The Changes in society: towards diversity

• Daugpilio universitetas: leidinio tekstas

ENThe process of globalisation has rapidly appeared over the last few years in many social and economic fields (Tomlinson, 1999). It influences the people activity, social movements, encourages new human and social relationships, the cultural and values systems (Bauman, 2002). In social sciences the process of globalisation is influencing the change of methodologies of investigations, increases the knowledge, improves the interpretation used in the analyses and research carried out in Lithuania. It is very significant to investigate now the private sphere (Rossler, 2005), real power of people - at home, in household, in works institutions, their influence to family and to all society. In Lithuania now exist many different subcultures or social worlds of people - officials, politicians, youth (especially students), women, artists, cities or villages inhabitants. Some of them are expressing their interests and features of life style in public and private life, in mass media. The problem of identity has been brought in recent years into the focus of social scientific and public debate. For the people of postsocialist country the very actual question is to have a new identity which is related with modern western values. Sometimes it is not clear for them exactly what to do to get it. For the Lithuanian people to have an identity it means to answer the questions "who am I‘ or "where to I belong‘. According to P. Bourdieu (Bourdieu, 1992) lifestyle is an expression of class position; the styles of consumption are the means of exhibiting "cultural capital‘; social distinction is marked by tastes which are formed as part of class habitus. Key words: social change, differentiation of society, consumption as social phenomena, social distinction. [From the publication]