Abstract ♦ This article discusses the main aspects of studying the youth’s social status as a subject. We have identified two main manifestations of social subjectness of the youth:
1) The existence of socially determined opportunities for various forms of social activity.
2) The subject’s ability to realize these opportunities independently.
The first criterion is defined by a set of external factors that outline the possible manifestations of social subjectness of the youth. These factors include the social status of young people, their social roles and social norms of the society as a whole.
The second criterion has been found to comprise a range of features which determine how social subjectness will be manifested. Among them are high intellectual development and capacity for self-discipline, a well-developed self-regulation and self-organization mechanism, a capacity for overcoming contradictions of life, the presence of the “I-concept”, an identification of oneself with the subject of action, accepting responsibility and locating the source of change inside oneself. These ideal features form the upper scale of measuring a person as a social subject. The lower part of the scale has the same features represented minimally or undeveloped. Between these two poles, lies a variety of transitional combinations of these features.
We have described three features of subjectness: goal orientation, motivation and proactiveness, thus defining the youth’s social subjectness as a capacity to take initiative in pursuit of a particular objective, in the presence of a relevant motivation, a well-developed self-regulation mechanism, while realizing one’s role and responsibility and possessing a consciously accepted strategy of living.
Keywords: youth, social subjectness, social subjectness of the youth, criteria of subjectness, features of subjectness
Aliev Vadim Vidadievich, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Culture and Arts, Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Moscow University for the Humanities. Postal address: 5 Yunosti St., Moscow, Russian Federation, 111395. Tel.: +7 (499) 374-56-70. E-mail: . Research adviser: A. I. Kovaleva, Professor, Doctor of Social Science.
Citation: Aliev V. V. (2015) Osnovy issledovaniia sotsial'noi sub"ektnosti molodezhi [The foundations of studying social subjectness of the youth]. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, no. 1, pp. 152–161. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.17805/zpu.2015.1.14
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