No 3 (2009)

A number of new contradictions between the personality and society, including the accentuation of the problem of human being's identity and self-identification have been engendered by globalization. Whereas formerly the individual enjoyed a stable set of norms, values, and motivations determining his identity structure, nowadays social institutions bearing responsibility for the stable identity development are experiencing transformations and fail to accomplish their functions to the full extent or are actually in complete collapse. The social, economic and political status of woman has undergone the most drastic transformations resulting in pivotal changes of her identity structure and identification processes. Under the contemporary circumstances the old-fashioned modernist views and ideas about the role, status, and position of women, the traditional patterns of behaviour and value judgments turn out to be inappropriate. One can state that the classical ideas of women's self-identification are old and tired version and now it is time for a new apprehension of this significant process. The problem of identity and self-identification has been handled in a particular way both in the framework of postmodernist theories and in terms of contemporary feminist conceptions. The theorists of postmodernist feminism have put forward a sufficiently interesting and important project reconsidering female/gender identity structure as well as female identification/self-identification processes.

The article provides the analysis of the cognitive potential of colour tests in sociology. Nowadays colour tests which are extensively used in the framework of psychology find practically no application in sociological research due to a number of their peculiarities. However, it should be recognized that such tests as colour attitude test demonstrate the richest cognitive potential for the identification of value preferences and social attitudes system at the level of the unconscious of various social groups. The methodological experiment carried out by the author has proved demonstratively the feasibility and high efficiency of colour attitude tests application in the framework of empirical sociological research.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the emergence and the key trends of Italian gastronomic system development considered in terms of sociology and culturology as one of the components of national identity. National identity arises from the awareness of ethnic background which is manifested by the artefacts of material culture, i.e. in the context involved by the standard set of ingredients typical of the Italian cuisine. The «regional-unitary» dichotomy crucial for Italian people is analyzed in detail and the Italian state is shown to have been able to transform the regional diversity initially standing in the way of national unification into a smart marketing ploy positioning regional agricultural product as the national wealth and property quite suitable for export.

The introduction of higher professional education on a fee-paying basis and educational service market establishment were expected to improve the coordination of institutional interaction among the major actors. The article offers the interpretation of the empirical data providing the opportunity to estimate the extent to which the introduction of higher professional education on a paying basis in Russia gets in line with the initial expectations.

Social projecting has been gaining in a particular importance in the contemporary society since it is with it that the innovative activity in all the domains of society's vital functions is associated. Social projecting in education system is a form of social and cultural projecting, the main stages and distinctive features of which are analyzed in this very item.

The axis of the publication is the endeavor involving the description of the situation pertaining to the status of social sciences and humanities in the contemporary Russian society. The author challenges the reader to the examination of the issue of the attitude to the bearers of «humanities scholarship» within the public consciousness of various epochs, the status of humanities scholars in the specific social and historical contexts enduring persistent transformations. The reasons for the opposition between the cultural pattern «pertaining specifically to the humanities» and the «instrumental and technocratic» one giving rise to (legitimizing) contrasting modes of world outlook and social practice strategies are highlighted.