The Concept of Culture in Sociology

The term culture is characterized by polysemy and is used to determine the processes of spiritual, intellectual, aesthetic development; Forms and products of spiritual, intellectual and artistic activity; Description of the state of society, based on order, humanity and law.

The concept of culture in sociology is very broad, it implies the study of it in all the diversity of the listed aspects.

The concept of culture in sociology differs among researchers in a number of characteristics, which creates the prerequisites for identifying the following approaches to its definition.

The technological approach considers culture in the broadest sense as a separate level of production, as well as all levels of reproduction of social life in all its forms. The activity approach is an aggregate of various forms and types of spiritual and material activity and the results of this activity. Value approach - as the sphere of spiritual life, in which culture is a system of values, standards and beliefs, as well as the means of expression of these values. The integrated approach believes that the culture consists of explicit and implicit models of human behavior that are formed and transmitted by means of symbols, while the essence of it is formed by traditional value ideas that have historically passed through time.

The concept of culture in sociology, its role, place in the life of people has different orientations in two currents. The first approach on this issue is evolutionary (Johann Gottfried Herder). In it, culture is seen as a decisive factor in the improvement and evolution of a person who is able to turn it into a creative and harmonious being. The second approach is critical. He interprets culture as a special means of enslaving man and translating it into an instrument of forces hostile to man.

Leading sociologists considered the concept of culture as follows. Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that life in the bosom of nature is the only correct one, and its culture distorts. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that man is essentially uncultured, and culture is called upon for his enslavement and oppression of natural forces.

Oswald Spengler believed that every culture has its own destiny, which ends with the development of civilization. Ferdinand Tennis brought out the theory of the impossibility of opposing culture and civilization. Jose Ortega y Gasset is the author of a tradition of cultural pessimism, which means that a person is an element of the masses and his behavior is herd. The crisis of modern civilization is connected with the massization of culture.

Russian cultural researchers interpreted the notion of culture in sociology dual. On the one hand, the evolutionary theory developed, according to which the progress of society is determined by the development of culture), and on the other - criticism.

Elements of culture in sociology are: values, language, norms, customs, traditions, customs. The most productive elements of culture are concepts or concepts (which order the world of people), relationships (allocate connections between people), values (show people's beliefs) and rules (regulate people's behavior).

Types of culture in sociology are distinguished the following, depending on certain criteria.

By regional or geographical sign: culture of the West, East, Europe, Africa, America, etc.

On the chronological basis: ancient culture, the culture of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, new and modern times.

According to the type of social production: material (everything that relates to the environment of a person and the satisfaction of his needs, the technological side of life: the means of production, tools, power structures, political parties, etc.), spiritual (includes subjective aspects, Ideas, values, and behavioral patterns emerging from them) and social (relations between people, statuses, social institutions).