Cancelling as a social phenomenon: theoretical aspect

Abstract

Cancelling is considered as a totality of social practices used by the society or its part to force social pressure on an individual, group, community or organisation. The main forms and goals of cancelling in various spheres of society are identified, the need for its interdisciplinary research on the methodological basis is given grounds for. The phenomenon of cancelling is considered in different theoretical frameworks. The conflictological interpretation of cancelling focuses on the actors’ struggle for material and non-material resources that unfolds mainly in illegal forms. Due to its great destructive potential cancelling is highlighted as a potential danger to economic and labour relations. The political-discursive interpretation considers the phenomenon from the viewpoint of cultural resistance to structural violence undertaken by the marginal groups when it is difficult to call the representatives of elite groups to account due to their privileged position. Designated are some features of development of the phenomenon of cancelling in a modern society: normative blurring of cancelling practices, lack of innovative potential and ability to radically change social relations in a modern society, low efficiency and imitative nature of cancelling practices, transfer of the normative foundations of the minorities’ social practices into a universalist context and establishment of privileges for representatives of certain communities, social selectivity and economic motivation of cancelling with the representatives of elite communities. It is recognised that cancelling expansion into the economic, political and cultural spheres of a modern society results in initiating the processes which can be dangerous for its development. Сancelling practices do not only create opportunities and socio-cultural innovations for an individual, but also cause significant problems and obstacles for his professional and other activities. For the society as a whole, cancelling is becoming a source of conflict processes that, instead of fighting the real causes and factors of social oppression, creates new ideological grounds and mechanisms for discrimination.