„THE CONTROLLED SOCIAL CONTEXT” AND THE ANSWERS OF THE SOCIAL ACTORS. TWO CASES STUDIES

• Main Author: ADRIAN NECULAU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Romanian Academy 2013-11-01
• Series: Revista Română de Sociologie
• Online Access: http://revista.acadsudest.ro/pdf-uri/nr.3-4-2013/18-ANeculau.pdf

The social context is a system of ideas and beliefs, of norms and habits, also comprising the social and cultural entourage in which the individual evolves and transmits his values by means of education and speech. It provides reference frames, brand images, behavior models and everyday practices, thus assuring the individual’s socialization and social integration. In case of closed societies, either of the authoritarian type or of the totalitarian one, we speak of a ‘controlled social context’, produced according to an ideological receipt provided by the dominant group. The latter invents a ‘social logic’ which then orientates the social-cognitive activity of the individual, gets him familiar with the ‘normality’ of the context, advises him how to rationalize the information coming from his milieu and teaches him how to reject the ‘abnormal’, the behaviors which are in contradiction with the operating norms and common practices. This study aims at examining the lives and works of two exceptional creators which were prisoners of the controlled social context in the Stalinist period: writer Michail Bulgakov and psychologist Lev Semionovich Vigotsky. Both tried to find solutions in order to work and create in the given context without giving up principles, morality and dignity. Both failed, but knew posthumous success