Existential and Psychological Problems of Aging: The Perspective of Ukrainian Lyrics’ Art Representation

Purpose. Aging is intricate process of self-transformation in view of involution of body, loss of sexual attractiveness, but at the same time, old age is a time for reconsideration of self-existence in time and in the world within coherence of life sense targets and their (successful) realization. Unique individual experience of growing old implemented in Ukrainian literature (and lyrics) can complete the data received by gerontology. Moreover gender approach in literary gerontology highlights masculine / feminine phenotypical features of internal reverberating of aging. Theoretical basis. To inquire into existential and psychological problems of aging exemplified in the twentieth-century Ukrainian Lyrics it is seems to be the most effective to employ philosophical (A. Anhelova, V. Demidov, T. Dziuba, K. Pigrov, S. Lishaev, O. Khrystenko and others) and psychological (O. Berezina, S. Hamilton, V. Savchyn, Y. Sapogova and others) approaches in gerontology, as well as feministic studies on elder female body discrimination, in particular in literature (K. Woodward, J. King). Originality. This research paves the way to the development of gender and literary dimensions in Ukrainian gerontology and anthropology in general. Some of the existential and psychological problems of aging (as anxiety of body involution and decline of strength, as well as finding the compensatory pleasure in wisdom and spiritual treasures) are revealed on the material of 20th-century Ukrainian poetry (N. Livytska-Kholodna, B. Lepkyi, M. Zerov, Yurii Klen, Y. Malaniuk, Y. Tarnawsky, I. Zhylenko, S. Yovenko and others). The individual lyric experience of aging in different gender moods is anchored mostly in psychic, mental, sense-life strategies. Conclusions. Among the feminine strategies of aging self-reception there are observation of own elder body with anxiety and fear, its "invisibility", deepened feelings of loneliness, self-estrangement, but also finding the sense of life and soul harmony in own family, offspring. Masculine self-reception of aging deals with ideal spiritual model of Wise old man – more abstract than personal; masculine anxiety is caused by physical bodily declining, not attractiveness, but strength and power loosing.

Bring Your Own Politics: Life Strategies and Mobilization in Response to Urban Redevelopment

This article contributes to social movement literature and theories of strategic action by making the case for an analytic distinction between habitual and intentional life strategies, namely the ways in which people pursue what they value in life. Housing strategies are one example of life strategies. The distinction helps explain how political players, including social movements, bring about social change (or preserve the status quo) by changing or reinforcing people’s minds and their preferred ways of action. They can achieve their goals by first recognizing these habitual strategies, and then prompting people to articulate or adjust them during interactive, group-level situations. My analysis relies on a qualitative study of Renovation, a controversial urban renewal project in Moscow. I examine how Muscovites revisited, articulated and sometimes revised their housing strategies in response to the surprising, and for some, shocking announcement of the relocation project.

Identity, place and values. On construction and internalization of festival normalities on the examples of music festivals in Poland

The aim of this paper is to compare of how two different festivals stimulate specific norms and perceptions, and therefore to present the way in which the visions of the festival cities are reproduced by the festival audience based on the axio-normative orders contained in the missions of the events. Based on the shared symbols and life strategies promoted by festivals, participants (re)build their identity which they manifest in chosen cultural practices. The article attempt to answer the following question: what is shared by festival-goers? Are the main motivations for participating in the vent due to shared musical tastes or also specific values and lifestyles, and consequently a common identity? It has been shown that the values promoted during festivals are declared by their organizers – they are present in the visual identification, seminars, workshops, etc. Festivals create their narratives based on symbols such as logos, attitude smartphones, or festival slogans which contain condensed axio-normative systems that create the boundaries of the community. It influencesthe behavior of festival goers: the city’s vision, ways of spending free time, and their identity. The places where the fieldwork was conducted were: “Henryk Rasiewicz National Festival of Unbreakable and Independent Songs in Kraków”, “Ostróda Reggae Festiva” in Ostróda, and the “Song of Our RootsFestival” in Jarosław.

Sport as a Means of Promoting Universal Humanistic Values

Aim. Conceptualization of the axiological potential of sport as an important social phenomenon that covers all levels of modern society. Material and methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of our study is: 1) works of Ukrainian and foreign scientists in the process of learning the essence of sport, its place in the socio-cultural space; 2) the results of modern cultural studies; 3) speculations of representatives of axiological knowledge. The specifics of the theoretical study also determined the need to involve a number of scientific approaches to the analysis of the phenomenon of sport: 1) systemic; 2) personality-oriented; 3) axiological; 4) culturological. Results. The analysis of the special literature on the chosen topic provided the basis for: 1) determining the formation of humanistic values ​​of the task relevant to the society; 2) conceptualization of the basic conditions for the promotion of the following values ​​(gaining value experience by engaging in axiological knowledge and examples of success of life strategies based on humanistic values; involvement in the value reality, which formulates clear requirements for the individual in combination with creating conditions to meet its needs ); 3) appeal to sport as a specific phenomenon of cultural life and a source of a significant number of examples of success of life strategies based on humanistic values; 4) highlighting the potential of sport in terms of promoting universal humanistic values. Conclusions. Special studies prove that the topic of humanistic values ​​does not lose relevance. Accordingly, the task is to ensure their promotion in society. There are reasonable grounds to claim that one of the means of solving this problem is modern sport. It is the social phenomenon that has the potential to provide the basic conditions for the promotion of humanistic values: 1) considerable space for gaining valuable experience; 2) effective involvement in the value reality.

Life Strategies in Placozoa

Placozoans are essential reference species for understanding the origins and evolution of the animal organization. However, little is known about their life strategies in natural habitats. Here, by establishing long-term culturing for four species of Trichoplax and Hoilungia, we extend our knowledge about feeding and reproductive adaptations relevant to their ecology and immune mechanisms. Three modes of population growth depended upon feeding sources, including induction of social behaviors and different reproductive strategies. In addition to fission, representatives of all haplotypes produced swarmers, which could be formed from the lower epithelium (with greater cell-type diversity) as a separate asexual reproduction stage. In aging culture, we reported the formation of specialized structures (spheres) from the upper cell layer as a part of the innate immune defense response with the involvement of fiber cells. Finally, we showed that regeneration could be a part of the adaptive reproductive strategies in placozoans and a unique model for regenerative biology in general.

‘Who contributes more?’ How Ukrainian media construed migrants’ life strategies vs. what the Ukrainian public wanted to know

Having chosen the topic of active contribution to social life, one of the most important aspects facilitating deeper social integration, we present the results of a three-staged sociological discourse analysis of media messages related to migrants and migration. In our study, we consistently used a number of methods — a quantitative and qualitative content analysis, semantic analysis, discourse positions’ analysis, critical discourse analysis, and an in-depth analysis of focus group interviews. The combination of them all helped us reveal specific details of media image constructing as well as requests for information on migrants’ life strategies. We took into account media discourse in fifteen top Ukrainian media over the span of time between 2015 and 2018, focusing on the differences between media discursive strategies based on the form of ownership (state/private), audiovisual type (printed/TV/Internet) and the degree of trustworthiness/popularity of the media among Ukrainians, the actors that had the advantage of being quoted in the media and the groups of migrants being displayed to practice certain active or passive life strategies. The messages with implicit meanings regarding the active migrants’ life strategy were less present in the state-controlled top media and the most trusted/popular top media. Similarly, the messages with implicit meanings regarding both the active and passive migrants’ life strategies featured less frequently in the top printed media. In the context of understanding ‘goodness’ as equivalent to ‘activity’, we found that in the top Ukrainian media there were two ‘good’ categories of migrants: first, internal migrants in Ukraine and, second, migrants from Ukraine (Ukrainian emigrants). However, it turned out that the first place regarding the presence of implications about ‘passivity’ (i.e., ‘badness’) went again to internal migrants in Ukraine. The opinions held by Ukrainians about what the media should have shown were clearly in favor of what migrants were offered by their destination society (thus, in favor of ‘passive’ media image), and all that the Ukrainians would like to see and hear included both favorable and unfavorable objective social life conditions.

Provincial Youth Career Strategies

Based on the materials of empirical sociological research, the article reflects dispositions, factorial models of choice, life strategies in the field of career aspirations of provincial Russian youth. The author’s typology of career orientations of young people is given, which showed the importance of career aspirations in the ranks of value dispositions. The main life choices of young respondents in the field of career decisions are outlined, the importance of the career ladder in labor strategy for a fourth of the respondents is emphasized. The problems in the field of support for career choices in the implementation of state youth policy, discrimination of young people in work, as well as the risks of migration behavior of young people associated with unfulfilled expectations and requests for career strategies are identified. The authors highlight the contradiction associated with the transformation of the views and attitudes of modern young people to assessing the success of career strategies, based on the risk map of Russian youth.