Regional-industry analysis from the point of view of ideas of a joint economy (using the example of industry in the Northern regions of Russia)

The article analyses the industry in the northern regions of Russia from the point of view of assessing the practical results of the traditional theory of competition. The purpose of the study is to develop the theoretical and methodological foundations of the transformation of economics from the ideas of rivalry to unity and harmony in social relations. The relevance of the topic is determined by an active public discussion about the possibilities of Russia's transition from a market-capitalist to a social, human-oriented economy. It is shown that the main existing model is aimed either at the individual benefit of organizations, or at the attractiveness of industries for corporate or state interests, but not at the needs of the common person. The idea of the increasing attention to “people of labor” by bringing all the analyzed indicators to a single denominator — one employed — is defended. The following empirical research methods were used: observation, comparison and visualization. On the example of industry of the northern regions of Russia, ultra-hight intersectoral and interregional imbalances were revealed, arising, according to the author, due to the lopsided orientation of enterprises to maximize profits and the export and resource structure of the economy. The ratio of value added elements by region is demonstrated, the classification of territories is carried out depending on the combination of these components. The low-suitability of the classical understanding of competition to solve issues of capital overflow and equalization of profitability is indicated. The thesis is put forward about the possibility of overcoming the existing problems by the internal spiritual and moral transformation of managers and workers themselves, the transition from competition to cooperation. The prospects of the study are associated with the expansion of the toolkit due to social indicators, as well as in the study of the micro-level — municipalities, sub-sectors, and the primary reporting of organizations.

Anthropological Aspects of the Digital Transformation of Society: Articulating the Problem

The general logic of the informatization process, its pace and scale are illustrated here based on the analysis of documented solutions and practices of digital transformation in modern Russia (including the Arkhangelsk Region). Covering the spheres of the economy, social life, and public administration, digital transformation alters the social space, actualizes and shifts the focus to anthropological problems. This paper suggests considering the following questions. What is the place of a person in a rapidly changing world? What can be opposed to the deformation of the existential dimensions of personality? What efforts and in what direction should be made to preserve the human nature (humanity) of a person? What is the role of the state, culture, and religion in solving anthropological problems: what tools do they have to solve them? The analysis shows that time has come to take deliberate steps to find answers and solutions. The traditional humanitarian paradigm defines a person as a standard of truth, paving the way for struggle of interests, politicization of all spheres of activity, and the rule of force. Philosophers have been talking about the limitations of this paradigm throughout the last century, as the established new European approach demonstrates the reality of the “death of the human”. The author suggests turning to the idea of achieving spiritual maturity, transformation, and improvement of a person. This idea rests on the thousand-year-old Russian Orthodox culture. Russian philosophers focused on it for a reason: being based on the values that formed the archetype of Russian people, the idea of internal (and, first of all, moral) transformation of a person has great potential. Today, however, it is poorly understood and rather underestimated. Considering this idea within the framework of the nation state–culture–religion triad and implementing it could be of great benefit, becoming a compensatory mechanism for solving anthropological problems of the digital transformation of society.

The Later Work of Gabriel García Márquez

If the Bolívar novel embodies the collective memory of a region in a manner spare yet ingenious, the novelist’s other major late work tends toward personal memory. In Of Love and Other Demons, García Márquez comes as close to magical realism as in any work since the short stories and One Hundred Years of Solitude and reaffirms the multiracial and Caribbean character of the author’s own definition of Spanish America. In News of a Kidnapping, García Márquez ventures onto the territory of drug cartels and violence, which became the preoccupation of the next generation of Colombian writers, relating this material from the deadpan, appalled stance that is as characteristic of his viewpoint as the mesmeric incantations so commonly associated with him. In Memories of My Melancholy Whores, a late in life moral transformation redeems a lifetime of iniquity and testifies to the strangeness of the new territory of extreme old age, in a sense as unexplored a country as Macondo once was. In Living to Tell the Tale, García Márquez reflects upon the first half of his own life. Unlike in the case of Bolívar, García Márquez did not get to tell the ending of the story, leaving later writers and readers to do so in their own minds, as the great master had done for the General.

Introduction

A strange moral transformation has within the past century swept over our Western world. We no longer think that we are called on to face physical pain with equanimity. It is not expected of a man that he should either endure it or inflict much of it, and to listen to the recital of cases of it makes our flesh creep morally as well as physically. The way in which our ancestors looked upon pain as an eternal ingredient of the world’s order, and both caused and suffered it as a matter-of-course portion of their day’s work, fills us with amazement....

Conclusion

The Conclusion offers a reflection on the tragic fate of the Zhuangist idea of personal freedom in Chinese intellectual and political history. It scrutinizes the widely shared premise of self-cultivation, what the author calls the “regime of self-cultivation” in Chinese moral-political philosophy, among most classical thinkers including Zhuangzi, and explores its constraint on the development of personal freedom in the mainstream moral-political discourse as well as in the building of political institutions. In this respect, it was the fajia thinkers who built their theories on the givenness of ordinary human dispositions, instead of on the promissory note of moral transformation. The author reflects on a path that was not taken in Chinese history, i.e., the integration of the Zhuangist idea of personal freedom into the mainstream moral-political project in conceptualizing a polity that can accommodate the ideal of personal freedom institutionally.

Martin Luther King Jr. on Democratic Propaganda, Shame, and Moral Transformation

This essay develops an account of Martin Luther King Jr.’s justification for and use of what I will call “democratic propaganda”—truthful propaganda that is aimed at promoting and fostering democratic political action by stirring readers’ emotions. I interpret King’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in the broader context of his work and argue that it is a piece of democratic propaganda. I give an account of what led King to support the use of democratic propaganda and why he hoped it would help to overcome a central problem in the civil rights movement: the political inaction of the white moderates. King emphasizes shame in the Letter, and I argue that this concept offers us a new way of thinking about the efficacy of democratic propaganda. I close by considering the relevance of King’s approach for today’s Black Lives Matter movement. Despite the innovativeness of King’s use of shame, I suggest it may be time for a new approach to Black politics and activism.

Отражение речевой стихии времени в произведениях Михаила Зощенко

In his works Mikhail Zoshchenko presented a brilliant sense of the common language which developed in Russia after the revolution of 1917, i.e. in a period of turbulent political changes and numerous social contradictions. The phenomenon of this writer is based on the constant interest of both readers and researchers in the specific language of his works. This is reflected in numerous statements by Zoshchenko’s characters. In their responses, dialogues and monologues there are a number of orthoepic, spelling, grammatical, word-forming, semantic, stylistic and syntactic deficiencies. The deviations concern the principles of inflection, declination, generic belonging, an illogical and non-normative expression relationships. The issues above are analysed in the present article. In Zoshchenko’s works, along with normative language, there coexist phenomena that are far from literary standards. His texts reflect the spoken language, which, like real communication, differs much from the normalized literary language. In order to show the spiritual and moral transformation of a man, Zoshchenko revealed and judged various distortions and defects in the post-revolutionary life of Russia. The writer chose for this short forms of narration – the short story, a tale, a sketch, a humoresque. The language of Zoshchenko’s works is characterized by the crossing of various semantic and stylistic structures. In one context, inherently incompatible words and expressions are combined. This technique generates many semantic and stylistic shifts. In fact, Zoshchenko reflected the language that was spoken by many people in the post-revolutionary period. The writer tried to represent much of the speech of that time and use it humorously.

Gender and Moral Transformation

This chapter focuses on the gender dimension of the Judaizing Evangelical change in the lives of female converts. By focusing on women’s moral transformation processes through their adherence to Judaizing Evangelical ethos—modesty rules, menstrual taboos, ritual roles, and more—it describes how women’s agency is articulated in their transformation. In a context where religious rules are not inherited or socially enforced, the chapter explores the ways in which Judaizing Evangelical women are willing to be the bearers and creators of this new religious identity. The chapter also discusses the cultural assemblages and the “moral torment” involved in the dramatic religious change project of Judaizing Evangelical women.

Aristotelian Virtue Education and Education for Sustainable Development

This chapter considers the merits of integrating virtues education into education for sustainable development (ESD). ESD has aimed for the moral transformation of learners since its inception, aiming to shape learner values, attitudes, and behaviors. Understanding sustainability virtue and virtue development along Aristotelian lines, this chapter argues that reconceptualizing ESD’s transformative aims in terms of virtues education has several merits: It highlights the significance of human flourishing as the ultimate goal of sustainability; highlights the moral dimension of sustainable development; highlights the importance of experiencing the best things in life and of practicing sustainability virtue in a virtue-loving social environment; and helps to organize ESD’s transformative ambitions and structure our understanding of how they are to be achieved. The chapter also addresses two potential criticisms of the virtues approach, including that virtues concern individual behavior rather than coordinated collective action, and that Aristotelian virtue thinking is essentializing and parochial.

John Dewey on Stages of Morality and Self-Realization Confronting Death

Much moral speculation has been devoted to the problem, of equating personal happiness and regard for the general good, note John Dewey and Tufts. If I do what is morally right for justice and benevolence, will I necessarily be happy or rewarded with happiness? In fact, some very bad people are happy, and some very good people suffer terribly. The problem thus put seems insoluble in this life and soluble only in the next life in which the bad will be punished and the good will be rewarded. However, Dewey and Tufts argue: “‘the problem is insoluble because it is artificial.’” The argument of Dewey is not that morality is to be viewed as a means to an external end of happiness whether in this life or in a life after death but that morality involves a profound transformation of the self in an ongoing process that aims to transform the self so that one is a fit member of the developing moral community that all moral agents may seek even if one were to die in being true to the moral transformation of the self and of the community. This paper will support Dewey’s argument by a consideration of the way Socrates confronts his death as interpreted by Plato especially in The Apology which is agnostic about the immortality of the soul rather than in The Phaedo which affirms the immortality of the soul. For the dying of Socrates for the central moral value of his life, the examined way of life, is not unique as a moral decision. On the contrary, it is a moral decision that exemplifies what should be going on in moral decisions all the time, that is, precisely the subordination of earlier felt desires and impulses and social roles from babyhood and childhood to the highest moral ideals of the examined way of life and the life of mutual respect in the virtues which Dewey does not, of course, grasp as eternal Platonic forms of moral values. Socrates has always subordinated his life of sensation and emotion to the more lasting values of morality, and he is more deeply happy in finding his self-realization in striving to realize something greater than himself, the ongoing, social self involved in the moral community of self-examination and of virtue than in merely continuing to live.