THE COLLECTIVE AS A TOOL OF EDUCATION: MAKARENKO’S PEDAGOGICAL SYSTEM IN THE ERA OF DIGITAL INDIVIDUALISM AND ONLINE COMMUNITIES

Abstract

The purpose of the article is a philosophical and anthropological analysis of A. S. Makarenko’s concept of the collective as a model of personality formation in the context ofcountering the challenges of digital individualism and the network communities’ anomie. The novelty of the research lies in considering Makarenko’s system not as a historical-pedagogical phenomenon, but as a relevant anthropological utopia and a critical tool for diagnosing the crisis of sociality, identity, and new forms of alienation in the digital age. The work reveals the key anthropological principles of the system (the dialectics of the individual and the collective, responsibility as a form of freedom, recognition as the basis of identity, labor as a constitutive practice of human existence), which are contrasted with the characteristics of network identity (fragmentation, performativity, algorithmic mediation). The author also identifies the potential of Makarenko’s collective as a critical tool for analyzing alienation and searching for new forms of intersubjectivity in the digital environment. As a result, the study concludes that the Makarenko anthropological ideal, despite its historical conditioning, is a powerful theoretical construct for understanding the fundamental human need for an authentic community and the problems of its implementation in the context of the dominance of technologically mediated social ties. A promising direction for further research is the development of a hybrid model of community that synthesizes the principles of collectivity (mutual responsibility, awareness of interaction) with the digital era technological capabilities.