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Adaptation of sociocultural communities in transition periods of modernization: a conceptual framework for studying

a Russian region

Poplavskiy R.O., Templing V.I., Cherepanov M.S., Shisheliakina A.L. (Tyumen, Russian Federation)

page 144–151

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Modernization paradigm is one of the most authoritative methodological paradigms in the social sciences which explain patterns of human development. Being formed in the second half of the XX century and having undergone a long path of development by now, it focuses on explaining socio-economic, socio-cultural and socio-political changes. The main research trends within this paradigm are verification of the former and creation of new theories of modernization on the basis of data analysis covering changes in dozens of countries over a period of several decades, and specification of «big theories» by means of historical, sociological, cultural and other studies at the local level. The purpose of this work is to develop a conceptual framework for the study of modernization within the second trend. Taking into account the preceding researches, we suggest a conceptual framework for studying the mechanisms of socio-cultural changes in Western Siberia during the XVII–XXI centuries. Historiographic analysis of bibliography on the subject of modernization has revealed both a consensus formed up to date considering interpretation of this concept, and a wide variability of approaches to the study of the process itself, conditioned by methodological solutions on the spatial object and the societal complexity of modernization. This, in turn, determines the diversity of periodizations of this process. The authors of the article outline the boundaries of their conceptual framework for the study of socio-cultural changes in Western Siberia during the XVII–XX centuries and define modernization as a process of changes in the basic spheres of social life (socio-economic, socio-cultural, socio-political) which leads to the expansion of human opportunities. In this regard, socio-cultural changes are considered as a part of complex modernization and they are understood as a change in values, norms and practices of communication. Socio-cultural communities acting on the territory of Western Siberia are defined as a social object of modernization. The process of transformations in values, norms and practices of communication at the level of sociocultural communities under the influence of changing conditions which provide human security (socioeconomic changes, wars, ecological disasters) is explained by the authors as cultural adaptation. Transitional periods in West Siberia's modernization from the XVII till the XX centuries are determined in order to chronologically focus the research on cultural adaptation at the level of sociocultural communities.

Key words: modernization, transitional periods of modernization, sociocultural communities, cultural adaptation.

Tyumen Scientific Centre of Siberian Branch RAS, Malygina st., 86, Tyumen, 625003, Russian Federation