№ 2(59) 2025: Practical aesthetics and cultural mechanisms
Guest editor:
Artem Radeev, Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor of the Department of Cultural Studies, Philosophy of Culture and Aesthetics, Institute of Philosophy, St. Petersburg State University, Head of the Russian Society for Aesthetics.
For a long time aesthetics as a branch of philosophy had a strange status. On the one hand, it was closely connected with the problem field of various philosophical trends and movements, which ensured its quiet development. On the other hand, aesthetics often found itself in a position of belated reflection on the processes in culture and art. Clamping aesthetics with axiological frameworks, identifying it as a philosophy of beauty and art, reveals its untenability. And one of the tendencies of contemporary aesthetics is the expansion of its problem field, which is expressed in determining the possibilities of not only the theory of aesthetics, but also its practice.
At the same time, we can notice a tendency to appeal to aesthetic field in contemporary culture. Aesthetic medicine in all its variations (e.g. aesthetic surgery and aesthetic stomatology) is actively developing, various confrontations of “anti-aging” and “pro-aging” trends are taking place in the beauty industry, beauty salons are becoming part of the everyday landscape of our cities, and adherents of the experience society pay great attention to aesthetics as an important component of contemporary economic and social processes.
The idea that different types of aesthetics (theoretical and practical, fundamental and applied) can exist independently of each other is irrelevant both to the contemporary aesthetics as such and to contemporary analysis of cultural mechanisms. We propose to conceptualize the tendencies of practical aesthetics in contemporary culture in the depth of the former and the diversity of the latter.
We invite papers that reflect upon such issues as:
- Conceptual boundaries of practical aesthetics
- What is the fundamental and the applied, the practical and the theoretical in contemporary culture and aesthetics?
- Practical aesthetics and culture: the history of interaction
- The role of practical aesthetics in culture
- Russian culture and its refractions in practical aesthetics
- Forms of contemporary applied aesthetics
- Experience society and contemporary culture
- Aesthetic medicine in the light of contemporary culture and aesthetics
- Beauty salon as a cultural phenomenon
- Aestheticization in contemporary culture
№ 2(59) 2025: The genesis of culturology: scientific background, socio-cultural context, logic of development
Guest editor:
Alexey V. Bondarev, PhD in culturology, associate professor, director of the St. Petersburg Center for culturology at A.I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University, and associate professor at the department of theory and history of culture, Herzen University.
Culturology is an area that is undergoing rapid development and has reached a stage of maturity where there is a need for introspection, reflection on past achievements, examination of the path taken, and identification of prospects for future growth. Understanding and comprehending the significance and true purpose of culturology requires an in-depth knowledge of its origins. This issue of the «International Journal of cultural studies» aims to explore the genesis of culturology, identify the contributions of its pioneers, and discuss the importance of studying the history of the field for the formation of a professional identity, self-awareness, and the consolidation of culturologists, as well as their understanding of their scientific and societal missions.
The year 2025 marks several significant dates associated with the names of L.A. White, A.I. Arnoldov, E.S. Markaryan, and S.N. Ikonnikova – sign figures in the history of culturology. Their intellectual heritage provides a wide and diverse range of topics for discussion. Although these figures had different approaches and interests, they all contributed significantly to the development of the field that we now know as «culturology». The anniversaries of these scholars provide an opportunity to reflect on their influence and legacy. They remind us of the importance of their work and the impact it has had on our understanding of culture. It is a time to pay tribute to their dedication and perseverance in advancing culturological knowledge.
At the same time, this special issue of the journal can be seen as both an opportunity to update historic-culturological knowledge and an attempt to bring together researchers who are professionally engaged in studying the history of culturology. It is also a call for a joint discussion on the challenges of preserving and researching culturological heritage – culturology have their own «heritage system», a rich intellectual legacy that undoubtedly influences its development in the present.
It seems important and relevant to raise the question of the need to develop culturology history not only as an academic discipline but also as a specialized field of complex historical and scientific research. However, it should be noted that studying the history of culturology can be a valuable source of relevant knowledge about culture, a way to validate culturology as a discipline, and a means to shape the professional identity of scholars in the field.
Suggested topics for the articles in this issue:
- The history of culturology as a field of historical, scientific, theoretical, and methodological research.
- The origins and historiography of culturology.
- The problem of localization and identification in the history of culturological cognition.
- Culturology as a source of relevant knowledge in history.
- Searching for sources on the history of culturology: a theoretical challenge. The need for archival databases on culturology history.
- The scientific background and socio-cultural context for the formation of culturological discourse.
- The conceptual and institutional foundations for the development of culturology in the USSR. The transfer of culturological ideas through intellectual networks.
- Russian and international culturology: parallel evolution and areas of overlap. Culturology vs. cultural studies.
- Personology and biographies of culturology: the role of personality in the history of science.
- Founders of culturology: On the 125th anniversary of the birth of L.A. White, the 110th anniversary of A.I. Arnoldov, the 95th anniversary of E.S. Markaryan and S.N. Ikonnikova.
- Contemporary culturology: «the past in the present», «the present without the past», «the past for the sake of the future» memory and oblivion of one’s past in contemporary culturology. Transformations and mutations of culturological memory among culturologists. Places of memory in the history of culturology.
- Culturological heritage: problems of study, preservation, actualization, and popularization. architectonics of culturological heritage.
- Challenges of perception and understanding in culturology: mythologemes and prejudices.
- Ethical climate in the history of culturology: Moral Atmosphere, Ethical Code, Professional Self-Determination of culturologists.
- The significance of the history of culturology in shaping the professional identity of culturologists.
