CONSTANTS OF THE CULTURAL CONTEXT AND TRANSITION

Text topic: Culture in Transition

Text author: Слободан Миладиновић

The transition has changed a lot in Serbia, but there are a number of constants of the cultural context that the transition has not managed to affect. It could even be said that these constants shaped the course of transition. We need to keep in mind the global value orientations that are rooted in the tradition of the social being of the Serbian people, which continually reappear in both old sense and in new forms. In the long term, these constants make any qualitative leaps difficult and give a specific form to modernization trends. These include traditionalism, authoritarianism and their various derivative forms. These are global value orientations that seek to connect the past with the future and thus ensure historical continuity of the society. They shape a society which is internally contradictory and insusceptible to innovation.