Sedova N.N. Values and Attitudes of Youth and Older Generations in the Capitals and Provinces: One or Many Russias?

Текст статьи.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of the formation of values and attitudes of modern Russian youth as a factor of the consolidation of Russian society. The author identifies three periods of value transformations in modern Russian history and defines the current period as a time of internal value reassembly and consolidation of society under the influence of an external threat. In these conditions, youth have the opportunity to set their own vectors for the transformation of public consciousness, but at the same time, their value foundation is at risk. The study of youth values and attitudes, compared with those of older generations, is conducted within a “capitalprovincial” context. There are analyzed attitudes toward specific values, social institutions, political-ideological, geopolitical, and technological phenomena, as well as attitudes and normative concepts regarding the triad of “individual-society-state”. All-Russian researches of FCTAS RAS became the empirical basis of the article. The author concludes that in its values, norms, and attitudes, youth are close to the older generation, and the intergenerational value transition continues. At the same time, there is a marked distancing of the capital’s youth from the rest of society in two vectors. Firstly, these are observed more explicit pro-European “attitudes” regarding geopolitical phenomena and a tendency towards a liberal democratic model of the interrelationship between the interests of an individual, society, and the state. The second vector is technological and it creates the basis for the socio-economic and intellectual leadership of the capital’s youth, but at the same time, it can deepen inequalities between youth in the capitals and the provinces. The different roles of youth in the capitals and provinces regions in the process of intergenerational value transition are also noted. Youth in the capital cities are “value innovator,” susceptible to external influences, with a more fragmented value profile. Youth of the provinces are value heirs to the older generation, fostering value cohesion within society.