Formation Of A New Scientific And Educational Space: Dialogue Of Cultures

Abstract

The article deals with relevant issues of forming the new scientific and educational space within the increasingly complex dialogue of cultures in the Eurasian space. The purposes of the article are to define the dependence of the strategies for forming the global scientific and educational space of modern society on national, anthropogenic and technological factors in the dialogue of cultures particularly in the Eurasian paradigm. The methodological basis of the article is structural, functional and paradigm analysis, as well as system-integrated approach to determine the strategies for the forming the global scientific and educational space, the multifactor nature of its development within the dialogue of cultures. The scientific and educational space represents the scientific and educational continuum in the whole diversity of system, resource, subject-activity, and spiritual-informational components. Its integrity is ensured by integration processes in the social space, and the continuity of the educational process. The maintaining and developing the role of Russia as the most important socio-cultural, scientific and educational moderator and actor of the Eurasian space is especially noted. Education, the key element of which is universities, is one of the factors for the sustainable, effective and harmonious development of territories and society. Higher schools not only promote research activity, but also carry out it themselves in laboratories and research centers, contributing to the development of society, economy, production and, as a result, international relations. However, the unification of the educational system is also a natural result of international interactions of scientific and educational environments.

Keywords: Dialogue of culturesEurasianismmodernitysocietyscientific and educational space

Introduction

The development of the modern world is due to two important interrelated processes - globalization and integration. Globalization is a process of global unification, and one of its main factors is the integration of absolutely all spheres of modern life (Giddens, 2003). Thus, technological integration is one of the most important conditions, factors and consequences of the globalization of the world economy. There is no unified “command” center in the world that manages the process of technological integration.

The major transnational corporations have the main influence on the processes of technological integration. Moreover, such corporations regularly form special consortia for the purposes of standardization. These consortia often compete with each other. Scientific and technological integration implies the formation of an open space for this activity with common coordinating bodies, an extensive system of expertise and joint effective organization of funding. The systemic unity of substantive coordination, the level of qualification and professional requirements and coordinated material and financial support for research and innovation, experimental, design and technological developments is a necessary condition for the reconstruction of a common scientific and technological space (Makhova, 2017).

The purposes of such integration are to ensure the high level, dynamics and competitiveness of scientific research, technological development and industrial samples. These purposes can be achieved only on the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation of countries within the general civilizational process and in the conditions of a new international scientific and technical order. Successful cooperation requires broad communication between the parties and agreement not only at the level of governments, but also at the level of organizations, programs for the public and individual scientists.

As the most significant features of the modern integration process, it is possible to note a gradual shift of world development from the western to the eastern, from the European to the Asian, from “Greater Europe to Greater Eurasia”, which leads to new international associations, ways of interaction between actors, areas of worldview, public and technological trends in society (Kefeli & Kuznetsov, 2018). Since the problem of personnel and their training is of great importance for socio-economic, technological and scientific-educational integration, knowledge and cognition, as an important resource of modernity, seem to be the most priority and significant ways of not only obtaining information and working with it, but also gaining data management skills and the constructing the public perception of the world. Under the influence of modern processes of integration and internationalization, education is becoming more open and global, which leads to the formation of a completely new research and educational environment in which there are universal requirements for all its participants, standards and norms that must be followed to achieve uniform global performance.

Problem Statement

In modern integration conditions, the bases are: both elements of economies and cultures of various Eurasian peoples, as well as global space, and technological, scientific and educational guidelines that perform an important function of developing the Russia-Eurasia regions and the world as a whole.

The basis of the modern Eurasian direction in the field of education and science in Russia is not only interaction with the countries of the East and Asia, but also the joint formation and development of new trends and strategies in these areas. Throughout its historical development, domestic education has been repeatedly subjected to reforms, in varying degrees, changing its focus, content and structure. At present, the complex process of designing a new strategy for the development of Russian education is being carried out based on the potential combination of its traditional advantages and, at the same time, ensuring its competitiveness in the modern world (Abdraimov, 2009).

The humanity creates and accumulates knowledge, an important resource of modern global development, the level and quality of which determine the limit for the development of science and economics in the world. Investing in human capital, that is, in raising, education, culture, health, information support, security, etc., allows society to generate innovative ideas and effectively use entrepreneurial resources that today determine the competitive advantages of developed countries of the world (Floridi, 2014). Therefore, speaking of the modern reflection of Eurasian ideas as a factor of the dialogue of cultures in the educational space, it is important to understand that they are not limited to academic interaction with the countries of the Eurasian region, Asia and the East as a whole, but seek to build the knowledge of the future, innovative development, creation of advanced developments and research mechanisms that meet the current needs of the economy and production.

These trends and strategies determine the formation of global scientific, educational and digital environments that change in many ways the traditional understanding of the educational process, scientific research and development that have been formed in the minds of society over the past decades, starting with the third industrial revolution caused by the development of computers and computer technologies and the Internet (Prensky, 2012).

The educational process becomes integrated and begins to be the engine of creativity and innovation as the concept of the informational nature of personal identification is developed (McLuhan, 2003), the processes of self-identification based on the general technological principles of building a multi-agent system are modelled (Floridi, 2014). Every country forms the scientific and educational space and implements the targets of science and education, based on its own technological resources, geopolitical and economic opportunities, taking into account its national, historical, religious and other specifics. (Gashkova, 2014).

Research Questions

It is necessary to investigate how the strategies for forming a global scientific and educational space depend on technological integration within the framework of modern society, as well as on the influence of national and anthropogenic factors in the dialogue of cultures.

The Eurasian paradigm is a factor in the forming a unified scientific and educational space, in the conditions of the priority importance of information and knowledge, the tendency to create a unified Eurasian educational and scientific space, especially in the fourth industrial revolution.

The system of higher education in the conditions of globalization of modern society allows the modern university to independently form a unified scientific and educational space.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study in this article is to determine the dependence of the strategies for the forming the global scientific and educational space of modern society on national, anthropogenic, technological factors in the dialogue of cultures, in particular in the Eurasian paradigm.

Research Methods

An integrated approach allowing us to determine the strategy for the forming a global scientific and educational space, the multifactorial nature of its development within a dialogue of cultures is fundamental in the study of the issue.

To achieve the purpose of the study, the system analysis method was used, as well as comparative and historical analyzes (Bash, 2009).

Structural and functional (Schwab, 2016) and paradigm analysis (Entin & Entina, 2016) were used to uncover the issue of the role of social and technological influences on the scientific and educational space.

Findings

In the Eurasian paradigm, Russia's geopolitical features often define the country as the center of a new scientific and educational space. Eurasian philosophers: P.N. Savitsky, G.P. Vernadsky, L.N. Gumilev constantly emphasized not only territorial, but also geopolitical, and especially civilizational-cultural unity with their own semantic and value systems (as cited in Abdraimov, 2009; Kefeli & Kuznetsov, 2018; Inozemtsev & Dutkiewicz, 2013).

Today the perception of the territorial extent of Eurasia is changing; the points of views determining the boundaries of the Eurasian region as an ideological space are arising. Thus, the ideology and similarity of scientific, educational, technological and industrial views of various countries and peoples appear as the most significant and important point in the construction of a common space.

At the present time one of the important factors in the forming and developing the Eurasian scientific and educational space is joint forums, conferences and other forms of scientific and technological cooperation, which consider the Eurasianism not only from the political and philosophical points of view but also see the main Eurasian idea in building mutual understanding and interactions in science, technology, education and culture.

An important purpose of organizing joint scientific, educational and industrial activities is the consecutive creation of efficient organizational, legal, informational, financial, economic and technological conditions which are necessary for the forming and effective functioning of a unified scientific, educational and industrial space of Eurasia.

The unified methodology for identifying the educational, economic and technological needs of countries is necessary to create such a space.

The indicators allowing us to analyze and estimate the scientific, educational and innovation potential of the territories and the prospects for the socio-economic development of the national economy can be combined into three blocks: "Education", "Socio-economic development", "Innovation". The level of education has a significant impact on the forming and developing the innovation potential of the region, which forms the demand for highly qualified specialists with deep professional knowledge, who are able to develop new technological structures.

The development of Eurasian scientific and educational space comprises the solution of a number of tasks: the establishment of new interregional and international contacts in the process of convergence of science, education and production in Eurasian states on the terms of respect for cultural and historical traditions of interaction between the Eurasia countries; the creation of innovative forms of interregional interaction of academic institutions, state and non-state educational institutions of Eurasian states in the scientific, educational and socio-economic fields; development of public-private partnership in science, education and practical professional activities of institutions, organizations and enterprises of Eurasian states while maintaining and developing the role of Russia as the most important socio-cultural and scientific-educational moderator and actor of the Eurasian space.

An important resource in building a new scientific and educational space is the higher education system. In the interaction of universities in the Eurasian space, today there are already their own competitive advantages and considerable potential. Meanwhile, overcoming the dissociation of the scientific community and the isolation of science from industry and education remains one of the most important tasks of joint development. Eurasian region has important characteristics that make it possible to form a unified educational space and independently develop university cooperation, both within scientific groups and open network platforms that combine science and education. These characteristics include Russian, as the language of Eurasian scientific communication, high standards of scientific schools, developed network of contacts between universities, scientific and industrial centers (Bash, 2009; Kisoudis, 2015).

This is confirmed by the opening of branches of Russian universities in Eastern countries, including China, which is one of the main partners for creating a powerful and competitive union in the technological, economic spheres, as well as in national security issues of the regions. Thus, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in April 2016 became the first Russian university that opened its representative office in China, which was an important event for the scientific and educational, cultural, industrial development and interaction of the two countries, as well as for the higher Russian school as a whole.

Education, the key element of which is universities, represents one of the factors for the sustainable, effective and harmonious development of territories and society. High schools not only promote the scientific and research activity, but also create it themselves in their own laboratories and scientific centers, contributing to the development of society, economy, production and as a result international relations.

Meanwhile, international influences in the educational space are an incentive for the development of new knowledge, technologies and practices in the university environment. This is the basis of the championship race among universities for the status of a “world university”, which entails, necessary today for their qualitative development, active academic mobility among students and teachers, as well as leadership in scientific and educational activities. The element of unifying the educational system is also a natural result of international interactions of scientific and educational environments. A striking example of this is the Bologna system, which is familiar to Europe, but Russia, in the process of implementation, faced a number of difficulties caused by the necessary restructuring of the entire education system of the country and, as a result, a decline in the quality of the gained knowledge. Besides in the process of training highly qualified personnel, universities should not focus only on the local labor market, since the knowledge and qualifications of specialists should be relevant throughout the Eurasian and international space. Strengthening integration processes can lead to tougher competition between Eurasian universities, since the prospects for receiving education in almost any university in the countries of the Eurasian region makes the choice of students much wider. In turn, this competition may become an additional incentive for improving educational services, developing educational technologies and using best practices and achievements of partner universities.

The priority area of integration in education sphere is the desire of states to include their universities in the ranking of world universities. The increased attention of the government and society to university rankings means the general acknowledgment of the fact that economic growth and competitiveness of the country on global level increasingly dependent on knowledge and that universities play the key role in this context. Changing the status of a university to the level of a world university makes it not only more prestigious, but also economically beneficial, since it provides real opportunities for its participation in the activities of transnational corporations and direct cooperation with them. Meanwhile the role of Eurasian integrations is that today the universities of Russia, Asian countries and the former Soviet republics are interacting with great interest, creating conditions for conducting joint research, developing analogues to Western technologies and complying with the principles of import substitution.

The main direction of modern Eurasian scientific and educational integrations is that forming close scientific, educational and research contacts with Asia-Pacific Rim (APR), and the development of multilateral cooperation of Russia in the framework of the EAEU, BRICS, SCO, CIS and the APR. The development of such ties with the countries of the East is an absolutely logical and promising step for the entire Eurasian higher school.

The choice of the Eurasian direction as the basis for creating a new scientific and research space, is not accidental and is due to the fact that by now a third of the world's total number of students are already studying in the APR, while they are actively participating in international academic mobility programs. Educational processes in the region are characterized by the creation of large open universities, the rapid development of distance and cross-border education, and the widespread use of information and communication technologies. Experts cited as examples the Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor, 15 digital universities in the Republic of Korea, 67 online colleges at universities in China, and others. Today, the prestige of universities is primarily determined not so much by the number of implemented projects, as by their place in the ratings of both their country and the world. According to one of the leading ratings, the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings) 2016-2017, 115 universities from Asian countries were included in the Top 500 of world universities. This once again proves the promise of Asian direction, and as a result, the creation of a united Eurasian educational space, as well as the need for developing partnerships and joint educational and research programs.

Thus, considering Eurasianism as a factor of forming a united scientific and educational space, it is important to note that in modern conditions of the priority importance of information and knowledge, the tendencies to create this unity are becoming more and more conditional and fundamental. This activity is determined on the basis of technological and intellectual resources, geopolitical and economic opportunities of each country. Russia, being the middle state, is the basis of Eurasia, therefore the formation of a new educational space on the basis of Russian universities is largely determined by its geopolitical features. This formation can play a special role in strengthening research projects in various branches of science, industry, production, and also in creating, implementing and popularization of innovative technologies, determining the most priority positions for the region of development.

Conclusion

The analysis of integration in the scientific and educational space on the basis of the Eurasian paradigm has been carried out. The analysis of possible multifactorial directions of development of the global scientific and educational space on the example of a modern university in the context of Eurasian integration has been carried out. As well as the dependence of this development on national, anthropogenic, technological factors in the dialogue of cultures is shown. Conclusions and findings on the article are made.

References

1. Abdraimov, B. Zh. (2009). Interuniversity cooperation as a key factor in the development of the common educational space: the Eurasian dimension. Retrieved from: https://ia-centr.ru/experts/4223/ (accessed 28.02.2019).
2. Bash, L. (2009). Engaging with cross-culture communication barriers in globalized higher education: the case of research-degree students. Intercultural Education, 20(5), 475–483.
3. Entin, M., & Entina, E. (2016). The New Role of Russia in the Greater Eurasia. Strategic Analysis, 40(6), 590–603.
4. Floridi, L. (2014). The Fourth Revolution:How the infospere is Reshaping Human Reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from: htpp://readli.net/fouth-revolution-how-the-infosphere-is-human-reality.
5. Gashkova, E. M. (2014). Civilizational identity and culture. St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University Journal. Humanities and Social Sciences, 196(2), 32–36. Retrieved from: https://human.spbstu.ru/article/2014.16.4.
6. Giddens, A. (2003). Runaway World: How Globalisation is Reshaping Our Lives, Taylor & Francis, 104. Retrieved from: dhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_99/default.htm.
7. Inozemtsev, V., & Dutkiewicz, P. (2013). Democracy versus Modernization. A Dilemma for Russia and for the World. London; New Yor: Routledge.
8. Kefeli, I. F., & Kuznetsov, D. I. (2018). Eurasian vector of global policy: monograph. Moscow: Yurayt. DOI:
9. Kisoudis, D. (2015). Goldgrund Eurasien. Der Neue Kalte Krieg und das Dritte Rom. Leipzig: Manuscriptum Waltrop.
10. Makhova, N. V. (2017). Modern scientific and technological integration in the Eurasian space, Humanities and Social Sciences, 8(3), 49–56. DOI:
11. McLuhan, M. (2003). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Gingko Press.
12. Prensky, M. (2012). From digital natives to digital wisdom: Hopeful essays for 21st century learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
13. Schwab, K. (2016). The fourth industrial revolution. Retrieved from: https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-d39623145.html