Life in the uncertainty of a crisis society:
experience and expectations
Kozyreva P. M.
Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), First Deputy Director of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Center for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute for Social Policy of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. pkozyreva@isras.ru
Smirnov A.I.
Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. smir_al@bk.ru
Kozyreva P. M., Smirnov A.I. Life in the uncertainty of a crisis society: experience and expectations. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2018. No 6. P. 66-78
Presented is an analysis of general tendencies and peculiarities of the population’s socio-economic adaptation in a society suffering from 2008–2016 crisis. It is shown that given such difficult conditions, issues like uncertainty come to the forefront when it comes to the formation and implementation of any sort of adaptation strategies. Uncertainty in the present and unpredictability of the future have lead to an increase in informal employment and a decrease in entrepreneurial activity. Meanwhile financial difficulties have not lead to a growth in additional employment and resorting to any form of personal market participation. The most common means of socio-economic adaptation has been rationalizing consumption behavior, which involves using efficient mechanisms of satisfying basic family needs and keeping them at an acceptable level while practicing frugality. Difficulties associated with a period of crisis have hampered decreasing the acuteness of socio-economic inequality issues, preventing the development of integration processes in society. A weakened feeling of certain stability when it comes to one’s position has lead to a decrease in the level of life satisfaction and an increase in concern for personal future and the future of one’s family.
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