Hrebin S. Childhood as a Sociocultural Phenomenon: Social-Philosophical Analysis

This thesis has developed and justified the theoretical explanatory model of socio-cultural transformation of childhood, according to which within the value-ontological approach it has revealed that childhood is a particular being, a prototype of human content, value-oriented establishment "image of man" as a future personality (personality in society, in the collective identity, the identity of "a self"). In childhood, the complex of ideas about the universe and the knowledge of society is formed with determined means to achieve and learn the role and the place in adult life. It is proved that the primary purpose of the socio-cultural dimension of childhood as a period of initial development of the individual is self-affirmation of children, formation of the human being image in the context of the harmonization of its relationship with the environment, prevention of antisocial and illegal forms of self-realization. On the basis of socio-philosophical analysis childhood, as a socio-cultural phenomenon, is disclosed in the context of historical types of culture (archaic, Christianity, modern, postmodern). Child as "potency" of adult personality is subordinated to the general laws of life. It is stated that childhood as a social community with their interests, values, worldview and needs, occupies a definite position in the social structure of society has its own characteristic features, the specific content which is subject to changes in the socio-historical reality. It outlines the nature and direction of deployment of global cultural processes that determine the characteristics of socialization and individualization of the modern child. It is proved that, having an influence on the child's life, the essential features of the modern era generate "crisis of childhood", ambivalence in the modern sense of childhood, characterized manifestations of antisocial and illegal forms of self-kids realization. It was found that the national culture of the child identification has traditionally occurred through the approved standards as the basis for consistency and adequacy of the child in a particular socio-cultural situation. The thesis has found out the achievements and miscalculations of Ukraine in relation to providing quality of childhood as well as the efficiency of domestic normatively legal subsoil of its existence and development. It suggests possible ways to overcome the "crisis of childhood" and improve the situation of children in Ukraine.