Academic literature on the topic 'Art, Modern – 21st century – Political aspects'

The research deals with phenomenon of mass art (mass culture) as one of the components of mass art modern world. An attempt to identify mass culture, mass art as a phenomenon is made and main approaches to its treatment and different aspects of its study in contemporary science are analysed. The first part of the work offers an overview of researchers’ views on the problem of definition of mass culture, mass art phenomenon and reveals ways of self-identification of it in the course of its development. Main features of mass culture, mass art are also studied. The second part of the work is devoted to the analysis of main approaches to the study of mass art and mass culture in early and in modern scientific works. As we see this phenomenon is widely examined by representatives of different research schools and scientific spheres. Philosophers, political scientists, writers, art critics, culturologists are involved in this process. The majority of the twentieth century researchers perceived mass culture as negative aspect of cultural social development because of its low level of quality and as a part of bourgeois culture focused on manipulating the minds of the masses. On the other hand the 21st century researchers realizing all the negative moments (idolatry, personality levelling) consider mass culture and mass art as natural necessary phenomenon of modern life, a base for development of professional art, a product of modern technology, show-business. The analyses of the phenomenon of mass art, mass culture gives us the picture of variety in opinions and approaches to this phenomenon as well as of the great number of aspects of scientific interest to the problem. In the majority of cases researchers’ concepts of mass culture, mass art clearly reflects the ideas of the periods they belong to.

Most modern challenges facing society are shaped by the political elite and the transience of political processes that drive its actions. Political realities daily challenge full-fledged development of modern society. Political pragmatism which is reflected in the nature of political decisions made by the elite, increasingly goes beyond what is permissible and turns into political cynicism. Of course transience of political cynicism’s spread cannot be called the 21st century’s phenomenon.

Reflection on the scientific level of new media practices and systematization of a positive experience is impossible without identifying and describing the problem components and contradictions that characterize the modern informa­tion space in Russia or its particular regions. First of all, it determines the fact that the first decades of the 21st century marked the beginning of a new stage in the study of rapidly transforming media systems. Secondly, when studying the impact of these processes on the representatives of modern Russian society as a whole and its groups, the digital revolution assumes that not only the mo­bilization resources of social theories and actual practices are defined, but also predetermines the formation of a legal framework for the mass media, which must meet the requirements of time and the demands of society. The third part of the monograph “Mass Media as a Mediator of Communicative-Cultural Memory” is devoted to this problem. The legal field of journalism of the digital age and the legal aspect of the identity of Russians are considered in the context of their mutual influence. The axiological context of ethical and philosophical dominance in modern media texts and the analysis of the role of the media in maintaining positive ethnic identity has allowed the authors to consider several problematic nodes of actual practice at various levels of social dynamics. In particular, it has been proved that since it is through culture, as well as through media culture as a special type of culture, that the individual is socialized and society thus largely regulates the behaviour of individuals and groups, the consideration of culture as an Univer­sum opens wide prospects for research into the functioning of journalism as a social institution under the new conditions. The results of the sociological research carried out by the authors testi­fied that professional activity for the overwhelming number of respondents in conditions of active influence of the global network and possibilities of new information technologies became inseparable with personal intentions. They are reflected in their public discourse, the product of a more or less argumentative discussion of a fact, a problem situation, which is based on an openly broadcast text. It has been proved that modern practice allows the public discourse of a journalist, which influences the formation of primarily communicative memory of media audience representatives, to be differentiated into three levels: com­municative-event, communicative-containing and communicative-predictive. Today, mass media should be not only an information resource but also a platform (channel, tool) for presenting the whole range of opinions and de­veloping various initiatives of active representatives of this or that societies. Information activities of non-professionals in the media sphere, most often referred to as civic journalism, should in practice become an important factor in the development of conventional (contractual) and communication (dialogue) strategies. At the same time, the mythologization of reality, even via ethnic ste­reotypes broadcast by some media and bloggers, is a complex and controversial formation that manifests itself specifically at different levels of mass conscious­ness. It can contribute both to the emergence of new images, different views of reality, and the accumulation of incorrect opinions, false ideas, manifestations of aggression. The result is social, cultural, religious and political myths, sometimes even leading to various antisocial actions. Therefore, it is concluded that professional media activity requires from communicators, along with ethical and legal enlightenment and active life po­sition manifestation, the skills of creative (non-traditional, non-stereotypical) information expression in media texts.

Medical geographers employ geographical concepts and techniques to study issues related to disease and health. In its early stages of development as a distinct geographic subdiscipline, from the 1950s and into the 1980s, medical geography focused on disease ecology and health-care delivery as topics and spatial analysis as technique. These three areas have maintained their importance and research productivity within them has increased over the last decade. At the same time, since the 1980s, medical geography has evolved into new areas of concern. Both those who continue to call themselves medical geographers and those who do not identify closely with the subdiscipline have moved toward a geography of health that is less concerned with disease and the medical world and more with well-being and social models of health and health care (Rosenberg 1998). Health geography is characterized by an emphasis on place and place meaning, grounding in socio-cultural theory, and a critical perspective on health issues (Kearns and Moon 2000). The evolution of medical geography led to lively debates in the mid-1990s (Kearns 1993; Mayer and Meade 1994; Litva and Eyles 1995; Philo 1996) that have been put into historical perspective by Del Casino and Dorn (1998). By the end of the 1990s, the dichotomy between old and new medical geographers constructed during the debate was giving way to complementarity and synthesis. As examples, disease ecology was opened out to include political economic concerns (Mayer 1996) and multi-level modeling combined aspects of spatial analysis with a focus on place (Duncan et al. 1996; Verheij 1999). The structure of this chapter results from a decision made by the Medical Geography Specialty Group (MGSG) to base its contribution to this volume on papers presented at two special sessions on “Retrospect and Prospect” during the 1998 Association of American Geographers meetings in Boston. The six presenters were Michael Greenberg on disease ecology, Ellen Cromley on health services, Gerard Rushton on spatial analysis, Susan Elliott on women’s health, Jennifer Wolch on mental health, and Joseph Scarpaci on the developing world.

As globalization continues to be a reality around the world, the rules and context of business activity have been affected. Globalization increases the complexity of businesses and drives managers to be globally oriented. With globalization, people from various cultural backgrounds get together virtually and interact. National boundaries of countries are becoming less relevant. More significantly, the impact of technology and particularly information and communication technology (ITC), is the other characteristic aspect of the 21st century. ITC is essential in today's business and modern globalization as business partners are constantly in communication around the globe. This chapter discusses the effect of globalization and the global business environment as it is shaped by various economic and politic-economic blocks around the world.

The issues associated with this study are both physical and intellectual, as are the factors in urban development. The correlation of known data from inscriptions (epigraphy), literary references (ancient history and more recent government and church documents), evidence from destroyed and rebuilt buildings (archaeology), and modern scientific and technical findings (several kinds of engineering and subfields of geology such as seismology and sedimentology) can give a more complete picture of each city’s development than does one kind of information alone. Most of the necessary site-specific studies, however, have not been done. Our problem parallels the study of global warming, where precise records of weather events have been kept for less than 200 years. Urban elements must be studied by experts in that building type and in social expression. Ramparts need more study by historians of warfare, theaters by scholars of drama and literature, stadia by those who study the history of sports, plumbing by hydraulic, civil, and fluids engineers, and temples by historians of comparative religion. Insights into institutional and political aspects of ancient studies and the historiography of all the disciplines involved in ancient studies would be both useful and fascinating (Kardulias 1994). The benefits and difficulties of interdisciplinary research are clearer now to us than when we started. In considering the physical setting and geological processes in the Mediterranean area, is description sufficient or should scholars strive for explanation, even if this involves theory building? “In much of art history and classical archaeology traditional practices have continued without explicit theoretical support” (McNally 1985; but cf. Preziosi 1989). The theorists of archaeology and urban history desire comprehensive and precise theories—even in the absence of enough data to make that possible. Some data may be rescued by followers of one discipline after being ignored or thrown out by followers of another. The awareness of theoretical difficulty is part of the increase in consciousness typical of the second half of the twentieth century when we began to question the nature of both knowledge and culture.

This article covers some new forms of publicness in the field of art culture of the Russian city of Perm, e.g. dramatics as a performance in a street environment, and synthetic museum-theatrical form under the conditions of a stage box. The study was accomplished mainly via culturological method. At one time theatre left the urban environment, but in the 21st century theatrical forms have begun to permeate urban space again, the statement primarily concerns site-specific theatre. This is equivalent to the birth of new theatrical-city publicity, a new modality of the interpenetration of the pub

Data-music reflects the ubiquity of data in modern society. Composers have not engaged widely with the opportunities opened up by this, despite the chance to overcome a gulf between academic art music and social engagement. Their reluctance might be traced to the challenge of reconciling abstract data and concrete sound, in political implications, and in technological barriers in computer music. The present paper argues that socially relevant music composition for the 21st century can adopt a programme of sonification grounded in politically acute data. As examples of such practice, two compos