The relevance of studying fundamental changes in semiosis (meaning-making) in the context of digital culture stems from the increasing role of algorithmic systems and artificial intelligence (AI) in the making and filtering of meanings. This poses risks of dehumanization in communication and requires a rethinking of the mechanisms of personality formation. The article aims to develop a theoretical model of the transformation of semiosis in digital culture through the lens of anthropological and communicative challenges, as well as to define a strategy for countering dehumanizing trends associated with AI. The following objectives were set: 1) to systematize knowledge about existing models of semiosis and trace their evolution from the perspective of communication and personality theories; 2) to compare the features of digital semiosis in different communication modes; 3) to clarify the key problems and vectors of digital semiosis through the lens of anthropological challenges; 4) to identify the specificity of the conflict between analog (hermeneutic) and digital (algorithmic) meaning-making using the example of the film and media environment, analysed through the lens of activity theory; 5) to substantiate a strategy for the cultural development of the hybrid analog-digital semiosis in the era of AI. The study draws on conceptual works in semiotics, philosophical anthropology, and the philosophy of culture, as well as research in the field of Human–Machine Communication (HMC), empirical data from Mediascope (2025), and the narratives of popular TV series as representations of contemporary semiotic contradictions. The methodological framework is based on anthropological and axiological approaches, drawing on the ideas of pragmasemantics, “deep semiotics”, and the “Slow life” theory. To review and systematize data on the development of theoretical concepts of semiosis in the light of communication theory, the tabular method, SWOT analysis, typologization and modeling techniques were used. As a result, a theoretical model of digital transformation of semiosis has been proposed, addressing the current anthropological and communicative challenges. Conclusions: 1) the evolution of semiosis models saw a transition from theories that consider the  relationship between sign and meaning to be relatively stable to modern HMC concepts that substantiate the communicative nature of the meaning-making process; 2) digital semiosis in network communication differs from human-AI communication; though algorithms are actively integrated into both modes; 3) the key problems of digital semiosis (algorithmic curation, clip thinking, structural memory loss, and a lack of sign credibility) contribute to lessening the individual’s role in meaning-making, actively shifting the individual away from the position of the decision-making centre; 4) the clash between hermeneutic and algorithmic models of meaning-making is examined within the digital environment, where various forms of overcoming this conflict are proposed, including hybridization; 5) resisting the dehumanizing effects of hybrid semiosis in HMC requires establishing ethical principles of “slow meaning” to address both sociocultural and personal experiences. The ethics of “slow meaning” is a well-founded and promising response to the challenges posed by AI, asserting the human monopoly on interpretation, contextualization, and synthesis — a response aimed at preserving the paradigm of reflexive subjectivity in new conditions.

The relevance of the study stems from the need for a theoretical analysis of both the transformations of digital culture as such and their global projections. The aim of the work is to systematize approaches to specifying the reverse influence of digital artistic practices on the symbolic field of culture, taking into account approaches from Chinese aesthetics that are little known in the West. To achieve this aim, the research addresses several objectives: 1) to identify the main approaches to the analysis of digital transformation of the artistic paradigm in the context of media culture practices; 2) to describe the specificities of communicative-processual understanding of the “dialogical aura” of the representation of digital art in Western philosophy; 3) to reveal the essence of the category of “digital co-creativity”; 4) to identify the heuristic potential of Chinese aesthetic tradition as an analytical lens for studying digital art; 5) to establish the possibilities and limitations of the approach that views digital creativity as a model of broader cultural transformations. The research material consists of theoretical works on cultural specificity and cultural implications of the spread of modern forms of generative art, interactive projects and algorithmically mediated artistic practices. The methodological framework comprises comparative and hermeneutical approaches; the scenario analysis method was employed to test the hypothesis of the hybrid (combining Western technologies and Eastern aesthetic forms) nature of digital art as a prototype of digital culture as a whole. As a result, it was established that the key concepts of Chinese aesthetics allow us to specify the nature of the reverse influence of digital artistic practices on the symbolic field of culture, primarily as an intensification and diversification of communication. Conclusions. 1. Among the main approaches to the analysis of the digital transformation of the artistic paradigm in the context of media culture practices are techno-optimism and the critical deficit approach; 2. Western philosophical tradition is currently undergoing an active transition from a static objectifying paradigm of artistic creativity to its interpretation as a dynamic communicative process; 3. In this regard, the category of “digital co-creativity” acquires increasing importance as a form of communication that reveals itself in a specific way in the digital environment; 4. The productivity of turning to the concepts of Chinese aesthetics such as “qi yun” (气韵) and “yi jing”(意境) is substantiated since they serve as an additional conceptual resource for describing the processual nature, internal resonance, and openness to interpretation of digital art forms. 5. The possibilities of extrapolating the specificities of digital art (distributed subjectivity of meaning-making, process-oriented nature and fundamental incompleteness) to contemporary culture as a whole are limited, firstly, by the accessibility of the benefits of digital civilization, and, secondly, by the specificity of the “dialogical aura”, which presupposes the involvement of representatives of diverse communities in symbolic cultural production. Nonetheless, the prospects for limited hybridization of cultures through their incorporation into digital processes are undeniable.

The relevance of this study is determined by the transformation of religion's public presence under the influence of the digital media environment: religious meanings are formed and circulated on social media beyond direct institutional control. Whereas the public representation of religion once relied primarily on institutional channels — such as the church, the confessional press, and state media — a substantial share of communication concerning religion now unfolds on video platforms, social networks, messengers, and the personal pages of bloggers and preachers. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the analytical applicability of the concepts of lived, vernacular, and material religion to digital media discourse. Its objectives are to reconstruct the genesis of these analytical lenses; to distinguish them operationally with respect to digital media discourse; and to identify those aspects of the digital media representation of religion that each lens brings into view. The material consists of published case studies of digital religion from 2010 to 2025, covering a range of confessional and regional traditions as well as formats of religion's public online presence, including in the Russian context. The guiding methodological premise is the distinction between religious life in its immediate givenness and its public, mediatized representations; owing to the "hermetic" character of religious consciousness and conduct, only the latter is available for observation. The methods comprise conceptual analysis, comparative typology, and a religious-studies interpretation of secondary data. The result of the study consists of the operational transfer of these lenses to digital media discourse on religion and the identification of the forms in which institutional and vernacular authority are correlated. Conclusions. The reconstruction of their genesis shows that the lenses of lived, vernacular, and material religion grew out of a critique of the "folk religion" framework and out of a shared demand to describe religion "from below," which makes them well suited to a participatory media environment. The operational distinction establishes three levels and three units of analysis: a verbal utterance or visual fragment linking religious meaning to everyday action; a normative claim coded according to its source of legitimation and the outcome of its negotiation; and the sensorial-medial organization of the material together with the technical conditions of its publication. Applying the lenses to the cases makes it possible to distinguish recentring, negotiated, and bimodal regimes of the correlation of authority, along with a limit case — the collapse of regime variability; the audience is conceptualized as a para-religious normative instance that disciplines vernacular utterance through user reactions and comments, while algorithmic infrastructure is conceptualized as a sensational form of a particular kind, an invisible yet decisive mediator of religious visibility. The digital environment secures the public visibility of lived religion while simultaneously redefining the conditions under which it becomes possible and recognizable as religious.

The relevance of the study stems from the fact that in recent years the institutional and regulatory foundations of Islamic education in Uzbekistan have been substantially renewed; however, these changes are usually considered only in a fragmented way, either through individual educational institutions or within the broader context of the state’s confessional policy. This makes it necessary to systematize data on the current structure of Islamic education in the country, the principles of its organization, and the main directions of its reform. The aim of the article is to systematize data on the specific features of the contemporary system of Islamic education in Uzbekistan and to clarify how the reforms of recent years have shaped its current institutional configuration. This aim determines the following objectives: 1) to trace changes in the institutional structure of Islamic education in the post-Soviet period, with particular attention to the reforms introduced after 2017; 2) to identify the main features of curricular renewal and organizational solutions in religious educational institutions; 3) to summarize the principal limitations and effects of the ongoing transformations. The materials of the study include the normative legal acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan, presidential decrees and resolutions, policy documents in the sphere of religious education, curricula of Islamic educational institutions, official statistical data, materials published by relevant institutions, as well as works by domestic and foreign scholars. The methods employed in the study include qualitative document analysis, a comparative-institutional approach, content analysis of educational programs, and the generalization of statistical data. As a result, the study demonstrates that the contemporary system of Islamic education in Uzbekistan constitutes a centralized, multi-level model of continuous training that combines confessional tradition, reliance on the Hanafi-Maturidi heritage, the inclusion of secular disciplines, the digitalization of the educational process, and intensified state control. The conclusions are as follows: 1) a transition from a fragmented network of religious educational institutions to an institutionally ordered system coordinated by relevant confessional and state structures has been traced; 2) a normatively fixed combination of religious and secular disciplines has been identified, together with the expansion of women’s education and the digital segment of instruction; 3) the limitations of this model have been generalized, including staffing deficits, territorial unevenness, and the administrative dependence of religious education on the state’s confessional policy. These conclusions are falsifiable and may be revised if independent fieldwork, interviews with teachers and students, graduate employment data, or external assessments of teaching quality reveal a lower degree of centralization, a different curricular balance, or a weaker impact of state oversight than that reflected in the official and institutional sources used in this study.

The relevance of constructing an explanatory model of how religious authority can function in historical polities allows us to turn to the still underexplored question of variations in the intersection of Islamic legal normativity, Sufi-mediated institutions, and khanate governance during the Golden Horde period. The paper aims to establish through which social and legal mechanisms Islamic norms became significant in this poly-ethnic and predominantly mobile imperial space. To achieve this aim, the following objectives were set: 1) to identify the distinctive features of successive configurations of religious authority during the reigns of Berke Khan, Uzbek Khan, and Janibek Khan; 2) to analyse the 
relationship between institutional carriers of authority (jurists, Sufi networks) and the social embedding of Islamic normativity; 3) to propose a typology of Islamization as a process of interaction between juridical authority, ethical-spiritual mediation, and political organization. Focusing on the reigns of Berke Khan, Uzbek Khan, and Janibek Khan, the study employs a qualitative historical-comparative analysis of key narrative corpora and modern historiography of this period. The work draws on cultural-historical, comparative-historical, and hermeneutical approaches. As a result, the article argues that Islamization in the Golden Horde represented a contradictory and multi-directional formation of religious authority: Islamic normativity was embedded through institutions (elites, Sufis, Sharia) capable of mediating between law, spirituality, and existing normative orders.  The article concludes that 1) the locus of authority shifted among elite patronage (Berke Khan), Sufi-mediated translation (Uzbek Khan), and Sharia-centred institutionalization (Janibek Khan), demonstrating that Islamization is best understood as a sequence of negotiated authority settlements rather than a uniform cultural transition; 2) the social durability of Islam depended on the presence of institutional carriers capable of translating Islamic normativity into socially intelligible local cultural practice, while legal pluralism and customary norms continued to operate alongside Sharia; 3) the proposed typology, which distinguishes elite-symbolic patronage, mediated integration, and institutional-legal consolidation, redirects attention from conversion narratives to institutions capable of mediating between law, spirituality, and existing normative orders, and offers a framework for analysing Islamization in other pluralistic and post-imperial settings. Applied comparatively, the approach suggests two testable expectations. First, legal consolidation is most likely to widen everyday practice where administrative penetration and trusted local intermediaries exist; where they do not, it risks remaining a courtly project. Second, mediated integration can generate cohesion by translating norms into local idioms, but its political utility depends on how rulers manage the relationship between mediators and jurists. This approach allows us to formulate a hypothesis about the effectiveness of legal consolidation and mediated integration. Future research could refine these expectations by combining textual work with regional archaeological datasets and by tracing how particular networks (jurists, lodge affiliates, shrine patrons) intersected with trade routes and urbanization.

The relevance of studying the role of culture in the image-building process of the Caspian region stems, firstly, from the increasing global significance of the countries comprising it, and, secondly, from the need to develop a theoretical understanding of strategies for constructing macroregional images. The aim of the study is to trace the influence of cultural image policies on the development of the identity market, using the example of the emerging identity of the Caspian region. The following tasks were set: 1) to assess the potential for distinguishing between the terms image, perception (of a country), reputation, stereotypes, country branding and soft power; 2) to clarify the concept of the identity market in connection with the conceptualization of state image; 3) to describe the challenges of constructing a new image for the post-Soviet Caspian countries; 4) to highlight the specific features of Iran’s foreign policy image in the context of its cultural image policy; 5) to identify the challenges and particularities of forming a common identity for the countries of the region. The research material included commentaries and academic literature on the positioning of the Greater Caspian area, media sources, as well as documents establishing the role of cultural policies in the image-building strategies of the Caspian countries, primarily Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. Russia was only presented as a partner, and its image policy was deliberately excluded from the analysis. The research methodology was based on a comparative approach. Descriptive analysis, conceptual analysis, and discourse analysis were employed. The study found that in constructing a common identity for the Caspian region, the identity market initially features narratives describing the region as a single space with shared problems and goals. The patchwork nature of these narratives is due to their de facto overlap with the images of the countries comprising the Caspian region. Conclusions. 1. The terms image, perception (of a country), reputation, stereotypes, country branding and soft power can be regarded as a single thesaurus for describing the process of regional image-building, at least at its initial stage. 2. The identity market metaphor acquires a moderating role in the conceptualization of state image strategy at the macroregional level: it reflects strategies for building a common platform for interaction modelled similarly to marketing strategies, where words have a pronounced performative meaning. 3. The post-Soviet countries of the region are forming their new identity within an inherently contradictory paradigm that combines the revitalization of national-cultural mode of self-awareness with the recognition of the need to adapt to global transformations, following the pattern of Western countries. 4. Iran’s image-building strategies rely on emphasizing the antiquity of its culture compared to other countries of the Caspian region. This image policy advantageously contrasts with the policies of new identities pursued by the post-Soviet countries of the region and Russia. 5. The specific feature of the paths towards forming a common identity among the countries of the region is that image-building strategies are developing ahead of strategies aimed directly at constructing a regional identity.

The relevance of the study stems from the specific interpretation of ‘miracle’ as a phenomenon in Soviet fairy-tale cinema of the Thaw period. In these films, the miracle serves as a social marker underscoring extreme unexpectedness and unbelievability together with a highly positive assessment, thus allowing for reflection on non-religious forms of the transcendent. The article aims to identify specific features of the miraculous in the USSR during the 1960s. The objectives of the study are as follows: 1) to identify meaningful social distinctions that the miracle reveals; 2) to describe the unique features of its legitimate forms and their cinematic adaptation; 3) to trace the dynamics of working with fairy-tale folklore, in which the miracle is a necessary structural element. The material for the study consists of Soviet fairy-tale films made during the vibrant and contradictory period of the Soviet Thaw, when, on the one hand, the social and political goals of building communism in the coming decades were being articulated, and, on the other hand, the artistic focus shifted towards the individual, resulting in increased psychologism and attention to the inner world of ordinary people. The main method of research is Niklas Luhmann’s systems-communication approach. In this framework, religion (observation of the unknown) and art (the artistic form of self-description) are viewed as autonomous social systems. The analysis of fairy-tale films reveals that the phenomenon of the miracle migrates from the structurally formalized discourse of the fairy tale to the psychological-existential domain, where the miracle manifests as an irreversible inner transformation of the protagonist in the course of the plot. The miraculous, as opposed to the mundane, the ordinary, and the familiar, exposes distinctions relevant to Soviet society: bourgeois/Soviet; spiritual/material; natural/magical; human/inhuman; humane/ inhumane; external ideological/internal personal; good/evil. Due to the dominance of the programme of cultivating an atheistic worldview, the miracle as a theological concept (divine intervention) is not articulated explicitly but remains implicitly present in the idea of the salvific role of the miracle in an individual's destiny. Love, friendship, loyalty, and critical self-reflection are marked as miraculous and become manifestations of the transcendent, functioning as a moral imperative while at the same time asserting the ineffectiveness of magic and sorcery.

The review offers a philosophical-anthropological and cultural-philosophical reading of American journalist Eva Dou's book House of Huawei: The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company. Grounded in an extensive body of interviews, internal corporate documents, and state reports, the book substantially exceeds the bounds of a conventional corporate biography, functioning instead as empirical material for reflecting on fundamental contradictions of the contemporary technological age. The reviewer draws out several interconnected philosophical-anthropological threads embedded in the narrative. The first concerns technological sovereignty as a precondition of national agency. Dou traces how China's dependence on foreign telecommunications switches during the 1980s was experienced not merely as an economic inconvenience but as an existential threat to statehood, and how the 1991 breakthrough of a homegrown digital switch came to symbolize a form of anthropological emancipation from structural subordination. The reviewer situates this narrative within the broader discourse of technological nationalism and digital sovereignty, arguing that the capacity to produce critical technologies has become a marker of a nation's subjecthood in the global order. The second thread addresses the transformation of the human being under conditions of radical technologization of labor. Huawei's notorious “wolf culture” and “mattress culture” along with its demand for absolute loyalty, and the tragic wave of employee suicides between 2006 and 2008 are read as symptoms of a deeper anthropological crisis intrinsic to contemporary technological capitalism, in which the human person is reduced to a productive function while existential needs are systematically disregarded. The review also highlights a paradox: the same corporate culture that instrumentalized employees demanded of them a humanistic, almost “Renaissance”, breadth of learning. A third dimension concerns the possibility of cultural synthesis under globalization. The reviewer examines Huawei's eclectic architectural campus in Dongguan — complete with miniature replicas of Heidelberg Castle, Versailles, and other European landmarks — as a material embodiment of “hybrid modernization”: the selective absorption of Western technological and managerial practices without abandoning Chinese cultural identity, interpreted through Baudrillard's notion of the simulacrum and Yuk Hui's concept of cosmotechnics. The fourth thread engages the ethical dilemmas of the digital age, particularly state surveillance, corporate-party entanglement, and the structural ambiguity of telecommunications infrastructure as simultaneously a means of communication and a potential instrument of control — illustrated through international debates over “back doors” in network equipment. Finally, the review situates Huawei's rise within a broader philosophy of history, framing it as a twenty-first-century “Sputnik moment” that unsettles Western assumptions about the necessary correlation between political freedom and technological innovation, challenging Fukuyama's “end of history” thesis. The monograph is recommended to researchers in philosophical anthropology, philosophy of culture, philosophy of technology, social philosophy, and philosophy of globalization, as well as to general readers seeking to understand the deeper logic of contemporary technological transformation.

The relevance of studying the nature of the transformation of sociocultural functions of museums in the 21st century under the influence of globalization and shifts in public demand stems from the persistent interest in museums in today’s culture. The aim of the article is to clarify the practical boundaries and conceptual framework of the humanitarian “fashion for museums” technology. To achieve this aim the following objectives were set: to trace the evolution of the optics of the theories of “consumption society” and “experience society” (Erlebnisgesellschaft) in respect of the attitude towards museums; to identify the specificity of the museum’s transformation in the context of the theories of experience society and the experience economy; to describe the character of the influence of the commodification of culture on the formation of the image of the museum as an attractive leisure location; to systematize data on the specifics of aestheticized consumption in modern museum practice using the example of Russian museums.  The study is based on academic literature on the topic. The empirical foundation consists of the results of the polls conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Center, museum agenda representations in the media and relevant cases of key Russian museums. Methodologically, the study relies on the comparative analysis of the models of leisure behavior within the theories of “consumption society” and “experience society”; methods of discourse analysis and case study were also applied. As a result, the study substantiates the thesis that within the fashion for museums trend this public space is constructed as an assembly point for constructing personal identity, a means of prestigious conspicuous cultural consumption and a marker of social status. The shift from the optics of consumption society to the optics of experience society illustrates a certain “dematerialization” of the attitude towards the museum. There is an ongoing transformation of museum spaces into multifunctional venues for extracting emotional experiences and leisure. Visiting museums is conceptualized in modern society as a representational scenario of the lifestyle of an intellectually advanced person. This scenario is verified through mediatization tools, such as social media. The museum boom of the first quarter of the 21st century in Russia has revealed a significant potential of the fashion for museums as a humanitarian technology. At the same time, it has revealed issues, primarily the problem of superficial engagement with the cognitive dimension of museum collections. Based on the conducted research, the profile of an aestheticizing consumer has been reconstructed: for whom museum artifacts are reduced to a symbolic backdrop providing a simulation of possessing high cultural capital. As a promising direction for the development of museum institutions, the need to move towards long-term strategies of establishing a sustained interest in art, combining educational functions with quality emotional leisure, is substantiated.