The cardinal transformation of the system of political-administrative, socio-economic and regulatory relations that has taken place over the past decades has led to public awareness of the importance of social stability. The social structure is affected by any changes that occur in the content and nature of the interaction of social strata and groups, in the level, nature and scale of inequalities, the choice of aspirations, life goals and preferences.
Social stability and a stable society
From a philosophical point of view, social stability is not only the stability of specific areas of society, but also an integral property of society, which is not the sum of the stability of all its sides. At the same time, stability implies the reproduction of social processes, structures and relations in the categories of a whole society. Mentioned reproduction should not be a thoughtless repetition of the previous one, but its change.
A stable society is a developing and at the same time stable society, characterized by well-functioning mechanisms and processes of social changes that preserve its stability. Society remains stable provided it does not remain unchanged, but develops its potential and carries out the necessary changes in society. The contradictions and problems of the development of society arise only under the condition of its stability and are resolved through evolutionary social changes.
Social stability underlies the interaction of social groups, strata, institutions and other units. The mentioned interaction is manifested both at the macro and micro levels in human relations, behavior and activities. Being an integral phenomenon, it is provided by factors and processors, simultaneously acting as conditions, premises and means.
Sociocultural environment
The main factor is the socio-cultural environment, on which the socialization of the individual and his ability to assimilate general cultural values depends. A person’s ideas about the world and its place in it are formed on its basis, it contributes to the creation of the so-called behavior model based on moral guidelines. Reforms of the social system carried out in the country in the 1990s did not go without the difficulties of changing the main components of the sociocultural environment, increasing tension in society and deepening tension in it, and the growth of uncertainty.
Ignoring the above processes can provoke a change in social structure, which can cause a civil revolution. For this reason, the study of factors influencing through the prism of the socio-cultural environment on the individual and socially significant processes is important.
Environment definition
Philosophers define a sociocultural environment in three components:
- Megacred. The social world surrounding a person and determining the socio-psychological and spiritual atmosphere of the era.
- Macroenvironment. The country and society to which the individual belongs. Macro influences culture and social conditions through certain factors - social institutions and the media.
- Microenvironment. The environment is represented by three main groups - family, friends and the workforce. Each group varies in age and cohort parameters.
The study of socio-cultural problems
The problems of the sociocultural environment are studied in science in several directions - sociological, socio-philosophical, ethnological, socio-psychological and many other aspects. The multiplicity of the definition of "socio-cultural environment" is due to this.
- The socio-cultural environment is understood as a set of generally accepted norms, values, rules, laws, technologies and scientific information that society and man have as part of society for effective interaction with the living environment.
- This term also means a phenomenon whose cultural and social processes are closely interconnected and dependent on each other.
- Under the environment also understand the communicative and information component, consisting of works of art and media products.
- The term sociocultural environment is often defined as a specific social space assigned to each individual and allowing a person to enter into cultural relations with society.
In fact, the formation and development of the sociocultural environment occurs only in the process of interaction of different people and under the influence of cultural, socio-economic and other factors. The environment itself provides conditions that motivate people to do daily activities. It is logical that it affects the preferences, aspirations and attitudes necessary for self-realization and the satisfaction of basic needs. In the event of a change in the vector of development of transformation, factors and characteristics of the sociocultural environment may undergo.
Environmental factors
Qualitative changes that have occurred in the socio-cultural environment over the past decades have affected not only the content of motivational orientation, but also the structure of the ideas of individuals and entire groups about key aspects of society. This is explained by the fact that social and cultural meanings and the meaning of all actions of a person and his life are caused by three types of factors.
Firstly, the factor of the socio-cultural environment is the material conditions on which it depends on what people can do to realize their own goals, needs and interests, and the specific forms and boundaries of human self-realization in certain historical periods. Secondly, there are methods of organizing and regulating sociocultural life, developed and established as a result of social practice, among which are norms, institutions, standards of action, interactions and behavior. No culture will function without such sociocultural entities. Thirdly, these are individual personality characteristics that affect a person’s abilities and tendencies when he chooses his future life path in specific conditions.
Individual development
The state of the modern sociocultural environment is largely considered the result of processes taking place in society, reflecting in itself all the conflicts and problems of a single society. At the same time, the environment allows us to overcome these difficulties.
Several factors influence personality development, one of which is biological. It includes features and characteristics due to the genotype. Accordingly, the biological factor, as well as the signs and characteristics with which a person was born into the world, cannot be changed. The second factor affects everything that surrounds the individual. Environmental factor allows you to develop the potential given to man by a biological factor. For a person in a sociocultural environment, it is important that there is an environment around that can change the mentioned environment.
In modern philosophy, the environment is perceived as a decisive, but by no means the only factor influencing individual development. The emphasis is primarily on the interdependent and spatial-volumetric relationship of the individual with the world around him.
Socio-cultural environment and education
The sociocultural educational environment in modern philosophy is characterized as a substance with certain properties that contribute to the interaction of different objects.
According to scientists, the main mechanisms of environmental influence are as follows:
- The environment creates opportunities for different types of activities, self-realization and self-presentation.
- The environment provides a choice and creates role models.
- The environment is characterized by imposing sanctions for compliance or non-compliance with its requirements. In the context of the sociocultural environment, their features are that they do not apply to a specific subject, and the requirements themselves are often characterized by uncertainty, which affects the regulation of human activity.
Elements of the environment
The socio-cultural environment includes three mandatory elements: subjects of active sociocultural activity, represented by social groups, institutions and individuals; conditions, opportunities and factors for its implementation; all stages of the process.
The socio-cultural environment is divided into a macroenvironment and a microenvironment. Within the framework of the first, factors, institutions and laws of a state scale work; in the second, the activities of small groups and individuals included in them, including their sociocultural environment.
Effect on children
Within the socio-cultural environment, various initiative-creative formations function. An important role in them is played by subcultures that are in continuous interaction with the macroenvironment and form an independent basis for connecting with it. This allows you to activate the creative potential of each person. For this reason, many scientists believe that the development of the sociocultural environment, in particular - the formation of society, is influenced by the younger generation.
Subculture contributes to the formation and development of the child. It is characterized by a combination of a focus on socialization and the human world with the affirmation and individualization of a unique "I". During this period, the sociocultural environment of children becomes dependent on peer society.
The relations determined by the socio-cultural environment consist of a huge number of contacts with nature, the social world, the field of art, and interactions with the immediate social environment. The totality of these relationships affects the creative abilities of the child through psychological and pedagogical mechanisms.
In the process of creativity and upbringing, the sociocultural environment influences personality factors that act as an incentive for further movement and development of a person.
Family and socio-cultural educational environment
The formation of the child as an individual takes place in the family - the most important educational institution in society. In it, the child is socialized, formed as a person and assimilates the sociocultural experience. An important factor in social formation is the socio-cultural environment of the family.
The socio-cultural environment of the family is the culture of the lifestyle, relationships, interactions and behavior that has developed in the family. The socio-pedagogical potential of the environment in which the child grows depends on it - the possibilities and their sources.
Family characteristics as environments
The following phenomena are characteristic of the potential of the family as an educational environment:
- The way of the family, it is also the established order in the family. Relations between family members, norms and rules of behavior, microclimate, social and spiritual development of the child as an individual depend on him.
- Microclimate. The psychological background on which the child is brought up and the life of the whole family passes.
- Living conditions. Helps to meet the spiritual and vital needs of man.
- Family culture and its role in the formation of a sense of beauty, personality culture.
- Pedagogical knowledge of parents used in parenting.
- The culture of parents' behavior, their relationships, which are role models for the child.
- Family traditions that shape the culture and image of the family.
- The culture of rest, forming the culture of leisure of a growing person.
Functions of the Sociocultural Institute of the Family
At the same time, the family performs social and pedagogical functions. They include:
- Reproductive. It consists in procreation.
- Socialization and resocialization. The acquisition and assimilation of social experience and the formation on its basis of the individual personality.
- Educational.
- Economic and economic. Providing and satisfying the spiritual and material values of all family members.
- Recreational. Material and moral support for each member of the family.
- Communicative. Communication in the family and preparing a child based on it for life in society.
