Digital Culture as a Field of Interdisciplinary Research: Methodological Approaches and Tendencies of Development

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of trends and directions of the development of Digital Culture as a field of interdisciplinary research, representing the convergence of information technology and socio-humanitarian knowledge. The main methodological approaches to the study of Digital Culture, its structural components and conceptual models are investigated. From the standpoint of critical analysis different trends of technocratic approach to the study of digital culture are discussed in the article: historical and sociological concepts of digital culture, transhumanism movement, and techno-cultural futurology of Russian and foreign authors. The distinctive feature of the technocratic concepts of digital culture is the identification of the digital culture concept to culture as a whole. As a rule, the future models of social organization and digitized human nature are out of reflection by technocrats. Humanitarian discourse of digital culture focuses on the world outlook and ontological issues of cultural dynamics; synergy-anthropological analysis of the main conceptual models of human and culture digitization in contemporary society; new integral forms of traditional and digital culture in education, science, and art. In the article the most promising research trends of digital culture, its models and practices are represented, in particular, Context-Epistemological approach in Humanitarian Informatics (Digital Humanities); Cultural Archive approach in the practice of conservation and presentation of museum collections and library collections (archiving of cultural heritage, virtual museums); Art-&-Science field in higher education.