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The aim of this paper is to analyze national narratives of the French francs of 1954-1956 from the perspective of Roland Barthes's Mythologies, which demystifies bourgeois myths produced during the mentioned period. Although Mythologies doesn't examine visual design of money, the book proposes analytical instruments that help to understand why coins and paper money qua material products of ideology depict certain images in certain historical periods. The main character on French coins in 1954-1956 is Marianne, the personification of French Republic. Together with the image of Gallic rooster they represent revolutionary ideals of the First Republic. These connotations are of special significance following the WWII when the Vichy regime used the symbols signifying relations with the Nazi Germany. The banknotes in circulation during 1954-1956 in France have two trends in visual design. The early post-war series portray famous persons, ordinary people, allegories and ancient gods, including female images which, in contrast to feminine Marianne, are designed mostly as androgynes. The new series of banknotes promotes the national narrative of masculine «Frenchness» and depicts such persons as Victor Hugo, Cardinal Richelieu, Henry IV, Napoleon Bonaparte and Moliere. The only woman to be included in visual design of French banknotes in 1994, although not French by birth, is Marie Curie. Visual design of banknote series issued for the former French colonies (Africa and Indochina) draws on highly exotic images of local people and rarely includes characters from metropolitan discourse, which correlates with the photograph of African soldier in French uniform analyzed by Barthes in his «Myth Today». Another interesting point is that during the WWII the Vichy regime issued banknotes with the images of colonial people as well as of French people, which makes them equal in the visual representations loyal to the Nazi Germany. To conclude, although most French coins and banknotes of 1954-1956 portray famous people or figures that appeal to national idea, these images do not constitute the unified myth system and instead demonstrate different aspects of «Frenchness». After the Euro was introduced in France in 2003, French national narratives could only be promoted with Euro coins depicting the portrait of Marianne (which became a tradition in French visual design of money). The portrait of Europa, included in the Euro banknote series in 2014, also follows this tradition and frames European discourse in chronological, geographical and political senses. However, in the context of dematerialization of money the tendency to use visual design as an ideological tool is problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the changing status of design in the context of its relation with art. Currently, design has overcome its peripheral position and transformed into a special creative project activity aimed at harmonization of modern human life, solving the problems of artistic and imaginative structuring, transformation and communication of objective-spatial, procedural and sign-informative human environment. The factors determining the actual position of design in culture are the totality and globalism of design, institutionalization of collective design, collecting and market structure of design products, high cost of collective design objects, growth and consolidation of the influence of museums of design in the world. The paper is concluded that at the present stage there has been a transformation in the status of design and it is trying to reclaim more space in the culture. Design aims to give the consumer new impressions and emotions and this proves that it is not only an activity to transform the object-spatial world of man, but also a new form of human interaction with the design product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author addresses the prospects of the new cosmopolitanism project, which appears as a choice focused on individuality and its survival as an integrity in diversity. This reveals the relevance of Castoriadis's autonomy project. The author believes that Castoriadis's language of describing social reality can be used quite organically to characterise the latest trends in the development of cosmopolitan practices. The substantiation of the formulated assumptions is the purpose of this article. The article shows that new cosmopolitanism is an attempt to find an inclusive solution to the problem of universalism, which classical modernity and old cosmopolitanism failed to solve. The development of the discourse and practices of autonomy can become one of the effective means of such a solution. The main idea of the paper is that the projects of autonomy and new cosmopolitanism have similar goals and a direction, and they are a means of implementing cosmopolitan attitudes, or the process of cosmopolitanization. New cosmopolitan theories speak primarily of others, of otherness and autonomy. Autonomous societies can develop and implement cosmopolitan programs. If there is no adequate reflexivity in a heteronomous society, then autonomous societies are reflexive by their very nature. The new cosmopolitanism revives the project of autonomy, takes it from a purely theoretical dimension to a practical one, and allows to discuss its practical implementation. To clarify this parallel, it is important to consider Castoriadis's interpretation of the political dimension of social life. In this case, we are talking about developing cosmopolitan citizenship, which represents the highest level of individual autonomy. The article shows the most important role of creative imagination in its interpretation by Castoriadis in solving the identified problems and establishing various institutions of society. The article concludes that paideia is the central dimension of any policy of autonomy, which gives form to social chaos. Thus, we stop to divide the human world between 'us' and 'them' -- us: the only real human beings; the others: savages, barbarians, heathens, we stop considering our representation of the world as the only meaningful one. This is the essence of cosmopolitanism as it is interpreted by the new cosmopolitanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers an account of naturalism and social constructionism conceived as the dominant methodological standpoints in contemporary pain research. Besides presenting these methodological orientations, the essay also shows in which sense phenomenology constitutes a viable alternative to them. The paper argues that naturalism in pain research can take two forms, extreme or moderate. In its extreme form, naturalism identifies pain with the physiological mechanism, understood as a brain state. In its moderate form, it identifies pain as a psychological response to physiological stimuli. Besides clarifying the fundamental ontological and methodological commitments of naturalism, the article gives a brief account of the dominant theories of pain--the specificity theory, the pattern theory, the affect theory, and the gate control theory-- and argues that they all fully subscribe to the methodological and ontological principles of naturalism. The paper further argues that the chief strength of a naturalistic conception of pain lies in its capacity to answer the question of the meaning of pain, clarifying this meaning biologically either as a means of avoidance or as a repair system. Furthermore, the article suggests that IASP definition of pain also relies on the naturalistic conception of pain outlined here. Just like naturalism, social constructionism in pain research can be understood either in its extreme or moderate form, depending on whether one argues that the experience of pain, or the reaction, expression, and conception of pain experience is shaped socio-historically. The paper argues that the social constructionist standpoint in pain research remains to this day without definition. The article also presents the phenomenological standpoint in pain research conceiving of it as a non-reductive methodology to thematize the experience of pain. The paper furthemore sketches a novel conception of pain that is grounded in phenomenological principles as follows: pain is an aversive sensory feeling which can only be given in original first-hand experience and which has four essential qualifications, namely it is temporally extended, localizable within the body, has a certain intensity and a distinct experiential quality. This definition suggests that pain is neither a naturalistic, nor a socio-cultural phenomenon. Rather, pain is a lived experience, and only by modifying this experience can we render it an appropriate scientific theme, which can then be studied in accordance with the established principles of naturalism or social constructionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an attempt to rethink the problematique of recognizing and implementing interests of the blind user in the computer game industry. Considering the inclusion of people with disabilities in the context of an important global socio-political process of actualizing the interests of the most vulnerable groups of the population, the author creates a discussion space for dialogue and interaction between game producers and blind players, formulating technological and institutional problems of realizing the interests of blind players. The author also defines the role of the blind consumer necessary for assimilation in the game industry, and also calls the readiness of the game industry for a gratuitous socially significant act as the main condition for the triumph of the rebellion of the blind in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the introduction to the collection of academic papers united by the topic "Playful violence and ludic control". The overarching goal is to critically investigate the dark side of the video game medium (without getting scared by what we see). To layout new paths and establish alternative perspectives on the canon of so-called 'game studies', we aspired to gather ideas of both young and established scholars in one collective publication. Before moving on to our modest contribution, we feel obliged to provide a summary of key topics and questions that video games pose to their researchers. Which ones remain acutely relevant today? On the other hand, which roads have been already taken, and which quests have been already completed? Finally, what are the implicit rules of the academic field that we dare to enter, and can we suggest any original ways to disrupt these rules? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to make sense of social change that made the unprecedented mobilization of 2020 in Belarus possible. While its driving force has been the urban educated class, it is still possible to argue that the political dividing line does not cut between the occupational groups of those employed in information/digital economy on the one side and more traditional industrial one on the other. Rather, the division is between those included into the "system" and those outside of it. Those inside the "system" collectively control the state, have access to wrangling public money, and are the beneficiaries of state capitalism. The "system" also controls how the law is applied and defines and imposes "state ideology," a loose doctrine of patriotism and loyalty to the president that is taught in schools and universities and promoted by state-run media and art. By recurring to daily public acts of resistance protesters realize their agency and personal autonomy. By acting as free and autonomous subjects, they achieve self-awareness and become "themselves." This signi- fication has political meaning, as it is related to political subjectivity or citizenship, which stands for the status of a person in her political and legal relationship with the state. (Liberal) Citizenship implies autonomy, the recognition of an individual as an equal partner, and her ability to confront (and sue) the state. Thus, the Belarusian revolution strives for a different social contract with the state. At the same time, the Belarusian revolution is one case of post-Soviet colour revolutions. According to V. Ishchenko and O. Zhuravlev, responding to the crisis of political representation, they are "deficient," as large-scale mass protest combines with revolutionary aspirations, rhetoric, and repertoires of collective action with only vaguely articulated claims, loose structures of mobilization, and weak and dispersed leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper tackles recent tectonic changes often assessed as the crisis of liberal democracy and, broader, as the crisis of European modernity. The author depicts how the triumphalist mood of the early 1990-s captured by the famous notion of "the end of history" transforms into the catastrophic mindset of today. It is argued that the contemporary poly-crisis requires new theoretical approaches and a new social and political vocabulary. Three paths of theorizing are distinguished hereby. The first one builds upon "the end of history" mindset keeping the present as the main point of reference and Western liberal democracy as the peak point of ideational and institutional evolution. The second approach revolves around the cyclical reading of history while tracing pre-modern features in the recent developments, its conceptual arsenal includes the notions of retraditionalization, demodernization, neotribalism, and the like. The author argues that an alternative approach is feasible, the one focused on brand new traits of contemporaneity that keeps future free from historical determination. The latter approach is being developed in the paper based on the ideas of Ulrich Beck, Ken Jowitt, and Mary Kaldor. It is proved that within the globalized spaces of action, any local conflict has a global dimension and global repercussions; that the novelty of contemporary warfare should be re-assessed in post-Clausewitzian terms, namely as a new social and human condition. It is suggested that the erosion of modern nation-state augments the need for strong transnational institutions against an active cosmopolitan community of citizens, to which scholars can contribute both with their civic position and with their expertise. Active citizens not only maintain "islands of civility" amidst military conflicts but they might ignite "movements of hope" as an alternative to "movements of rage" and prop up "politics of sympathy" as opposite to "politics of anger". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces metaphor "digital porosity" aiming to grasp the non-uniformity, limitations and gaps of digital connectivity (technological, material, spatial, social, etc.) in urban spaces. Being used as a research guidance, the metaphor raises the questions what digital porosity is? how is it produced? how is it changing? Based on the research of internet connectedness and practices of Internet use in the subways of Moscow and St. Petersburg, the paper states that the extension of the Internet zone and the inclusion of new urban spaces do not automatically increase the connectivity of the city, since the latter depends not only on the availability or the quality of internet communication, but also on the intentions and skills of the internet users and their ideas about the comfort and the possibility of internet connection, the role of the subway ride in the broader planning horizons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary medical practices are concentrated on technologies and scientific conceptualization of disease. It is significant to note that, in spite of huge and powerful technological resource of biomedicine, there are many people who suffer from chronic illnesses. This situation reveals the extreme need not only in rational, objective understanding of illness but turns our attention to the unique subjective experience of being seriously ill. It is important to recognize this necessity to develop different approaches that can help patients to live meaningful life after losing health. There is a way to rethink about such kind of subjective multilayered experience from perspective of philosophical phenomenological tradition. Phenomenology of medicine provides decisive insights into personal becoming in serious illness. This article is dedicated to the role of ethical issues in expressing of being ill and addresses to narratives as a source of ethical inspiration. We argue, that considering the possibilities of medicine as ethical practice, first of all, we can find directions for real support of chronic patients. Arthur Frank aims to analyze narrative ethics as a resource for transformation of a dark, wounded experience of being lost in crisis into a healing space of intersubjective relations. The paper concerns the problem of relation to others in the situation of senselessness in illness. We explain narrative as "ethical practice of the body" (Frank, 2013) within the Levinas's ethical view of subjectivity as one-for-the-other. Levinas proposes the notion of subjectivity which enables philosophy to reopen an embodied subject as vulnerable, passive and at the same time responsible for the other. In some way Frank continues the Levanasian thought articulating the "pedagogy of suffering" when I as "the wounded storyteller" can teach others. During the process of storytelling-teaching I embody my ethical, social activity from the heart of vulnerability, weakness and passivity of being ill. Sharing my suffering with others via narratives and being responsible for my voice- I receive new impulse for recreating (remaking) body-self in ethical communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In my paper, I analyze and give an assessment of the article by Vladimir Fours published in 2006 in Topos. Journal for Philosophy and Cultural Studies entitled Descartes as a Teacher of Philosophy. I reconstruct both Fours' main theses, his arguments and the basic lines of the discussion caused by this article. The reason why I started to recall these materials is in the fact that, in my view, the problems touched by Fours and his opponents remain still unresolved. I am sure they are still of current interest. I outline that Fours believes the consciousness is not self-evident and self-sufficient substance as Descartes thought. Descartes himself faked the knowledge of ego cogitans proceeding from his primordial experience which is signed as so-called proto-philosophical one by Fours. Fours tries to show how it is possible to generate an object-filed of authentic philosophy from the experience of such a kind. And he shows how Descartes realized that. According to him, any object-field of philosophy is shaped only by procedures, or tehnoi -- in his own term-usage -- which are applied to the proto-philosophical experience to harmonize it and dismiss its primal dramatical disruption. In the case of Descartes, that was experience of indifference of will. As result, the usage of mentioned procedures causes the genesis of the new concepts and terms, which become the substitute of the object-fields of the philosophical investigations. An object-field of philosophy is, therefore, an illusion. The acceptance of objectivity of these object-fields is "the idealism of philosophical self-understanding", in Fours' words. His opponents emphasize that Fours has a wrong notion of idealism. Moreover, his construction of the genesis of object-fields of philosophy is itself a kind of idealism. As conclusion, I state that the main methodological problem of Fours' reflections and critiques is in his substitution of the things which are more knowable and obvious to us (proto-philosophical experience) for the things which are more clearer and more knowable by nature (intelligible object-filed of philosophy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on how different modes of chronic pain can affect ethical content of motherhood and its temporality. Addressing a phenomenological analysis of study cases (interviews, media posts and diaries of patients at the Pain Clinic in Helsinki Hospital Area), I aim to show that chronic pain affects different temporal modes which have an ethical meaning for the shared and embodied mother-child relation: being present for the child, being with the child in the future, being de-phased, being late, loosing time, or not being able to be with and for the child. The main goal is to demonstrate that chronic pain challenges the normative, moral, and ethical concept of being a responsible mother and it introduces everlasting traumatization and stigmatization of the subject. One of the arguments I follow is that experiencing chronic pain mothers perceive time as disrupted one and the one which does not necessarily have potentiality or life horizon. In other words, it leads to discontinuous temporality (lapses of time, instants, de-phases) rooted in traumatized female sensibility and it affects validity of the intersubjective world of mother-child relation. This problematizes many aspects of ontological conditions of woman's embodiment and questions possibility of social dialogues: modalities such as "being for the child", "being at the moment of present", "being responsible in the future" and "being-with" force a discussion of what it means to be ashamed of the pain and being guilty in contemporary community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores two main themes in science, philosophy and theology/worldview discourse: anthropic principles and transhumanism. After providing a brief history of the first theme, it cautions about potential dehumanisation from adopting the wrong anthropic principle as a kind of 'disanthropic' reasoning. Part of the solution is to reclaim a proper meaning of 'anthropic' for the social sciences and humanities beyond the natural sciences of physics and cosmology or statistical probabilities. The second theme is investigated both in theistic and nontheistic variants as they influence what is meant by 'human' in the context of evolution and development. Transhumanism is portrayed in terms of both risk and reward with the rise of neoeugenics and biotechnological human enhancements. The paper closes by briefly acknowledging Human Extension (Sandstrom 2011, 2014) as a reflexive anthropic principle that can be applied in social sciences and humanities to help overcome the ideologies of naturalism and scientism. The Human Extension approach focuses on choices and actions that bring into relief the eschatological claims of some transhumanists and posthumanists who speak disanthropically about human extinction due to technocratic artificial intelligence or who deny human exceptionalism and instead promote species egalitarism among earthly creatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is the analysis of the well-known Belarusian philosopher Valiantsin Akudovich's ideas, mainly on the ground of his book The Code of the Absence. On the Foundations of Belarusian Mentality. The author of the paper argues that Akudovich paradoxically represents at once «mystical nationalism» (thereby approaching the non-militant ultranationalism) and deconstructionist reconsideration of the traditional nationalist dogmas. The author critically evaluates both features of Akudovich's discourse, highlighting that his nationalism finds itself in dangerous affinity with tribalism, while his reinterpretation of Belarusian history proves to be internally inconsistent and unable to survive empirical verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to scrutinize how the phenomenon of digital poetry is related to the culture of late capitalism and how reification transforms the semantics of the digital poetry genre. The performed analysis reveals that reification of lyrical discourse is a distinctive feature of digital poetry, thus, there is the influence of the culture of late capitalism on the semantics of this poetic genre. Reification as a semantic dimension of digital poetry is characterized by such textual symptoms as alienation, irrationality, dystopia, serialization, simplification, spectacularity, the aestheticization of consumption as well as the dominant role of the political rather than the poetic. Digital poetry is analyzed from the perspective of discursive practices (the digital environment) as well as social practices (the practices symptomatic of late capitalism). Finally, possible counter-practices aimed at overcoming lyrical discourse reification are taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We will show in this paper how turning to the idea of data visualization reduces epistemological potential of digital visualization in the humanities, and how new visual technologies change practices of work with visualizations. We will show also how using multidisciplinary approach, the order and methodology of knowledge production can be changed through visualization technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this article is in-game photography, which exists as a part of our lifestyle for some time already, but struggles to become recognized as an independent form of art. Classic photography in its time managed to establish itself as a new type of art that is equal to painting and sculpture. As for in-game photography, the situation is much more complicated. If the goal of an ordinary photo is to capture the ordinary world, as something that can only be seen with a camera lens, then what is the purpose of an in-game photo if it can exist there only within the framework of some new, man-made world, inside a video game? Nowadays, there is only a small amount of research devoted to such a genre of art as in-game photography. I am trying to correct that problem by analyzing the in-game photography, its connection to its classical predecessor, and formulating the central idea of that genre. I also will try to build an approximate way of in-game photography development as a form of art in the future, using the scheme of how culture is developing and formed by human minds. I will compare it to already known forms of perceiving in-game photography as an art and provide some ways of how humanity will perceive media art in the nearest future by describing already known in-game photography studies, various genres of in-game photography, and art contests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the interconnection of such notions as 'real politics' and 'the political', 'friend' and 'enemy'. In order to clarify the meaning of 'the political', the author turns to the modern theories of the legitimacy of political power. The author analyzes the notion of 'political struggle' in the context of the general idea of struggle. The problem of political consent is considered as opposed to the political struggle. Addressing the phenomenon of speech the author analyzes both the key features and contradictions of 'militant speeches'. Analyzing the crisis of the Kantian ideal of "Perpetual peace", the author discusses the most important aspects of modern wars: the merging of the war with terror, state terrorism, cyberwarfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The equality (equal treatment of men and women) vs. difference (special treatment of women as potential mothers) debate has accompanied women's struggle for inclusion. It resurrected itself in the social laboratory of transition to capitalism in the post-socialist region, where the social contract changed drastically. Special treatment and welfare provisions, as well as gender and class relations, are being reconsidered and negotiated. By treating transition to capitalism as a real-life casestudy, this paper bespeaks a broader orientation to provide a model for understanding the "equality vs. difference" conundrum, and to demonstrate how equality and difference are bound with the capitalist or socialist contract. Debates of gender can displace those of class and serve to express class concerns to argue for or against capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at the analysis of some key ideas of Etienne Balibar. They enable considering emancipation as a realization of the idea of "equaliberty". The author connects Karl Marx's ideas with the theoretical frame of the Enlightenment and explicates them in the contemporary context, namely claiming the priority of social values in solving different problems related to the EU building process. The Greek economic crisis that put into question ideological foundations and political prospects of the united Europe may serve a practical domain of the approach mentioned. The aporia of liberty and equity seems to be unsolvable within the framework of the "classical" liberalism, which tends to solve urgent problems solely and exclusively by means of the "economic growth" and the "economic recovery". The ethical universals of Balibar represent a productive alternative way to solve a paradoxical contradiction of the liberty and the equity (and therefore the contradiction of liberal and social values). The suggested solution might be regarded as a supplementary mechanism of the European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of the causes and major traits as well as trajectories of unsuccessful developmental states becomes highly relevant in contemporary ideologically laden debates among social scientists who have been grappling with the dichotomy "developmentalism vs neo-liberalism" for several decades. It allows getting an adequate understanding of the gist of contemporary sociological and political- economic discourse on development models, transformations of modernity and its features on the post-Soviet space. Thus, looking at the experience of unsuccessful developmental states is no less important than analyzing success stories. Academic literature discussed in the paper allows us to emphasize the first factor of the successful developmental state - a capable and autonomous bureaucracy which is at the same time embedded into the society. The Soviet bureaucracy was isolated from the society; Indian, Brazilian and Irish bureaucracies have been relatively weak and thus not very effective and adequate while tackling the challenges that these states have faced. However, historical examples of successful diffusion of technological innovation and institutional models suggest the possibility of building of the developmental state in non-Asian civilizational and non-authoritarian political contexts. Achieving this goal is possible only if the ruling establishment experiences a "shock therapy" threatening its privileged position in a society, cultivation of competent and capable bureaucracy, as well as the formation of the rational voters, capable of long-term calculation of their interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how contemporary society depends on computer practices of safety and standardization. Initially emerged from entrails of software development, the concept of safety has been infiltrated to offline realm affecting it. The definition of a computer as a metaphysical medium (which re-mediates mediation itself) allows to reformulate its nature in more dynamic terms with no regard to static media which are (according to the most popular viewpoint) just remediated in digital systems. Digital (cybernetic) security and standardization simplify the use of devices and programs, likewise promoting an intensive information interchange (in and for itself) affecting the behavior and structure of the reality of the «Silent Majorities». [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on M. McLuhan's definition of hot and cold media this paper performs the analysis of digital media and tests its specific properties. Traditional media are dependent on limitations of the physical world, whereas digital media are virtual, flexible and open to any imaginable modification. As expected, the process of modifications in digital representation is quite active. On the one hand, this process is tied to traditional practices, on the other there is a tradition emerged from the specificity of the digital world. Utilizing metaphors of hot/cold media concurrently with applying the remediation concept gives the framework for conscious analyzing of rapidly changed digital environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses two strategies to interpretation of Husserl's transcendental phenomenology on the study Transcendentalism and Historicity in Husserl's Phenomenology" by A.E. Savin. According to the first one transcendental phenomenology is carried exclusively out in a phenomenological attitude, in the framework of pure transcendental consciousness and new senses, as well as being of the world and its objectnesses are produced inside it. According to the other strategy transcendental phenomenology attempts to bring into correlation the results produced in natural and phenomenological attitudes. With this strategy in natural attitude it formulates preconditions, principles and methods of investigation according to objectness, but in phenomenological one - applies them for analyzing of objectnesses as they carried our in the experience of consciousness. The author proceeding from these two strategies considers the conception of life-world and life-world correlation with transcendental consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the survey of the opinions of the participants of some informal groups of the Ukrainian philosophers. All of them work at the most influential national universities and research unites. In the Post-Soviet Ukraine the stagnation of the official academic structures gives rise to the emergence of informal groups of scholars with common research interests. To a great extent the progress of the humanities in contemporary Ukraine is determined by the activity of such informal groups that do not oppose themselves to the official system, but try to interact with it. They tend to democratize the academic system and approximate it to the international academic standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the authors analyze the problem of space construction in mono-towns. The researchers describe identification criteria for mono-towns, clarify the notion in a series of concepts such as «one company town» and «industrial city». The structure of mono-towns space is closely connected with the position of city-forming enterprises. For local population main (city-forming) enterprises are the source of town's prosperity. The article states that the practice of life-support of population is constructed in a strong connection with the activities and status of the enterprises. The authors consider Asbest town as an empirical case and analyze non-human actors that organize the structure of the town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the distinguishing features of postmetaphysical thinking is an attention to the spatial aspect of human being which obtained the status of «spatial turn» in the past decade. Now a matter of considerable interest is not just the question What is space? but triadic relation - «society-action-space». This shifting - from space as a research object (space as such) to the social significance of spatial dimension - is first of all bound up with performativistic concepts that consider space as a pragmatic and dynamic scheme materializing in the everyday «repertoire» of human actions. The paper is dedicated to the analysis of connection between social dynamic and transformations of space interpretations as well as to the explication of heuristic potential of performativistic concepts of space for the contemporary social philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his later works Sartre made an ambiguous attempt to synthesize Marxism and existential philosophy. Conceptual correlation between two paradigms was exposed on the example of the investigation of the problem of alienation and the practicoinert in the context of the socio-historical and individual projects, which play an important role in its dynamics. The paper is focused on the analysis of this motive of Sartre's philosophy and its heuristic relevance. The conclusion is that French philosopher doesn't solve the set problem but rather works out the existential anthropological conception of the social. In order to maintain the intention to combine Marxist and existential perspectives the notion of the practical-inert should be redefined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]