ANALYTICAL AND SYNTHETIC PROCESSING OF INFORMATION IN THE CONTEXT OF CULTURAL STUDIES

Abstract

The article is devoted to the theoretical substantiation and development of a cultural studies approach to analytic-synthetic
information processing (ASIP) in the context of digital transformation and globalization. It is shown that traditional classification
and indexing systems (UDC, BBK, LCSH), created on the principles of formal-logical universalism of the 19–20 th centuries, exhibit systemic Western-centric bias and are unable to adequately represent the culturally specific content of documents related to national cultures, folklore, religious practices, local historical narratives, and objects of intangible cultural heritage. In the digital era, this problem is exacerbated by the massive involvement of heterogeneous multimedia resources, the use of machine learning algorithms trained predominantly on English-language datasets, and the phenomenon of «digital colonialism», which intensifies the marginalization of non-European cultures. Based on the analysis of scholarly works, the expediency of transforming ASIP from a purely technical process into a hermeneutic practice of cultural interpretation is substantiated. A culturally oriented approach is proposed, which involves, at the analytical stage, identifying the semantic, axiological, semiotic, and ontological layers of the cultural text; at the synthetic stage, creating culturally sensitive indices, annotations, abstracts, ontologies, and metadata; and at the search stage, developing interfaces that allow selecting a cultural context.
Semantic technologies (ontologies, semantic networks, RDF/OWL) have been identified as the most promising toolkit, as they enable a shift from rigid hierarchical classification to a multidimensional network model of knowledge that captures hierarchical, associative, and causal relationships. A three-level conceptual model of ASIP has been developed: 1) hermeneutic analysis of the cultural text;
2) culturally oriented synthesis (indices, annotations, ontologies);
3) context-dependent search taking into account the user’s cultural perspective. The proposed model creates a theoretical foundation for the practical implementation of cultural studies principles in the activities of libraries, museums, archives, and digital platforms in Ukraine and other multicultural countries, ensuring the preservation, meaningful actualization, and intercultural transmission of heritage in the globalized information space.
Prospects for further research are linked to the development of specialized ontologies of national cultures, the creation of standards for culturally oriented metadata for digital collections of tangible and intangible heritage objects, the implementation and testing of the proposed three-level model in real library and information systems of Ukraine and other countries with multicultural populations, as well as conducting comparative cross-cultural studies of the specifics of applying cultural studies principles of ASIP in different civilizational contexts (e.g., Ukraine, Poland, Canada, India).