Sociological Evaluation of Neighbour Countries’ Images as Perceived by Russian Students: Methodological and Content Components

The article identifies the methodological peculiarities and the results of the Sociology laboratory (PFUR) “measurement” of stable stereotypes in the mass youth consciousness regarding those neighbor countries which are the closest to our country in the geopolitical context. Understanding and recognizing the arbitrariness and schematic nature of the applied instruments and the resulting content constructions, the authors, nevertheless, believe that the suggested “measurement” model may become a perfect basis in developing and implementing projects on a larger scale in terms of the questionnaire volume and sample stratification structure, the projects being aimed at the study of social representations and image-country comparisons, including other socio-cultural contexts.