University Youth’ Leisure Practices

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a pilot empirical sociological research. The leisure activities of the university youth in a small Arctic mono-industry Apatity town was studied. Leisure is considered as an important youth’ resource of self-development, self-realization and relaxation. Empirical data were collected by the online survey method in the period from October 1 to November 20, 2018. The paper describes the types of students’ leisure activities and the role of Internet technologies, town’s leisure infrastructure in the organization of students’ leisure. Results of the research demonstrated that passive and non-institutionalized leisure forms are dominated among university youth. They use computer technology and the Internet in their leisure practices as consumers, not creators. Opportunities for leisure infrastructure in town areas, as a rule, do not meet the needs of youth. Students do not know about some of existing leisure activities in the town. It have been found a statistically significant relationship between students' assessments of the town's leisure infrastructure and student's feelings about the town, their migration intentions. The conclusion contains recommendations on development of leisure activities for university students and on creating a unified information environment for the organized collective leisure in the town.