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THE SOCIO-PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECT OF DEVELOPING CIVIC CONSCIOUSNESS IN YOUNG PEOPLE WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF LIFELONG LEARNING
D. I. Naumov
In the modern pedagogical discourse, "lifelong learning" is usually interpreted as the continuous building and updating of all kinds of abilities, knowledge, skills and qualifications by both formal and non-formal training throughout an individual’s lifetime. Semantically, this term thus describes all cognitive activities of a person aimed at expanding knowledge, enhancing skills and updating competencies in line with their personal, social and professional perspectives.
The functional significance of lifelong learning for a particular individual is driven by the need for timely and adequate integration into various dynamic and innovative social processes that take place in all spheres of postindustrial society. Knowledge and skills need to be acquired in a timely manner in order for an individual to be able to efficiently adapt to living in such a society and be fully involved in all spheres of social, cultural and economic life in the capacity of a social actor.
The instrumental significance of lifelong learning for society is driven by achieving higher cost effectiveness and efficiency of the secondary and higher professional education system and by the need for enhancing competitiveness of both individual sectors of the national economy and society as a whole. This aspect is determined by the influence of globalization, which has eliminated barriers between different countries and geographic regions and intensified communication flows causing socio-economic, demographic and ethno-confessional transformations in the modern world. Moreover, the development of information and computer technologies has provided the globalization factor with an effective technical means that renders transformation processes continuous and self-reproducing. Thus, the transition of mankind to the postindustrial stage of development necessitates the development of human resources that are flexible and capable of both continuing learning/self-learning and of adapting to ongoing social, economic and technological changes. A drastic increase in the role of the human factor, which in the modern context determines parameters of the new social reality, enables experts to infer the following conceptual conclusions: "The man of the industrial era, who thought in terms of pragmatism and self-profit, should be replaced by a new person who is dynamic, thoughtful, and thinks in terms of large-scale concepts, is responsible and morally sound, cares about human society as a whole and mankind as such rather than about personal capital and ways of increasing it, and, most importantly, is entirely honest" [1, p. 55].
However, the political aspect of the postindustrial model of development of humankind has rendered the modern political system considerably more complex in terms of structure and functions. This has radically changed the existing ideas of the principles and mechanisms of interactions between an individual and the state. On the individual level, this has generated challenges associated with the development of well-balanced and holistic citizenship as a value-driven,
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streamlined and personally significant attitude of an individual toward processes and phenomena in different spheres of social life, mainly in politics.
The parameters of the transformation of the political system and change in role-related obligations of its actors in the context of transforming society are unstable and broadly variable due to fluctuations in the political climate and the chaotic nature of political and legal socialization, which is distinguished by conflict-based interactions between its main agents. The political and socio-cultural context of a transforming society naturally generates multiple interpretations of civic and political rights and freedoms and multiple judgments on the significance of an individual action in socio-political life, on the moral and ethical aspect of the political process and the role of ethical values in politics. With respect to modern post-Soviet society, this causes problems with institutionalizing an individual’s conscious civic-mindedness, making it incomplete, self-contradictory and to a great extent conflictogenous. Therefore, the globalization context and transformational processes in post-Soviet society that increase the relevance of enhancing the role of an individual in defining and maintaining optimal parameters of the societal development raise the issue of reducing lifelong learning to the modernization of professional competencies of a person only. In this case, there is an overall problem of developing political and legal socialization of young people, which in the context of post-Soviet society acts not only as a dynamic social force, but also as a carrier of xenophobic tendencies and political radicalism. One of the dimensions of this problem is found in the education space and involves the creation, development and operation of mechanisms for civil training/education of young people as a process of institutionalizing citizenship. The functional significance of this process is driven by the fundamental status of human resources in the context of the transforming society with its inherent correlation between socio-economic and political drawbacks of the societal development and the quality of a human personality. In the transformational context, citizenship contributes to minimizing political risk while implementing the sustainable development model in which optimization processes objectively come with social drawbacks for individuals.
The concept of "citizenship" may be interpreted as: (a) an antithesis to political apathy, as active and conscious involvement of an individual in activities of a politically organized community; (b) a socio-psychological feeling of being a citizen, a full-fledged member of a political community who not only has a range of inalienable rights and freedoms, but is also responsible for acts to the community; (c) an ability and willingness to act as a citizen, i.e. as an autonomous actor of the political process who recognizes himself as such; (d) the highest moral virtue typical of a free and full-fledged member of a democratic political community; and (e) commitment to the interests of the political community within national borders. Citizenship is a spiritual element of political and legal socialization, which is most fully expressed in social ideals translated by various systems of societal communications (in particular, in civil education). Thus, citizenship is about organic synthesis between legal, political and ethical cultures, with the ethical component, which defines moral values of an individual, being determinant. As a result, the development of an axiological basis for political action of an individual becomes complete leading to a self-sufficient citizen entering the social scene.
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The phenomenon of citizenship is a result of the transformation of political institutes as part of the modernist project - first of all, of the state - toward reducing functional obligations of the latter to a citizen. In this situation the state no longer claims to be an ethical authority and individuals become politically and civically emancipated, facing the challenge of individual, corporate and societal responsibility. In the context of radical change in the principles of relations between the political world and civil society, which may lead to moral loneliness and social isolation of individuals, democratic citizenship becomes a driver for achieving solidarity and ensuring continuity, quality and density of communications in civil interaction.
The focus on education is driven by the fact that education, both formal and non-formal, is extremely important for the development of active citizenship throughout life of an individual and for the creation of a democratic culture. Historically, this aspect was illustrated by Karl Mannheim more than half a century ago as follows: "What we have learned from the last decades is that the aim of social progress is not an imaginary society without a governing class, but the improvement of the economic, social, political and educational opportunities for the people to train themselves for leadership, and improvement of the method of the selection of the best in the various fields of social life" [2, p. 477]. Therefore positioning citizenship as a cultural imperative for the political and legal socialization of young people in post-Soviet society is driven by the need for making its socio-economic development more dynamic, while maintaining steady functioning of the political system.
In education practice, citizenship is regarded as a spiritual and value-based aspect of a human personality, a complex of value- and meaning-based motivations for personal activity that form the basis for the entirety of social relations. The stand of G.N. Filonov is a typical example of this approach. He considers citizenship as "a set of subjective qualities of a personality that manifest themselves in relationships and activities of an individual in performing his key social and role-related functions, such as conscious abidance of laws, patriotic devotion to serving his Motherland and protection of the interests of his Fatherland, truly free and integral commitment toward generally recognized standards and moral values, in particular in the sphere of work, family, interethnic and interpersonal relations" [3, p. 111]. According to G.A. Klyucharev [4, p. 182-183], there are two main models of civil education that can be implemented in practice. These are: (1) an inclusive model aimed at developing in an individual the sense of belonging to society and methods for non-radical transformation of his social environment by augmenting human capital, expanding social connections and contacts and increasing integration of an individual into society; and (2) an exclusive model which is motivated ideologically and provides for regulated parameters for the involvement of citizens in social life, access to knowledge and information for different individual and groups on a selective basis, and creation and dissemination of standard-based behavior patterns through a mass education system. Certainly, these models are historically driven by political and economic contexts, cultural and confessional traditions. However, in the context of postindustrialism and globalization, they show the ability for transformation and
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dialectic synthesis on a single axiological and institutional basis provided by the modern democratic state.
The fundamental significance of the moral and ethical factor in the process of developing citizenship creates certain difficulties for a system of education, which, in terms of an idealized philosophy, "produces" autonomous, competent and socially responsible citizens of modern democratic society. On the one hand, citizenship is an instrumental goal which is functionally required for achieving social agreement and consolidation of society on the basis of democratic values and principles. This involves a focus on cognitive and behavioral changes and places emphasis on psychological, pedagogical and technological capabilities of a formalized education process which is functionally aimed at developing a holistic civil competence of an individual and effective adaptive behavior patterns. In terms of content, the development of citizenship through an education process in a higher education part of the education system is based on the humanities and social disciplines (history, political science, culturology, sociology, legal science, economics, ethics, and educational science). However, where constructive forms of civil activism among young people are not fully demanded by society and the state and acquired knowledge cannot be used in social action, there is an objective background for gradual devaluation of the concept of citizenship among young people. At the same time, citizenship is a terminal value which actualizes the unity of a fundamental societal ideal - a democratic rule of law and a citizen as a full-fledged actor of social relations who has a set of inalienable rights and freedoms and is responsible for his acts to society. This dimension of the nature of citizenship determines the relevance of interpreting it as the highest virtue of a free and fully legitimate member of a political community, capable of making sacrifices for its benefit, as and when required. In the framework of this tradition, citizenship is mainly regarded as a result of upbringing aimed at developing patriotism, political and legal self-consciousness, civil responsibility, spirituality, self-reliance and tolerance in pupils and students. The focus is placed not only and not so much on the knowledge component, which is necessary for introducing an individual to the world of social relations, politics and law, but also on mastering certain values, meanings and mechanisms of civil society, and modern political and legal systems. In terms of norms, the mastering of this axiological basis should ideally ensure conscious involvement of a personality in social life, enabling the institutionalization of the image of citizen and the development of qualities that constitute citizenship. Otherwise, an undeveloped system of values causes an existential crisis, nihilism, and political apathy, providing a basis for deformations in personality. The challenge lies in a proper model for translating value-related judgments to eliminate their devaluation through the pretentious declaration which is not supported by respective behaviors to actualize individual abilities and skills in using democratic procedures.
However, the institutional frameworks necessary for the actualization of citizenship, such as civil society, rule of law and the political system resulting from historical development of Western European society are founded on an axiological basis which is different from the standards and values underlying post-Soviet society. What is typical of Western society is the understanding of the necessity of the complementary existence of civil society and the state, and seeking for a
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compromise and stability on the basis of values of individualism and pragmatism. On the one hand, these values can channel the potentially inexhaustible energy of civil society toward constructive purposes, but on the other they contribute to the destructive anthropocentrism and replacement of rivalry with soulless and ethically indifferent competition. Moreover, these values do not match the principles of collectivism and social fairness that dominate the mentality in post-Soviet countries. Therefore, for these communities, the ideal personality of Western civil society, which organically combines autonomy and criticism with the acceptance of social institutes and law obedience, is quite specific, if not marginal. At the same time, it is impossible to eliminate the influence of the cultural factor either in the socio-cultural or in political and legal dimensions (which was noted by
S. Yaskevich, who underlined that in the modern context of "openness and increasing global integration, no model of organization of society can be regarded as universal and enforced as a benchmark" [5, p. 99]).
Thus, the legal and political socialization of young people in the context of societal transformation drives the relevance of issues of developing citizenship on the basis of a holistic and non-contradictory education process that enables an individual to internalize knowledge, standards, values and traditions in labor, political and legal life of modern society. This actualized the institutional significance of the system of lifelong learning as a major factor of consideration of interests, needs and obligations of young people, increasing their conscious and axiologically motivated involvement in activities of social and government institutes, and achievement of social competence of young citizens on the basis of modern democratic rights and freedoms.
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