Practices of using social capitalin the life strategies implementation of youth public organization members

Abstract

Іntroduction. Аctivity and involvement in a public organization can significantly change a young person's outlook and accelerate his future career growth and life success. The development of his life strategies depends on the resources he accumulates as a member of a youth organization and the created relationships being a member of those organizations. The article's purpose is theoretical and empirical substantiation of the generation features, conversion, and use of social capital in implementing life strategies by young people based on their membership in youth public organizations. Мethodology. Using the method of in-depth interviews, an empirical study of the peculiarities of the acquisition and influence of the accumulated social capital by members of youth public organizations on the construction of their life strategies. The author defines life strategies as behavioural orientations based on life ideas, goals, and demands, formed under the influence of public activity in youth public organizations. Results. Based on in-depth interviews conducted within the study's framework, an author's typology of life strategies was proposed for former youth public organizations members in Lviv. Inparticular, social-, business-, management-, political-, and religious-oriented types of life strategies were highlighted and described. Сonclusions. The conducted theoretical and empirical analysis of the capital generation process of youth public organizations and the possibilities of using this resource by their current and former members in the construction of life strategies allowed us to characterize the social capital of youth as a significant and necessary factor in the development of civil society. It's important to outline the key directions of its development: establishing social relations, ties, and contacts; forming conditions for the development of relations based on trust; encouraging and stimulating cooperation, etc. The further perspective of the study consists of identifying factors that prevent the transition of the individual social capital level of public organizations members into the organization's social capital