Respondent

Shafranyosh Olexiy Ivanovych

Theme

Characteristic features of the phenomenon of counterculture in the context of socio-political processes in the United States in the 50-70 years of the twentieth century

Defence Date

15.11.2019

Annotation

The thesis for a candidate of political sciences degree in specialty 23.00.02  “Political Institutions and Processes”. – Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Lviv, 2019.

The dissertation analyzes the formation and explanation of the phenomenon of counterculture in the United States in the socio-political and cultural spheres in the context of socio-political processes in the 50-70s of the 20th century. Complex approach to the study of the theory of counterculture and subculture is realized. For the first time, the counterculture in 50-70 years of the twentieth century in the US is investigated  as a particular political, social, cultural phenomenon, with an emphasis on its political component. analyzed the value orientations that prevailed in American society, the nature of their changes under the influence of the phenomenon of counterculture, which was particularly active in the late 1960s, early 1970s.

The genesis, development and decay of counterculture as an integral process that influenced the formation of the latest youth movements, political movements that are actively developing in the whole world, including Ukraine, has been researched. In the dissertation was proposed the typology of directions of scientific approaches to the definition of the concept of counterculture. Among them there are apologetic, critical and balanced approaches. Directly to the apologetic approach belong scientific works,  which has the positive relation to counterculture, social and political aspects of its activities. The critical approach includes positions, that consider counterculture as a negative social phenomenon and practice. A balanced approach combines the work of many researchers, which combines efforts to understanding counterculture as an objective phenomenon, while taking into account its weaknesses and strengths. At the same time,  the authors, which belong to this approach to recognize the importance of the existence of the phenomenon, its influence on socio-cultural and political processes. Criticism relates to radical cultural practices, political extremism and excessive seizure of psychedelic substances among representatives of counterculture. The definition of fundamental scientific concepts in the field of studying counterculture has been improved. In particular, concept of counterculture, in the broad sense, is defined as a set of ideas, values, world outlooks that oppose the official, basic culture and, in the narrow sense, as a combination of critical cultural, socio-political attitudes in the 50-70 years of the 20th century. This term is often used in western scientific and journalistic literature as “the counterculture of the 1960s”.

Also, was investigated the definition of the essence of the concepts used in the field of research of youth movements and counterculture, factual data related to the genesis and the development of key terms and concepts, the common and distinctive features between the concepts of subculture and counterculture, the boundaries of their combination; peculiarities of communication of subcultures of the 50’s and 70’s of the twentieth century, who joined to the development of a countercultural project.

The results of this study can be used in the research and forecasting of the development of modern youth movements and subcultures in Ukraine and in countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as the overwhelming majority of them take over the experience of their direct ideological predecessors from the United States. An important way of practical implementation of the results of the Ph.D. thesis is the formation of materials for special courses in political sociology, the theory of political culturology, the theory of social movements in political science.

Key words: political process, political institute, counterculture, subculture, youth movements, new left, hippies, beatniks, movement for civil rights, state, national minorities, green movement, sixties, USA.

Dissertation File

Autosummary File