Changing Societies & Personalities最新文献

{"title":"In Search for New Research Paradigms","authors":"E. Stepanova","doi":"10.15826/csp.2021.5.4.149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.4.149","url":null,"abstract":"Permanent socio-cultural transformations, reflection on which is the main scope of Changing Societies & Personalities, continue to generate social theories with their own methodologies for constructing and representing social reality. The poly-paradigmatic nature of contemporary social knowledge implies its embeddedness in various theoretical systems that create alternative pictures of the world. On the one hand, social knowledge is pluralistic, that is, allowing for a plurality of equivalent explanatory concepts; on the other, it is interdisciplinary, that is, irreducible to the methodology of a single social or humanities discipline. The paradigms of social knowledge are immanently linked to social, political, economic and cultural contexts of a particular society. Structurally, these paradigms comprise not only explicit (conscious), but also hidden (unconscious) elements. The articles presented in the current issue of Changing Societies & Personalities demonstrate all these qualities: they are based on different conceptual foundations; they reflect specific features of the current state of the described societies; they are self-critical and leave room for further research. In thе article Knowledge: From Ethical Category to Knowledge Capitalism, Dmitry M. Kochetkov and Irina A. Kochetkova assert that contemporary economics considers knowledge as one of the main factors in economic growth, along with scientific and technological progress. The economic interpretation of knowledge is currently changing, and a new neoliberal paradigm of science and higher education is emerging. The authors aim to define “knowledge” as an economic category in comparison with various knowledge-based economic concepts. The authors analyze the learning economy where learning “is understood not simply as an access to information but as acquisition of certain knowledge and skills”; they describe the knowledge economy as an economic system where “knowledge is a key factor (or resource) in production and economic growth”. They examine the economics of scientific knowledge (ESK), an approach to understanding science, which relies on the concepts and methods of economic analysis in the study of the epistemic nature and value of scientific knowledge.","PeriodicalId":52087,"journal":{"name":"Changing Societies & Personalities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49091652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Perceived Efficacy of Virtual Leadership in the Crisis of the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"Sanja Bizilj, E. Boštjančič, G. Sočan","doi":"10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.141","url":null,"abstract":"As a crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies quickly established virtual leadership systems and enabled employees to continue their work from home. This cross-sectional research addresses virtual leadership efficacy assessed by the leaders and by their employees. The findings suggest that leaders evaluate themselves significantly better than their employees, and their leadership efficacy mainly depends on their previous experience of working from home and ability to use communication technologies. This research contributes to the understanding of the factors that have the biggest influence on the belief in leadership efficacy in the context of a rapidly evolving system of remote work.","PeriodicalId":52087,"journal":{"name":"Changing Societies & Personalities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47594735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Daria Dubovka (2020). V monastyr' s mirom. V poiskakh svetskikh kornei sovremennoi dukhovnosti [To the Monastery in Peace: Searching for Secular Origins of Contemporary Spirituality]. EUSP Press","authors":"A. Menshikov","doi":"10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.148","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52087,"journal":{"name":"Changing Societies & Personalities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43165445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Informal Sperm Donation in Russia","authors":"I. Polyakova","doi":"10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.146","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.146","url":null,"abstract":"Rising infertility across the globe has created a growing demand for assisted reproductive technologies (ART). In recent years, apart from sperm donation in formal settings such as fertility clinics, informal donation practices have emerged and spread across Russia. These reproductive donation practices have become possible due to the development of social networks and private online platforms. We conducted a pilot study (eleven semi-structured interviews) of the informal sperm donation in Russia and analyzed donor-recipient interactions, donors’ expectations and experiences of finding recipients online. We focus on donors' motivations and on the meanings, which donors invest in this practice that consumes significant resources on their part (medical tests and artificial insemination costs, travel and accommodation expenses, sometimes mutually agreed financial support of future offspring). We interpreted the practices that coalesced around informal donation from the perspective of symbolic interactionism, because it allowed us to showcase how actors reflected on and formulated the meanings of their actions in the absence of externally imposed rules (legal regulations, established moral conventions). Since informal donation practices do not fit into the traditional schemes of interpretation, such research requires the actors involved in informal donation either to create their own schemes or to modify the existing conceptual frames in creative ways. The study shows that informal donors do not only provide their genetic material but also spend time and invested considerable resources to ensure their procreation, including eventual financial support of the child. At the same time, these men are not interested in marital relations or paternal relations with their offspring. Thus, the informal sperm donors do not associate the parental project with traditional family and its values. We conclude that ART engendered a new phenomenon, which might be described as extramarital reproduction. Assisted reproduction outside marriage ­gains footing in Russia and requires more detailed further study.","PeriodicalId":52087,"journal":{"name":"Changing Societies & Personalities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45739277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Colonial Revolution and Liberatory War: from Communist to Post-Colonial Theory (Georgy Safarov, Mao Zedong and Frantz Fanon)","authors":"K. Bugrov","doi":"10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.138","url":null,"abstract":"The article investigates the intellectual roots of the concept of colonial revolution, which goes back to the 2nd congress of the Communist International, examines its importance in shaping the Communist political thought and outlines its subsequent transformation in the wake of post-colonial theory. The author starts with analyzing the political ideas of Georgi Safarov—Comintern [the Communist International] theorist. He was among the most original thinkers who elaborated the concept of colonial revolution. Safarov, drawing from his own experience in Central Asia, insisted that global capitalism is “retreating to the positions of feudalism” while operating in colonies, treating them as collective “serfs” and lacking any proper social basis save for its own enormous military force. Such analogy led Safarov to envisage the colonial revolution as a “plebeian” revolt and liberatory war against the inhumane and stagnant colonial order, opening the way for a non-capitalist development with certain assistance from the Soviet Union. Similar ideas were independently formulated by Mao Zedong in the 1930s. He saw colonial revolution in China as a “protracted war” of liberation and listed the conditions under which victory was possible. However, the subsequent development of a former colony was seen by Mao as a transitory period of “democratic dictatorship”. Similar ideas of colonial revolution as a liberatory peasant war and “plebeian” movement were developed by Franz Fanon in the context of his own war experience in Algeria. Developing the idea of “plebeian”, peasant revolt and justifying the violence as the sole means of ending the rule of colonial power, Fanon at the same time differed from the tradition of the 2nd Comintern Congress (represented by Safarov, Mao and the others) while describing the independent existence of former colonies. For Fanon, the worst consequence of colonial rule is not permanent backwardness but psychological trauma, an inevitable result of a brutal conquest which requires therapy. The author concludes that such conceptual transformation was stimulated not merely by the disappointment in Soviet and Chinese economic strategies, but also in the geographical and cultural factor which made the reintegration with the former colonial powers preferable to the direct “escape” into the socialist camp.","PeriodicalId":52087,"journal":{"name":"Changing Societies & Personalities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42419547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Efficacy of a Holding Community Program—Promoting Social Reflection at School","authors":"Anna Siegler, Sára Serdült, Fanni Csernus, Lilla Dézma, Izabella Ilea, S. Bigazzi","doi":"10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.143","url":null,"abstract":"The authors developed a Holding Community Program to achieve the following objectives: (a) to increase the perspective-taking capacity of adolescents; (b) to promote interpersonal and intergroup harmony; (c) to empower school students to be more (pro)active in their communities and in public life. Apart from the intervention itself, the study comprised a pre-test and a post-test and involved a total of 240 Hungarian high school students (159 female, 66.3%). The students were aged 14–18 (Mage=15.33; SDage=0.88). They were recruited from four high schools. Control groups (N=122) were chosen from the same institution and graded as experimental classes (N=118, 7 classes). Both immediate and long-term effects of the intervention (4–6 months after the intervention) were explored.  Quantitative analysis of the data indicated that the two-day intervention program had significantly increased the students’ perspective-taking capacity (short-term: F(1,238)=6.03, p<0.05, long-term: n.s.) and efficacy beliefs (short-term: F(1,238)= 3.83, p=0.052, long-term: F(1,238)= 3.38, p<0.05). After the training, students were more willing to participate in collective actions (short-term: F(1,238)= 7.32, p<0.01, long-term: F(1,238)= 3.83, p<0.05). These results seem quite promising but the outcome was not significant regarding its effect on prejudice.","PeriodicalId":52087,"journal":{"name":"Changing Societies & Personalities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48268595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Transformation of Values in the Times of Uncertainty","authors":"E. Stepanova","doi":"10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.137","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.137","url":null,"abstract":"The current issue of Changing Societies & Personalities continues its main thematic thread—reflection upon value transformations in various socio-cultural contexts. The keyword that may characterize the entire issue is uncertainty. On the one hand, uncertainty inevitably follows any transformation. On the other, the COVID-19 pandemic, which is analyzed in several articles from different perspectives, is far more than a health crisis. COVID-19 is affecting societies at their core by changing the habitual way of life, and its long-term impacts are hidden in the fog of the future. The pandemic will end sooner or later, but uncertainty will remain. From big things to small, from philosophical concepts to everyday feelings, being uncertain means that people and societies are alive. Revealing the historical roots of post-colonial thought, Konstantin D. Bugrov (Yekaterinburg, Russia) begins his article Colonial Revolution and Liberatory War: from Communist to Post-Colonial Theory (Georgy Safarov, Mao Zedong and Frantz Fanon) by mentioning Vladimir Lenin’s justification of a national liberation war even if it is a war of a colonial semi-feudal state against a well-developed imperialist state. Lenin’s idea was followed by the Communist International (Comintern), which in 1920 proclaimed the possibility of a direct transition of colonies to socialism. Bugrov outlines three key tendencies of the Communist thought developed in the 20th century, which had an impact on the further development of the colonial (and post-colonial) agenda: the intellectual legacy of Antonio Gramsci; the Orthodox Leninist thought represented by different types of the USSR-inspired communist movements across the world; and some radical interpretations of the resolutions of the 2nd Comintern Congress. The article explores the concepts of three political figures: Georgy Safarov who, as Bugrov argues, arranged a set of rather unsystematic Bolshevik/Comintern ideas on colonial revolution into a theory of anti-colonial peasant war; Mao Zedong who insisted on achieving national independence by means of war rather than","PeriodicalId":52087,"journal":{"name":"Changing Societies & Personalities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43413043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Battles for Bandera: Dissonant Historical Narratives of Ukrainians in Poland and Problems of Integration","authors":"O. Golovashina","doi":"10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.139","url":null,"abstract":"The increasing flux of Ukrainian migrants into Poland increases the urgency of correlating Polish and Ukrainian historical narratives. Here, a key problem concerns the new pantheon of Ukrainian national heroes, some of whom are viewed quite negatively by many Poles. In this article, problems of competing historical narratives, as well as correlations between historical conceptions and models of migrant integration, are examined with the reference to field research carried out with Ukrainian migrants living in Poland. Here, the main sources comprised interviews with migrants, monitoring of formal and informal cultural activities organized for migrants, as well as data obtained via social networks, thematic forums and the expatriate press. It was found that the main factors determining strategies for facilitating interaction between historical narratives comprise the degree of inclusion of migrants living in different communities of the host country, as well as the level of cohesion among the migrant communities themselves.","PeriodicalId":52087,"journal":{"name":"Changing Societies & Personalities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43417220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Value of Work-Related Uncertainty: Changes from Demands on Certainty to Finding Ways of Living in Uncertainty","authors":"Michael F. Müller","doi":"10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.140","url":null,"abstract":"Given the negative consequences that excessive confrontation with uncertainty can have, its positive dimension is often forgotten. The aim of this article is to show that the uncertainty associated with work, working conditions and the context in which working relationships are formed can be considered as a positive value. This will be shown through four themes. The first theme concerns the economic system. It is important to show that a certain degree of insecurity is necessary not only for individual freedom in society, but also for society as a whole, as there is a relationship between economic and political freedom. The second theme concerns entrepreneurship. In this respect, the article reminds us that uncertainty is a prerequisite for entrepreneurial activity. The third area deals with employment. Uncertainty and the life experience associated with it is an opportunity for personal development and the search for innovative ways of coping and solving problems, moreover, it is related to a sense of freedom. The fourth theme deals with the positive role of uncertainty in the context of the current crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this positive value will only emerge if human health is protected.","PeriodicalId":52087,"journal":{"name":"Changing Societies & Personalities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43600835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Forest in the Context of Social Change: Traditional Orientation and Forest Mystification in a Nigerian Forest-Reserve Setting","authors":"F. Ibrahim, B. Osikabor, Bolanle Tawakalitu Olatunji, Grace Oluwatobi Ogunwale, O. J. Aluko","doi":"10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.147","url":null,"abstract":"This article exposits the mystification of forests among people residing in proximity to a forest reserve in southwestern Nigeria. The theory of material engagement and the ecology of human development support the position that the forest is a classical motivator of traditional culture. Still, socio-cultural change is prevalent. As an element of this change, forest-based social cognition warrants systematic examination in the interest of environmental sustainability. This is because the concurrent conveyance of sustainability-promoting immaterial culture across generations is a component of the pathway to a sustainable future. Moreover, systems theory posits that social events affect each other. Since social change is not solitary but encompassing, forest mystification was examined along with other indicators of traditional orientation including attitude towards―religion, ageing, gender; and cultural enthusiasm. The results indicate that forest mystification is still huge and connected with orientations towards ageing and cultural enthusiasm. This exemplifies the Yorùbá social context’s manifestation of continuity as opposed to change in forest culture; and stands in solidarity with traditional African mentality.","PeriodicalId":52087,"journal":{"name":"Changing Societies & Personalities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43745964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}