In this work, we consider the lifeway sphere to be changing – from generation to generation, or even during a period comparable with human life. Moreover, we believe that in the lifeway sphere it is possible and even necessary to have changes or reforms with apt concepts, notions, programmes and political will in order to implement them.
In the first part of this book, we describe how the tenor and way of life changed in Belarus during the second half of the 20th century when the USSR existed. In the same part, we characterize the latest decades’ policy and state programmes. We proceed from the assumption that the Belarusan authorities’ actions were based on the concepts, notions and categories suggested by public and human sciences. The Belarusan regime has been carrying out purposefully and consistently the programme built on the basis of the Soviet ideology and social science.
In order to develop new programmes and to start launching reforms corresponding to modern global tendencies, thus including Belarus in the full fledged all European process, it is necessary to change the conceptual bases of humanitarian and social approaches, concepts and categories. Therefore, in the second part, we review possibilities and ways of constructing such concepts and categories which would make it possible to implement reforms in the lifeway sphere.
We see two directions of how to use the concepts we develop in the lifeway sphere. The first direction is to criticize Soviet social science and conceptualizations about human beings and society, which now prevail in Belarus, with a subsequent transition to new conceptual bases. This direction can only be realized with the help of a wide public dialogue, including not only ideological disputes, but also academic and scientific discussions, PR campaigns in the mass media, as well as higher education establishments’ and schools’ curricula freed from dogmatism. This book is a small contribution to this wide public dialogue which is yet to be started. The second direction is connected with the “cultural policy” and the study programme we have been implementing since 1994. It develops and modifies according to both changes of the socio-political situation and our own promotion and accumulation of knowledge and materials. In the third part, we describe briefly the study programme’s section concerning the “cultural policy” which touches the lifeway sphere.
Tatsiana Vadalazhskaya, Uladzimir Matskevich
The Quality and Way of life in Belarus: evolution and possibilities of transformation. 2007