant role in realizing this potential is assigned to young people, namely graduates of agricultural universities as future professionals in the field of agriculture. The methodology of the research was based theoretically, firstly, on a detailed and multidimensional critique of modern civilization, presented in the works of many authors (the Frankfurt School, E. Fromm, the works of the Club of Rome, etc.); secondly, on studies of the state of modern rural areas, in particular in Siberia. Sociological methods such as questionnaires and express surveys were used as empirical methods.