Functions of culture as a social institution. Types and types of socio-cultural institutions

Chapter 15. CULTURE AND EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTE

§ 1. Culture as a social institution

IN in a broad sense under culture Usually we understand everything that relates to the specifics of human existence as a conscious being (as opposed to purely natural forces): the results of his material and spiritual activities (culture of work, life, leisure, communication, production and consumption, urban, rural, technical, physical , psychological, etc.). In more in the narrow sense The term “culture” defines the sphere of people’s spiritual life. It is the socio-psychological problems of spiritual culture, and above all artistic culture, that are considered in this paragraph.

From a socio-psychological point of view, the main elements spiritual culture are beliefs, beliefs, ideals, values, as well as corresponding customs, norms of communication, activity, behavior of people, which are expressed and fixed in signs, symbols, images and, above all, in language (in written, printed, iconographic, video and audio documents ). Moreover, these elements of spiritual culture can be considered at the universal human level, at the level of a particular society, ethnic group, nation, class, at the level of other, smaller large groups, as well as small groups (group morality, group aesthetic taste, etc.) and personality (individual culture). Within the culture of a particular society, various private and group subcultures are formed (for example, youth, national minorities, regional, etc.). Special meaning in socio-psychological terms, it has a process of socialization, through which new generations are introduced to the culture of their society, people, and group.

The origins of spiritual culture can be traced in myths, folklore, beliefs, and religions of peoples. In the history of the spiritual culture of mankind, religions occupy an important place, being powerful exponents certain systems values and norms (instructions, rules of conduct).

Even in Russia, despite the seventy-five-year reign of state atheism, the culture and way of life are permeated with the spirit of Orthodox Christianity. Suffice it to recall the architecture of white-stone Russian churches, the sacred and secular music of Bortnyansky, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, the traditions of choral singing and bells, iconography and painting, great Russian literature. Orthodox motifs are also present in modern Russian art (A. Solzhenitsyn, V. Astafiev, I. Glazunov, Yu. Kuznetsov, etc.), including in the works of young painters, poets, and musicians. To this day the icons have not disappeared village houses, Orthodox religious holidays (especially Easter and Trinity) are widely celebrated.

If by the beginning of the 20th century. in most European societies, artistic culture existed in forms of high elitism ( fine art, classical music, literature) and folk culture (folklore, songs, dances, fairy tales), then later in connection with the development of mass media (cinema, recording, radio, television, etc.) the so-called mass standardized culture, which ultimately blurred the boundaries between elite and popular culture.

However, the concept of “mass culture” requires a clearer explanation. The content of this term is clarified through synonymous and related concepts: semiculture, ersatz culture, pop culture, lumpen culture, entertainment art, commercial art. Characteristic features of mass culture: commercial success and popularity at any cost; entertainment and entertainment by any means; exploitation of people's instincts and superstitions (aggression, sex, fear, mysticism, etc.); cult of hedonism and consumerism; schematization, stereotyping, simplification of all life phenomena; bad taste, reduction of art to a vulgar spectacle; often a discrepancy between content and form. All this is typical for pulp novels, detective stories, all kinds of shows, pop music, action films, erotic magazines, etc.

Gradually, especially from the late 60s - early 70s, in the West there is a merger of mass culture with modernism (avant-gardeism), which complements it with such qualities as dehumanization, belittlement of traditional human values, crude irony and parody, “black humor”, illogicality, unreality, narcotic suggestion, shocking and provoking the audience, which is expressed in rock music (metal rock, punk rock, etc.), various areas of fine art (pop -art, photorealism, social art, etc.), in cinema (horror films, mystical fiction, parody films), in illogical shocking fashion, etc.

In our country, mass culture in the Western version began to manifest itself noticeably around the second half of the 70s (pop music, Western films, pop art, fiction, youth fashion and so on.).

If we consider the history of culture from a broad perspective, we can identify some universal patterns. Thus, the largest Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, based on an analysis of enormous historical material, developed an original concept sociocultural dynamics, in the light of which, throughout human history, there is gradually a repeated change of three main cultural systems: Firstly, based on the principle of supersensibility and superintelligence of God as the only value and reality (Greek culture of the 8th-6th centuries BC; medieval Western European culture, etc.); Secondly, based on the fact that objective reality is partially supersensible (Greek culture of the V-IV centuries BC; culture of the XIII-XIV centuries in Western Europe), and, Thirdly, secular, based on the principle of sensory objective reality and its meaning (Western culture from the 16th century to the present day). P. Sorokin believed that in the 20th century. a crisis of sensual culture and society as a whole began: “The crisis is extraordinary in the sense that it, like its predecessors, is marked by an extraordinary explosion of wars, revolutions, anarchy and bloodshed; social, moral, economic and intellectual chaos; the revival of disgusting cruelty, the temporary destruction of great and small values of humanity; poverty and suffering of millions." However, in general, the scientist expressed an optimistic view of human history: “Fortunately, culture and civilization are infinitely stronger than the clowns of the political circus assure us. Political, and not only political, parties, groups, factions and armies come and go, but culture remains despite their funeral speeches.”

In line with P. Sorokin’s concept, what is happening now in world, and in particular Russian, culture looks quite natural.

The new social political situation that has developed in our country since the second half of the 80s, the development of democracy, openness and pluralism have made it possible to overcome many bureaucratic and authoritarian traditions in aesthetic education and the functioning of culture and art, created during the years of the cult of personality and stagnation. Positive trends have manifested themselves in the restoration of the rights of access to all world culture, to the free development of various aesthetic approaches, artistic directions and schools (from realistic to experimental), including those associated with Russian spiritual culture, philosophy and aesthetics of the late 19th - early 20th centuries.

However, new conditions gave rise to new serious moral, socio-psychological and aesthetic problems V artistic culture, which require their own scientific understanding.

Firstly, since the late 80s there has been a sharp decline in the values of spiritual culture among Russians. Secondly, at present, in the public aesthetic consciousness there have been trends towards a kind of relativistic mosaic, towards a conglomerate of folk, religious, classical, socialist realist, mass cult and modernist aesthetics, which is caused by the transitional nature of the period that society is experiencing.

In place of authoritarian-centralized regulation artistic values, genres, names, works, a similar group regulation came, as a result of which private-group aesthetic values (for example, certain groups of the artistic intelligentsia, metropolitan youth) sometimes receive disproportionate representation in the public consciousness compared to universal human values.

Thus, the expansive entertainment trend, which grew during the years of stagnation, turns into the widest cultivation of mass culture on the stage and in the theater, in music and cinema, in fine arts and design (especially associated with youth fashion in clothing, accessories, emblems, etc.). P.). Produced by television and radio, video and audio recordings, and illustrated magazines, mass culture blurs the criteria artistic taste, vulgarizes and, in fact, destroys it.

There are tendencies of dehumanization and demoralization in the content of art, which manifests itself primarily in the belittlement, deformation and destruction of the image of a person. In particular, this is recorded in the abundance of scenes and episodes of violence, cruelty, in enhancing their naturalism (cinema, theater, rock music, literature, art), which contradicts traditional folk morality and provides negative impact to a youth audience.

Since the late 80s, the situation in our mass art, especially in its screen forms (cinema, video, television), began to change, acquiring negative character. In cinema and on television screens, violence and eroticism are shown, especially in connection with the spread of cable television, which usually broadcasts low-fiction Western films.

From a socio-psychological point of view, there is no doubt that screen violence and aggressive erotica contribute to the criminalization of modern life, especially affecting children, adolescents and young people. As you know, crime among them continues to grow steadily. It is no coincidence that in developed Western countries The public has created organizations such as the International Coalition against Violence in Spectacle Events or the National Coalition against Television Violence (USA). IN Russian society So far, only certain spiritually sensitive and highly cultured people are speaking out against such negative phenomena.

Analyzing modern popular culture, it is impossible to ignore such a variety as rock music, which was taboo (forbidden) at the official level until the end of the 80s, and later, with the same immoderation and bias, was extolled and idealized as a kind of progressive and revolutionary phenomenon. Of course, one should not deny rock music as a genre, especially its varieties associated with folk traditions(folk rock), political and author's song. However, an objective analysis of foreign and domestic products of various directions of this music is necessary (for example, the so-called “heavy metal” and punk rock are undoubtedly countercultural, aggressive and vandalistic in nature).

Observations show that in the general trend, rock-pop music becomes dehumanized, losing the image of a person and turning him into a demonic character in metal rock, into a robot or puppet in breakdancing, into a thing among many other things in commercial-consumer songs. The loss of humanistic content in rock music also occurs through the distortion of the natural human voice all kinds of wheezing and squealing, deliberately broken, mocking intonations (inadequate expression of irony), replacing male voices with effeminate ones and vice versa, as well as with the help of various electronic and technical effects that mechanize the voice.

Psychophysiological studies by Western and domestic specialists indicate the negative effects of exposure to modern rock-pop music (especially constant excessive listening to it) on young people, similar to the effects of narcotic and psychotropic drugs. Thus, the American psychiatrist J. Diamond studied the influence various types and genres of music on people. If classical and folk music, traditional jazz and early (dance) rock and roll had a positive psychophysiological effect on the subjects, then “hard rock” and “metal rock” caused a disruption of the normal psychophysiological rhythm of the body, contributed to the manifestation of aggressiveness and other negative emotions. Diamond, with the help of musicians, identified in such rock music, which appeared in the second half of the 60s, a certain structural element, which he called the “interrupted anapaest beat,” which had a disorganizing psychophysiological effect.

As a result of the development of modern mass media, the musical environment has acquired (at least for young people) ecological significance. Therefore, its positive or negative nature has a special deep meaning for a person’s emotional world, for his attitude and mood.

At the same time, at present, folk, spiritual-classical and modern academic art (including literature), deprived of state support, is becoming more and more elitist, its audience is narrowing. As a result, the normal hierarchy of varieties, genres and qualities of art is disrupted, the spirit and heart of true culture, and most importantly, the culture of new generations, is destroyed.

The history of Russian literature and art truly knows periods marked by the highest peaks of spirituality and artistic excellence.

Such periods in the development of art can be called cathartic, i.e. associated with the effect catharsis(Aristotle’s term, interpreted as a kind of spiritual and emotional purification in the process of perception ancient tragedy, and more broadly - any work of art). The emotional, aesthetic and ethical aspects of catharsis are distinguished.

The emotional aspect of catharsis is expressed in a state of relief, liberation (including tears and laughter) from difficult, gloomy experiences, and in positive enlightened feelings. The aesthetic aspect of catharsis is feelings of harmony, order, beauty in their complex dialectical expression. Finally, in ethical terms, catharsis evokes humane feelings, experiences of guilt, repentance, “reverence for life” (A. Schweitzer). These emotional, psychological, aesthetic and ethical characteristics are clearly visible in great works of art (remember, for example, “Trinity” by A. Rublev, “Requiem” by W. Mozart, “Crime and Punishment” by F. Dostoevsky, etc.), which ultimately account contribute to the attitude and worldview of a person of goodness.

In the socio-psychological interpretation, catharsis appears as an intense emotional condition, uniting a real audience (theater, concert, etc.) or individual person(reading a poem or story, watching videos, etc.) in empathy with the tragic (tragocomic) hero (content) of a work of art, which enlightens, elevates, ennobles the inner world of a person (his feelings, thoughts, will), reveals his universal spiritual essence. In a broad socio-psychological understanding, catharsis is overcoming loneliness and alienation, achieving human solidarity, a qualitative leap in the process of socialization, the formation of a humanistic worldview, and familiarization with the highest spiritual values of humanity, which are carried by the works of great creators.

It is clear that the state of catharsis is not so easily achievable. The works must contain powerful suggestive impulses that express the sincere faith and intentions of the artist. In a real audience (at a concert, in a theater, etc.), the mechanisms of mental infection and imitation are also activated, which enhance the cathartic effect.

A systematic socio-psychological approach to the phenomenon of catharsis, and to the impact of art in general, requires taking into account not only the characteristics of a work of art, but also the personal characteristics of the artist behind the work, as well as the audience perceiving the work (and with a more in-depth approach, all other participants in artistic communication, for example, editor, distributor of a work, critic, etc.). In this case, a problem arises that can be called the problem of personal compatibility of the artist (and his work) with the audience.

Certain aspects of the problem of compatibility-incompatibility of certain types of art and recipients endowed with certain psychological characteristics, were studied by psychologists, in particular G. Eysenck and I. Child (for example, data on different types of painting preferred by introverts and extroverts, etc.).

Works of art have more than just a positive impact on people. The other pole of emotional impact is negative state, which can be called “anti-catharsis”.

This is a state of depression, humiliation, fear or hatred, aggressiveness. In the aesthetic aspect, anti-catharsis expresses a feeling of disharmony, chaos, ugliness. In ethical terms, anti-catharsis gives rise to inhumane feelings, alienation, immoralism, and contempt for life. Similar feelings and emotions are produced by many works of modernist and mass cult art of the 20th century. However, the survival and revival of any society and art are associated, in particular, with the cultivation of eternal universal values - truth, goodness and beauty, faith, hope and love, responsibility, work and creativity.

The concept of a socio-cultural institution. Regulatory and institutional socio-cultural institutes. Socio-cultural institutions as a community and social organization. Basis for the typology of socio-cultural institutions (functions, form of ownership, contingent served, economic status, scale-level of action).

ANSWER

Socio-cultural institutions- one of the key concepts of socio-cultural activity (SCA). Socio-cultural institutions are characterized by a certain direction of their social practice and social relations, a characteristic mutually agreed upon system of expediently oriented standards of activity, communication and behavior. Their emergence and grouping into a system depend on the content of the tasks solved by each individual socio-cultural institution.

Social institutions are historically established stable forms of organization joint activities people, designed to ensure reliability and regularity of meeting the needs of the individual, various social groups, and society as a whole. Education, upbringing, enlightenment, artistic life, scientific practice and many other cultural processes are types of activities and cultural forms with corresponding social, economic and other mechanisms, institutions, and organizations.

From the point of view of functional-target orientation, there are two levels of understanding the essence of socio-cultural institutions.

First level - normative. IN in this case a socio-cultural institution is considered as a historically established set of certain cultural, moral, ethical, aesthetic, leisure and other norms, customs, traditions in society, united around some basic, main goal, value, need.

Socio-cultural institutions of a normative type include the institution of family, language, religion, education, folklore, science, literature, art and other institutions.

Their functions:

socializing (socialization of a child, teenager, adult),

orienting (affirmation of imperative universal human values through special codes and ethics of behavior),

authorizing (social regulation of behavior and protection of certain norms and values on the basis of legal and administrative acts, rules and regulations),

ceremonial-situational (regulation of the order and methods of mutual behavior, transmission and exchange of information, greetings, addresses, regulation of meetings, meetings, conferences, activities of associations, etc.).

Second level - institutional. Socio-cultural institutions of the institutional type include a large network of services, multi-departmental structures and organizations directly or indirectly involved in the socio-cultural sphere and having a specific administrative, social status and a certain public purpose in their industry. This group directly includes cultural and educational institutions , art, leisure, sports (socio-cultural, leisure services for the population); industrial and economic enterprises and organizations (material and technical support for the socio-cultural sphere); administrative and management bodies and structures in the field of culture, including legislative and executive authorities; research and scientific-methodological institutions of the industry.

Thus, state and municipal (local), regional authorities occupy one of the leading places in the structure of socio-cultural institutions. They act as authorized subjects of the development and implementation of national and regional social cultural policy, effective programs socio-cultural development of individual republics, territories and regions.

Any socio-cultural institution should be considered from two sides - external (status) and internal (content).

From an external (status) point of view, each such institution is characterized as a subject of socio-cultural activity, possessing a set of regulatory, legal, personnel, financial, and material resources necessary to perform the functions assigned to it by society.

From an internal (substantive) point of view, a socio-cultural institution is a set of purposefully oriented standard patterns of activity, communication and behavior of specific individuals in specific socio-cultural situations.

Socio-cultural institutions have various forms of internal gradation.

Some of them are officially established and institutionalized (for example, the system general education, a system of special, vocational education, a network of clubs, libraries and other cultural and leisure institutions), have social significance and perform their functions on a society-wide scale, in a broad socio-cultural context.

Others are not established specifically, but emerge gradually in the process of long-term joint socio-cultural activity, often constituting an entire historical era. These, for example, include numerous informal associations and leisure communities, traditional holidays, ceremonies, rituals and other unique socio-cultural stereotypical forms. They are voluntarily elected by one or another socio-cultural group: children, adolescents, youth, residents of a microdistrict, students, the military, etc.

In the theory and practice of SKD, many bases for the typology of socio-cultural institutions are often used:

1. by population served:

a. mass consumer (public);

b. separate social groups (specialized);

c. children, youth (children and youth);

2. by type of ownership:

a. government;

b. public;

c. joint stock;

d. private;

3. by economic status:

a. non-profit;

b. semi-commercial;

c. commercial;

4. by scale of action and audience coverage:

a. international;

b. national (federal);

c. regional;

d. local (local).

Continuity in culture, preservation of created ones, creation and dissemination of new values, their functioning - all this is supported and regulated with the help of social cultural institutions.

Turning to the study of culture and cultural life of society, it is impossible to ignore such a phenomenon as social cultural institutions (or cultural institutions). The term “cultural institution” is increasingly entering scientific circulation today. It is widely used in various contexts by representatives of social and humanities. As a rule, it is used to denote diverse and numerous cultural phenomena. However, domestic and foreign cultural researchers do not yet have a unified interpretation of it, just as it does not exist in currently a developed holistic concept covering the essence, structure and functions of a social cultural institution, or cultural institution.

The concepts of “institution”, “institutionalization” (from the Latin institutum - establishment, establishment) are traditionally used in social, political, and legal sciences. The Institute in the context of social sciences appears as a component social life society, existing in the form of organizations, institutions, associations (for example, the institution of a church); in another, broader sense, the concept of “institution” is interpreted as a set of stable norms, principles and rules in any area of social life (the institution of property, the institution of marriage, etc.). Thus, social sciences associate the concept of “institution” with highly organized and systemic social entities, characterized by a stable structure.

The origins of the institutional understanding of culture go back to the works of the prominent American social anthropologist and culturologist B. Malinovsky. In the article “Culture” (1931), B. Malinovsky notes:

The real components of culture, having a significant degree of permanence, universality and independence, are organized systems human activity called institutions. Each institution is built around one or another fundamental need, permanently unites a group of people on the basis of some common task and has its own special doctrine and special technology.

The institutional approach has found further development in modern domestic cultural studies. Currently, domestic cultural studies interprets the concept of “cultural institution” in two senses - direct and expansive.

Cultural Institute in literally most often correlates with various organizations and institutions that directly carry out the functions of preservation, translation, development, study of culture and culturally significant phenomena. These include, for example, libraries, museums, theaters, philharmonic societies, creative unions, protection societies cultural heritage etc.

Along with the concept of a cultural institution, various publications often use traditional concept a cultural institution, and in theoretical cultural studies - a cultural form: a club as a cultural institution, a library, a museum as cultural forms.

We can also correlate educational institutions such as schools and universities with the concept of a cultural institution. These include educational institutions directly related to the cultural sphere: music and art schools, theater universities, conservatories, institutes of culture and art.

A social institution of culture in a broad sense is a historically established and functioning order, a norm (institution) for the implementation of any cultural function, as a rule, generated spontaneously and not specifically regulated by any institution or organization. We can include various rituals among them, cultural norms, philosophical schools and artistic styles, salons, clubs and much more.

The concept of a cultural institution covers not only a group of people engaged in one or another type of cultural activity, but also the process of creation itself. cultural values and procedures for the implementation of cultural norms (the institution of authorship in art, the institution of worship, the institution of initiation, the institution of funerals, etc.).

It is obvious that, regardless of the choice of aspect of interpretation - direct or expansive - a cultural institution is the most important instrument of collective activity for the creation, preservation and transmission of cultural products, cultural values and norms.

It is possible to find approaches to revealing the essence of the phenomenon of a cultural institution based on the systemic-functional and activity-based approach to culture proposed by M.S. Kagan.

Cultural institutions are stable (and at the same time historically changeable) formations, norms that arose as a result of human activity. As components of the morphological structure of human activity M.S. Kagan identified the following: transformation, communication, cognition and value consciousness. Based on this model, we can identify the main areas of activity of cultural institutions:

· culture-generating, stimulating the process of production of cultural values;
· culturally preserving, organizing the process of preserving and accumulating cultural values, socio-cultural norms;
· culturally transmitting, regulating processes of cognition and education, transfer of cultural experience;
· culturally organizing, regulating and formalizing the processes of dissemination and consumption of cultural values.

Creating a typology and classification of cultural institutions is a difficult task. This is due, firstly, to the enormous variety and number of cultural institutions themselves and, secondly, to the variety of their functions.

One and the same social cultural institution can perform several functions. For example, a museum performs the function of preserving and transmitting cultural heritage and is also a scientific and educational institution. At the same time, in a broader sense of understanding institutionalization, the museum in modern culture represents one of the most significant, inherently complex and multifunctional cultural institutions. If we consider the most important functions of a museum in culture, it can be represented by:

· as a communication system (D. Cameron);
· as a “cultural form” (T.P. Kalugina);
· as a specific attitude of a person to reality, carried out through the endowment of objects real world the quality of “museum quality” (Z. Stransky, A. Gregorova);
· as a research institution and educational institution(J. Benesh, I. Neustupny);
· as a mechanism of cultural inheritance (M.S. Kagan, Z.A. Bonami, V.Yu. Dukelsky);
· as a recreational institution (D.A. Ravikovich, K. Hudson, Y. Romeder).

The range of proposed models is obvious - from a narrow institutional one to one that elevates the museum to the level of a factor determining the development of culture and the preservation of cultural diversity. Moreover, there is no consensus among researchers about which of the museum’s functions should be considered the main one. Some, for example J. Benes, put forward public importance museum, its role in the development of society. In this regard, it is assumed that the main task of museums is to develop and educate visitors, and all other functions, for example, aesthetic, should be subordinated to it. Others, in particular I. Neustupny, consider the museum, first of all, as a research institution, especially noting the need for museum workers to carry out basic research. The functions of collecting, storing and popularizing collections are secondary and must be subordinated to the requirements of research work, which must use its full potential scientific knowledge, accumulated in a given area, and not limited to existing collections. One way or another, a museum is one of the most significant, multifunctional cultural institutions.

A number of functions within the framework of the activities of a cultural institution are indirect, applied nature, going beyond the main mission. Thus, many museums and museum-reserves carry out relaxation and hedonic functions as part of tourism programs.

Various cultural institutions can comprehensively solve a common problem, for example, the educational function is carried out by the vast majority of them: museums, libraries, philharmonic societies, universities and many others.

Some functions are provided simultaneously by different institutions: museums, libraries, societies for the protection of monuments, and international organizations (UNESCO) are engaged in the preservation of cultural heritage.

The main (leading) functions of cultural institutions ultimately determine their specificity in the overall system. Among these functions are the following:

· protection, restoration, accumulation and preservation, protection of cultural values;
· providing access for study by specialists and for education of the general public to monuments of world and domestic cultural heritage: artifacts of historical and artistic value, books, archival documents, ethnographic and archaeological materials, as well as protected areas.

Such functions are performed by museums, libraries, archives, museum-reserves, societies for the protection of monuments, etc.

Still stands out whole line functions of social cultural institutions:

· state and public support for the functioning and development of artistic life in the country;
· promoting the creation, display and sale of works of art, their purchases by museums and private collectors;
· holding competitions, festivals and specialized exhibitions;
· organization of professional art education, participation in programs aesthetic education children, development of art sciences, professional art criticism and journalism;
· publication of specialized, fundamental educational and periodical literature of artistic profile;
· material aid artistic groups and associations, personal social security for artists, assistance in updating funds and tools artistic activity and so on.

Institutions dealing with the development of artistic activity include art schools and music colleges, creative unions and associations, competitions, festivals, exhibitions and galleries, architectural, art and restoration workshops, film studios and film distribution institutions, theaters (dramatic and musical), concert structures , circuses, as well as book publishing and bookselling institutions, secondary and higher educational institutions of artistic profile, etc.

Cultural institutions embody the stability of cultural forms, but they exist in historical dynamics.

For example, the library as a cultural institution has existed for many centuries, changing and transforming externally and internally. Its main function was the preservation and dissemination of knowledge. To this were added various aspects of existential content and differences in understanding the essence of the library in one or another period of the history and culture of society.

Today there is an opinion that the traditional library is becoming obsolete, that it has partly lost its true purpose and no longer meets the requirements that modern society places on it, and therefore it will soon be replaced by a “virtual library”. Modern researchers talk about the need to understand and evaluate the changes taking place in modern libraries. Libraries, while maintaining their status as a repository of intellectual values, are becoming more democratic, equipped with electronic storage media, and connected to the World Wide Web. At the same time, dangerous consequences are already visible. Displaying information on monitors and accessing the Internet radically transforms not only the library, but also the writing and reading person. In modern information systems the difference between author and reader almost disappears. What remains is the one who sends and the one who receives the information.

Moreover, in the past the library was mainly state institute and pursued state policy in the spiritual life of society. The library as a cultural institution established certain cultural norms and rules, and in this sense it was a “disciplinary space”. But at the same time, it was a kind of space of freedom precisely because personal choice (as well as personal libraries) made it possible to overcome something forbidden, regulated from above.

Cultural institutions can be divided into public, public and private. The interaction between cultural institutions and the state is an important issue.

Some cultural institutions are directly related to the system government controlled cultural life and the cultural policy of the state. This includes the Ministry of Culture, various government agencies, academies, organizations issuing awards - state prizes, honorary titles in the field of culture and the arts.

The main bodies planning and making decisions on cultural policy issues are government bodies. In a democratic state, as a rule, experts and the general public are involved in decision-making. The bodies implementing the cultural policy of the state are cultural institutions. Patronized by the state and included in its cultural policy, they, in turn, are called upon to carry out the function of translating patterns of social adequacy of people into patterns of social prestige, i.e. propaganda of norms of social adequacy as the most prestigious forms of social existence, as paths to social status. For example, awarding state prizes, academic titles (“artist imperial theaters", "academician of painting", " National artist", etc.) and state awards.

The most important cultural institutions, as a rule, are in the sphere of state cultural policy. For example, the state provides patronage to outstanding museums, theaters, symphony orchestras and protection of cultural monuments, etc. Thus, in Great Britain there is a powerful system of state support for culture. In the Soviet Union, the state fully financed culture and carried out its ideology through cultural institutions.

A specific role in the implementation public policy Research and educational institutes of culture and the arts play a role in the cultural sphere.

Cultural institutions participate in international activities States, for example, make mandatory contributions to the UNESCO fund.

Currently, many cultural institutions are moving from government departments to private enterprise and public organizations. Thus, the film distribution network in modern Russia freed itself from the ideological and financial tutelage of the state. Private museums, theatrical enterprises, etc. appeared.

Public cultural institutions are various creative unions: the Union of Cultural Workers, the Union of Artists, the Union of Writers, the Society of Russian Estate Lovers, the Society for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, clubs, tourist organizations, etc.

Private cultural institutions are organized on the initiative of individuals. This may include, for example, literary circles and salons.

In the past, a characteristic feature of salons that distinguished them from other cultural institutions, such as, for example, men's literary circles and clubs, was the dominance of women. Receptions in salons (living rooms) gradually turned into a special kind of public gatherings, organized by the mistress of the house, who always led the intellectual discussions. At the same time, she created fashion for the guests (the public), their ideas, their works (usually literary and musical; in later salons - also scientific and political). The following key features of the salon as a cultural institution can be identified:

· presence of a unifying factor (common interest);
· intimacy;
· gaming behavior of the participants;
· "the spirit of romantic intimacy";
· improvisation;
· absence of random people.

Thus, with all the diversity of cultural institutions, the main thing is that they are the most important tools of collective, to one degree or another planned activity for the production, use, storage, broadcast of cultural products, which fundamentally distinguishes them from activities carried out individually. The variety of functions of cultural institutions can be conditionally represented as culture-generating (innovative), cultural-organizational, culture-preserving and culture-transmitting (in diachronic and synchronous sections).

In the 20th century There have been significant changes related to the role of social cultural institutions.

Thus, researchers talk about the crisis of self-identification of culture and cultural institutions, the inconsistency of their traditional forms with the rapidly changing demands of modern life, and the changes that cultural institutions undertake for the sake of survival. Moreover, the crisis situation is primarily characteristic of such traditional cultural institutions as museums, libraries, and theaters. Proponents of this concept believe that in previous eras culture served various purposes (religious, secular, educational, etc.) and was organically combined with social life and the spirit of the times. Now that the market economy does not involve the exploration of higher human values and aspirations, it is unclear what the role of culture is and whether it can even find a place in this society. Based on this, “cultural dilemmas” are formulated - a number of questions: about the connection between culture and democracy, the difference between a cultural and sporting event, about cultural authorities, virtualization and globalization of culture, public and private financing of culture, etc. The experience of the 20th century shows that in the post-war era of reconstruction, culture was used to restore the people’s psyche after the horrors of World War II, and people’s interest in culture was stimulated. In the 1970s and 1980s. an era has come when people ceased to be passive recipients of culture, but began to participate in its creation, and the boundaries between high and low culture were erased and they themselves became clearly politicized cultural processes. In the mid-1980s. there was a turn to economics, and people turned into consumers of cultural products, which began to be perceived on an equal basis with other goods and services. In our time, there is a turn to culture, because it begins to influence politics and economics: “in the economic sphere, value is increasingly determined by symbolic factors and cultural context.”

1. policies based on knowledge and employment (providing jobs for artists in various industries);
2. image policy (the use of cultural institutions to improve the rating of cities in the international arena);
3. policy of organizational modernization (exit from the financial crisis);
4. conservation policy (preservation of cultural heritage);
5. use of culture in wider contexts.

However, all of this is an instrumental attitude towards culture; in these reactions there is no sympathy for the own goals of the artist, art or cultural institutions. An alarming atmosphere has now reigned in the cultural world, which is most clearly manifested in the funding crisis. Confidence in cultural institutions is currently shaken, since they cannot offer clear, easily measurable criteria for their success. And if earlier the ideas of enlightenment assumed that every cultural experience leads to human improvement, now, in a world where everything is measurable, it is not so easy for them to justify their existence. As a possible solution, it is proposed that quality must be measured. The problem is to translate qualitative indicators into quantitative ones. A large-scale discussion about the fact that cultural institutions are in danger and culture is in crisis, with the participation of the authors and a number of other competent persons, took place with the support of the Getty Foundation in 1999.

These problems were formulated not only in Western countries, which faced them much earlier, but also by the mid-90s. in Russia. The role of theatres, museums and libraries has changed under the influence of other cultural institutions of mass communication, such as television, radio and the Internet. To a large extent, the decline of these institutions is associated with a decrease in government funding, i.e. with the transition to market economy. Practice shows that in these conditions only an institution that develops additional functions, for example, informational, consulting, recreational, hedonistic, and offers visitors high level services.

This is exactly what many Westerners are doing today, and in Lately- And domestic museums. But this is precisely where the problem of the commercialization of culture comes to light.

As for art, this problem is clearly formulated in her works by Susan Buck-Morss, a professor of political philosophy and social theory at Cornell University:

Over the past decade, museums have experienced a true renaissance...Museums have become axes of urban regeneration and centers of entertainment, combining food, music, shopping and socializing with the economic goals of urban revitalization. The success of a museum is measured by the number of visitors. The museum experience is important - more important than the aesthetic experience of artists. It doesn't matter—it might even be encouraged—that exhibitions turn out to be simple jokes, that fashion and art merge, that museum stores transform connoisseurs into consumers. Thus, we're talking about not so much about culture itself, but about the forms of its presentation to people who, according to the rules of the market, should be considered exclusively as consumers. The principle of this approach to the functions of a cultural institution is: commercialization of culture, democratization and blurring of boundaries.

In the XX-XXI centuries. Along with the problems of commercialization, a number of other problems arise related to the development of new technologies, on the basis of which new types and forms of social cultural institutions appear. Such institutions used to be, for example, music libraries, but now they are virtual museums.

Educational institutions in Russia teach cultural history, cultivate a culture of behavior, and prepare modern cultural scientists: theorists, museum scholars, and library workers. Cultural universities train specialists in various fields of artistic creativity.

Organizations and institutions that have a direct or indirect relationship to the study of culture and its various phenomena are consistently developing.

culture social institution

As we see, in culture there are complex interactions between the traditional and the new, between social, age strata of society, generations, etc.

TO cultural institutions include forms of organization of people’s spiritual life created by society: scientific, artistic, religious, educational (Fig. 5.1). The institutions corresponding to them: science, art, education, church - contribute to the accumulation of socially significant knowledge, values, norms, experience, and transfer the wealth of spiritual culture from generation to generation, from one group to another. An essential part of cultural institutions is considered communication institutions, which produce and distribute information expressed in symbols. All of these institutions organize the specialized activities of people and institutions on the basis of established norms and rules. Each of them consolidates a certain status-role structure and performs specific functions.

Rice. 5.1.

The science arises as a social institution that satisfies the needs of society for objective knowledge. It supplies social practice with certain knowledge, being itself a specialized type of activity. The social institution of science exists in the form of forms of its organization that ensure the effectiveness of scientific activity and the use of its results. The functioning of science as an institution is regulated by a set of mandatory norms and values. According to Robert Merton, these include:

universalism(belief in the objectivity and independence of the subject of science);

universality(knowledge should become common property);

unselfishness(prohibition of using science for personal interests;

organized skepticism(responsibility of the scientist for evaluating the work of colleagues).

Scientific discovery - it is an achievement that requires reward, which is institutionally ensured by exchanging the scientist's contribution for recognition. This factor determines the prestige of a scientist, his status and career. There are various forms of recognition in the scientific community (for example, election as an honorary member). They are supplemented by rewards from society and the state.

Science as a professional activity took shape during the period of the first scientific revolutions of the 16th–17th centuries, when the study of nature was carried out by special groups of people who professionally studied and learned its laws. During the period from the 18th to the first half of the 20th century scientific activity develops in a three-dimensional system of relationships: attitude towards nature; relationships between scientists as members of a professional group; interested attitude of society towards science, mainly towards its results and achievements. Science is formalized into a specific type of activity, a social institution with its own special internal relationships, a system of statuses and roles, organizations (scientific societies), its symbols, traditions, and utilitarian features (laboratories).

In the 20th century, science turns into a productive force of society, extensive and complex system relations (economic, technological, moral, legal) and requires their organization and streamlining (management). Thus, science becomes an institution that organizes and regulates the production (accumulation) of knowledge and its application in practical activities.

Institute of Education is closely connected with the Institute of Science. We can say that in education the product of science is consumed. If a revolution in the development of knowledge begins in science, then it ends precisely in education, which consolidates what has been achieved in it. However, education also has the opposite effect on science, shaping future scientists and stimulating the acquisition of new knowledge. Consequently, these two cultural institutions are in constant interaction.

The purpose of the institution of education in society is diverse: education belongs to vital role a translator of socio-cultural experience from generation to generation. The socially significant need for the transfer of knowledge, meanings, values, norms has been embodied in the institutional forms of lyceum schools, gymnasiums, specialized educational institutions. The functioning of the educational institution is ensured by a system of special norms, a specialized group of people (teachers, professors, etc.) and institutions.

The system of cultural institutions also includes forms of organization artistic activity of people. Often they are perceived by ordinary consciousness as culture in general, i.e. there is an identification of culture and its part - art.

Art is an institution that regulates the activities and relationships of people in the production, distribution and consumption of artistic values. This, for example, is the relationship between professional creators of beauty (artists) and society represented by the public; artist and intermediary who ensures the selection and distribution of works of art. The intermediary can be an institution (Ministry of Culture) and an individual producer or philanthropist. The system of relations regulated by the art institute also includes the interaction of the artist with the critic. The Institute of Art ensures satisfaction of needs in personal development, transmission of cultural heritage, creativity, self-realization; the need to solve spiritual problems, search for the meaning of life. Religion is also designed to satisfy the last two needs.

Religion as a social institution, like other institutions, includes a stable set of formal and informal rules, ideas, principles, values and norms that regulate the daily life of people. It organizes a system of statuses and roles depending on the relationship to God and other supernatural forces that provide spiritual support to a person and are worthy of his worship. Structural elements religions as a social institution are:

a system of certain beliefs;

specific religious organizations;

a set of moral precepts (ideas about a righteous lifestyle).

Religion does these things social functions, as ideological, compensatory, integrating, regulatory.

The concept of a social institution of culture. Institutionalization as a mechanism

formation of social cultural institutions. Types and functions of social cultural institutes

Social practice shows that it is vital for human society to streamline, regulate and consolidate some socially significant relationships, to make them mandatory for members of society. The basic element of regulation of public life are social cultural institutions.

Social institutions of culture (from lat. instiiutum- establishment, establishment) are historically established stable forms of organizing joint activities and relationships of people that perform socially significant functions. The term “social cultural institution” is used in a wide variety of meanings. They talk about the institution of family, the institution of education, the institution of the army, the institution of religion, etc. In all these cases, they mean relatively stable types and forms of social activity, connections and relationships through which social life is organized and the stability of connections and relationships is ensured. Let us consider specifically what brings social cultural institutions to life and what are their most significant characteristics.

The main purpose of social cultural institutions is to ensure the satisfaction of important life needs. Thus, the institution of family satisfies the need for the reproduction of the human race and raising children, regulates relations between the sexes, generations, etc. The need for security and social order is provided by political institutions, the most important of which is the institution of the state. The need to obtain means of subsistence and distribute values is provided by economic institutions. The need for knowledge transfer, socialization of the younger generation, and personnel training is provided by educational institutions. The need to solve spiritual and, above all, life-meaning problems is provided by the institution of religion.

Social institutions are able to fulfill their purpose by streamlining, standardizing and formalizing social activities, connections and relationships. This process of ordering, standardization and formalization is called institutionalization.

Institutionalization is nothing more than the process of forming a social institution.

The process of institutionalization includes a number of points. A prerequisite for the emergence of social cultural institutions is the emergence of a need, the satisfaction of which requires joint organized actions, as well as conditions that ensure this satisfaction. Another prerequisite for the process of institutionalization is the formation of common goals of a particular community. Man, as we know, is a social being, and people try to realize their needs by acting together. The social institution of culture is formed on the basis of social connections, interactions and relationships of individuals, social groups and other communities regarding the implementation of certain vital needs.

An important point in the process of institutionalization is the emergence of values, social norms and rules of behavior in the course of spontaneous social interaction carried out by trial and error. In the course of social practice, people make a selection from different options, find acceptable patterns, stereotypes of behavior, which through repetition and evaluation turn into standardized customs.

A necessary step towards institutionalization is to consolidate these patterns of behavior as mandatory norms, first on the basis public opinion, and then sanctioned by formal authorities. On this basis, a system of sanctions is being developed. Thus, institutionalization is, first of all, a process of defining and consolidating social values, norms, patterns of behavior, statuses and roles, bringing them into a system that is capable of acting in the direction of satisfying certain vital needs.

This system guarantees similar behavior of people, coordinates and channels their specific aspirations, establishes ways to satisfy their needs, resolves conflicts that arise in the process of everyday life, and ensures a state of balance and stability within a particular social community and society as a whole.

The mere presence of these sociocultural elements does not ensure the functioning of a cultural institution. In order for it to work, it is necessary that they become the property of the inner world of the individual, be internalized by them in the process of socialization, and embodied in the form of social roles and statuses. Internalization on their basis of a system of individual needs, value orientations and expectations is also the most important element of institutionalization.

And the last most important element of institutionalization is the organizational design of the social institution of culture. Externally, the social institution of culture is a collection of persons and institutions equipped with certain material means and performing a certain social function. Thus, an institute of higher education consists of a certain set of persons: teachers, service personnel, officials who operate within institutions such as universities, ministries, etc., who have certain material assets (buildings, finances, etc.) for their activities. d.).

Each institution performs its own characteristic social function. The totality of these social functions develops into the general social functions of social institutions as certain types social system. These functions are very diverse. Sociologists of different directions tried to somehow classify them, present them in the form of a certain ordered system.

Social institutions differ from each other in their functional qualities:

Economic institutions - property, exchange, money, banks, economic associations of various types - provide the entire set of production and distribution of social wealth, while connecting economic life with other areas of social life.

Political institutions: - state, parties, trade unions and other types public organizations, pursuing political goals aimed at establishing and maintaining a certain form of political power. Their totality is political system of this society. Political institutions ensure the reproduction and sustainable preservation of ideological values and stabilize the dominant social and class structures in society.

Educational institutions aim at the development and subsequent reproduction of cultural and social values, the inclusion of individuals in a certain subculture, as well as the socialization of individuals through the assimilation of stable sociocultural standards of behavior and, finally, the protection of certain values and norms.

Normative-orienting - mechanisms of moral and ethical orientation for regulating the behavior of individuals. Their goal is to give behavior and motivation a moral argument, an ethical basis. These institutions establish imperative universal human values, special codes and ethics of behavior in the community.

Normative-sanctioning - social regulation of behavior based on norms, rules and regulations enshrined in legal and administrative acts. The binding nature of norms is ensured by coercive sanctions.

Ceremonial-symbolic and situational-conventional institutions. These institutions are based on a more or less long-term acceptance of conventional (under agreement) norms, their official and unofficial consolidation. These norms regulate everyday contacts and various acts of group and intergroup behavior. They determine the order and method of mutual behavior, regulate methods of transmission and exchange of information, greetings, addresses, etc., regulations for meetings, sessions, and the activities of some associations.

The main substantive function of each specific social institution, as noted above, is the satisfaction of those social needs for the sake of which it was formed and exists. However, to carry out this function, each institution performs functions in relation to its participants that ensure social connections and relationships of people seeking to satisfy needs. In this regard, five main functions should be named.

The function of defining, consolidating and reproducing connections and relationships. Each institution develops a system of values, norms and patterns of behavior that reinforce and standardize the behavior of its members, making this behavior predictable. Within of this institute a certain social control is developed, which ensures the order and framework within which the activities, connections and relationships of each member of the institute should take place.

Closely related to this function is the regulatory function, which consists in the fact that the social institution of culture ensures the regulation of relationships between members of society by developing values, norms and patterns of behavior. This function covers all members of society. Whatever type of activity he is engaged in, in whatever plane the connections and relationships are carried out, a person always faces an institution that regulates his behavior in this area and sphere of relations.

The integrative function includes processes of cohesion, interdependence and mutual responsibility of members of social groups, communities, occurring under the influence of institutional norms, rules, sanctions and role systems. Integration at the institute is accompanied by streamlining the system of interactions, increasing the volume and frequency of contacts.

The communicative function is carried out on the basis of personal interaction and exchange of information. Communication connections between members of the institute have their own specifics. These are formalized connections carried out through a system of institutionalized roles. Information produced at an institute is disseminated both within the institute for the purpose of managing and monitoring compliance with standards, and in relationships between institutions.

The transmitting function is manifested in the transfer of social experience. Each institution has a certain mechanism that allows individuals to specialize based on the assimilation of its values, norms and patterns of behavior.