The Role of Subcultures in Latent Social Governance Mechanisms

Abstract

Social management of the livelihoods of people, social groups, and nations has experienced dramatic changes in recent decades. In a number of countries, particularly in the post-Soviet republics, the habitual stable social order has been gradually replaced by social chaos, characterized by disintegration and conflicts. The nature of these social transformations was characterized by S. Huntington (1996) in his famous book ‘The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.’ The author of the study declares, the core idea is that in the post-Cold War world, culture and the recognition of different cultural identities (that in the broadest sense coincides with the identity of civilization) determine the patterns of cohesion, disintegration and conflict. The researcher argues that in the new world the most large-scale, important and dangerous conflicts are not to arise between social classes, the poor and the rich, but between nations of different cultural identities (Huntington, 1996). Comprehension of the distinctions existing in cultural identities as the primary source of future social conflicts actualizes the problem of the subcultures’ role in the processes of social management. The mentioned problem is poorly studied in general, yet it attracts considerable attention to the possibility of the latent structures taking advantage of various subcultures to influence the processes of social management. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the role of subcultures in the processes of latent social management.