The social status of Russian youth: ideas and reality

This article examines the features of the social status of modern youth in its objective and subjective dimensions. The objective social statuses of young people are characterised by the position of their representatives in the key hierarchies in terms of education level, professional positions and income level. It is shown that the level of education of the Russian youth has increased noticeably over the past twenty years; the socio-professional structure of the youth group also underwent certain changes, reflected in a decrease in the proportion of the unemployed, as well as workers of various skill levels, in its composition. The space of socio-professional statuses of young people does not demonstrate significant differences compared to Russians of middle and older ages, and this is also typical for models of income stratification of these groups. In general, speaking about the space of the objective statuses of young people in modern Russian society, it can be stated that young people are not in a disadvantaged position in this respect due to the specifics of this stage of the life cycle - on the contrary, already in the youth group one can observe the existing configuration of the social structure, that is also characteristic of Russians of working age as a whole (that is reflected, in particular, in a similar share of the middle class in these groups). With regard to subjective statuses, young Russians, like citizens in general, tend to place themselves in middle positions in society. However, the position they consider “fair” for themselves, as well as their desired position, turn out to be much higher than the current one, that can also lead to the accumulation of discontent, since it reflects obviously unrealistic expectations regarding social mobility. And although young Russians are quite positive about the medium-term future, their expectations for the next 2-3 years are more restrained. A negative indicator is the fact that young people share with adult Russians a sense of the unfairness of the structure of Russian society, and these perceptions have little to do with their objective statuses. At the same time, young Russians see principles related to the instrumentalisation of the principle of equal opportunities as key elements of a just society.

sociology, youth, social status, middle class, subjective social status, justice, equality of opportunity

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