SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE AS A METHOD OF RESEARCHING SOCIAL COHESION IN AN ETHNICALLY DIVERSE SOCIETY

Abstract

The article deals with the using of the sociocultural perspective method in the study of the phenomenon of “social cohesion”. The main attention is paid to those aspects of the phenomenon, where it is about the importance of the interaction of members of the group (collective), which affect the state and dynamics of social cohesion. The article presents a concise definition of social cohesion and a broader definition of the sociocultural perspective. This approach is due to the fact that the first phenomenon is already to some extent included in the discourse in the Ukrainian scientific space, while the second one is practically absent in it. The definition of the sociocultural perspective is based on the experience accumulated by foreign researchers of this problem. In this context, attention is drawn to the key points in the approach to its interpretation, in particular those presented by such scholars as Bohdana Alman, Andrea McKay, Patrice De La Ossa, Catherine Sanderson. It is emphasized that the method of the sociocultural perspective will be productive when it is necessary to find out the influence of cultural and socio-psychological factors on the interaction of members of certain groups (collectives), which is especially valuable for social cohesion. In the process of presenting the material, emphasis is placed on such markers as race, ethnicity, religion, and culture, which are important characteristics of an ethnically diverse society, since it is in these areas that the sociocultural perspective method can convincingly reveal the importance of certain aspects that are within its scope. The article gives specific examples of crossing the boundaries of social cohesion and sociocultural perspective. The article pays special attention to the prerequisites for crossing the boundaries of social cohesion and the sociocultural perspective, which are determined primarily by the fact that the features of the formation and functioning of social cohesion are determined by social and cultural factors, as well as the fact that the sociocultural perspective focuses on understanding human behavior through the analysis of cultural rules the group to which this or that person belongs. This is due to the fact that important markers for social cohesion are personal relationships in primary groups, in the construction of which the principles formed under the influence of the cultural factor in certain social conditions are of great importance.