UDC 14; 93/94

BBC 71; 87

DOI: 10.51678/2226-0072-2025-3-144-173

For cit.: Sazikov A.V. Counterculture and Social Revolution in the Context of Project Activity. Information Technology and Citizen Diplomacy. Hudozhestvennaya kul’tura [Art & Culture Studies], 2025, no. 3, pp. 144–173. https://doi.org/10.51678/2226-0072-2025-3-144-173. (In Russian)

Sazikov Aleksey V. 

PhD (in Art History), Head of the Department of Artistic Problems of Design, Decorative and Folk Arts, Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts, Russian Academy of Arts, 21 Prechistenka Str., Moscow, 119034, Russia 

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9388-8894 

ResearcherID: T-9354-2019 

Scopus Author ID: 57190030231 

a_sazikov@mail.ru 

Counterculture and Social Revolution in the Context of Project Activity. Information Technology and Citizen Diplomacy

Abstract. The 1960s were a period of cultural revolution, social change, and activism. These factors led to the development of counterculture in Western society. The article examines how the energy crisis of the 1970s brought alternative energy technologies to a new level and significantly expanded the influence of the environmental movement generated by the counterculture in society. The ‘soft path’ proposed by British physicist Amory Lovins focused the attention of his contemporaries on scientific research in the field of alternative energy. RAIN magazine, the press organ of the appropriate technology movement, became a mouthpiece for decentralization, ecodesign, and new urbanism. The development of information technology predetermined a technological revolution that has ultimately changed the modern world. Another unexpected consequence of the triumph of counterculture was the popularization of the civil diplomacy movement that flourished in the 1970s and 1980s which eventually led to the organization of the first space bridges, the development of the Internet, and the end of the Cold War. 

Keywords: counterculture, appropriate technology, soft path, information technology, citizen diplomacy, Farallon Institute, RAIN magazine, Joel Schatz, Diana Schatz, Joseph Goldin 

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Received 05.03.2025 

Accepted 11.05.2025