The term culture is characterized by ambiguity and is used to define the processes of spiritual, intellectual, aesthetic development; forms and products of spiritual, intellectual and artistic activity; Descriptions of the state of society based on order, humanity and law.
The concept of culture in sociology is very broad, it implies the study of it in all the diversity of these aspects.
The concept of culture in sociology among different researchers differs in a number of characteristics, which creates the prerequisites for highlighting the following approaches to its definition.
The technological approach considers culture in the broadest sense as a separate level of production, as well as all levels of reproduction of social life in all its manifestations. An active approach is a combination of various forms and types of spiritual and material activity and the results of this activity. The value approach - as a sphere of spiritual life, in which culture acts as a system of values, standards and beliefs, as well as means of expressing these values. The integrated approach believes that culture consists of explicit and implicit models of human behavior that are formed and transmitted through symbols, while its essence is made up of traditional value ideas that have passed historical selection by time.
The concept of culture in sociology, its role, place in people's lives has different orientations along two streams. The first approach on this issue is the evolutionist (Johann Gottfried Herder). In it, culture is considered as a decisive factor in the improvement and evolution of man, which is able to turn him into a creative and harmonious being. The second approach is critical. He interprets culture as a special means of enslaving a person and translating him into an instrument of forces hostile to man.
Leading sociologists considered the concept of culture as follows. Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that life in the bosom of nature is the only right one, and culture perverts it. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that man is essentially uncivilized, and culture is called for to enslave him and oppress the natural forces.
Oswald Spengler believed that each culture has its own destiny, which ends with the development of civilization. Ferdinand Tennis deduced the theory of the impossibility of juxtaposing culture and civilization. Jose Ortega y Gasset is the author of the tradition of cultural pessimism, which means that a person is an element of the mass and his behavior is herd. The crisis of modern civilization is associated with the massization of culture.
Russian cultural researchers have interpreted the concept of culture in sociology ambivalently. On the one hand, the tradition of evolutionary theory developed, according to which the progress of society is determined by the development of culture), and on the other, criticism.
The elements of culture in sociology are the following: values, language, norms, customs, traditions, mores. The most productive elements of culture are concepts or concepts (which streamline the world of people), relationships (highlight connections between people), values (show people's beliefs) and rules (regulate people's behavior).
The types of culture in sociology are the following, depending on certain criteria.
According to regional or geographical features: the culture of the West, East, Europe, Africa, America, etc.
On a chronological basis: ancient culture, culture of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, modern and modern times.
By type of social production: material (everything that relates to the human environment and the satisfaction of his needs, the technological side of life: means of production, tools, power structures, political parties, etc.), spiritual (includes subjective aspects, attitudes, ideas, values, and patterns of behavior emanating from them) and social (relations between people, statuses, social institutions).