The Culture-Centred Paradigm in Contemporary Art

This article aims to explain the general features of contemporary art and its radical novelty. While recognising the importance of postmodernism as a marker of the boundary of cultural epochs, the author argues that it is impossible either to reduce the features of contemporary art to postmodernism or to explain them through the foundations of postmodernism. In its own way, postmodernism sums up the great past of the history of humankind. Contemporary art expresses the trends of its development and movement towards the future of human civilization. Several examples illustrate the novel essence of contemporary art – its appeal to the representation and mastery of diverse cultural phenomena as an independent and self-sufficient specific reality. The universality and growing scale of contemporary art that concentrates on cultural phenomena make it necessary to link its emergence and characteristics to the radical socio-cultural evolution (peaceful revolution) of our era. The essence and scale of this unfolding process lie in the qualitative growth of productive nature-transforming and socio-organising, material, informational, and spiritual abilities of culture both as a specific and universal way of existence and development for human societies and individuals and as a particular world (“supra-natural”). The scale of the power and impact of culture on the life of modern humanity and each person and the visible prospects of its future progress are such that they are capable of transforming culture from “second nature” (its traditional definition) into first nature – the main determining principle of the life of humankind. This objective process defines a qualitative change of the entire cultural consciousness, first and foremost the subsystem most sensitive to novelty and responsive to radical alterations of cultural life, i. e. artistic consciousness. This is expressed by the birth, establishment, and evolution of a new culture-centred paradigm of cultural consciousness alongside the one which has existed for millennia, programmed to represent nature and human life (nature-centred).

Design Mind or Laws of Nature: Space, Vital and Social Reality

The article is devoted to the consideration of two interrelated topics: the opposition of two foundations of social action, one of which is called the ‘design mind’ by the author, and the other is known as ‘nature’, and the path of evolution, in which three types of realities arose sequentially - cosmic, vital (biological) and social. The discourse of the design mind is formed in ancient culture in the works of Plato, and the concept of nature in the works of Aristotle. The first is characterized by the predominance of ideas and patterns, as well as a belief in the possibility of their implementation. The second is characterized by considering the prevailing reality (nature) and mediating social action by knowledge of the processes of nature. The new European understanding of nature is a hybrid; it combines the Aristotelian and Platonic approaches. Nature is both actions in nature and design creation. The second difference is that the new European nature was understood as “written in the language of mathematics” and passed through experimentation. However, since the 19th century, the natural-scientific understanding of nature has been criticized and differentiated: a demarcation is made between the first and second nature, different types of realities, nature and technology. Within the framework of this process, in the course of explaining the origin of life, man and society, a diagram of the evolution of three types of realities is outlined: first, there is only cosmic reality, understood as the first nature, then comes vital reality, and then social (second nature). An assumption is introduced that the next type of reality in evolution appears as a new formation, on the one hand, as a result of development and complication, and on the other, as a number of random processes. The conditions of interaction of processes belonging to different types of reality are discussed; in this regard, the concepts of “renegade areas” and “maternal reality” are introduced. On the basis of the outlined distinctions and relationships, an explanation of the pandemic and the modern transition process from modernity to post-culture is proposed.

A photographic inquiry into Reggio inspired natural outdoor environments in Ontario early learning settings

This qualitative study explores the translation of Reggio principles in 20 Ontario natural outdoor early learning settings. Through visual research methods, digital images revealed the translation of the following principles: the image of the child, the environment as a third teacher and the hundred languages of children in the outdoor environments. Moreover, nature was a predominant element in two ways. First, nature was incorporated in the curriculum and natural spaces. Second, half the sites committed to connecting children to nature through frequent excursions in local green areas. This research positions the potential for practice in creating outdoor early learning spaces by merging both the principles of nature-based education and Reggio inspired pedagogy, in considering compatibility with the Ontario Early Years Framework. This research addresses the current gaps in the literature pertaining to quality outdoor environments, and provides recommendations for a proposed Outdoor Pedagogy for the Early Years.

A photographic inquiry into Reggio inspired natural outdoor environments in Ontario early learning settings

This qualitative study explores the translation of Reggio principles in 20 Ontario natural outdoor early learning settings. Through visual research methods, digital images revealed the translation of the following principles: the image of the child, the environment as a third teacher and the hundred languages of children in the outdoor environments. Moreover, nature was a predominant element in two ways. First, nature was incorporated in the curriculum and natural spaces. Second, half the sites committed to connecting children to nature through frequent excursions in local green areas. This research positions the potential for practice in creating outdoor early learning spaces by merging both the principles of nature-based education and Reggio inspired pedagogy, in considering compatibility with the Ontario Early Years Framework. This research addresses the current gaps in the literature pertaining to quality outdoor environments, and provides recommendations for a proposed Outdoor Pedagogy for the Early Years.

Sosiologi Lingkungan Dalam Lontar Taru Pramana: Manusia, Lingkungan, Dan Pengobatan Tradisional Bali

<p><em>Lontar Taru Pramana is a lontar containing many types of plants that can be used in traditional medicine. Through the contents of Taru Pramana's lontar text, it is possible to trace the types of plants that have lived and are still growing in Bali's natural ecosystem, of course, with an environmental sociology perspective. The relationship between environmental sociology and Taru Pramana's lontar text semiotics explains the meaning of the relationship between humans and the environment. Three conceptions view nature in environmental sociology, namely: 1) Sustainable use of natural resources; 2) "arcadian" approach to the interpretation of nature; 3) natural social construction approach. This conception of nature as a resource has three main characteristics. First, nature is instrumental, which means that nature has value when other values can be manifested through it. Both realms function as a supplier of human material needs, such as food production, health, the availability of space for life, and a supplier of energy and materials. The three definitions of nature are generally closely related to natural science. The preservation of Taru Pramana plants is very important in addition to environmental harmony and as a form of human relations with palemahan (environment). Four types of rationality for human development. First, traditional rationality. The Second, effective rationality. Third, value-oriented rationality. Fourth, instrumental rationality. The ideology of Taru Pramana's text is the preservation and planting of medicinal plants in the ecosystem of traditional Balinese medicine.</em></p>

Drivers of convergence: The role of first- and second-nature geography

The analysis of regional convergence often stays at the level of documentation, with limited attention placed on the drivers of convergence/divergence dynamics. This article offers a systematic analysis of this, examining the role of first-nature (location, proximity, physical geography) and second-nature geography (economic structure, agglomeration, economic potential) in accounting for regional synchronicity in growth trajectories (stochastic convergence). Utilising historical data for Greece at the prefectural level and up-to-date time-series econometric techniques, we test for the presence of stochastic convergence in the country over three decades prior to the crisis; identify the pairs of regions which exhibit co-movement in their growth dynamics; and examine the covariates of this. Our results unveil a picture of limited-only and cluster-like convergence, driven predominantly by factors related to accessibility, sectoral specialisations, labour market dynamism, market potential and selected locational characteristics. This supports two propositions: (a) convergence is an endogenous process, related to shared and incongruent characteristics of regions; and, by implication, (b) regional disparities are structural (in the sense that they are linked to economic and spatial structure) and thus require targeted policies in order to be addressed.

History of zoological research in the Crimean Nature Reserve: vertebrates

The present work is a historical and biographical sketch of the formation and development of research in one of the first nature reserves in Russia. The article describes the main milestones in the study of vertebrates in the past and the stages of scientific research in the Crimean Nature Reserve in the XX-XXI centuries. It is shown that by 1925 the vertebrate fauna of the mountain Crimea was poorly studied, and the formation and operation of the biological station in the Crimean Reserve marked the beginning of comprehensive research not only in the mountains, but also in the steppe. The reorganization of the Reserve into a hunting Reserve in 1957 did not affect the level and scale of scientific research. In 1964-1968, a comprehensive theme on beechwood forests was completed, and in 1970-1974, a theme on birds and mammals of the Crimea was conducted as well. In 1974-1976 the work of the zoological group went to the international level in connection with the inclusion of Swan Islands in the number of the Ramsar Sites of the USSR. Since 1983, scientific research has been conducted under the program "Nature Records" within the boundaries of the reserve. In 1991, the institution was returned to the status of a nature reserve. Zoological research is carried out by full-time employees with the participation of scientists from various research centers working on international projects. After the reunification of the Crimea with Russia in 2014, the Crimean Reserve is undergoing a period of reorganization. And in September 2018 its mountain and forest part gets the status of a National Park. The “Swan Islands” ornithological branch becomes an independent nature reserve.