Gender aspects of the civilizational approach (new horizons of interdisciplinary research)

The problems of interdisciplinary research in social sciences and the inseparability of the ideological component from socio-political knowledge, which largely contributes to the crisis of the social sciences, are analyzed. Also considered are the issues of the narrowness of a strictly disciplinary approach in social sciences, insufficient preliminary articulation of ontological foundations in socio-political studies, as well as the low demand for fundamental elaboration in applied disciplines, leading to their gradual transformation into “secret knowledge” with its own special language inaccessible for the “profane majority”. The authors debate with the position of political philosopher B.G. Kapustin on the problem of interdisciplinary and the concept of “civilization”. It is argued that the opponent contradicts his own definition of interdisciplinary when he considers “civilization” as a “worldview construct”, because the local-civilizational approach per se is a classic example of interdisciplinary research. The debate with liberal feminism is also presented. This field non-reflexively dominates Russian gender studies to such an extent that it leads to a shift in priorities and loss of “common sense”. A critical analysis of its main postulates, which have remained virtually unchanged despite historical changes, shows that interdisciplinary approach makes it possible to solve practical problems facing society based on a synthesis, for example, of civilizational and gender approaches.

interdisciplinary research, social sciences, local-civilizational approach, gender studies, universalism