Attitude Towards Immigrants in the Mass Consciousness of Europeans. Part 3. Some Aspects of the Dynamics of Semantic Fields

In the third part of the article, variations in the characteristics of several features, the receipt of which is disclosed in the first and second parts, are considered on a time series. In order to identify the circumstances of stability and variability of operational reactions-assessments by the mass consciousness of Europeans of interaction with immigrants, as well as the homogeneity of the socially fixed norms of these assessments, they are considered at various levels of structuring the object of research. With the help of correlation and analysis of variance, examples are given of the positioning of countries that are relatively stable and reactive in terms of the nature of their dynamics of assessments, as well as triads of degrees of coincidence of these assessments that are socially anchored on a national scale – dissenting, median, dominant. The method of decision trees analyzes the accompanying typical differentiation of several communication countries, crystallized normative applications of attitudes towards immigrants, with several social characteristics. The analysis of the information leads to the conclusion that the power of differentiation of the emerging assessments and norms of attitudes towards immigrants in connection with economic factors significantly exceeds the influence of both socio-demographic characteristics and transformed forms of consciousness that serve to protect corporate economic interests to the detriment of the common good at the level’s certain communities.

The Mythologeme «Conspiracy Theory» in the Modern Civilization Space

Modern civilization space is characterized by a high level of technical and scientific discovery, however, mythological consciousness and belief in conspiracy theories still exist. The article deals with one of the popular mythologies of modern civilization – the conspiracy theory. The relevance of the presented research is due to the importance of considering from the position of linguistic and cultural understanding the mechanisms of the generation and spread of myths in the modern communicative mass consciousness, which actively appeals to mythologems, despite the highly developed science. The analysis of a wide range of theoretical sources of both Russian and foreign authors is carried out in order to comprehensively study the stated issue. The description of universal and ethnospecific mythologies of the modern civilizational space is given, which indicates both the globalization processes and the uniqueness of the value system of each country, respectively. The determination of the values that make up the conspiracy discourse, the dominant “evil”, remains constant. The analysis of the empirical research material is carried out in line with the linguistic and cultural approach with the involvement of elements of frame analysis and discourse analysis. Special attention is paid to the issues of the structure of the conspiracy theory, as well as to the conspiratorial discourse, within which the frame «conspiracy theory» gets its implementation. When describing the «Conspiracy Mystery» frame, its hierarchically ordered structure is noted, which consists of interconnected subframes and slots. The analysis made it possible to determine the common characteristics of the «conspiracy theory» frame, as well as to identify areas of ethno-cultural reflection. The structure of the conspiracy discourse is described: participants, chronotope, value priorities, and strategies. It is noted that most of the theories under consideration are universal, but local ones that are widespread within a certain state remain.

Rap as indicator of protest potential of Z generation

Contexts of youth protest potential in rap as a musical direction popular among modern youth are analysed in the article. Attempts of imposing of political identity «from above» does not meet requirements of the youth which seeks for self-realisation in the cultural sphere. Therefore, the article examines the socio-psychological phenomenon of such a youth public practice as rap culture, which has now become a brand of mass pop culture. On the basis of sociological data the author analyses social mood and topical problems of the Kazakhstani youth, designing its protest potential. Quite high percent of the young respondents concerned by violations of the legitimate social, civil and political rights is revealed. It is noted that the Z generation prefers non-political forms in a counterbalance a protest to means of cultural self-expression. In mass consciousness installation about rap as to «protest music» was approved. The historical and cultural retrospective of emergence and development of rap allowed the author to disprove the settled stereotype and to prove a position about rap as to music of success and active living position. Topicality and scientific novelty of the problem statement made it possible to show the importance of studying the protest behaviour of young people in the modern scientific space, highlighting its indicators and drawing a conclusion about the need for a psychological study of youth protest tendencies and pedagogic support of the socialisation process.

Восприятие общегражданских ценностей студентами Москвы и Кировской области

В конце 2020 г. в рамках исследования восприятия общегражданских ценностей и российской идентичности было проведено анкетирование студенческой молодежи Москвы и Кировской области. В качестве оснований для гордости за свою страну рассматривались представления молодых людей об объектах культурного и природного наследия России, значимых исторических событиях и текущих направлениях деятельности нашего государства. В перечень объектов культурного достояния, по мнению учащихся, входят: особенности языка и речи, эпос народов России, народные промыслы, предметы быта, блюда национальной кухни. В список важнейших памятников природы, как считают наши респонденты, следует включить: Байкал, Алтай, Камчатку и Карелию. Подавляющее большинство опрошенных в первую очередь гордится победой в Великой Отечественной войне и достижениями советской космонавтики. По результатам работы может быть сделан вывод о первостепенной значимости научных открытий, культурных и спортивных событий для возникновения патриотических чувств у современной студенческой молодежи. При сохранении единства мнений о наиболее принципиальных российских ценностях в массовом сознании молодежи одновременно присутствуют различия в выборе ответов в зависимости от территории проживания. Это может свидетельствовать об особенностях политических настроений, реакций на внешние угрозы, ориентаций на первоочередное участие в проектах регионального или государственного уровней, которые свойственны для молодых людей каждого конкретного региона. На разницу в суждениях студентов в определенной степени могут также влиять содержание учебных программ и качество образования столичных и провинциальных вузов. At the end of 2020, a students’ survey in Moscow and Kirov region was conducted to study the perception of civic values and Russian identity. Young people’s perceptions of Russia’s cultural and natural heritage, significant historical events, and current activities of the state were examined as foundations for pride in their country. According to the students, the cultural heritage of Russia includes language and speech, epics of the peoples of Russia, folk crafts, household items, and national cuisine. The most important natural monuments as seen by students included Baikal, Altai, Kamchatka, and Karelia. The vast majority of respondents are primarily proud of the victory in the Great Patriotic War and the achievements of Soviet cosmonautics. The results revealed that scientific discoveries, cultural and sports events are of paramount importance for the patriotic feelings among the modern student youth. While the opinions on the most fundamental Russian values in the mass consciousness of young people mostly coincide, there are certain differences in the choice of answers depending on the territory of residence. This may indicate that political sentiments, reactions to external threats, and orientations towards participation in regional or state projects of young people differ in each region. To a certain extent, the students’ judgments can also be influenced by the curricula and the quality of education in metropolitan and provincial universities.

Globalization processes in the modern city

The pace of urbanization at the beginning of the XXI century is accelerating. For large cities, the processes of globalization are becoming significant. Globalization has become one of the powerful factors that determine the formation of both visual-architectural, and cultural-behavioral and economicpolitical spheres of city life. Globalization creates and sets the general trends of behavioral patterns of society, determining their frames of unified processes at the global and regional levels. Ukrainian sociological thought lacks a reception of Western discourses of the city's globalization. The article analyzes a number of theses of modern Western scholars on globalization and urbanization. The interdependence of globalization processes, communication and urbanization is revealed: along with the acceleration of communication processes, globalization, which affects urbanization, is also accelerating. The potential of globalization phenomena in transformational-urban processes is understood: socio-economic, sociopolitical, socio-cultural. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the globalization of the world economy with the simultaneous erosion of national sovereignty of modern states, fragmentation of social and class structure, value transformation in the direction of strengthening the individualistic orientation of mass consciousness, commercialization of higher education forms a new configuration where the most successful and urbanized cities become centers of technological, economic and cultural innovation. The processes of unification and interdependence, which are clearly traced at all levels of globalization practices, especially in the life of cities, are considered. The world is unifying, which causes both positive and negative receptions in social and scientific discourses. The article focuses on the sociological interpretation of the city in the context of urbanism as a way of life (Urbanism as a Way of Life): the influence of urban lifestyle on the transformation of gender roles, the potential of universal inclusion in everyday life – a big city should be tolerant and multicultural.

On the Classification of Fake Information During the Coronavirus Pandemic

This article presents the classification of fakes on grounds of the information source that underlies the occurrence of false information. The study was perfomed on the coronavirus fakes that spread in Russian Federation in March 2020 during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in our country. For the analysis, only those fakes were taken, which the Administrations of the Russian regions promptly denied in their official accounts on social networks. Based on this, only those fakes that caused the greatest public response were selected for analysis. In this article, the following types of fakes are distinguished: folklore, symmetric, interpretive, additional, and conspiracy. Folklore fakes in various variations reproduce the same motives and are associated with well-established ideas and stereotypes in the mass consciousness. Symmetrical fakes partially or completely transfer true facts from one territory (country, region) to another. They can also transfer information from one person (structure) to another (s). Interpretative fakes are associated with the incorrect interpretation of events, information disseminated, or decisions made by the authorities by individual individuals. Additional fakes for a short period of time continue the theme of previously thrown disinformation. Conspiracy fakes are associated with conspiracy theory, characterized by stuffing on a wide territory and a large audience This classification is not exhaustive and can be supplemented as new fakes appear and are studied. Also, within the framework of this article, recommendations are given on how to refute a particular fake, depending on its belonging to a particular type.

“New patriotism” in post-war Sri Lanka and the revival of the Walauva as a site of power in contemporary Sri Lankan English fiction

An emerging body of fiction by contemporary English novelists in Sri Lanka during the immediate post-civil war decade (2010–2020) indicates a renewed interest in the feudal grand house (the walauva) as a site of power. Often described in romantic terms and presented from positions of entitlement, in its renewed form, the walauva is constructed as a benevolent patriarchal system in which class superiors and servants share cordial and meaningful relationships. With primary reference to Nayomi Munaweera’s “What Lies Between Us”, Madhubhashini Ratnayake’s “There is Something I Have to Tell You” and Charulatha Thewarathanthri’s “Stories”, I place this emergent romanticized impression of the feudal grand house within the centralist power agenda of majoritarian populism prevalent in post-civil war Sri Lanka: a mass consciousness engineered by Sinhalese nationalist political fronts postwar, which historian Nira Wickramasinghe terms Sri Lanka’s ‘new patriotism’. While appreciating the contemporary writer’s imagination as being shaped by demands of ‘new patriotism’ the article identifies a deviation of her reading from the representations of the walauva as a site of power by Sri Lanka’s English literary canon from the 1950s to the mid-1990s.

Religious component in the marital sphere: ethnosociological research

Происходящие в институте семьи изменения исследователями характеризуются как кризисные, а наблюдающиеся деструктивные процессы - противоречивые. Объектом данного исследования является семейно-брачная сфера народов Дагестана. Предметом исследования выступает межрелигиозный брачный союз и брачное поведение дагестанских народов. Хронологические рамки исследования охватывают XIX - начало XXI вв., и этот исторический период позволит проследить эволюцию отношения к межрелигиозным бракам, от их полного неприятия до толерантного отношения к ним. Методологической основой этносоциологического исследования является принцип исторической реконструкции, историко-сравнительный и историко-типологический методы, шкала социальной дистанцированности Богардуса, которая показывает существующие в массовом сознании городского населения республики установки в различных сферах социального взаимодействия. Полученные результаты исследования свидетельствуют о том, что в традиционном дагестанском обществе отношение к межрелигиозным бракам, в силу высокой исламизации общества, было отрицательным. С присоединением Дагестана к России заключение межрелигиозных браков становится возможным при условии принятия ислама одного из брачующихся, при соблюдении шариатских брачных норм и обрядов. С увеличением доли русского населения в Дагестане со второй половины ХХ в. отношение к межрелигиозным бракам изменилось, шариатские нормы при заключении брака, в связи с советизацией дагестанского общества, не всегда соблюдались. Исследование показало, что опрошенное городское население ориентировано на взаимодействие в различных социальных сферах, за исключением семейно-брачной, ибо для респондентов ключевым параметром при вступлении в брачный союз выступает вероисповедание будущего супруга (супруги). Однако эмпирические данные показывают, что в массовом сознании горожан существует толерантное отношение к межрелигиозному браку своих детей, в сравнении с собственными брачными установками. Исследование выявило наличие существенных отличий по типу религиозности: наиболее консервативна подгруппа, самоидентифицирующаяся как убежденно верующие, впрочем, как и верующие, хотя процентные показатели заметно ниже, по сравнению с подмассивами колеблющихся, неверующих и убежденно неверующих. Researchers describe changes taking place in the institute of the family as crisis, and the observed destructive processes as contradictory. The object of this study is the marital sphere of the peoples of Dagestan. The subject of the study is the interreligious marriage union and the marriage behavior of the Dagestan peoples. The chronological framework of the study covers the 19th - early 21st centuries and this historical period will allow us to trace the evolution of attitudes towards interreligious marriages, from their complete rejection to tolerant attitude towards them. The methodological basis of ethnosociological research is the principle of historical reconstruction, historical, comparative and historical-typological methods, and the Bogardus social distance scale, which shows the attitudes existing in the mass consciousness of the urban population of the republic in various areas of social interaction. The obtained results of the study indicate that in traditional Dagestan society, the attitude towards interreligious marriages, due to the high Islamization of society, was negative. With the accession of Dagestan to Russia, the conclusion of interreligious marriages becomes possible provided one of the spouses accepts Islam, subject to sharia marriage norms and rites. With an increase in the share of the Russian population in Dagestan from the second half of the twentieth century, the attitude to interreligious marriages has changed, sharia norms in marriage, in connection with the Sovietization of Dagestan society, have not always been respected. The study shows that the urban population surveyed is focused on interaction in various social spheres, with the exception of marital, because for respondents the religion of the future spouse is the key parameter when joining a marriage union. However, empirical data show that in the mass consciousness of citizens there is a tolerant attitude towards the interreligious marriage of their children, in comparison with their own marital attitudes. The study has revealed significant differences in the type of religiosity: the most conservative subgroup is self-identifying as "staunchly believers," and "believers", although the percentages are noticeably lower, compared with the sub-masses of fluctuating, unbelieving and staunchly unbelievers.

Psycholinguistic Potential of Political Concepts of the Election Campaign (on the example of the slogan-motto “Army. Language. Faith”)

The aim of the study is a psycholinguistic analysis of the stimulus words (Ukrainian) army, language, faith as concept-forming nominations of the appropriate text concepts in the structure of the slogan-motto (advertising slogan, political slogan) “Army. Language. Faith.” the 2019 election campaign (that is, in the context of a particular discursive practice). Methods of the research. The application of the method of free associative experiment basing on the theory of speech influence allows to interpret the semantics of the analyzed concepts, as well as to establish their closest connections and logical relationships with other concepts. Verbal reactions to a political slogan as a whole and to its individual structural units as concept-forming nominations are interpreted as verbal representations of cognitive features of concepts. Results. The results of the associative experiment are a relevant source of data in order to identify markers of the deep (including subconscious) mechanisms of verbal and non-verbal behavior of individuals, which can be used to form new and transform old political concepts. The presence of intersecting segments in their semantic fields testifies about the partial synthesis of diverse concepts in the recipients’ minds, in which the effect of the psycholinguistic influence of the slogan-motto is increased. The absence of such an intersection is an indicator of the information the general information field of the concepts, which is expressed in the discrete perception of the advertising slogan. Conclusion. In the context of the speech theory influence, the first two stages of implementation the text slogan-motto “Army. Language. Faith.” into mass consciousness (attracting attention to the text and optimization its perception) were successfully implemented. A number of reasons (extralinguistic and linguistic formation, for example, the use of words with abstract, non-specific semantics “language”, “faith”) complicated the implementation of the third stage (acceptance of the content) of the implication of the text. Concept-forming nomination “army”, potentially containing negative semantic components, caused reactions associated with the emergency of cognitive disbalance in the consciousness of individuals. Comparison of the associates of the two stages of the experiment showed that the context of perception of the stimulus words is important for the respondents. Thus, the evaluative connotations of reaction words (in particular, concerning the nomination “army”) in the context of the advertising campaign of P. Poroshenko’s party and outside this context differ significantly.