Roida Rzayeva Oktay is Associate Professor and deputy director at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. She holds a BA and an MA in Oriental Studies from Baku State University, Azerbaijan, and a PhD in Philosophical Studies from the Institute of Oriental Studies of ANAS, Baku, Azerbaijan. She was awarded the Diploma in the field of Humanitarian and Social Sciences at the International competition of the young scientists of CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), the diploma and the award "Young Scientist of the Year" for the scientific achievements in 2007 (2008), Honorary Diploma of Youth Intellectual Development Centre for distinguishing herself in pursue youth policy (2007), the Diploma of the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan Republic for the best report at the section of Oriental Studies (2002). She has authored Nezapadnaya sovremennost v diskurse postmoderna i kulturnoy polifonii (Non-Western contemporaneity in the discourse of postmodern and cultural polyphony) (in Russian, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2015), Postmodern i multikulturalizm: mejdistsiplinarniy diskurs (Postmodern and multiculturalism: interdisciplinary discourse) (in Russian, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2015), Rus ve Azerbaycan Kaynaklarinda Türk Modernlesmesi (Turkish Modernization in Russian and Azerbaijani Sources), (in Turkish, Ankara, Turkey, 2012), co-authored Puti razvitiya turetskoy literaturi
(The Development Ways of Turkish Literature) (in Russian, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2001), and authored of over one hundred and twenty publications. Her main research interests are philosophy of culture, religious studies, philosophical anthropology, and sociology: modernity, postmodernity, development of public consciousness, multiculturalism, philosophy and culture of dialogue, alternative modernities, non-Western contemporaneity, etc.

This book presents an overview of postmodernism and its social indicators, and of the postmodern condition in consciousness as an indicator of its modification and development. The book brings together philosophical, sociological and cultural approaches towards contemporary societal issues, such as multiculturalism, culture of dialogue, philosophy of dialogue, tolerance, and gender. In doing so, it suggests a framing approach to cross-disciplinary research. The book also discusses various forms of multiculturalism, including multiculturalism as multiple modernities and plural modernities, and non-Western contemporaneity. It explores the background of the dynamics of the development of public consciousness, in particular from the modern to postmodern, and subsequently examines the West/non-West dichotomy and how that dichotomy is currently being reconsidered in response to the intellectual-spiritual realities of modern life.