Гуревич П.С. Достоинства и изъяны креативности в образовании

В статье анализируется либеральная модель образования, которая сегодня становится предметом острой критики со стороны учёных, специалистов и педагогов. Возникнув в период раннего капитализма, эта модель увлечённо выстраивала схему свободного образования. Она исходила из представления о том, что школы и вузы должны приучать своих выпускников к демократии и свободе поведения. Эмблемой такого образования стала креативность. Предполагалось, что ученикам нужны не знания, а способность свободного, критического мышления. Творческий подход, конечно, крайне важен в обучении. Но прежде всего оно должно давать реальные знания. Сегодня очевидно, что копирование европейских образовательных реформ снижает качество образования. Методы анализа проблемы строятся на историзме. Экспертиза показывает, что либеральная модель образования навязывалась западным странам без серьёзного научного и социального изучения её основательности. Использован компаративистский метод, позволяющий сравнивать две модели образования – либеральную и консервативную. Новизна статьи заключается в том, что сопоставление двух моделей образования – либеральной и консервативной – проводится впервые в отечественной литературе. Либеральная модель обучения длительное время не имела конкуренции. Острая критика этой модели, осуществленная К. Манхеймом, не изменила ситуацию с образовательной практикой. Однако в наши дни очевидно, что эта модель устарела, не отвечает современным общественным реалиям и тем не менее положена в основу реформирования отечественного образования. Автор приходит к выводу, что снижение качества образования – результат бездумного копирования либеральной модели обучения.

Shilova O.E. UNESCO Activities in the Field of Arts Education

The article addresses the work of UNESCO in the field of arts education. It considers goals of establishing this policy, and specific activities organized within the framework of international cooperation in the field of arts education. UNESCO recommended documents in the field of education and arts education in particular are studied. UNESCO programs for the development of arts education are presented. The author identifies the reason for the establishment of an international cooperation policy in the field of arts education. Based on the analysis of UNESCO documents, the author singles out the following reasons for the creation of such a policy: the development of human creative thinking; the promotion of social peace, tolerance and solidarity; and the promotion of sustainable development. The author also identifies two functions of arts education conceptualized in UNESCO documents: the instrumental function of arts education, i.e. its use as a tool and method in education, and, in fact, its peacemaking function. The author argues that the documents developed by UNESCO in the field of arts education have little impact on national education programs because of their non-compulsory nature. At the same time, the article draws attention to the implementation of specific projects under the auspices of UNESCO that despite the limitations of their influence are highly efficient.

Nikoforov A.A. Capabilities and limitations of protest mobilization through the social networks

The subject of this research is the effect of Internet-based social networks upon the emergence, dynamics, and specificity of the process of protest mobilization. The object of this research is the mass mobilization during the course of revolutionary processes and massive antigovernment campaigns. The author examines the possibilities of political mobilization through the social networks in Russia based on the conducted research of user behavior of the popular Russian social network VK. A special attention is given to the problem of spontaneous occurrences of mass protests, as well as the modern dynamics of the events of “Arab Spring” and appearance of the “Occupy” movement within the context of political science. The empirical part of the research is conducting using the descriptive method and statistical analysis of media behavior of the VK users. The theoretical analysis relies on the results of modern research in the field of media and communication studies, social movements, and conflict politics. The main conclusions of this research is firstly, affirmation of limited influence of the social network VK upon involvement of the youth into a mass protest in Russia; secondly, the general supplemental role of the social networks into the process of protest mobilization in the cases of typical political conflicts. On the other hand, the conducted analysis allows us to substantiate the possibility of a quality influence of social networks upon the dynamics of mass protests in the case of emergence of exceptional events that are transgressive for public consciousness, where the “new media” instruments are able to rapidly synchronize local demands, change their scale, and involve broad social groups into the message of protest and the culture of social opposition. The novelty of this research consists in refutation of the thesis of exceptionally high influence of social networks onto the forming of mass protest the ideal-political perceptions within youth. Alternatively, the results of this analysis allow defining the future directions of research on the causes and dynamic characteristics of the mass protests.

Bajrektarevic A.H., Posega P. Nuclear Commerce Markets and the Future Potentials

In an ever evolving and expanding world, there is a constant quest for both more energy and less external energy dependency. With the fossil fuels bound industry setting an alarming trend of negative ecological footprint, there is a clear and urgent must to predict and instruct on alternatives. And, this is the main purpose of this paper. As our key points of argument will show, there is no alternative decarbonized, greener primary energy mix possible in the future without the considerable share reserved for nuclear power. To this end, the development of nuclear power can only be achieved within the current legal framework of nuclear commerce regime. Consequently, we will rethink and revisit some of the fundamentals: the genesis of the world of atoms, applied nuclear science, its military and geopolitical implications, the nuclear commerce regime, legal framework behind this field as well as the factors speeding up or hindering the process of a renewed nuclear power generation, which can be tentatively named a nuclear renaissance. Hopefully, this process will lead to a safe, cleaner, cheaper and decarbonized, greener energy mix in the near future.

Zakharov V.K., Golikova E.I. The Dependence Between a Country’s Prosperity and the Progressivity of a Private Person’s Income Tax Rate Scale

The article is dedicated to the study of the dependence existing between a country’s prosperity and the progressivity of a private person’s income tax rate scale. The authors analyze the factors and identify their influence on the country’s prosperity and flourishing. The research included analysis of forty randomly chosen countries. The impact of the following factors on the prosperity and flourishing of the country was considered: the gross domestic product per capita; the average, monthly salary; the Gini index; the national debt, then share of gold in the international reserve assets. The authors have determined the power of functional dependence of country’s flourishing index on the index of income tax rate scale progressivity and the correlation coefficient that has been calculated. Along with the known prosperity indices of world countries used by the UN, the new income tax rate scale progressivity indices are introduced in the article. Based on the above, the authors introduce new aggregated interval social and economic indices, and namely: multifactorial country prosperity indices and multifactorial country flourishing indices. These aggregated indices were calculated for forty main world countries, for which the authors managed to find all initial indices. Analysis of the world country ratings by prosperity and flourishing indices (for 2009-2012) indicates that the values of Russia and Brazil are close. In general, in all ratings both countries are located in the lower decimal parts (in lower first and lower second parts) of corresponding indices value intervals. Besides that, it is shown that there is a positive linear trend dependence between country flourishing and tax rate scale progressivity of individuals income. Moreover, by the calculation of the selective correlation coefficients, the authors show that this linear trend dependence is linear functional to a large extent. The flat tax rate schedule adopted in Russia has a negative impact on the country’s prosperity.