Fires as a socio-environmental threat in the minds of students from southern Russia

Abstract

The issues of understanding environmental pollution factors, their prevention and reduction of harmful consequences are relevant both for public discussions and for scientific analysis. This article focuses on the significant experience of scientific research of environmental problems, as there is a tendency to form the ecological consciousness of the world community. The main purpose of this article is to analyze fires as an environmental threat through sociological analysis. The authors explain the relevance of this issue of preventing and minimizing the consequences of fires, as well as improving the fire safety system, both from the point of view of Russia’ contemporary development and through the prism of the necessity for a sociological understanding of these processes and phenomena. The authors highlight the main directions of a sociological research of this phenomenon: formation and development of ecological consciousness; a systemic sociological analysis of specific situations; fire safety sociology through the prism of macro- (as a resource-saving system of society) and microsociology (the level of social groups, applied aspects of implementation and improvement of fire safety. The authors refer to the results of a specific sociological study (initiated by the Russian society of sociologists) conducted among students of Russian higher education institutions. Their responses are analyzed and compared with the all-Russian indicators, including the official statistics on the causes of fires, damage and destruction of forest areas, results of content analysis of the news feed, and official information about the area of forest areas. In conclusion, the authors highlight the importance of further studies of the anthropogenic factor in the framework of this environmental threat and the role of man in the fire safety system. This may help in understanding the process of formation and development of environmental consciousness.