Value determinants of social tension in Russian regions

Abstract

During the period of extreme destabilization of Russia’s relations with the collective West, the risks of social instability of society are increasing, Russians’ fears of the future are growing, there are risks of expanding the potential of social protests in the regions of Russia due to the likely consequences of economic decline. For operational planning of actions to get out of a difficult political and socio-economic situation, it is necessary to have objective knowledge about the real social state of Russian society. The article presents the results of a study of the mechanism of transformation of social tension of individuals into a state of social polarization within groups in society, and also presents a methodology for assessing the level of social tension in society through measuring the values of citizens by the method of the Israeli scientist Sh. Schwartz. The interrelation of the integral coefficient of dissatisfaction with life, the Gini coefficient and the average per capita income of the population of the studied regions was also revealed. This technique was tested as part of a study of 7 Russian regions, the results of which revealed that the population of these regions professes approximately homogeneous values. Moreover, the value flanks of the studied social groups are so close to each other that the probability of an increase in social tension of the population of the studied regions is at a low level. However, the conditionally homogeneous nature of the value orientations of the population of the studied regions has led to the fact that in these regions there is an extremely low proportion or absence of social groups aimed at creative work, whose representatives are willing to take risks, show creativity and an innovative approach in order to achieve their own well-being. The results of the study generally confirmed the practical applicability of the proposed methodology for describing the distribution of social groups of society according to their degree of polarization, as well as for forming a characteristic portrait of the population of a particular region.