Panmorphic Crisis: Cultural Rupture and Systemic Change

The systemic community has cultivated a talent for living with perturbation and a graceful approach to not knowing. In this extremely unsettled era of what I am calling panmorphic crisis so much is in urgent need of our attention. In this paper, I discuss some of the many systems in play creating this panmorphic crisis and discuss the impact of changing temporality. Our existing approaches to therapy and the training of practitioners may not be enough to see us out of one era and meet the needs of a new, emergent world. To create a state of preparedness to change may involve some degree of fundamental overhaul structurally and theoretically. I go on to consider approaches to disruption and consider the homeostatic pull towards restorative positions. Crises create opportunities for not only exploring ideas and practices which we take for granted but also for re-organising the cultural foundations on which we build worlds with each other. I reflect on how the myth of return-to-normal is a dangerous agenda when the culture being restored is infused with historical social injustices. In order for systemic therapy and training programmes to make changes that are culturally relevant, we need to study and alter the impact on our work of colonising and pathologising practices and theory. I discuss systemic liminality, its limits and the impact of disruption to our cultural rhythms. Later, I propose the concept of Stolpersteine, stumbling blocks, to help us encounter hidden histories and our prejudices, and offer some questions for us to consider in our undertaking to decolonise and depathologise our practice and theory to meet the challenges of transmaterial living systems.

THE "GREAT TERROR” AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE STRUGGLE WITHIN THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU

В статье рассмотрена одна из причин начала «Большого террора». Противостояние Сталина с другими представителями ЦК КПСС, а также внезапное убийство С.М. Кирова привели к «чисткам» внутри политического и военного руководства Советского Союза. Поиск виноватых продолжился и среди простого населения, поскольку в стране отмечалось невыполнение «планов» чистки. Также проанализирована отечественная историография 1950-2000-х гг. по проблеме «Большого террора». Сталинская система опиралась на механизм «чрезвычайщины» на всем протяжении своего существования: волны террора прокатились в 1930–1932 гг., в 1932–1934 гг., в 1936–1938 гг., в 1939–1945 гг., в 1946–1953 гг. С точки зрения автора, масштабы массового террора в 1930–1932 и в 1936–1938 гг. сопоставимы по своей ожесточенности, скоротечности и количеству репрессированных. Историографический анализ показал, что российские историки достигли консенсуса по базовой структуре «Большого террора». Ряд аспектов проблемы сохраняет свою дискуссионность: предпосылки и причины, периодизация, причины завершения; другие требуют дополнительного исследования: роль культурного генотипа и социальных настроений общества, последствия террора. Автор, вопреки преобладающему мнению, включает в содержание «Большого террора» репрессии против элиты наряду с массовым террором, «антикулацкой» и «национальными» операциями. Применение методов новейшей социальной истории заставляет глубже задуматься о социокультурных основаниях террора. Акцентируя внимание на исключительной роли Сталина в организации «Большого террора», не следует забывать, что диктатор действовал, находя опору в утопических социальных ожиданиях и ментальности крестьянских масс, «комбатантной брутальности» своих сподвижников, порожденной опытом Гражданской войны. The article discusses the reasons for the beginning of the "Great Terror". The influence of the NKVD № 00447, which was one of the main regulators of the terror of the late 30s, is comprehended. The position of the "triples" in sentencing on the basis of the report of the Prosecutor's Office of the USSR has been studied. The severity of the sentence received is determined depending on belonging to a certain category in the gradation of the accused. The influence of the local leadership on a significant increase in the number of repressed citizens is considered. The domestic historiography of the 1950s-2000s on the actual problem of the "Great Terror" is also analyzed. The Stalinist system relied on the mechanism of "extraordinary" throughout its existence: waves of terror swept in 1930-1932, in1932-1934, in1936-1938, in1939-1945, in1946- 1953. From the author's point of view, the scale of the mass terror of 1930-1932 and 1936-1938 are comparable in their bitterness, transience and the number of repressed. Historiographical analysis has shown that a consensus has been reached among Russian historians on the basic structure of the "Great Terror". A number of aspects of the problem remain controversial: prerequisites and causes, periodization, reasons for completion; others require additional research: the role of the cultural genotype and social attitudes of society, the consequences of terror, etc. The author, contrary to the prevailing opinion, includes in the content of the "Great Terror" repression against the elite along with the mass terror of "anti-Kulak" and "national" operations. The application of the methods of modern social history makes us think more deeply about the socio-cultural foundations of terror. Focusing on the exceptional role of Stalin in the organization of the "Great Terror", we should not forget that the dictator acted, finding support in utopian social expectations and the mentality of the unbridled masses, the "combatant brutality" of his associates, generated by the experience of the Civil War.

INFORMAL ARISTOCRATIC COMMUNITIES IN 17th AND 18th CENTURY FRANCE AS A TRIGGER FOR THE FORMATION OF THE CIVILIZATION IMAGE

Статья посвящена характеристике некоторых черт варварства и цивилизации в контексте их общественного развития и оппозиции. Акцент сделан на одной из форм социального общения, связанной с интеллектуальной сферой, а именно, на неформальных сообществах Франции. Такими сообществами, среди прочих, были салоны, которые появились как форма проведения досуга французской аристократии в XVII в., но особенно востребованными они стали в эпоху Просвещения, в условиях трансформации социальных структур и духовно-культурных основ общества. Ряд просветительских положений, ставших фундаментом теорий современности (в частности, идеи превосходства цивилизованных народов над варварскими и необходимости их «цивилизовать»), разрабатывались как раз в салонах аристократии, которые, таким образом, стали триггером актуальных идейных концепций. Авторы полагают, что в XVIII в. во Франции в рамках салонных собраний выработалась своеобразная коммуникативная практика в интеллектуальной сфере, которая сформировала культурный образ цивилизации, одна из основных черт которого — интеллектуальное общение, сложившееся в систему правил. The article focuses on one of the forms of social discourse in the intellectual sphere, French informal communities, in particular. Such communities, among others, included salons, which appeared as a form of leisure for the French aristocracy in the 17th century, yet demand for them surged in the Age of Enlightenment, that came with transformations of social structures, spiritual canons, and cultural foundations. A number of educational policies, which served as the base for the theories of our time (particularly the idea of civilized people superiority over barbarians and the need to “civilize” them), were developed in such salons for the aristocracy, hence making them a trigger for the spread of new societal and philosophical ideas. The authors believe that the intellectual sphere of the 18th century France has developed a kind of communicative practice within the framework of salon meetings that formed the cultural image of civilization, with intellectual discourse, forming a system of rules, as one of its main features.

SABDALOKA: The Light of the Words

This monograph is a compilation of my three articles published in Kalākalpa: IGNCA Journal of Arts during 2020-21. The articles are based on research work for the ICSSR-IMPRESS project on ‘Culture and Communication in India: Contemporary Relevance of Indian Classical Texts’. It is the premise of this project that problems in language and communication within and between different cultures and societies emerge from a complex web of linguistic, social, and cultural factors that go beyond any individual, or event. The hypothesis is that to resolve this problem we need to look within the individual and the society and examine the disconnect between language and culture. India’s rich linguistic heritage is embedded in its composite and integrated culture. It is therefore imperative that problems in language proficiency and competence in India should be resolved on the basis of cultural foundations of Indian languages.

TRENDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

The article focuses on the trends of higher education in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The authors focused on the aspects of changing the landscape of global education in the direction of the Asia-Pacific region (APR), and also through the prism of cultural foundations presented models of education of the East and West. The uniqueness of the article lies in the analysis of the development of higher education in the Asia- Pacific region based on a review of national and state programs for the development of higher education in the Asia-Pacific countries, reports and strategies of international organizations, and a secondary analysis of the research results of international research funds, centers, projects and individual experts.

THE STATE OF CULTURAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE NATION-BUILDING IN MODERN KAZAKHSTAN

The article examines nation-building in Kazakhstan from the point of view of the relationship between its homogeneous and heterogeneous cultural foundations. The article shows that the cultural and linguistic heterogeneity of the entire multiethnic society in Kazakhstan is inextricably linked with the Kazakh-Russian heterogeneity of the titular nation. The consequence of the heterogeneity of the titular nation is the three-element social structure of society in Kazakhstan: 1) Kazakh-speaking Kazakhs, 2) Russian-speaking Kazakhs, and 3) Russians and other nationalities. Due to the linguistic heterogeneity of the Kazakhs as the nuclear state-forming nation, such a transition is seriously hampered today in the nation-building in Kazakhstan. The results of the opinion poll demonstrate a different level of support for heterogeneity among different ethnocultural groups. The tendency to support cultural titular homogeneity among Kazakhs is significantly higher than among other ethnocultural groups.

Turandot Carla Gozziego na scenie Teatru Ludowego w Nowej Hucie

The cultural peculiarity of Nowa Huta, a city founded after World War II, resulted from the lack of any artistic habits of the young audience. It was the Ludowy Theatre which, since 1955, had been bearing the responsibility for shaping up the expectations of the spectators in the new district of Krakow [Cracow] – dynamically developing but still devoid of any cultural foundations. The team of Skuszanka soon gained recognition among critics and elevated the newly created institution to the rank of an equal partner in the nationwide cultural exchange. The image of the Ludowy Theatre as a centre of progressive and experimental art quickly became even more profound, since it looked modern compared to the rather monotonous background of Krakow's theatres at that time. Thus, it became an institution whose opening, coinciding with the symbolic date of the Polish October, inaugurates a new season of the theatrical research. The aim of this paper is to illustrate this phenomenon by describing and analysing the performance that many of the contemporary critics called the flagship spectacle of the Nowa Huta theatre, i.e. Princess Turandot by Carlo Gozzi, directed by Krystyna Skuszanka. This play, drawing on fairy-tale plots and colourful Italian folk comedies, became not only an expression of opposition to socialist realism, but also a harbinger of the future activities of this institution, and perhaps even a reflection of the condition of the Polish theatre at that time.

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY (ON THE EXAMPLE OF KAZAKHSTAN)

Currently, research in the field of political communication in a multicultural society has intensified in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. The study of the socio-political and cultural foundations of political communication in the post-Soviet space, through the prism of the peculiarities of the political system of the Republic of Kazakhstan, is an important step for predicting the further development of political communication in a multicultural society. Reforms in this area require a detailed study of this problem in a multicultural society. In the modern conditions, some trends in political communication in multicultural pluralism are decisive. At the same time, it consists in the transformation of digital messages. People often cant adequately navigate modern political technologies. A large flow of information is regularly covered in the mass media. Another trend of political communication in a multicultural society is the complete subordination of the available information to the ideological plan. The republican mass media for the development of political communication in a multicultural society are characterized by the following features: the creation of creative publications, social movements, the strengthening of a civilized civil society, the exclusion of unfair PR technologies in pre-election political campaigns.