Vol 12, No 2 (2024)
SOCIOLOGY OF MASS CONSCIOUSNESS
Modern Russia in collective consciousness of the country’s inhabitants
Abstract
The article explores collective consciousness as a theoretical construct, a type of social consciousness and as real attitude of the population towards Russia at the emotional and rational levels. It shows that modern collective consciousness in Russia is a product of mass culture, which actualized during modernization of the Russian society in the economic, political, cultural and everyday spheres of life. Today, it is influenced by mass and high-tech communications, while also reflecting the life experience of different generations. The research methodology is based on the interpretation of collective consciousness as the averaged consciousness of the whole mass of individuals in social groups; it erases individual differences, human characteristics, which in any single case may not be the same as collective consciousness, but impart collective consciousness a qualitative diversity. Empirically, the research is based on representative mass surveys – the Seventh Wave of the Russian Values and Interests Monitoring (Summer 2023), Russian Survey of Young Russian Adults (June 2020), European Social Study (ESS 2018–2019). The research attempts to determine whether the Russian mentality is more emotional than rational towards their “lesser motherland” or birthplace, their oblast/republic/krai, Russia as a country and the author suggests that these properties of mentality constitute characteristics of such a complex psychological phenomenon as Russian patriotism. The article reveals a growing rational perception of the problems of society with outspoken criticism amid high levels of emo tional attitude of the respondents to the country and “lesser motherland”. Such is the evaluation of Russia’s attractive and unattractive characteristics and the importance of civil rights and liberties, among which the rights that ensure people’s basic modern life-supporting needs, such as employment, education, property, security and protection by law, were ranked first with more than 90% of respondents stating their support. There is also a cohort of young people aged 18–24, for whom political rights and democratic freedoms, enshrined in the Russian Constitution, become more important compared to other cohorts.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2024;12(2):6-26
6-26
SOCIAL COMMUNICATION
Young people in social networks: scaling social interactions and practices of forming individual media environments (based on regional studies)
Abstract
The relevance of young people’s digital practices in social networks learning is connected both with the growing influence of social media on all spheres of young people’s life and with the processes of adaptation of digital technology users to their own needs. Students’ use of social media is considered as a communicative practice influenced by objective and subjective factors. The users act as active persons, undertaking actions to combine communication channels based on the one hand, upon the socio-technical affords of social media and on the other hand, on their own goals and needs. The empirical basis of the analysis is the data of sociological research conducted among the student youth of Nizhny Novgorod from 2021 to 2023, including four questionnaire surveys (2021–2023) and one series of in-depth interviews (2023). Triangulation of the data from questionnaire surveys and materials of in-depth interviews of students allows describing media use practices both in quantitative data and in terms of social interactions meanings. The obtained data allow to identify the main elements that shape the practices of media using: 1) the choice of digital space of interactions (according to the parameters of publicity-privacy) and the practice of individual combination of social networks and messengers; 2) the number of accounts used; 3) user control over the personal information posted in the profile. Objective factors influencing young people’s choice of digital space are described through analysing the dynamics of social network popularity. It is concluded that the trend towards privacy of social interactions in the digital space is increasing. The paper outlines the scenarios of constructing an individual polymedia environment based on sociotechnical parameters corresponding to user motives and needs. Three main communication needs satisfied in social media are consi de red: 1) informal communication along the lines of “strong ties”, realised mainly through messengers; 2) maintaining “weak ties” by combining different media channels and managing the number of participants in interactions; 3) forming “quasi-connections” and observing “others”. It is shown that fulfilling these needs motivates young people to adapt their digital practices to different frames of social interactions, marking demarcations between public and private spaces. Two dominant strategies for shaping individual media environments are identified. It is concluded that young people scale their digital interactions based on a system of social expectations, needs and goals.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2024;12(2):27-54
27-54
SOCIAL COMMUNICATION
The cultural potential of the modern Russian region: infrastructure and consumption of services by the population (on the example of the Vologda region
Abstract
The object of analysis in the article is the Russian region cultural potential in the context of infrastructure development and consumption of cultural and leisure services by the population. The purpose of the study is to identify quantitative and qualitative characteristics of various components of the cultural sphere of the region. The empirical basis is statistical data, reports from authorities, government programs and projects, as well as monitoring public opinion materials of Vologda region population in 2022 (n=1500). The methodology is based on a resource approach to studying the cultural potential of the region. Statistical data analysis shows negative trends in terms of a reduction in the number of cultural and leisure institutions in the region, a decrease in the consumption of certain types of services for 2000–2022, and the lag of municipal districts and rural areas in the development of cultural and leisure infrastructure compared to large cities. Positive changes are associated with the implementation of a comprehensive state cultural policy both on the part of the federal center and on the part of regional authorities: increasing in overall budget expenditures on culture was revealed with an insufficient share of extra-budgetary sources of funding. As an effective resource for leveling out problems with the involvement of extra-budgetary sources, examples of the participation of private investors within the framework of public-private and public-municipal partnerships are given. The results of the sociological survey recorded positive changes in the population’s assessment of the general situation in the cultural and leisure sphere of the region, identified the range of popular cultural, leisure and sports services, and a high level of satisfaction with their quality, which exceeds the Russian average. It has been established that the older generation; categories of residents with a low level of education and low-income residents are less active in consuming cultural and leisure services. As age increases, attendance at all of the institutions offered for choice decreases. The set of analysis results substantiates the need to use a more differentiated approach to the development of national and regional cultural policies, focusing on socio-demographic categories of the population, taking into account their needs.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2024;12(2):55-77
55-77
SOCIOLOGY OF SOCIAL GROUPS
Changes in the resource potential of older generations of Russians (based on materials from longitudinal studies)
Abstract
The increase in life expectancy is a global trend in the field of population. The purpose of the article is to identify the changes in the components of the resource potential of Russians belonging to different real generations but being in the same age phase of 50–69 years. The first cohort reached the age of 50–69 years in 1993, the second in 2021. Within the framework of the study, resource potential is understood as a set of significant socio-psychological, economic and personal characteristics necessary for leading an active social and everyday life. E. Rosset’s position on the lengthening of the period of adulthood with an increase in life expectancy is taken as the methodological basis of the study. The provisions of the theory of social activity and the sociological approach to personal self-sufficiency are used to identify qualitative changes in the social and personal characteristics of Russians who are at a transitional stage of their life path from maturity to old age. The research hypothesis about gradual changes in the ways of organizing life, attitudes and behavior in people in transition from adulthood to old age is tested based on a comparison of data from two studies – RUSSET, Wave 1, 1993; the National Survey of the Older Generation under the SHARE program (population 50+), 2021. The social characteristics and attitudes of respondents who are in the same age phase (50–69 years old), but belong to different age cohorts that differ by generation length, are compared. The intensity and severity of family, professional, communication, etc. differentiates life choices on a scale from “active life” to “survival”. The main result of the study was the differentiation of the components of the resource potential of the older generation into changeable and stable ones. Trends were identified that reflect qualitative changes in the resource potential of older generations of Russians. They cannot be unambiguously characterized as positive or negative. In the context of the problem of human potential, the most significant change is associated with an increase in the level of education of older Russians. Older Russians are a highly educated population with high demands on society and an active social position. The rigidity of attitudes towards retirement age and professional employment constrains the resource potential of older Russians. In conclusion, it is concluded that the results obtained during the study can serve as an additional basis for the practical implementation of tasks related to the mobilization of the human resource of older Russians.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2024;12(2):78-101
78-101
SOCIOLOGY OF MANAGEMENT
The becoming of the complex fears among young people: reflection through the prism of the genotype of the domestic culture
Abstract
The article examines the process of the development and complication of fears, starting with the transition from the traditional society to the “risk society” and the “world risk society” and further to the modern society, the essential features of which, according to the anthropo-sociocultural approach of N. I. Lapin, are “synergistic complexities”. They represent realities as the result of a nonlinear process of their formation in the context of the past, present and future. Their immanent essence is manifested in self-development, self-organization and hybridization of nature, society, technology that is expressed in the emergent effects of instability, inequality, dynamic chaos, which produce fears for people about the uncertainties of the present and future. Specifically, two types of the synergistic complexities are considered, which are the determinants of the “culture of fear” (U. Beck) and the formation of a specific fear market in which staged fears of the complex type dominate and the means of their “treatment” are sold. However, the content of fears is determined not only by global trends in the transformation of the universe, but also by local national factors and, above all, by the genotype of the country’s culture. In this regard, foreign pragmatic approaches to minimizing fears are critically analyzed, which are contrasted with the research of the domestic scientists offering culturally determined means of overcoming them. In the conclusion, the authors substantiate the contours of the concept of a strategy for the reflexive treatment of fears, aimed at counteracting the penetration of staged fears into the consciousness of Russian youth.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2024;12(2):102-121
102-121
SOCIAL PROCESSES. SOCIAL DYNAMICS
The adaptive potential of migrant youth in the megapolis: resource availability and the development opportunities (using the example of Dagestanis living in St. Petersburg)
Abstract
In the article, within the framework of the resource approach, based on the results of a questionnaire survey, the assessment by the Dagestan youth living in St. Petersburg of their adaptive potential, expressed in the presence of both material and non-material resources, is revealed. The relevance of this study is due to the fact that the success of social adaptation of internal migrants in a new environment largely depends on the available adaptive potential and its constituent resources, as well as the possibilities of its mobilization and building up. Accordingly, it is possible to correct the process of social adaptation by managing the development of certain resources, transferring them into capital. The author provides a distinction between the concepts of “potential”, “capital”, “resource”. The author’s operationalization of the concept of adaptation potential of migrant youth, developed on the basis of the classification of adaptation resources proposed by Yu. M. Pasovets, is presented. The novelty of this study lies in the first attempt to identify the adaptive potential of the Dagestan youth living in St. Petersburg, and its constituent resources. It was revealed that the success of the adaptation process is most influenced by personal-cultural and social (individual) resources. It is concluded that involvement in social activities can be an additional mechanism for successful adaptation, but this potential is practically unrealized due to the low involvement of young people in this type of activity. Accordingly, the results obtained can be used primarily by leaders and activists of public organizations representing the Republic of Dagestan in St. Petersburg to involve youth in public activities, and the data obtained can also be used to correct the process of social adaptation of Dagestan youth at the municipal level and the level of the subject of the federation.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2024;12(2):122-146
122-146
Duration of stay and the integration of migrants: (un)obvious relationships
Abstract
The article presents the results of a study of the relationship between the duration of stay and the type of migration strategies with various aspects of the integration of migrants from post-Soviet states in Russian society. It is analyzed how at different time intervals (up to 5 years, after 5–10 years, after 10 years from the beginning of migration) improvements occur in status, quality of life, transnational connections (in relation to integration, a decrease in their “density”), language skills, interethnic contacts, the formation of Russian identity among long-term and circular external migrants. A research model is used that includes “relevant conditions” for each integration indicator. The empirical basis of the study was based on data from a nationwide survey of labor migrants conducted by the Center for Ethnopolitical and Regional Studies in 19 constituent entities of the Russian Federation (2017, sample of 7417 respondents). The results of the study show that changes in the status and frequency of interethnic contacts are not associated with duration of stay for either long-term or circular migrants, even when integration conditions are added to the analysis. The “density” of transnational connections changes significantly over time (the peak occurs between 5–10 years after the start of migration, and after 10 years it decreases), however, the interpretation of this connection requires further investigation. “Time” is positively related to such indicators of integration as language skills, quality of life, and identity formation. These connections do not disappear when “relevant conditions” of integration are added to the analysis, however, it is concluded that the duration of stay in itself is not a factor in progress in integration, but acts “together” with the context of migration, the motivation of the actors, their individual capabilities and available resources. resources that determine the trajectory and pace of the integration process.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2024;12(2):147-168
147-168
SOCIOLOGY OF RISK
Personal life environment within the socio-political context of modern Russia: status according to the attribute of certainty
Abstract
The subject of the article relates to the sociological discourse on the category of uncertainty at the personal level of analysis. The uncertainty of the environment inherently contains risks as a potential possibility of damage from an adverse outcome of events, phenomena, processes. The strategy of the analysis presented in the article takes as the initial and independent position of the study the fact that there is such a context in the environment, such conditions that can serve as sources of risks of various levels. In the research proposed in the article, the author proceeds from the fact that a fundamentally risky socio-political context at the country level (SMO, increasing sanctions pressure) by a particular person may not be perceived as causing uncertainty in the space of his personal life environment. The empirical basis of the analysis is data from a representative survey of the Russian population conducted on a quota sample in June 2023. A methodological approach is applied, the peculiarity of which is the formation within the sample the target groups according to the criterion corresponding to the main goal of the analysis – self-determination of the living environment status. The data was rearranged and analyzed under an intelligence strategy aimed at identifying similarities and differences between those who positively and clearly see their life prospects and those who are in a situation of uncertainty about the future and the present. The analysis of those resources and features that have the greatest weight in differentiating the selfdetermination of the living environment status within the risky external environment made it possible to assess their internal relationship and carry out an empirical (real), as opposed to a priori (theoretical) grouping. The empirical grouping revealed three blocks of resource determinants of differences between target groups in determining the adaptive status of the living environment, which correlate with the components of subjective intelligence: emotional as the ability to recognize, understand and use emotions, with social as skills and experience of communication with the institutional environment, rationality as the presence of skills of self-organization and self-control.
Sociological Science and Social Practice. 2024;12(2):169-187
169-187