Dmytrenko Christina

Dragomanov National Pedagogical University,

Institute of Sociology, Psychology and Social Communications, student

(Ukraine, Kyiv)

Pet’ko Lyudmila, Scientific supervisor,

Ph.D., Associate Professor,

Dragomanov National Pedagogical University (Ukraine, Kyiv)

CULTURE VALUES AND MODERN SOCIETY

Дмитренко Кристина

Национальный педагогический университет имени М.П.Драгоманова, Институт социологии, психологии и социальных коммуникаций,

(Украина, г.Киев)

Петько Людмила, научный руководитель,

к.пед.н., доцент НПУ имени М.П.Драгоманова (Украина, г.Киев)

КУЛЬТУРНІ ЦІННОСТІ ТА СУЧАСНЕ СУСПІЛЬСТВО

We are living in a modern society today. Modernity can be defined as connecting to the new and contemporary, rejecting the old.

The EU – Ukraine Association Agenda is a practical tool to prepare for the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU until it enters into force, cooperation within the framework of which has been maintained since 2009.

In order to attract Ukrainian cultural figures to cultural cooperation programmes on 5–6 March 2012 the first seminar in the framework of the Eastern Partnership Program "Culture" was held in Kyiv. Representatives of 15 projects, the European Commission and the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, Embassies of Belarus, Armenia and Georgia were invited. The total amount of grants allocated by the European Union for implementation of projects is 8.2 million Euro [2].

According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: [5] the word modern was, first recorded in 1585 in the sense "of present or recent times". In Latin modernus, "modern," which is derived from Latin modo in the sense "just now," the English word modern (first recorded at the beginning of the 16th century) was not originally concerned with anything that could later be considered old-fashioned. Obviously, modernity often is used interpreted in rejecting the old-fashioned ideas and traditions. In the cultural and social contexts, modernity is also interlinked with the values of equality, freedom, feminism and democracy [3].

Modernity is related to "forms of social life or organizations which appeared in Europe from approximately the seventeenth century and further, more or less throughout the whole world [1, 166]".

Pankaj Jain gives such characteristic of modern values: 1) Social Equality (one of the popular assumptions is that modernity provided equal status to downtrodden sections of the masses. Before the advent of modernity, people in weaker section of the society were controlled and oppressed by the landlords and the religious leaders. With the modernity, all the sections of the society have equal rights; 2) Democracy (another popular assumption is that modernity gave rise to democracy ending centuries of autocracy and therefore the governments for the masses, of the masses and by the masses was installed in many parts of the world. This gave tremendous power to masses in choosing their own rulers and removing the ones they don’t like in the elections); 3) Feminism (in the modern society, women are seen more liberated with their earning capacities and their role as career women rather than housewives or homemakers); 4) Science, Technology and Rationality (modernity has negated the role of philosophical thinking and glorified the reason-based thinking. Modernity also launched the era of science and technology with thousands of new inventions and discoveries about outer world and human body); 5) Environment protection (it is popular notion that modernity also led to the awareness about environment protection and animal rights) [1].

The complexity and multisignificance of the concept of 'culture', has resulted, in social theory, in various approaches in comprehension and determination of this idea. In the new social context, scientific knowledge, high education, information, engineering, technology are becoming strategic social forces which enable cultural changes and creation of a planetary culture [4, 23–24].

One reason people differ in their behaviour is that they have different cultures. Culture reflects the ideas and meanings we share and everything that is human made. In evolutionary terms, culture gives us a tremendous vantage over all other organism. It is our social legacy [6].

In conclusion, in December 2012 during the 8^th meeting of the Eastern Partnership Platform 4 “Contacts between People” (Brussels) issues on the including of the Pilot project “Rehabilitation of the cultural heritage of historical cities” to the working programme of the Platform 4 for the yeas 2012–2013 with the allocation of respective funding were discussed. However, the European Commission did not take the final decision on financing the mentioned project [2, 61].

Bibliography

1. Giddens Anthony. Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives. – London: Profile, 1999.

2. Information “On implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agenda in 2011–2012”. – Kyiv, January, 2013 [Web site]. – Access mode: www.kmu.gov.ua/.../Information_on_EU-Ukra...

3. Pankaj Jain. Did Modern Values Enrich Cultural values? – May 12, 2004 [Web site]. – Access mode: http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_040512.htm

4. Petkovic J. Traditional values and modernization challenges in forming urban and rural culture / FACTA UNIVERSITATIS. Series: Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology, 2007. – Vol. 6. – No 1. – PP. 23–39

[Web site]. – Access mode: http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/pas/pas2007/pas2007-02nn.pdf

5. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin's premiere dictionary by Editors of The American Heritage^® Dictionaries 2006 [Web site]. – Access mode: http://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=441553

6. Wahab E.O. Causes and Consequences of Rapid Erosion of Cultural Values in a Traditional African Society / E.O. Wahab, S.O. Odunsi, O.E. Ajiboye / Department of Sociology, Lagos State University, Nigeria, 2012 [Web site]. – Access mode: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/janthro/2012/327061/