Cultural trauma as a method of studying social change

Abstract

The article analyzes the theoretical and methodological foundations and the conceptualization of the idea of ​​cultural trauma. An overview of the conceptual models of cultural trauma, proposed by Neil Joseph Smelser, Peter Sztompka, Jeffrey Charles Alexander is given. Analysis of the concept of cultural trauma opens up opportunities for understanding a number of provisions: the fact that in Western social and humanitarian studies the problem of cultural trauma has become a new paradigm discipline; the essence of the intellectual analysis of the concept of cultural trauma is to indicate the significance of the ability of culture to self-reflection; the universality of the concept of cultural trauma in that it subjects social phenomena to philosophical reflection and opens up opportunities for the formation of new approaches in solving empirical problems; modern research has determined the prospects of the topic of trauma as a subject for social analysis; trauma is an interdisciplinary and intercultural issue; that it opens up opportunities for studying the dynamics of the life of local communities, comprehending the mechanisms of symbolic structuring of the lessons of the past and determining ways to assimilate them; it is shown that as a scientific concept, cultural trauma can be used by non-Western societies in the matter of social construction.

Keywords: culture, cultural trauma, social change, Neil Joseph Smelser, Piotr Sztompka, Jeffrey Charles Alexander.