Page 77 - 6241

1. Tendencies of cultural universalization and its forms

In order to overcome the global problems of mankind, one must solve the
most important problem – to bridge the cultural gap diving cultures, colliding
civilizations (by S. Huntington) and establish a dialogue of cultures on the basis of
intensive development of intercultural communications. The latter should be both

bilateral and multilateral and implemented in all spheres of culture, taking into
account the identity of cultures and the tendencies of universalization of the world
cultural space.

"Universalization of the cultural space" is the process of integration of the
economic, political, spiritual and informational life of society in most countries of
the world. These processes are objective in nature and lead to an increase in the

mutual influence of cultures, the formation of cultural norms, values that are
common to most cultures.
The first form of universalization is modernization. In a broad sense,

modernization is a sharp renewal of culture in the spirit of new values, its response
to any demands of time and society. In the narrow sense, it is a process aimed at
crossing the distance with so-called "developed" countries. An example of
modernization is industrialization that is the transition from traditional to capitalist

culture. There are two types of cultural modernization: organic, carried out
naturally in the process of historical evolution of society; and inorganic, which

requires purposeful influence from the outside, introduction of new cultural values,
lifestyle. Initially, "innate" and "alien" cultural facts can exist as subcultures, also,
"alien" can become an anti-culture. In the conditions of modernization there are
transitional forms of culture, which include both traditional and borrowed values.

But western values are not always useful for non-western cultures.
Therefore, today the high significance of traditional culture for the sustainability of
society is recognized. In addition, it is impossible to liken different social values to

the values of modernization. Understanding the contradictory nature of the
modernization process, culturologists are developing integrated concepts that
foresee the synthesis of modern technological rational values with traditional ones.

The major thing in the "modernization" of culture is the reliance on its own forces
in the process of "new" opening of their native cultural values as a legitimate basis,
for example, socio-economic transformations. In this regard, relevance of the ideas

of S. Eisenstadt, who believed that the synthesis proceeds in different ways in
different spheres of society, is significant. On a deeper level, modernization must
be part of the economic sphere itself, and traditional values must prevail in the
social and spiritual world (e.g. in Japan, China).

76