Open Library - an open library of educational information. Lecture “Youth as a social group. Features of the youth subculture Distinctive features of youth as a social group

Transitivity of position.

High level mobility.

Development of new social roles(employee, student, citizen, family man) associated with a change in status.

Active search your place in life.

Favorable prospects in professional and career terms.

Problems of youth socialization.

An acute reaction to all the shortcomings of society

Increase in crime among the younger generation

Deterioration in the level and quality of life

Economic insecurity of young scientists

Social vulnerability of young people in the world of work

Youth subcultures

Certain social groups are characterized by special features of consciousness, behavior, and lifestyle. They create their own cultural niche - subculture. Sub in Latin is “under”, i.e. in meaning it contains a connotation of subordination (subculture, deviation from culture).

The youth subculture has:

With your tongue; special fashion; art and style of behavior.

Its carriers are most often informal teenage groups.

Reasons for the widespread use in modern society youth subculture:

In a subcultural community, a teenager gets the opportunity to belong to a select group of peers, which is a reference group for him, a unifying feeling of “we” arises, which increases the level of psychological significance of everyone, gives a certain guarantee (or its illusion) of independence and security from society;

Subculture allows young man better feel and demonstrate the independence of your “I”;

Helps a teenager free himself from painful experiences caused by a conflict with outside world adults, with the dominant culture in society.

Young people are encouraged to create a subculture:

- Internal loneliness; - Protest against lies; - Separation from elders;

Need for friends; - Distrust of adults; - Escape from the cruelty of the world;

Conflicts at school and at home; - Power over others; - Confrontation official society;

Escape from social reality or rejection of it; - The desire to find emotional support.

Types of youth subcultures

According to the specific behavior of group members, the following are distinguished:

1. prosocial – groups that do not pose a threat to society, are positive and helpful;

2. antisocial – they criticize any foundations of society, but this confrontation is not extreme;

3. antisocial – not only criticized public order and foundations, but also strive to crush them.

IN Soviet times, our grandparents, fathers and mothers were involved in official youth organizations. This was required by ideology.

By type of hobby:

Musical- subcultures based on fans of various genres of music:

Goths (subculture) - fans of gothic rock, gothic metal.

Metalheads are fans of heavy metal. - Punks are fans of punk rock.

Rastafarians are fans of reggae. - Rappers are fans of rap and hip-hop.

Subcultures based on literature, cinema, animation, games, etc.:

Otaku - anime fans - Roleplayers - role-playing game fans

Bikers - lovers of motorcycles - Furries - fans of anthropomorphic creatures.

Image- subcultures distinguished by style of clothing and behavior:

Cyber ​​Goths - Mods - Hipsters - Freaks - Glamour

Political and ideological- subcultures identified according to social beliefs:

Antifa - Hippie - Yuppie

Expand the concepts of “legal awareness” and “legal culture”. Highlight the factors influencing the legal culture of a teenager.

Legal consciousness – This is a set of ideas and feelings that express the attitude of people and social communities to the current or desired law.

STRUCTURE OF LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS

1. Legal psychology corresponds to the empirical, everyday level of social consciousness, formed as a result of everyday human practice of both individuals and social groups. The content of legal psychology are feelings, emotions, experiences, moods, habits, stereotypes that arise in people in connection with existing legal norms and the practice of their implementation.

2. Legal ideology– This is a set of legal ideas, theories, views that reflect and evaluate legal reality in a conceptual, systematized form.

TYPES OF LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Ordinary legal consciousness – mass ideas of people, their emotions, sentiments about law and legality. These feelings arise under the influence of people’s immediate living conditions and their practical experience.

Professional legal consciousness – concepts, ideas, ideas, beliefs, traditions, stereotypes that develop among legal professionals. Unfortunately, the professional consciousness of lawyers is characterized by both distortions and deformations (“accusatory” or “exculpatory” bias, bureaucracy)

Scientific legal consciousness – ideas, concepts, views expressing a systematic, theoretical development of law. The bearers and generators of this type of reflection of legal phenomena are legal scholars who, as a rule, work in specialized legal research institutes.

Legal culture - the totality of all values ​​created by man in the legal sphere, as well as knowledge and understanding of these values ​​and action in accordance with them.

STRUCTURE OF LEGAL CULTURE

1. psychological element(legal psychology);

2. ideological element(legal ideology);

3. Legal behavior(legally significant behavior, implementation of the law).

Legal culture reflects the qualitative state of the legal life of society and transmits corresponding legal values ​​from generation to generation.

The legal culture of an individual depends on the following indicators:

§ knowledge and understanding of law;

§ respect for the law due to personal conviction;

§ ability to use the law;

§ Subordination of one’s behavior to the requirements of the law.

TYPES OF LEGAL CULTURE

Legal culture of society determined by the level of legal consciousness and legal activity of society, the degree of progressiveness and effectiveness of legal norms.

Legal culture social group may vary greatly depending on the nature of that group. It is higher in social groups that unite people with higher or secondary education. special education, pensioners, employees law enforcement, government workers.

Legal culture of the individual is formed primarily by the education a person receives and the lifestyle he leads. In addition to legal education, the legal culture of an individual presupposes the ability and skills to use the law, subordinating one’s behavior to the requirements of legal norms.

Factors influencing the legal culture of a teenager:

The formation of the legal culture of a minor child is influenced by many factors:

1. Upbringing in the family (starting from birth), when the understanding of good and evil is laid down.

2. Preschool education/upbringing (in kindergarten) – first prohibitions, experience of socialization.

3. School education/upbringing - compliance with the school charter, daily routine, traffic rules, etc.

4. Law lessons – mastering legal terminology, experience working with documents, analyzing situations

5. Close surroundings(relatives, acquaintances, friends) example of compliance/non-compliance with laws

6. Street (socialization experience, deviant behavior and its consequences, the influence of social groups)

7. Mass media (especially TV and Internet) – disseminated principles, creation of behavioral models

8. Public policy(legal activities, implementation of democratic principles).

9. Work of law enforcement agencies (compliance with the principle of punishability, equality before the law)

10. Self-education - reading specialized literature, analyzing situations and life experience.

11. Economic situation(standard of living of the population, availability of the benefits of civilization, etc.)

12. Age characteristics personality of a teenager.

The concept of “youth” as a definition of a socio-demographic group originates from late XVIII – early XIX centuries Before this, young people were not recognized as a special social group. Until the end of the 19th century. the problems of youth were considered indirectly, through the problems of personal development, education of a citizen of a historically specific society, which found a scientific form of expression in philosophy, pedagogy, psychology of the Renaissance, modern times, Western philosophy of the 17th - 18th centuries. The actualization of theoretical studies of youth and the creation of independent concepts of age occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. and was developed in sociological theories of youth. Youth as a special social group was recognized on completely objective grounds, by which it is customary to understand those basic aspects and relationships that determine the functioning, direction of change and development of all other aspects of a given social entity. Concepts of youth in the sociocultural aspect began to be developed in the 50s. XX century such researchers as G. Shelsky, K. Mannheim, A. Tenbruck, S. Eisenstadt.

Today, in the circles of sociologists, the view of youth as a reference socio-demographic group has become established, the most important features of which most authors consider age characteristics and associated features of social status, as well as socio-psychological qualities determined by both, which allows us to talk about multi-level analysis of youth as a social phenomenon. One of the researchers of the problems of the younger generation, S. N. Ikonnikova, identified three levels of description of youth as a social phenomenon:

─ individual psychological – correlation with a specific person;

─ socio-psychological – description of the most significant properties, qualities, interests of individual groups;

─ sociological - a description of the place of youth in the system of material and spiritual production and consumption in the social structure of society.

Youth as part of society is studied in various humanities. The discussion about the definition of youth and the criteria for identifying them as an independent group has a long history. Scientists share different approaches to the subject of study - from the perspective of sociology, psychology, physiology, demography, etc., as well as classification traditions formed within the framework of certain scientific schools.

Researchers Vishnevsky Yu. R., Kovaleva A. I., Lukov V. A. et al. The most typical approaches found in the scientific literature are the following:

─ psychological: youth is the period of development of the human personality between “puberty” (puberty) and “maturity” (full maturity);

─ socio-psychological: youth is a certain age with its own biological and psychological relationships, and as a result - all the characteristics of the age class;

─ conflictological: youth is a difficult, stressful and extremely important period of life, a long-term conflict between the individual and society, a problematic stage in human development;

─ role-playing: youth is a special behavioral phase in a person’s life, when he no longer plays the role of a child, and at the same time is not yet a full-fledged bearer of the role of an “adult”;

─ subcultural: youth are a group with their own specific way of life, lifestyle, cultural norms;

─ stratification: youth are a special socio-demographic group, limited by age, with specific positions, statuses, roles;

─ socialization: youth is a period of social growth, primary socialization;

─ interactionist: youth is one of three states of mind inherent in every person. “Parent” – orientation towards normative behavior, “adult” – orientation towards making adult decisions, “youth” – spontaneity, spontaneity;

─ axiological: youth is a socially significant, important stage life cycle person. It is at this stage that a system of value orientations of individuals is formed;

─ subjective: youth is a special attitude, focus on the future, optimism;

─ procedural: young people are those who are not completed, not integrated, are in a state of formation, formation.

In accordance with these approaches, scientists are making attempts to isolate and unify the “signs” of youth as a social phenomenon. Based on an analysis of the works of Russian authors, the following characteristics of youth can be identified:

─ age;

─ socio-historical;

─ sociological;

─ spiritual and cultural;

─ socio-psychological;

─ cultural;

Thus, the distinctive social quality of each new generation of youth (or its individual groups) is determined by the characteristics of the personal, objective and procedural aspects of its specific historical existence, which determine the ability to inherit, reproduce and improve the social structure of society. Youth is a socio-demographic group, identified on the basis of a combination of age characteristics (approximately from 16 to 30 years), characteristics of social status and certain socio-psychological qualities. Youth is a specific phase, stage of the human life cycle and is biologically universal. Youth is a period of choosing a profession and your place in life, developing a worldview and life values, choosing a life partner, starting a family, achieving economic independence and socially responsible behavior.

Features of the social status of young people:

Transitivity of position.

High level of mobility.

Mastering new social roles (employee, student, citizen, family man) associated with changes in status.

Actively searching for your place in life.

Favorable prospects in professional and career terms.

It is typical for young people to form informal groups that are characterized by the following signs:

Emergence on the basis of spontaneous communication in specific conditions of a social situation;

Self-organization and independence from official structures;

Models of behavior that are obligatory for participants and differ from the typical ones accepted in society, which are aimed at realizing those unsatisfied in ordinary forms vital needs(they are aimed at self-affirmation, giving social status, gaining security and prestigious self-esteem);

Relative stability, a certain hierarchy among group members;

Expression of different value orientations or even worldviews, behavioral stereotypes that are uncharacteristic of society as a whole;

Attributes that emphasize belonging to a given community.

Depending on the characteristics of youth activities, youth groups and movements can be classified:

Aggressive activity

It is based on the most primitive ideas about the hierarchy of values, based on the cult of persons. Primitivism, visibility of self-affirmation. Popular among teenagers and young people with a minimum level of intellectual and cultural development.

Shocking activity

It is based on a challenge to norms, canons, rules, opinions both in everyday, material forms of life - clothing, hairstyle, and in spiritual ones - art, science. “Challenging” aggression on yourself from others in order to be “noticed.”

Alternative activities

It is based on the development of alternative, systemically contradictory models of behavior that become an end in itself.

Social activities

Aimed at solving specific social problems (environmental movements, movements for the revival and preservation of cultural and historical heritage, etc.).

Political activity

Aimed at change political system and the political situation in accordance with the ideas of a particular group.

Youth social problems, which are the subject of scientific analysis, are divided into two large groups. The first includes specifically youth social problems: determining the essence of youth as a social group, the characteristics of its social position (status), role and place in the social reproduction of society; establishing criteria for its age limits; studying the characteristics of consciousness (needs, interests, values) and methods of activity of the younger generation; research into the specifics of the process of socialization of young people, their socio-professional orientation and adaptation in the team; analysis social aspects activities of informal youth associations and movements.

Another important area of ​​scientific analysis consists of problems that are general sociological and at the same time either primarily concern young people (problems of education, family, marriage), or find specific manifestations in the youth environment (features of education, the development of social and political activity of youth, their role and place in power structures, specifics of social contradictions and conflicts, etc.). Numerous studies allow us to conclude that young people face quite common fundamental contradictions inherent in modern risk societies:

wealth and poverty,

growth of opportunities for self-realization and unemployment,

global subculture and abundance of countercultures,

education and complete illiteracy,

the value of health, the cult of sports and drug addiction, smoking, alcoholism - they are a consequence.

Among the youth problems of the Russian risk society, the following stand out:

decline in real living standards,

significant stratification in terms of financial status,

increase in morbidity, including especially dangerous diseases,

deterioration of the educational infrastructure and quality of educational services,

high unemployment rate,

crisis of a young family,

commercialization of culture,

growth of lack of spirituality and crime among young people.

In conditions when risk turns into the general basis of modernity, the riskological direction in the study of youth becomes promising. Its result was a reasonable conclusion that the dominance of risk in behavior patterns is a general characteristic of modern young generations, and risk is one of the essential properties of youth as a social group. At each stage of its development, society makes certain demands on the younger generation, expressed in the form of social norms, values, morality, etc., and also provides various opportunities for its successful integration into social structures.

The problems faced by young people are related to the position of young people in the social structure, characterized primarily by transition and instability. The social processes that are taking place in modern times only aggravate these problems. Factors influencing the situation of young people:

Economic factors most influence the situation of young people. For the most part, young people are not sufficiently well-off financially, do not have their own housing, and are forced to rely on financial assistance parents. The desire to get an education delays the start of working life by more mature age, and lack of knowledge and experience prevents them from obtaining highly paid positions. Young people's wages are much lower than average wages, the student scholarship is extremely small.

If during periods social stability While these problems can generally be solved or mitigated, during a crisis they become much more complicated. In a situation of economic recession, the number of unemployed among young people sharply increases and it becomes increasingly difficult for young people to achieve a state of economic independence.

Spiritual factors are no less important. In modern times, the process of loss of moral guidelines and erosion of traditional norms and values ​​is intensifying. Young people, as a transitional and unstable social group, are most vulnerable to the negative trends of our time. Thus, the values ​​of labor, freedom, democracy, and interethnic tolerance are gradually leveled out, and these “outdated” values ​​are replaced by a consumerist attitude towards the world, intolerance towards others, and herdism. The protest charge characteristic of young people in times of crisis is distorted, acquiring cruel and aggressive forms. At the same time, an avalanche-like criminalization of youth is occurring, and the number of young people with social deviations, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, and prostitution, is growing.

The most important spiritual problem remains the problem of “fathers and sons”, associated with the conflict between the values ​​of young people and the older generation.

But there are also deeper, more difficult to determine, and perhaps more significant reasons for suicide in children. To the question: “What can cause a teenager to commit suicide?” schoolchildren usually start talking about problems at school, misunderstanding of parents, conflicts with friends, loneliness, emptiness of life... Suicides due to bad grades and the Unified State Examination have become so frequent in Russia that it is high time to sound the alarm. In the meantime, society is reacting very sluggishly to this misfortune, and parents, with their zeal for forcibly educating their children, only create a favorable situation for their children to voluntarily give up their lives. A study of the problem of suicide among young people shows that in a number of cases, teenagers decided to commit suicide in order to draw the attention of parents and teachers to their problems and protested in such a way in a terrible way against the callousness, indifference, cynicism and cruelty of adults. As a rule, teenagers who are closed and vulnerable in character decide to take such a step because of a feeling of loneliness, their own unnecessary stress and loss of the meaning of life. Timely psychological support, kind participation provided to a person in difficult life situation, would have helped to avoid tragedy.

Young people, on the one hand, are an unprotected group, which is rather a destabilizing force in society, and on the other hand, they are the generation on which the future of the country depends. This special status of youth gives rise to the need for an adequate youth policy that can solve or mitigate existing problems, as well as channel the creative potential of youth into a creative direction.

Lecture 4.

Types of amateur activities of young people.

Aggressive initiative - It is based on the most primitive ideas about the hierarchy of values, based on the cult of persons. Primitivism, visibility of self-affirmation. Popular among teenagers and young people with a minimum level of intellectual and cultural development.

Shocking(to amaze, surprise) amateur performance - It is based on a challenge to norms, canons, rules, opinions both in everyday, material forms of life - clothing, hairstyle, and in spiritual ones - art, science. “Challenging” aggression on yourself from others in order to be “noticed” (punk style, etc.)

Alternative amateur activities - Based on the development of alternative behavioral models that are systemically contradictory to generally accepted ones and become an end in themselves (hippies, Hare Krishnas, etc.)

Social activities - Aimed at solving specific social problems (environmental movements, movements for the revival and preservation of cultural and historical heritage, etc.)

Political amateur activities - Aimed at changing the political system and political situation in accordance with the ideas of a specific group

Modern humanity is a complex ethnic structure, including several thousand ethnic communities (nations, nationalities, tribes, ethnic groups, etc.), differing both in size and level of development. Majority modern countries multi-ethnic. The Russian Federation includes more than a hundred ethnic groups, including about 30 nations.

Ethnic community- ϶ᴛᴏ historically developed on certain territory stable set of people (tribe, nationality, nation, people) who have general features and stable features of culture, language, mental makeup, self-awareness and historical memory, as well as awareness of their interests and goals, their unity and difference from other similar entities.

Reaches physical maturity at an average age of 14 years. Around this age, in ancient societies, children underwent a ritual initiation— initiation into the number of adult members of the tribe. However, as society became more advanced and complex, it took more than just physical maturity to be considered an adult. It is assumed that an accomplished person must acquire the necessary knowledge about the world and society, acquire professional skills, learn to independently provide for himself and his own, etc. Since the volume of knowledge and skills has continuously increased throughout history, the moment of acquiring adult status has gradually been pushed back to a later age. Currently, this moment corresponds to approximately 30 years.

When I was young It is customary to call the period in a person’s life from 14 to 30 years - between childhood and adulthood.

Accordingly, representatives of the demographic group whose age falls within this time frame are called youth. However, age is not the decisive criterion for defining youth: the time boundaries of youth age are flexible and determined by the social and cultural conditions of growing up. To properly understand the characteristics of young people, attention should be paid not to the demographic criterion, but to the socio-psychological one.

The youth- this is a generation of people going through the stage of growing up, i.e. formation of personality, assimilation of knowledge, social values ​​and norms necessary in order to become a full-fledged and full-fledged member of society.

Youth has a number of features that distinguish it from other ages. By its nature, youth is transitional,“suspended” state between childhood and adulthood. In some matters, young people are quite mature, serious and responsible, while in others they are naive, limited and infantile. This duality determines a number of contradictions and problems characteristic of this age.

Growing up- this is, first of all, the assimilation of knowledge and skills and the first attempts to apply them in practice.

If we consider youth from the point of view of leading activities, then this period coincides with the end education (educational activities) and joining working life ().

System youth policy consists of three components:

• legal conditions for the implementation of youth policy (i.e. the corresponding legislative framework);
• forms of regulation of youth policy;
• information, material and financial support for youth policy.

The main directions of youth policy are:

• involving young people in public life, informing them about potential development opportunities;
• development of creative activity of youth, support of talented youth;
• integration of young people who find themselves in difficult life situations into a full life.

These areas are implemented in a number of specific programs: legal advice, popularization of universal human values, propaganda, organization of international interaction between youth, support for volunteer initiatives, assistance in employment, strengthening young families, increasing civic engagement, providing assistance to young people in difficult situation etc. If desired, every young person is able to find the means mass media all the necessary information about current projects and select those that can help solve his specific problems.

The youth- this is a socio-demographic group, identified on the basis of a combination of age characteristics (approximately from 16 to 25 years), characteristics of social status and certain socio-psychological qualities.

Youth is a period of choosing a profession and one’s place in life, developing a worldview and life values, choosing a life partner, starting a family, achieving economic independence and socially responsible behavior.

Youth is a specific phase, stage of the human life cycle and is biologically universal.

Features of the social status of young people

Transitivity of position.

High level of mobility.

Mastering new social roles (employee, student, citizen, family man) associated with changes in status.

Actively searching for your place in life.

Favorable prospects in professional and career terms.

Youth is the most active, mobile and dynamic part of the population, free from stereotypes and prejudices of previous years and possessing the following socio-psychological qualities: mental instability; internal inconsistency; low level tolerance (from Latin tolerantia - patience); the desire to stand out, to be different from the rest; the existence of a specific youth subculture.

It is typical for young people to unite in informal groups, which are characterized by the following features:

Emergence on the basis of spontaneous communication in specific conditions of a social situation;

Self-organization and independence from official structures;

Models of behavior that are obligatory for participants and differ from the typical ones accepted in society, which are aimed at realizing life needs that are unsatisfied in ordinary forms (they are aimed at self-affirmation, giving social status, gaining security and prestigious self-esteem);

Relative stability, a certain hierarchy among group members;

Expression of different value orientations or even worldviews, behavioral stereotypes that are uncharacteristic of society as a whole;

Attributes that emphasize belonging to a given community.

Depending on the characteristics of young people’s amateur performances, it is possible classify youth groups and movements.

Aggressive initiative. It is based on the most primitive ideas about the hierarchy of values, based on the cult of persons. Primitivism, visibility of self-affirmation. Popular among teenagers and young people with a minimum level of intellectual and cultural development.

Shocking(French epater - to amaze, surprise) amateur performance. It is based on a challenge to norms, canons, rules, opinions both in everyday, material forms of life - clothing, hairstyle, and in spiritual ones - art, science. “Challenging” aggression on yourself from others in order to be “noticed” (punk style, etc.)

Alternative amateur activity. Based on the development of alternative, systemically contradictory models of behavior that become an end in themselves (hippies, Hare Krishnas, etc.)

Social activities. Aimed at solving specific social problems (environmental movements, movements for the revival and preservation of cultural and historical heritage, etc.)

Political initiative. Aimed at changing the political system and political situation in accordance with the ideas of a specific group

The acceleration of the pace of development of society determines the increasing role of youth in public life. Joining in social relations, youth modify them and, under the influence of transformed conditions, improve themselves.

2. Typology of political regimes.

Political regime– a set of methods for exercising power and achieving political goals.

Characteristics of the political regime:

· scope of rights and human freedoms,

methods of implementation state power,

the nature of the relationship between state and society,

· the presence or absence of opportunities for society to influence the adoption political decisions,

· ways of forming political institutions,

· methods for developing political decisions.

2. Classification of political regimes