Связь социального капитала с коллективными действиями в молодежной среде. Кейс Вологодской области

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study of the relationship between the level of social capital of young people in Vologda Oblast and their participation in collective actions. Over the past decades, research in the field of social capital has become more widespread in the scientific community, however, the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world has additionally actualized the problem of studying the features of the formation of social ties (which are its main source) and finding sources of intangible resources to help the social organism. The information base for the study was a mass public opinion poll conducted by the Vologda Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. An indicator model for measuring social capital was used to analyze the data. During the study, it was found that the pandemic had a significant impact on the level of social capital not only of the entire population of the region as a whole, but also of young people in particular. At the time of the study, the situation with the level of social capital began to gradually improve, but still has not returned to pre-Covid levels. The existence of a noticeable connection between social capital and participation in collective actions has been confirmed. People with a high level of social capital are noticeably more willing to engage in collective activities and more likely to find like-minded people to organize joint actions, while those with a low level of social capital are more likely to expect that someone else will solve social problems without their involvement. People with high levels of social capital are not only more likely to talk about their readiness for collective action, but they also notice specific cases of participation in real collective action much more often. While self-interest remains the most common motivator for participating in collective action, as respondents build up social capital, they increasingly engage in collective action for reasons unrelated to self-interest.