INTERACTION – CATEGORY OF DYNAMIC CHANGES IN MODERN LIBRARY SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF UKRAINE

Actualization of the task of successful realization of the important social mission in the conditions of aggravation of a competition and digitalization motivates domestic libraries to establishment and strengthening of interaction in general. The purpose of the article is to represent interaction as a defining category of effective transformations and dynamic changes in modern domestic library science and practice. The methodology research consists in the application of general scientific and special methods, namely: analysis, synthesis and generalization, as well as comparative-historical, retrospective, problem-chronological methods. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the expansion of ideas about the importance of interaction for the development of the library and information sphere of the state. The analysis carried out in the article allows to state: multifunctional library interaction as a defining category of effective transformations and dynamic changes in modern domestic library science and practice is: 1) is an integral part of information and communication activities and is carried out on the principles of independence, equality and mutual benefit; 2) the optimal way to form a dialogic communicative paradigm for the development of world cultures and civilization in general for the sake of political stability and economic progress; 3) the key to the competitiveness of the library business of Ukraine, as a center of access to a much larger universe of knowledge in a global information environment; 4) an effective and promising tool for the implementation of the strategic task of integration into the world scientific, educational and cultural space of national culture and science; 5) the tested mechanism of mutual enrichment with social experience and affirmation of universal values.

ADMINISTRATIVE DISCRETION AND INSTRUMENTS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS: ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL AND DEONTOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS

The article focuses on the relationship between public administration and legal deontology. Public administration is a renewed form of public administration. The difference is that public administration is a more democratic process of state-authoritative impact on social relations. This democracy is manifested in the forms and methods of managerial activity used. Among the forms and methods of public administration, a softer set of forms is selected – an appropriate combination of legal and non-legal forms, the method of persuasion and coercion. The very activity has an executive and administrative nature. The executive orientation implies the call of public administrations to promote the practical implementation of laws. Orders – to adopt and implement legal acts of administration. Forms and methods together constitute the tools of activity of public administrations. Executive-administrative activity is carried out through appropriate managerial procedures. The basis of activity is administrative discretion. It consists in the possibility at one’s own risk to use forms and methods in their totality depending on the choice of the public administrator himself. This requires its appropriate level of professional training and the necessary level of compliance of the activity of a public administrator with increased moral and ethical parameters. Given the lack of administrative and procedural legislation, it is proposed to consider the use of discretionary powers as permissible with the possibility of expanding their limits within the law. But this is only on condition of introducing into the normative regulation of public administrators’ activity the code of their professional conduct. Such a code should contain an ideal model of professional conduct of public administrators. Conformity of professional conduct of an official of public administration body to the requirements of the code is a prerequisite for the implementation of its social mission. The code of ethics of a public administrator should contain a set of requirements of moral and ethical nature, compliance with which in the activities of the public administrator will contribute to the implementation of constitutional requirements on the social orientation and conditionality of the activities of the state and all its bodies.

Applied cultural studies and culture management: research methodology

The purpose of the article is to study the interconnection of applied cultural studies and culture management, develop methodological basis for analysis of efficiency of their integration, define viability of realizing cultural practices in the context of applied cultural studies branch. The methodology. By analyzing and synthesizing the scientific knowledge, a flexible methodological system is created, which enables analyzing the present and predicting the future, and create, not only in theory, but in practice, the culture­creation technologies, thus setting the vector for culture development. The leading methods of research are analysis of scientific facts, juxtaposition of theoretical positions, generalization and synthesis of methodological basis for defining leading scientific approaches to researching applied cultural studies and culture management. The results. Utilization of developed methodology enables examination of applied cultural studies as a mechanism of culture creativity, and culture management as a tool of scientifically justified regulation of this process. Thanks to applied cultural studies, management gains deep meanings, and not only rational management and realization of its own functions, and applied cultural studies is manifested in practice and transforms into a technological plane the meanings and concepts of contemporary culture model. The topicality. It was defined that gnoseological, worldview, logic­gnoseological, scientific content­related, technological and scientific­methodological levels of methodology allows to create the applied cultural studies and culture management analysis model in a substantial interconnection. Justification was provided for some scientific approaches, which are taken as the baseline of methodological analysis of integrating applied cultural studies branch and management in the sociocultural field. The practical significance. According to the results of the study, applied cultural studies have a broad social mission, which manifests itself in creation of advantageous environment of interaction in the object field of culture, constructing mechanisms of implementing innovations in the sociocultural field, and developing future cultural practices models, which will eventually promote establishment of its new formats. In order to achieve this task, culture management implements social marketing, innovative and investment varieties of management technologies, branding, purposeful communication and human resource management, etc., which opens new perspectives of diversifying research of culture management in the context of applied cultural studies.

Microfinance Services and the Clients’ Socioeconomic Wellbeing During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Uganda

Microfinance is reported to be an effective tool of empowerment for vulnerable and marginalised groups, especially women. This study set out to investigate the relationship between microfinance services and the clients’ socioeconomic wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic in Uganda. The study involved 73 employees of microfinance institutions that deal directly with the clients. The study findings revealed that while no significant relationship exists between microfinance services and clients’ socioeconomic wellbeing, there is a significant moderate positive relationship between microfinance client protection policies and the clients’ socioeconomic wellbeing. The regression model revealed that a unit increase in client protection policies increases the socioeconomic wellbeing of microfinance services beneficiaries by 72%. It is recommended that microfinance institutions integrate client protection policies in their activities in line with their known social mission

Analysis of Genres of the BBC One TV Programs

The relevance of the study is based on the fact that the BBC One channel is interesting as an example of a public service broadcaster which retains its image and competitiveness on the global media market. The goal of the research is to analyze the BBC One programming with regard to its forms of journalists and cameramens work. The semiotic methodology is chosen for interpreting sign systems, i. e. journalists texts or TV frames, as interconnected phenomena of culture. As a result, important sociocultural and philosophical elements integrated into the BBC One programming and determining its genre profile have been revealed. The social mission of the public broadcasting, combination of regional and metropolitan grounds, the prevalence of serious news genres are among them. Moreover, the programs are open for entertaining content including a foreign-made one. There is also a visual and aesthetic adaptation of pre-TV cultural forms of theater and the tabloid press, etc. Therefore, we can speak of a rather flexible programming policy of the BBC One, which can be a good model to develop strategies for public service broadcasters in other countries.

The universities’ role in developing citizen science discourse

The article, aimed at mapping ways to enhance the systemic character and sustainability of citizen science, analyses the state of its discourse in the Russian context. The analysis, relying upon the multiple actor interdisciplinary paradigm within the framework of rational agency, applied comparative and analytical methods. The research concentrated on identifying common invariant features in the processes of initiating and developing citizen science projects, as well as on distinguishing core unresolved issues. The article points out the relevance of citizen science, viewing the latter as a reflection of changes in the relationships and activities undertaken by people, communities and society at large, diverse actors getting more and more involved in these activities, with their functionality and impact on social processes being expanded. The research can be considered brandly new, because it defines the role of citizen science as a new synergetic paradigm for the development of science and higher education in Russia, and as an important communication-and-cooperation channel between higher education and society at large. In particular, it is revealed that at the macrolevel, citizen science projects contribute to the democratization of both scientific research and society as a whole by invoking actors from various social spheres and subsystems, as well as by strengthening citizens’ confidence in the state. At the microlevel, the projects contribute to the universities’ educational and social mission, expand and diversify the interaction of HEIs with society, and foster new research questions formulation. The practical use of the research is viewed as a possible integration of our conclusions in the further practice-oriented investigations, in forming citizen science backgrounds, competences, and methodological base. Of no less importance are the materials for the training programmes modernization in the field of science and higher education administration.

Collaborative capabilities of cause-based social entrepreneurship alliance of firms

PurposeThis study examines the collaborative value practices of cause-based social entrepreneurship alliances. We investigate key drivers of value creation in such alliances.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes a longitudinal case study design approach involving four northern Italian businesses for investigating the cause-based social alliances.FindingsThe study findings suggest that cause-based alliance differ from other business relationships due to social mission of the alliance and orientation of partners to a specific social cause. However, over time involved firm may pursue commercial interests.Research limitations/implicationsThe study utilizes a qualitative case study approach to examine the issues. This may have implications on generalizability of study findings. Further, the sample is limited to small firms, which limit its relevance for large firms.Practical implicationsManagers can utilize the study findings to guide the organizing process of a successful cause-based alliance and can implement it with positive outcomes for their firm.Originality/valueThis is one of the first study on the emerging phenomenon of cause-based social alliance. It contributes to the literature on social entrepreneurship. It informs and guides practitioners about motivations and drivers of such alliances.

Social Consequences of the Pandemic in the Context of Modern Education Problems

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the main trends of evolution of the educational sphere of society and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on it. There are four basic trends in the development of education. The first is the audiovisual turn in modern culture accompanied by a crisis of "book culture". New learning technologies, making the material extremely accessible, do not developing the basic cognitive abilities of the individual. The "will to know" is not formed», as well as the desire and willingness to overcome the inevitable difficulties that arise in its course. The next factor is the total commercialization and consumerization of educational activities. Education is increasingly understood not as a selfless transfer of the accumulated experience of civilization, but as the provision of paid services. This gives its consumer additional rights and it creates unreasonable expectations. The third circumstance is devaluation of the classical interpretation of education as a unity of teaching and upbringing. There was a clear bias towards the first one. Education, understood as the process of forming a harmonious personality, it was in the background. The final trend in the development of education is the spreading of postmodern theories and related practices into it («postmodernization»). The pandemic is proving to be the most important factor in accelerating it. Due to the distance learning format the educational space is fragmented, atomized – both physically and intellectually. Its universal principles, goals, and content are being eroded. The social experiment launched by the pandemic proved that mostly distance education is technically possible, economically profitable, increases the emphasis on the pragmatic component of education to the detriment of the axiological one and contributes to the progressive postmodernization of education. In conclusion, it is pointed out that Western philosophy in the works of its most prominent representatives repeatedly played with the metaphor of death of God (Nietzsche), subject (Foucault), author (Barthes). By analogy, the thesis is put forward (accelerated witch pandemic) about «the death of a Teacher», manifested primarily in loss by the pedagogical community and society as a whole a view of the importance of the Teacher's social mission.

Values in Psychometrics

When it originated in the late 19th century, psychometrics was a field with both a scientific and a social mission: Psychometrics provided new methods for research into individual differences and at the same time considered these methods a means of creating a new social order. In contrast, contemporary psychometrics—because of its highly technical nature and its limited involvement in substantive psychological research—has created the impression of being a value-free discipline. In this article, we develop a contrasting characterization of contemporary psychometrics as a value-laden discipline. We expose four such values: that individual differences are quantitative (rather than qualitative), that measurement should be objective in a specific sense, that test items should be fair, and that the utility of a model is more important than its truth. Our goal is not to criticize psychometrics for supporting these values but rather to bring them into the open and to show that they are not inevitable and are in need of systematic evaluation.