Changing Societies & Personalities, 2018 Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 102–104 http://dx.doi.org/10.15826/csp.2018.2.2.032 EDITORIAL The current issue continious the discussion on the main theme of the journal – namely, the value implications of interactions between socio-political transformations and personal self-identity, as well as changes in value orientations. In the paper Socio-Cultural Differences in Social Exclusion, Juan Díez- Nicolás and Ana Maria López-Narbona reflects upon the very sharp and controversial issue – social exclusion, which without exaggeration should be considered as a main concern worldwide. The aim of the paper is to analyse social exclusion at the level of the neighbourhood – the place where different people come to live together. The authors argue that “cities and neighbourhoods provide the opportunity to analyse micro-social processes (social relationships), the results of which can be extrapolated to macro-social processes that take place in larger urban spaces and societies”, and pose three main questions: “Who is subject of social exclusion in neighbourhoods? Who is the actor of social exclusion in neighbourhoods? What are the factors that explain social exclusion in neighbourhoods?” To answer these questions, they undertake the observation of existing concepts and theories on social exclusion from social relations, as well as provide empirical analysis of social exclusion in neighbourhoods. The paper contains detailed review of the recent literature not only on the concept of social exclusion, but also on related concepts such as stigma, prejudice, discrimination, poverty, deprivation, and inequality. In the empirical part of the paper, the authors use the data from European Values Survey (EVS) and World Values Survey (WVS), which altogether cover more than thirty years and almost all regions in the world. In particular, the paper has been based on the World Values Survey data file of the 6th wave, conducted in 59 countries with a total of more than 85,000 personal interviews. They suggest four main explanatory variables – social position, information, post-materialist values and perception of security – and explain their correlation with social exclusion. In analyzing various data, the authors make special focus on Russia, which among other things defines the scientific novelty of the paper. Victor Martianov in the paper Revolution and Modernity analyses the idea of revolution as an “initiating event for the political order” of Modernity. In particular, he reveals the metaphoric meaning of revolution as an “instant transfiguration”, chiliastic dream, or rational plan for the implementation of Published online 1 July 2018 © 2018 Elena Stepanova stepanova.elena.a@gmail.com https://changing-sp.com/ mailto:stepanova.elena.a@gmail.com Changing Societies & Personalities, 2018, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 102–104 103 the properly ordered society, and stresses that revolution never achieves its initial goals. Martianov underlines controversial perception of revolution, which could be seen as both initiating event transforming socio-political order, as well as political extremism. He himself interprets Modernity as a specific form of revolution – a low- intensity one, which “counterposes the new morality of change to the customary morality of tradition”. In the paper, the reflection upon the essence of revolution then moves to the level of individuals – political subjects, “the Kantian adult citizens who dare to be guided by their own minds and to act without external permits and approvals, without power of attorney and without guarantors”, thus comprising the revolutionary political core of Modernity. Martianov goes deeply into paradoxes of Modernity, where persons as politically active subjects play important role in social changes, and at the same time are seen by the state as a threat to political powers, and pays special attention to the spread of the “schizophrenic type of social subject, which loses its ability to effectively organise its interests over the course of history”. Based on the assumptions concerning the nature of the revolutions in Late Modernity, Martianov then presents his vision of the possibility of a new revolution, referring, among other things, to the example of contemporary Russia. Has modernization, globalization, urbanization, and westernization altered Arab ordinary citizens’ views on religion, economics, politics, and foreign affairs? Malek Abduljaber in the paper Effects of Modernization and Globalization on Values Change in the Arab World endeavors to answer those and other related questions, and criticizes the assumption that public opinion is only relevant in consolidated democracies of western type. He studies public opinion in the region through the analysis of various data sources, mainly, the Arab Barometer, which is selected “because it is one of the most comprehensive survey research projects investigating the values, beliefs, and attitudes of ordinary Arab men and women in a number of countries throughout the Arab world”. The Arab Barometer has conducted four waves in 2006–2017 and took place in Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Kuwait, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Libya. The data from fourth and sixth waves of the World Values Survey (WVS), which included Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia, is used as well. Abduljaber argues that social transformation processes such as modernization and globalization generate a discernable change in Arabs’ political, social, and cultural perceptions, and provides explanation for the reasons and trends of the values changes, thus opening “new horizons for the systematic investigation of public opinion shifts in the region among researchers”. Vladimir Bogomyakov Marina Chistyakova’s paper Interactivity as a Vector of the Socialization of Art stresses the specific feature of the contemporary art, which “actively draw potential recipients into its orbit, provoking them to participate in unfamiliar activities and providing them with many new (often nontrivial) opportunities for self-expression”. They describe the history of interactivity traced back to the last decades of the nineteenth century, as well as its conceptualization, and argue that interactivity radically changes the role of viewer in artistic communication. Even https://changing-sp.com/ 104 Elena Stepanova more, it effects the art itself, opening it to interpretations and making its meanings a subject to variation. The authors ties interactivity in art with the same process in social relations; they conclude that “in the full sense of the word, interactivity only becomes possible when representational art makes the transition to the presentational form. In this situation, art no longer reflects reality, but becomes it”. In part, the paper describes interactivity’s correlation with the type of media, and stresses that today’s world is a post-media world, thus, in art, any combination of intermediators is allowed. The current issue of CS&P also contains the review of Ronald Inglehart’s recent book Cultural Evolution, People’s Motivations are Changing, and Reshaping the World (Cambridge University Press, 2018) presented by Ana Maria López Narbona. Ronald Inglehart, the world-famous political scientist and Founding President of the World Values Survey (http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp). As it indicated in the review, in his book Inglehart develops a new theoretical framework for modernization theory, which is called the evolutionary one and is based on the analysis of value changes and consequent people’s motivations in contemporary world. Discussions on the topics raised in the current issue will be continued in the subsequent issues of our journal, and new themes will be introduces. We welcome suggestions for thematic issues, debate sections, book reviews and other formats from readers and prospective authors and invite you to send us your reflections and ideas! For more information, please visit the journal web-site: https://changing-sp. com/ Elena Stepanova, Editor-in-Chief http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp https://changing-sp.com/ https://changing-sp.com/