Different Goals of the Same Society

Different Goals of the Same Society


Кaracharovskiy V.V.

Cand. Sci. (Econ.), Assoc. Prof., Faculty of Economic Sciences, Head of the Laboratory for Comparative Analysis of Post-Socialist Development, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. vvk@hse.ru

Shkaratan O.I.

Dr. Sci. (Hist.), Tenured Prof. National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. ovsey@hse.ru

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This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant 16-18-10270


For citation:

Кaracharovskiy V.V., Shkaratan O.I. Different Goals of the Same Society . Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2019. No 1. P. 5-17




Abstract

What will be the image of a society, if we consider it in the context of life plans of its citizens? How strong is the social commitment to achieve greater well-being through the implementation of life goals in the society? The results of the study show that only 52% of Russians have a conscious and realizable life goals, while the other part of society does not set any life goals for the future. The identified proportions of the population with utilitarian, idealistic and mixed goals, based on the criterion of connection with material consumption and orientation on themselves or onto others are estimated. It is shown that subjectively expected income growth associated with the implementation of utilitarian and mixed life goals is comparable with the average income in Russia. The contribution of individuals’ social status components and self-evaluation of the past achievements to the differentiation of the population by the presence / absence of goals, idealistic and utilitarian nature of goals, by the social nature of the lack of goals is measured. The survey was carried out on the basis of a representative sampling for the Russian Federation, taking into account proportions of the population aged 18 and above, respondents’ gender, types of settlement, social and professional groups, quotas except rural population in 2017. The overall size of sampling is 700.


Keywords
life goals; subjective well-being; welfare; social change; achievement; values

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