Popov, E. A. The Role of Social Studies in the Research of the ‘Culturally Prepared’ Society

Abstract: Today society is the target of different social and humanitarian researches studying this or that aspect of social development. Meanwhile, science studies different types of societies and defines their special features and regular patters of functioning. The author of the present research article focuses o the cultural nature of the society and problems of socio-cultural determination of the social development. The main question of the article is ‘If there is a society, then what kind of society is it?’. The author offers the following answer to this question: this is the type of ‘culturally prepared’ society that is limited only to social functions and meanings. The systems approach to studying socio-cultural phenomena and processes allow to trace the relation between society and culture. The author of the article also describes different types of society and social development from the point of view of their ‘sociality’ and socio-cultural dynamics. The author stresses out that social determination cannot be the preferred direction of the development of societies. The main trend in their development should be connected with the processes of cultural dynamics. The main conclusion is that the modern reality forms the ‘culturally prepared’ type of society and the type of society that is being formed in the process of exchange of cultural meanings and codes between different generations of culture bearers.

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