On Social Culture

Abstract

The article analyses the area of cultural activities outside the institutional circulation of culture, or within that framework but focusing on social values of art. Culture is understood here in its wide anthropological and sociological sense; by the subjects of culture, the author means individual producers, informal groups and social movements, NGOs, subjects of social economics, etc.  The class perspective is very important for the author and he puts special emphasis on those phenomena of culture which are manifestations of cultural practices in folk class. The author demonstrates how culture built primarily on non-institutional foundations influences empowerment, communication and cooperation skills, shaping community, and how it achieves inclusiveness, openness and responsibility, increasing the level of participation, achieving self-sufficiency and contributing to accumulation of common goods. The author believes that adopting the perspective of social culture as the foundation for thinking about culture in general creates an opportunity to strengthen culture and democracy.