Common and Individual Features of the Russian and Turkic Civilizations: the Glocalization Issues

• Main Author: Toshchenko Zh.T.
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2010-12-01
• Series: Вестник Института социологии
• Subjects: civilization; glocalization; globalization; culture.
• Online Access: http:///files/File/Vestnik_2010_01/toshenko.pdf

The article reviews the interactions between the Russian and Turkic civilizations, which, in many ways, have been developing simultaneously and side by side, affecting and enriching each other. According to some historical data, these interactions go back approximately two thousand years. Both civilizations encompass a number of smaller cultures, represented by a diverse spectrum of ethnicities. The lifestyle of each such ethnicity is not just a part of the corresponding culture but also a unique facet of a larger civilization. One of the most suitable ways of analyzing the inter-civilization contacts would be to interpret them through the prism of a historical and cultural process. In this study, we have singled out a number of factors that could hinder the development of both civilizations: economic expansion, which has both a direct and indirect impact on all ethnicities, through the actions of transnational corporations and centers; aspirations for political hegemony, which lead to one nation forcing its notions of governance and social structure on all others; the various nationalist doctrines of one ethnicity being “superior”, wholly supported by ethnocratic movements; and religious intolerance, in particular between Christianity and Islam. There is also an additional factor: the falsified reinterpretation of historical facts and processes for the purpose of proving the superiority (privilege, antecedence) of a specific ethnicity, its nation-building, historical feats and conquests, cultural achievements, etc. In order to surpass all these hurdles on the path to inter-civilization dialog, we require glocalization, which, unlike globalization, weaves an organic fabric of the separate ethnicities’ common and individual development features, aiming to bring them closer without turning them into look-alikes. The goals of glocalization are the direct opposite of the goals of globalization: unity, but not a faceless melting pot; a celebration of both what the civilizations have in common and what makes them unique and important for all of humankind. Such civilizations are interested in mutual understanding, interaction, cooperation, acknowledging the other civilizations’ right to preserve and nurture their individual aspects and thus making it easier to achieve a true golden age of diversity. Approaching the analysis and description of civilizations from this angle, we single out their core features and the most typical shifts in the public mindset and social practices.