Texts

TRANSITION OF CULTURE

/in /by

The text points at the complex inadequacy of the meaning of the concept of “culture”. However, the dependency of this concept on the context does not diminish an important role of culture in influencing worldviews. Cumbersome economic and political conditions reflect on the state of culture, while the awareness of the state of culture allows deeper consideration of possibilities for social change. The principle of modern capitalist production stands in opposition to this, as it has its origins in trading books, as a production of culture. Since the production of culture is mainly profit oriented, it is an obstacle to the creative shaping of culture. This is even more a problem in marginalized cultures, such as the culture in Serbia, which is constantly exposed to the tides of transition – from the pre-modern age, into the tradition of Christianity, than across the atheistic modernization of communism to the globalization era. Hence, the actual transition of culture in Serbia has become a part of the global cultural transition. It is at the crossroads between the production of culture, with profit standing as central value, and the creation of culture that supports sustainable and humane life on Earth.

EXPERTISE – THE ISSUE OF OCCUPATIONAL FOLKLORE IN SERBIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

/in /by

Understanding folklore in the light of Dundes’ definition and Jones’ observations regarding occupational folklore gave an impetus for analysing professional folklore in the domain of culture in Serbia. According to a leading paradigm in cultural policy theory, development of culture in its widest sense (as suggested in Tylor’s definition) depends on the development of culture in its narrow sense (institutions, organizations, differently connected individuals). This case study was based upon researches conducted in 2009 and 2013 in Serbian institutes for protection of cultural heritage. These researches provided data on human resources of these institutes. Expertise exams, as obligation for new employees, are analysed as a step in up-building of occupational folklore and idioculture. From the corpus of professional folklore two „myths“ are extracted and analysed as mirrors of the past and present situation in the field of protection of tangible cultural heritage: the „myth“ of (old) experts and the „myth“ of „bad“ institutes. These myths are seen as reflection of current position of the domain of culture in contemporary Serbia.

IMPACTS OF CULTURE AND WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS

/in /by

There have been numerous economic crises in capitalism, both in the period of its rise and in all stages its development. Market economy is a risk per se, so that the risk is immanent to market economy and is in fact its middle name. The first responses to the global economic crisis mainly dealt with the failings of the liberal market, not with the state flaws and its role in market control. However, the market was not so liberal as it was debated during the birth of the crisis and certainly not the main cause of the crisis, since the state influence on the market reflects not only in regulations, but also in economic measures. Since market mechanisms also operate in culture, the concept of culture was relativized, the world of culture was identified with the consumer world, and the economic values gained importance in culture. As an expression of human creativity, culture has not taken a course in its development to change the world, but rather to profit – just as any other field of human activity. This paper studies the relationship between economic crisis and culture and their interdependence. Understanding of the relationship between economy and culture may assist in the fashioning of decisions that may be of influence in these areas.

PARTICIPATIVE PRACTICES IN CONTEMPORARY SERBIAN ART

/in /by

Participative practices in art serve as an example of approximation and of different connection of art and culture, ie art and various social registers. These practices most directly recognize one of the key features of contemporary art – disapperance of the visible, tangible differences between artistic and non-artistic actions. Participative practices take on social patterns from various social and cultural registers, with an artistic purpose and the aim to critically correlate with the society, local environments, culture, in short, with the political aspects of life. This type of functioning inherent to participative practices was analyzed on the example of contemporary Serbian art, with a short historic overview to avantguard and neo-avantgarde art, as well as actual theoretical denotations (K. Bishop, B. Groy and N. Bourieau).

SYMBOLIC BOUNDARIES – THE ROLE OF CULTURAL FACTORS IN BUILDING, MAINTAINING AND CHANGING SOCIAL DIFFERENCES AND STRUGGLES

/in /by

The author uses the concept of symbolic boundaries to analyze cultural origins of social divisions. The analysis begins with consideration of Bourdieu’s idea of how cultural styles correlate with class formations, and is followed by a discussion regarding a strict division of culture into two poles – the popular and the elite culture. The main theories and typologies of taste are presented at the end of the paper, together with a discussion about taste-based social differences and the structuring of cultural features into stylistically coherent forms – lifestyles.

CONSUMER SOCIETY AND FASHION

/in /by

The aim of this paper is to present the development of the consumer society between the late 19th century and today and to demonstrate the influence fashion has had on the entire process. The first part of the paper offers definitions and arguments concerning the very concept of consumer society. The second part of the paper demonstrates how development of the bourgeois society triggered the need for excessive consumption and all other accompanying social changes in the behaviour of consumers brought on by the new age. The conclusions of the paper involve an argument casting aside the viewpoint that it was actually consumerism that has brought on the democratisation of societies, as well as rejecting the idea that we make free choices when purchasing goods available on the market, while it proves we are under an enormous influence from the environments we originate from and also that our decisions are far from being spontaneous.

THE NORM, WOMEN WRITERS AND THE TRUTH

/in /by

In this paper the author classifies and explains some of numerous examples of marginalisation of significant Serbian female authors from the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century – Milica Stojadinović Srpkinja, Draga Gavrilović, Mileva Simić, Danica Bandić, Milka Grgurova, Jelena J. Dimitrijević. Their works were negatively evaluated by the dominant intepreters, academic professors and the historians of Serbian literature. Contrary to expectations their criticism was not supported by reasoning. Historians also ignored relevant historical events. To to acknowledge a few female authors meant to present them inadequately, mainly as beautiful women or spinsters. Some other discriminatory facts in presenting female writers were connected with the length of analyses, attitude and the language. The dominant interpreters usually named incomplete list of women authors’ works, regularly omitting their translated pieces. There was even an open statement that the author’s gender was a starting point for attributing discriminatory values to male or female authors, in favor of the male ones. As one of the most manipulative strategies, one can point out the obstructions to research and publishing of women authors.

A CRISIS OF CHRISTIAN IDENTITY AND A CRISIS OF CULTURE

/in /by

A key issue for every man/woman is creation of their own identity. In determining a human being, his/her attitudes to faith, moral and culture as constants of their spiritual and cultural individualization are of crucial importance. A crisis of Christianity over the last centuries was reflected in the crisis of culture in the regions where Christianity was dominant, but consequently, worldwide, wherever it cast its influence. The historical “failure” of Christianity was not only a consequence of outwardly factors – Church missions in a world deeply rooted in a religiously-magical understanding of God, but also a product of inner weaknesses of Christians, of their divisions and the absence of an authentic understanding of the Christ’s person, of the liturgical life of the Church and therefore in everyday life of the faithful, especially among the Christians in the West. The lack of “critical mass” of those truly faithful among Orthodox Christians, which was not only evident at the time of the Communist regime but also in the period that preceded it, brought about the “crash of traditional values” and proved to be the main cause of the marginalization of the Christian lifestyle and culture. A need for constant rethinking of one’s identity is the key to understanding a Christian attitude to any social phenomena or culture. Since spiritual and social relations are governed by the rule that no one pours new wine into old wineskins, it implies that Christianity, being wine of eternity, adds flavor to all times and to all human endeavors to change their lifestyle, find a pristine cause of being and true values. In these days of globalization, we witness that the Christians from the West keep losing their own identity as they get lost in “the world trends”, while the Orthodox Christians remain isolated in their tradition and unwilling to show any flexibility to change. Modern Christianity lacks the faith and experience of the Early Church that used to be capable of turning the world crisis into its own triumph – a triumph of the entire world over weaknesses gnawing at it. Just as people often turn God’s good intentions into evil ones, whereas God turns their evil into good ones, authentic Christians also perceive every crisis as a challenge to perform greater good. This is truly the deepest meaning of the idea of κρίσις – testing, reasoning, and making critical decisions. Therefore, each crisis, seen from a Christian perspective, is not only a hint of the doom that is to befall the world submerged in sin, but also a chance for a change of that regression and for salvation from a spiritual abyss, leading to a new era of Divine Grace.

SOCIAL MEANING OF AWARDS IN CULTURE AND THEIR AMBIVALENT EFFECT ON CREATORS

/in /by

Awards in culture are considered a significant medium of cultural policy. They affect creators in a stimulating way, encourage more people to become acquainted with a certain art piece or author, favour certain art forms or art in general, and often have an economic component as well. This paper tries to explore in greater depth the encouraging effect that awards have on the artist and connect it to the widely accepted purposes of the cultural policy of a society in transition.

ROLE OF CREATIVITY IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY OF NIKOLAI BERDYAEV

/in /by

In introduction, the paper determines an anthropological propositions of Nikolai A. Berdyaev’s philosophy underlying his teachings on creativity. According to him, a man is not just an object of nature, but its supernatural subject. He is a measure of all things, a microcosm. Next follows deliberation about the nature of cognition where Berdyaev equates a gnoseology with the creativity act, because only acting can provide knowledge. Further on, in the section about creativity, Berdyaev diverges from the patristic, negative anthropology based on atonement of original sin, and directs toward a positive man’s mission that is not only to create, but to enrich „life“ of the God Himself. Finally, his learning about philosophy of history is presented: people preparing for the coming of the „Kingdom of God“ through creativity (in the form of a metahistorical order) are also created as free persons. Therefore, the process of world „objectivization“ is canceled, and the „second coming of Christ“ is prepared.