Choice as an object of cultural studies

Abstract

The object of the research is the representation of the phenomenon of "choice" through the optics of modern scientific works in various fields. The subject is a culturological approach to the formation of modern knowledge about choice. Modern researchers, although they do not exclude cultural determinants in the formation of choice, however, relatively little attention is paid to culturally conditioned practices of making a choice regarding the interpretation of individual aspects of choice, principles and laws of rational and irrational choice, problems of consciousness and freedom of choice. The purpose of the work is to reconstruct current interpretations of choice and methods of choice research, as well as to determine the place of culture in the structure of modern knowledge about choice through a theoretical analysis of the corpus of modern scientific works (primarily foreign articles), the subject of which is "choice" in its many manifestations: psychological and socio-cultural aspects of choice, the share and the value of rationality in choice research, the possibility of making a "free choice", the agency of choice, etc. It is shown that the choice as a process and result is based on cultural, social and psychological factors, which are based on knowledge internalized by the subject, externally distributed among a variety of social and material agents. Studies of choice in various disciplines do not completely ignore the potential influence of socio-cultural factors on choice and the process of its formation. It is possible to determine the nature and extent of this impact in a comprehensive and interdisciplinary manner within the framework of cultural research. The study of choice as a set of cultural practices should take place under the auspices of various sciences, whose approaches will allow multidimensional construction of cultural practices taking into account technical, material, epistemological, semiotic and normative dimensions.