Characteristic features of innovation culture. Distinctive features of an innovation culture

Innovation, innovation (English innovation) is an introduced innovation that provides a qualitative increase in the efficiency of processes or products. The term "innovation" comes from the Latin "novatio", which means "update" (or "change"), and the prefix "in", which is translated from Latin as "in the direction", if translated literally "Innovatio" - "in the direction of change ".

Innovative culture, in contrast to the traditional one, is receptive to innovation and dynamic. It is not preoccupied with the careful preservation of traditions coming from the past and easily allows all sorts of deviations from them. The collectivist principle gives way to individualism. The personality acquires autonomy and gets the opportunity to more or less independently determine its life goals, ideals, forms and means of activity. One of the most important values is the freedom of the individual. The liberal attitude of society towards non-standard forms of thinking and behavior creates conditions for the development of various forms of creativity, the results of which receive social recognition and enter into life. In these conditions there is an intensive development of art, science and technology. Creative personalities - artists, poets, scientists - enjoy authority and respect.

Knowledge, education, critical thinking and independent thinking are highly valued in the innovation culture. Faith in the power of the human mind is spreading. Changes in society do not frighten, but rather, on the contrary, make people happy. The desire for something new is one of the most important factors stimulating the development of production and consumption in society.

However, not every innovation becomes a cultural factor. Novelty for the sake of novelty does not carry a truly innovative content, it turns into meaningless antics. The creation of cultural values is always of a generally significant nature. Scientific discovery or piece of art should spread in society, resonate in the minds and hearts of people. This is not about instant recognition. At one time, I. Severyanin was proclaimed the "king of poets", and not his contemporaries A. Blok and S. Yesenin. However, history put everything in its place. Any innovation in culture that has a deep content and value is tested by time, re-evaluated by each subsequent generation of people.

Until recently, it was believed that innovations can be of two types - exogenous (borrowed from other cultures) and endogenous (arising in a given environment without outside influence). S.A. Arutyunov believes that cultural transformation through the introduction of innovations can occur in three ways: 1) spontaneously; 2) stimulated; 3) by borrowing.

Spontaneous transformation is any innovation that occurs within a culture due to its factors. own development without outside influences. This is how most writing systems and styles in art arise.

Stimulated transformation is an innovation that, not being a direct borrowing from any other culture, arises under the indirect influence of external circumstances. Of this nature are changes in value orientations associated with the spread of foreign trends in culture: for example, the impact of American "action movies" and television series on the youth of the post-Soviet space.

Borrowing is an innovation that is associated with direct external influence. This includes the spread of world religions, and the Europeanization of clothing in the countries of the East, and the borrowing of writing systems (Chinese hieroglyphics, Latin, Cyrillic), and lexical borrowings (for example, the words “yes”, “o" key” are considered by many as Western and Eastern peoples by their own linguistic affiliation), and especially the spread of technical inventions and improvements.

The ability of culture to change largely determines the very possibility of its development. If internal or external circumstances create in society those needs that cannot be satisfied on the basis of the traditions of this system, this opens the door for their transformation, and even the replacement of traditions with borrowed innovations, moreover, one change, as in a chain, pulls other. Thus, in the early Abbasid period, Islamic scholars zealously studied and mastered Indian medicine, mathematics, and astronomy. In the same period, Greek logic and philosophy were being mastered in the Islamic civilization, and at the same time the “top” of the Muslim world adopted the principles of Iranian administration and components of Iranian political thinking. What are the reasons for such “massive” borrowing? The contact of the still naive Islamic theology with the developed theological systems of neighbors and conquered peoples required the formation of a system of logical thinking. The Persian system of administration was adopted in order to eliminate the difficulties experienced by the government, which it could not solve due to the lack of its own experience in this area. The study of medicine was dictated by obvious necessity. But at the same time, the Arabs did not adopt Indian technologies, nor Hinduism or Christianity. It can be seen from this example that borrowings arise in order to make up for a "deficit" in any sphere of culture and by no means always lead to its radical transformation. The very mentality of the ethnic group is the reason that not all innovations take root in it. All innovations undergo a kind of selection in terms of their consistency or inconsistency with mental attitudes and traditional values, and are accepted or rejected depending on how “new” corresponds to “old”.

Every culture combines tradition and innovation. Depending on the ratio of traditions and innovations, traditional and innovative types of culture can be distinguished.

traditional culture characterized by the dominance of tradition over innovation. Her characteristic features:

♦ strict adherence to patterns of behavior learned from childhood from the elders. Imitation and obedience ensure the preservation of social experience and its transmission from generation to generation. The decisions and instructions of the elders - the keepers of social experience - are implicitly carried out;

♦ high level standardization, covering all aspects of human life. Many different prohibitions are taboos that are not subject to discussion and rational justification. The dominance of the collectivist and conformist spirit in the minds of people;

♦ intolerance towards everything alien that came from another culture ( xenophobia). Condemnation of attempts at creativity aimed at updating traditional norms of life and activity.

It is clear that traditional culture puts up barriers to changes in the way of life and thinking of people. The consequence of this is the stability of everyday life, worldly psychology, economic structure, forms of social structure. Society has remained almost unchanged for centuries.

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AT innovation culture, on the contrary, innovation dominates tradition. It is distinguished by the following features:

♦ blurring the scale of life values. A variety of behavioral deviations do not meet with much indignation in society. Shattering of morality, decline in morals;

♦ weakening the normativity of culture. The collectivist principle gives way to individualism. The growth of individual autonomy, the possibility self-determination life goals, ideals, forms and means of activity. Freedom of the individual is one of the most important values;

♦ creation of favorable conditions for the development of creativity, social recognition of its results. Intensive development of art, science, technology, high prestige of knowledge and education. Criticality and independent thinking. Belief in the power of the human mind.

An innovative culture stimulates the development of production and consumption. Conditions are being created for the technical and socio-economic progress of society.

The general trend in the history of mankind is the movement from traditional culture to a culture of innovation.

The archaic culture of primitive societies was traditional. It could not be otherwise: the arsenal of means of the struggle for existence was still too small, and the precious grains of the experience of their ancestors, which gave people the opportunity to resist in this struggle, had to be carefully preserved and used in order to survive. Archaic tribal cultures existed in an almost unchanged state for thousands of years. The cultures that arose in the states of the Ancient World - Egypt, China, India, Asia Minor were also traditional. In the countries of the East and a number of Muslim states, they largely continue to remain so until the present. Features of traditional culture can be found today among peoples who, for one reason or another, have not accepted the achievements of modern civilization.

Chapter 13. Mechanisms of cultural dynamics 347

Chapter 13 Mechanisms of Cultural Dynamics 353

There are general trends that have existed throughout the history of mankind - for example, the growth in the amount of knowledge, the increase in the vocabulary of the language. There are also private ones that operate in the culture of some people for a relatively short time - for example, the weakening of morality in the Italian society of the Renaissance, the spread of the French language among the Russian nobility from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. In the history of culture, often the growth of some parameter gradually fades and then its decrease begins, and vice versa. As a result, waves and cycles are formed.

N. D. Kondratiev is responsible for the discovery of cycles in the development of the economy lasting 48-55 years (“long waves” by Kondratiev) 1 . During each cycle, the economic boom is followed by a recession. At the same time, there is a trend of historical growth of the economy. On fig. 13.1 shows the chronological framework of the Kondratieff waves 2 .

Rice. 13.1. Chronological framework Kondratieff waves

Waves similar to Kondratieff's in the development of the economy are also observed in the development of various areas of culture. J. Schumpeter and L. Low connected the cycles discovered by Kondratiev with waves of inventive activity. So, during the first Kondratiev cycle (1780-1840s), the water wheel was replaced by a steam engine, wood - by coal and iron, the textile industry arose; in the second cycle (1840-1890s) came into life railways and steamboats, iron began to give way to steel; the third cycle (1890-1930s) is associated with the widespread use of electricity, the creation of an internal combustion engine, and the development of chemistry.

1 See: Problems of economic dynamics. - M., 1989.

2 Kondratiev developed his theory in the 1920s, and his analysis was brought to the beginning of the "downward wave" of the 1914-1920s. Approximate dates for the next waves added by me

354 Part III. Culture Dynamics

Chapter 13 Mechanisms of Cultural Dynamics 357

motion vectors inside the cone inevitably lead to an attractor. As long as the system moves towards the attractor, this determines the direction of its evolution, so that the course of its change in general terms can be foreseen. But near the limit states, its state becomes unstable, and a fan of possibilities arises. The choice of any one of them may depend on minor random circumstances and therefore becomes unpredictable. The unstable states from which the system can evolve in different ways are called branch points, or bifurcation points(from English. fork- fork) 1 , and various ways of further development - bifurcation branches.

In synergetics, the processes of system evolution are depicted using bifurcation diagrams (Fig. 13.2).

Rice. 13.2. Bifurcation diagrams

Y is a characteristic parameter of the system

(level of complexity, organization, differentiation, etc.);

X 1 , X 2 , X 3 , X 4 - bifurcation points;

Y 0 - parameter value Y at the point X 2 .

Sustainable Solutions

Unsustainable Solutions

At the point X 4 the lower bifurcation branch leads to the sliding of the system onto the lower branch of the previous bifurcation

To 1 and To 2 - attractor cones

It would be more accurate to speak not of bi-, but of polyfurcation, since there can be many trajectories outgoing from the branch point.

358 Part III. Culture Dynamics

The synergistic interpretation of the dynamics of culture explains the undulating nature of cultural processes. Waves arise because, in the evolution of dissipative systems, phases of increasing order alternate with phases of increasing chaos. The ups and downs of the waves characterize the evolutionary type of development of the cultural system, and the upper and lower "points of inflection" in each cycle correspond to moments of instability and an explosion that changes the direction of the system's development.

The gradual evolution of a cultural system is its movement in the attractor cone. In this case, both the integration and rise of a powerful cultural movement can occur, as well as its decomposition, ideological confusion and decline. The explosive process occurs when approaching the bifurcation point. The unpredictability of the course of events in this process is due to the presence of various bifurcation branches, the choice of which is not predetermined. True, this unpredictability is relative: the choice of the bifurcation branch is free, but limited, since the number of attractors and bifurcation branches leading to them is limited.

At the bifurcation moments of the development of society, periods arise when the accepted norms of behavior break down, freedom of morals sets in, outdated foundations and restrictions are loosened, and chaos grows. But then comes the era of "normal", more or less smooth development, in which the selection and consolidation of the forms of behavior that have justified themselves take place. As a result, a new social organization is established, limiting chaos to a certain order at a new level.

Dynamics of ideals

A distinctive feature of traditional culture is the strict adherence to patterns of behavior adopted from previous generations - customs, rituals, methods and techniques of activity. These samples are acquired from childhood from the elders. Imitation and obedience are the most important conditions that ensure their preservation and transmission from generation to generation. Related to this is the veneration of elders, obligatory for a traditional society, who act as custodians of the accumulated social experience, teachers and judges, whose decisions and instructions must be implicitly carried out.

Traditional culture is characterized by a high level of normativity, which covers all aspects of people's lives. It establishes many different kinds of prohibitions - taboos that are not subject to discussion and rational justification. The individual lives according to given canons and is completely dependent on them. The insurmountability of such canons is ensured by their sacralization - acceptance as sacred, divine institutions. Religious and mythological representations that sanctify customs and patterns of behavior are a necessary component of traditional culture: when people's minds are dominated by belief in supernatural forces that cannot be disobeyed, a critical attitude to a multitude of rules, norms, prohibitions that are irrational and not amenable to rational interpretation. People do not even think of deviating from the accepted norms of behavior, and if someone dares, then society immediately punishes him or he is waiting for punishment from the gods. Public opinion has tremendous power. The collectivist and conformist spirit, in which the manifestation of the will of the gods is seen ("the voice of the people is the voice of God").

Everything that violates the "precepts of fathers and grandfathers" meets wariness and fear in societies with traditional culture, therefore, such societies are characterized by xenophobia (dislike and intolerance towards everything alien, foreign, coming from another culture) and condemnation of any attempts of creativity aimed at updating the traditional norms of life and activity. It is clear that traditional culture puts up barriers to any changes in the way of life and thinking of people. A natural consequence of this is the stability of everyday life, everyday psychology, economic structure, forms of social structure. Society has remained almost unchanged for centuries.

Innovative culture, in contrast to the traditional one, is receptive to innovation and dynamic. It is not preoccupied with the careful preservation of traditions coming from the past and easily allows all sorts of deviations from them. This leads to a weakening of the normative nature of culture, a blurring of the scale of life values, the emergence of various behavioral deviations that do not meet with much resentment in society. As a result, morality is shaken, there is a decline in morality.

At the same time, the collectivist principle gives way to individualism. The personality acquires autonomy and gets the opportunity to more or less independently determine its life goals, ideals, forms and means of activity. One of the most important values is the freedom of the individual. The liberal attitude of society towards non-standard forms of thinking and behavior creates conditions for the development of various forms of creativity, the results of which receive social recognition and enter into life. In these conditions there is an intensive development of art, science and technology. Creative personalities - artists, poets, scientists - enjoy prestige and respect.

Knowledge, education, critical thinking and independent thinking are highly valued in the innovation culture. Faith in the power of the human mind is spreading. Changes in society do not frighten, but rather, on the contrary, delight people. The desire for something new is one of the most important factors stimulating the development of production and consumption in society.

In the cultural concept of A.C. Akhiezer, the difference between traditional and innovative cultures (he calls them traditional and liberal types of civilization) is associated with the peculiarities of people's thinking. When alternative ideas clash (order - chaos, love - hate, optimism - pessimism, etc.), people look for a way out either by inversion - by accepting one of these alternatives, or by mediation - by finding a way to combine and synthesize them. Inverse thinking operates only ready-made solutions and is influenced by emotions. Mediative thinking, on the other hand, is associated with creative efforts to create new ideas, with the help of which the one-sidedness of alternative positions is overcome. The inverse logic of thinking aims a person at the "value of reproduction", rotation in the same circle of concepts, intolerance to other people's opinions and the fight against everything that goes beyond the usual collective attitudes. It dominates traditional cultures. Mediative logic, on the contrary, tunes in to the "value of progress", the change in initially taken positions, the consideration of other opinions, the analysis and generalization of various views, their creative development, leading to the formation of new meanings. It is characteristic of innovative cultures. The result of mediation is what Akhiezer, following Berdyaev, calls the median culture, i.e. a culture that gives rise to a semantic field in which the opportunity opens up to find a new solution to the problem, irreducible to the old, extreme poles. Ultimately, the whole culture develops as a product of mediation - a middle culture that overcomes the limitations of previously established cultural forms.

It should be recalled that in the typology of culture we are talking about ideal types. Real, historically existing societies do not necessarily fully and exactly possess all the features that are characteristic of any of them. It is far from always possible to unambiguously attribute a particular culture to a traditional or innovative type. But in many cases there are good reasons for this.

The general trend in the history of mankind is the movement from traditional culture to innovative. archaic culture primitive societies was traditional. It could not be otherwise: the arsenal of means by which people fought for existence was still too small, and the precious grains of the experience of their ancestors, which enabled them to resist in this struggle, had to be carefully preserved and used in order to survive. Archaic tribal cultures were incredibly stable - they existed in an almost unchanged state for thousands of years. Even in the 20th century ethnographers found tribes in Africa, Australia, South America, Oceania that preserved their primitive way of life. The cultures that arose in the states of the Ancient World were also traditional: Egypt, China, India, Asia Minor.

culture medieval Europe (including Russia) was also traditional. However, the Renaissance marked a turning point in European history. With its arrival in Western countries, the formation of an innovative culture began. AT new time religion has lost its former power over the minds of people. Freethinking arose, the attitude of society towards creative activity changed. The flow of new ideas captured philosophy, art, science, technology. This led to significant changes in all areas of public life. By the 20th century, an innovative type of culture had become dominant in the Western world. This was evidenced by the wide distribution here of such signs as the scientific and technological revolution, the constantly accelerating pace of development of production, the rapid change of artistic styles, the continuous renewal of conditions. Everyday life, a kaleidoscope of vagaries of fashion, a feverish pursuit of innovation in all areas of life. Today, the features of traditional culture can still be found among peoples who, for one reason or another, have not accepted the achievements of modern civilization. In many ways, the cultures of the countries of the East and a number of Muslim states continue to remain traditional. According to available forecasts in the XXI century. will be further development innovative culture associated with the technical progress of the media and communication, the improvement of biotechnology, discoveries in the field of genetic engineering, chemistry, energy, etc.

Every culture combines tradition and innovation. Depending on the ratio of traditions and innovations, traditional and innovative types of culture can be distinguished.

traditional culture characterized by the dominance of tradition over innovation. Her characteristic features:

· Strict adherence to patterns of behavior learned from childhood from the elders. Imitation and obedience ensure the preservation of social experience and its transmission from generation to generation. The decisions and instructions of the elders - the custodians of social experience - are implicitly carried out.

· A high level of normativity, covering all aspects of people's lives. Many different prohibitions are taboos that are not subject to discussion and rational justification. The dominance of the collectivist and conformist spirit in the minds of people.

Intolerance to everything alien, which came from another culture ( xenophobia). Condemnation of attempts at creativity aimed at updating traditional norms of life and activity.

AT innovative culture On the contrary, innovation dominates over tradition. It is distinguished by the following features:

Blurring the scale of life values. A variety of behavioral deviations do not meet with much indignation in society. Shattering of morality, the decline of morals.

Weakening of normativity of culture. The collectivist principle gives way to individualism. The growth of individual autonomy, the possibility of independent determination of life goals, ideals, forms and means of activity. Individual freedom is one of the most important values.

· Creation of favorable conditions for the development of creativity, social recognition of its results. Intensive development of art, science, technology. high prestige of knowledge, education. Criticality and independent thinking. Belief in the power of the human mind.

An innovative culture stimulates the development of production and consumption. Conditions are being created for the technical and socio-economic progress of society.

The general trend in the history of mankind is the movement from traditional culture to an innovative culture..

The archaic culture of primitive societies was traditional. It could not be otherwise: the arsenal of means of the struggle for existence was still too small, and the precious grains of the experience of their ancestors, which gave people the opportunity to resist in this struggle, had to be carefully preserved and used in order to survive. Archaic tribal cultures existed in an almost unchanged state for thousands of years. The cultures that arose in the states were also traditional. Ancient World- Egypt, China, India, Asia Minor. In the countries of the East and a number of Muslim states, they largely continue to remain so until the present. Features of traditional culture can be found today among peoples who, for one reason or another, have not accepted the achievements of modern civilization.

The culture of medieval Europe (including Russia) also had a traditional character. Since the Renaissance, the formation of an innovative culture has been taking place in Western countries. In modern times, religion loses its former power over the minds of people. Freethinking arises, the attitude of society towards creative activity changes. The flow of new ideas captures philosophy, art, science, technology. This leads to significant shifts in all areas of public life. By the twentieth century. an innovative type of culture becomes dominant in the Western world. Its symptoms are obvious: the scientific and technological revolution, the constantly accelerating rate of development of production, the rapid change in artistic styles, the continuous renewal of living conditions, the feverish pursuit of innovation in all areas of life. Forecasts for the 21st century promise the further development of an innovative culture associated with the technical progress of the media and communication, the improvement of biotechnology, discoveries in the field of genetic engineering, chemistry, energy, etc.

Every culture combines tradition and innovation. Traditions embody the conservative principle. They ensure the stability of the social order; without them, chaos would reign in society. Thanks to innovations, society and culture are developing, the horizons of knowledge and the spiritual world of people are expanding, and living conditions are improving. The relationship between traditions and innovations in culture develops in different ways. Traditional culture is characterized by the dominance of tradition over innovation. In an innovative culture, the opposite is true. A distinctive feature of traditional culture is the strict adherence to customs and rituals. These patterns of behavior are learned from childhood from the elders. Imitation and obedience is the most important condition that ensures their preservation and transmission from generation to generation. Another trait is honoring the elders, cat. act as custodians of the accumulated social. experience. There is a high level of normativity. It establishes many different kinds of prohibitions, taboos, cat. not subject to discussion and rational justification. Immense power has public opinion. In the minds of people dominated by a collectivist and conformist spirit, in a cat. see the manifestation of the will of the gods. Everything that violates the “precepts of fathers and grandfathers” is met with wariness and apprehension, which is why xenophobia and condemnation of any attempts at creativity are typical. This culture puts up barriers to any changes in the way of life and thinking of people. Society has remained almost unchanged for centuries. An innovation culture is receptive to innovation and dynamic. It is not preoccupied with the thrifty preservation of traditions coming from the past and easily allows all sorts of deviations from them. This leads to a weakening of the normativity of culture, blurring the scale of life values. As a result, morality is shaken, there is a decline in morality. At the same time, a person acquires autonomy and gets the opportunity to more or less independently determine his life goals and ideals. Liberal attitude to non-standard forms of thinking and behavior creates conditions for the development of various forms of creativity, the results of the cat. receive social recognition and enter into life. In these conditions there is an intensive development of art, science and technology. Knowledge, education, critical thinking and independent thinking are highly valued here. Changes in society do not scare, but delight. However, the general trend in the history of mankind is the movement from traditional culture to innovative.

Characteristics of the subculture

Every society has some set of cultural patterns that are accepted by the majority of the members of the society. This set is called the dominant culture. At the same time, society includes groups of people who develop certain cultural complexes that are characteristic only for these groups. Such cultural patterns are commonly referred to as subcultures. Subcultural trends are largely due to the desire of any culture that has the status of officialdom to fill all the compartments of life, to become universality and totality. Any unification always generates an alternative. It is permissible to talk about special codes of rules and moral norms within subcultural formations. SCs have tightness and durability, they are able to reproduce for quite a long time.

The cultural creative impulses emanating from the middle class are integrated into the general mainstream of the leading trends of the era, acting as a kind of variation, even if very bright, of the general cultural panorama. Subcultures can be distinguished according to many criteria: professional, territorial (urban, rural culture), demographic (youth, women), ethnic (ethnic minority culture), confessional, lifestyle (corporate SC). Thus, a subculture is a sovereign holistic formation within the dominant culture, distinguished by its own system of values, customs, norms, vocabulary, attributes. Subculture is a way of institutionalizing certain interests, which are infinite in culture. With the help of entering a certain subculture, an individual can accept and realize the basic values of society in different ways. Distinctive feature subcultural formations is the fact that they do not seek to impose their dominance in culture, most often, on the contrary, isolate their features from another cultural layer. Subcultures are highly dynamic elements of a culture's structure and can develop independently of the core of the dominant culture. The existence of subcultures is due to the complexity of the process of entering the world of the dominant culture (socialization), and is also associated with counteracting the desire official culture fill the entire life of society. In modern culture, the range of different subcultures is so wide that it becomes more and more problematic to single out a single generalized dominant culture.

Subk-ra - these are such yavl-I to-ry, a cat. go against, deny the values, norms, principles, ideals accepted in society. The existence of subk-ry is explained by social, ethnic, demographic differences, beings in the community. The sub-ra will develop its own special standards, patterns, its own style, its own code of rules and norms of behavior. Subk-ry in known. least autonomous, closed, no claim. in order to close the master