8.12. Young people - what are they and what are they interested in? In the forecourt of a large city on the street, a young creature with tousled purple hair and blurred eyes may approach you and ask you for some money - for drugs. Some teenagers can't find

Caution: young people From the bulletin of the congress of drug addicts: “A youth drug culture is being formed in Russia with its centers - discos. This youth subculture is actively supported by the media promoting rave as

Chapter 12 Group of Soviet Forces in Germany - Western Group of Forces 1945-1994

Reaches physical maturity at the age of 14 on average. Around this age, in ancient societies, children underwent a ceremony initiation- initiation into the number of adult members of the tribe. However, as society became more advanced and complex, it took more than just physical maturity to be considered an adult. It is assumed that a successful person must obtain the necessary knowledge about the world and society, acquire professional skills, learn to independently provide for himself and his own, etc. Since the amount of knowledge and skills in the course of history has continuously increased, the moment of acquiring the status of an adult was gradually postponed to a later age. Currently, this moment corresponds to approximately 30 years.

Youth it is customary to call the period in a person's life from 14 to 30 years - between childhood and adulthood.

Accordingly, representatives of the demographic group, whose age fits within this time frame, are called youth. However, age is not the decisive criterion for defining youth: the time boundaries of youth age are flexible and are determined by the social and cultural conditions of growing up. For a correct understanding of the characteristics of young people, attention should be focused not on the demographic criterion, but on the socio-psychological one.

Young people- this is a generation of people going through the stage of growing up, i.e. the formation of personality, the assimilation of knowledge, social values ​​and norms necessary in order to take place as a full-fledged and full-fledged member of society.

Youth has a number of characteristics that distinguish it from other ages. By its nature, youth is transitional,"Suspended" state between childhood and adulthood. In some matters, young people are quite mature, serious and responsible, while in others they are naive, limited and infantile. This duality determines a number of contradictions and problems inherent in this age.

Growing up- this is, first of all, the assimilation of knowledge and skills and the first attempts to apply them in practice.

If we consider youth from the point of view of leading activities, then this period coincides with the end education(educational activities) and entry into working life ().

Youth policy system consists of three components:

• the legal conditions for the implementation of youth policy (i.e. the corresponding legal framework);
• forms of regulation of youth policy;
• information and material and financial support of youth policy.

The main directions of youth policy are:

• involving young people in public life, informing them about potential development opportunities;
• development of creative activity of youth, support of talented youth;
• integration of young people who find themselves in a difficult life situation into a full life.

These areas are implemented in a number of specific programs: legal advice, popularization of universal human values, propaganda, organization of international interaction of youth, support for volunteer initiatives, assistance in finding a job, strengthening young families, increasing civic engagement, helping young people in difficult situations, etc. If desired, each young person is able to find in the media all the necessary information about current projects and select those that can help in solving his specific problems.

The concept of "youth" as a definition of a socio-demographic group dates back to the late 18th - early 19th centuries. Before that, young people were not recognized as a special social group. Until the end of the 19th century. the problems of youth were considered indirectly, through the problems of personality development, the upbringing of a citizen of a historically specific society, which found a scientific form of expression in philosophy, pedagogy, psychology of the Renaissance, modern times, Western philosophy of the 17th - 18th centuries. The actualization of theoretical studies of youth, the creation of independent concepts of age occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. and was developed in the sociological theories of youth. Youth as a special social group was recognized on a completely objective basis, by which it is customary to understand those basic aspects and relations that determine the functioning, direction of change and development of all other aspects of this social education. The concept of youth in the sociocultural aspect began to be developed in the 50s. XX century. such researchers as G. Shelsky, K. Mannheim, A. Tenbrook, S. Eisenstadt.

To date, in the circles of sociologists, the view of youth as a reference socio-demographic group has been established, the most important features of which most authors consider age characteristics and related features of social status, as well as socio-psychological qualities due to both, which allows us to speak of a multi-level analysis of youth as a social phenomenon. One of the researchers of the problems of the young generation S.N. Ikonnikova identified three levels of description of youth as a social phenomenon:

─ individual psychological - correlation with a specific person;

─ socio-psychological - a description of the most essential properties, qualities, interests of individual groups;

─ sociological - a description of the place of youth in the system of material and spiritual production and consumption in the social structure of society.

Youth as part of society is studied by various humanities. The discussion about the definition of young people, the criteria for distinguishing them into an independent group has a long history. Scientists share different approaches to the subject of study - from the standpoint of sociology, psychology, physiology, demography, etc., as well as the classification traditions that have formed within the framework of certain scientific schools.

Researchers Vishnevsky Yu.R., Kovaleva A.I., Lukov V.A. and others. the following are distinguished as the most typical approaches found in the scientific literature:

─ psychological: youth is the period of development of the human personality between “puberty” (puberty) and “maturity” (full maturity);

─ socio-psychological: youth is a certain age with its own biological and psychological relationships, and as a result - all the characteristics of the age class;

─ conflictological: youth is a difficult, stressful and extremely important period of life, a prolonged conflict between the individual and society, a problematic stage in human development;

─ role-playing: youth is a special behavioral phase in a person's life, when he no longer plays the role of a child, and at the same time is not yet a full-fledged carrier of the role of an “adult”;

─ subcultural: youth is a group with its own specific way of life, lifestyle, cultural norms;

─ stratification: youth is a special socio-demographic group, limited by age, with specific positions, statuses, roles;

─ socialization: youth is a period of social growth, primary socialization;

─ interactionist: youth is one of the three states of mind inherent in every person. "Parent" - orientation towards normative behavior, "adult" - orientation towards making adult decisions, "youth" - spontaneity, spontaneity;

─ axiological: youth is a socially significant, important stage in a person's life cycle. It is at this stage that the formation of a system of value orientations of individuals takes place;

─ subjective: youth is a special attitude, aspiration for the future, optimism;

─ procedural: young people are those who are not completed, are not integrated, are in a state of formation, formation.

In accordance with these approaches, scientists are attempting to isolate and unify the "characteristics" of youth as a social phenomenon. Based on the analysis of the works of Russian authors, the following characteristics of youth can be distinguished:

─ age-related;

─ socio-historical;

─ sociological;

─ spiritual and cultural;

─ socio-psychological;

─ culturological;

Thus, the distinctive social quality of each new generation of young people (or its individual groups) is determined by the characteristics of the personal, objective and procedural aspects of its concrete historical being, which determine the ability to inherit, reproduce and improve the social structure of society. Youth is a socio-demographic group, distinguished on the basis of a set of age characteristics (approximately from 16 to 30 years old), characteristics of social status and certain socio-psychological qualities. Youth is a specific phase, a stage in the human life cycle and is biologically universal. Youth is a period of choosing a profession and one's place in life, developing a worldview and life values, choosing a life partner, creating a family, achieving economic independence and socially responsible behavior.

Features of the social status of youth:

Transitional position.

High level of mobility.

Mastering new social roles (worker, student, citizen, family man) associated with a change in status.

Active search for their place in life.

Favorable professional and career prospects.

It is typical for young people to form informal groups, which are characterized by the following features:

The emergence on the basis of spontaneous communication in the specific conditions of a social situation;

Self-organization and independence from official structures;

Mandatory for the participants and different from the typical, accepted in society, models of behavior that are aimed at the implementation of unsatisfied life needs in ordinary forms (they are aimed at self-affirmation, giving social status, gaining security and prestigious self-esteem);

Relative stability, a certain hierarchy among group members;

Expression of other value orientations or even worldviews, stereotypes of behavior that are not typical for society as a whole;

Attributes that emphasize belonging to a given community.

Depending on the characteristics of youth activities, youth groups and movements can be classified:

Aggressive activity

It is based on the most primitive ideas about the hierarchy of values ​​based on the cult of persons. Primitivism, clarity of self-affirmation. Popular among adolescents and young people with a minimum level of intellectual and cultural development.

Shocking activity

It is based on the challenge to norms, canons, rules, opinions both in everyday, material forms of life - clothes, hairstyle, and in spiritual ones - art, science. "Calling" aggression on yourself from other persons to "notice" you.

Alternative activity

It is based on the development of alternative, systemically contrary to generally accepted models of behavior, which become an end in itself.

Social activities

It is aimed at solving specific social problems (environmental movements, movements for the revival and preservation of cultural and historical heritage, etc.).

Political activity

It is aimed at changing the political system and political situation in accordance with the ideas of a particular group.

Youth social problems, which are the subject of scientific analysis, are divided into two large groups. The first includes specifically youth social problems: defining the essence of youth as a social group, the characteristics of its social position (status), role and place in the social reproduction of society; establishment of criteria for its age limits; study of the characteristics of consciousness (needs, interests, values) and ways of activity of the younger generation; study of the specifics of the process of socialization of young people, their social and professional orientation and adaptation in the team; analysis of the social aspects of the activities of informal youth associations and movements.

Another important area of ​​scientific analysis is made up of problems that are general sociological and at the same time either predominantly concern young people (problems of education, family, marriage), or find specific manifestations in the youth environment (features of upbringing, the development of social and political activity of youth, its role and place in power structures, specificity of social contradictions and conflicts, etc.). Numerous studies allow us to conclude that there are quite general fundamental contradictions inherent in modern risk societies that young people face:

wealth and poverty,

growth of opportunities for self-realization and unemployment,

global subculture and abundance of countercultures,

education and complete illiteracy,

the value of health, the cult of sports and drug addiction, smoking, alcoholism - they are a consequence.

Among the youth problems of the Russian risk society stand out:

decline in real living standards,

significant stratification according to the level of financial situation,

an increase in the incidence of diseases, including especially dangerous diseases,

deterioration of the educational infrastructure and the quality of educational services,

high unemployment rate,

crisis of a young family,

commercialization of culture,

the growth of lack of spirituality and crime among the youth.

In conditions when risk turns into a common foundation of our time, the riskological direction in the study of young people becomes promising. Its result was a well-grounded conclusion that the dominant of risk in behavioral models is a common characteristic of modern young generations, and risk is one of the essential properties of young people as a social group. At each stage of its development, society makes certain demands on the younger generation, expressed in the form of social norms, values, morals, etc., and also provides various opportunities for its successful integration into social structures.

The problems faced by young people are related to the position of young people in the social structure, which is characterized primarily by transition and instability. The social processes that are taking place in our time only exacerbate these problems. Factors affecting the situation of young people:

Economic factors most of all affect the situation of young people. For the most part, young people are insufficiently secured financially, do not have their own homes, and are forced to rely on financial assistance from their parents. The desire to get an education pushes the beginning of the labor activity to a more mature age, and the lack of experience in knowledge hinders getting high-paying positions. The salaries of young people are much lower than the average salary, and the student scholarship is also extremely small.

If during periods of social stability these problems in general can be solved or mitigated, then during a crisis period they become much more complicated. In a situation of economic downturn, the number of unemployed among the youth is sharply increasing and it becomes more and more difficult for young people to achieve a state of economic independence.

Spiritual factors are equally important. In modern times, the process of loss of moral guidelines, the erosion of traditional norms and values ​​is intensifying. Young people as a transitional and unstable social group are most vulnerable to the negative trends of our time. Thus, the values ​​of labor, freedom, democracy, interethnic tolerance are gradually leveled, and these "outdated" values ​​are replaced by a consumer attitude towards the world, intolerance towards others, and herd. The protest charge characteristic of young people in times of crisis is distorted, acquiring cruel and aggressive forms. At the same time, an avalanche-like criminalization of young people occurs, the number of young people with social disabilities, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, and prostitution, is growing.

The most important spiritual problem remains the problem of "fathers and children" associated with the conflict of values ​​between young people and the older generation.

But there are deeper, more difficult to identify, and possibly more significant causes of suicide in children. To the question: "What can cause a teenager to commit suicide?" schoolchildren usually begin to talk about problems at school, misunderstanding of parents, conflicts with friends, loneliness, emptiness of life ... Suicides due to the deuce and the Unified State Exam have become so frequent in Russia that it is high time to sound the alarm. In the meantime, society reacts to this misfortune very sluggishly, and parents, with their zeal for the forced teaching of their children, only create a favorable situation for the voluntary separation of children from life. The study of the problem of suicide among young people shows that in a number of cases adolescents decided to commit suicide in order to draw the attention of parents and teachers to their problems and in such a terrible way protested against the callousness, indifference, cynicism and cruelty of adults. As a rule, adolescents, who are closed, vulnerable by nature, decide to take such a step from a feeling of loneliness, their own uselessness of stress and the loss of the meaning of life. Timely psychological support, kind participation shown to a person in a difficult life situation would help to avoid tragedy.

On the one hand, young people are an unprotected group, which is, rather, a destabilizing force in society, and on the other hand, they are the generation on which the future of the country depends. This special status of young people gives rise to the need for an adequate youth policy capable of solving or alleviating existing problems, as well as directing the creative potential of young people into a creative channel.

Aggressive amateur performance

It is based on the most primitive ideas about the hierarchy of values ​​based on the cult of persons. Primitivism, clarity of self-affirmation. Popular among adolescents and young people with a minimum level of intellectual and cultural development.

Shocking (French epater - to amaze, surprise) amateur performance

It is based on the challenge to norms, canons, rules, opinions both in everyday, material forms of life - clothes, hairstyle, and in spiritual ones - art, science. "Calling" aggression on yourself from other persons to be "noticed" (punk style, etc.)

Alternative amateur performance

It is based on the development of alternative, systemically contrary to generally accepted models of behavior that become an end in itself (hippies, Hare Krishnas, etc.)

Social amateur performance

Aimed at solving specific social problems (environmental movements, movements for the revival and preservation of cultural and historical heritage, etc.)

Amateur political activities

Aimed at changing the political system and political situation in accordance with the ideas of a specific group

Acceleration of the rate of development of society leads to an increase in the role of youth in public life. Joining social relations, young people modify them and, under the influence of the transformed conditions, they improve themselves.

Ethnic communities

In ancient times, people lived a closed life - each group (clan, tribe) had its own area of ​​residence, its own occupations, special insignia, its own language, its own beliefs. All others were considered enemies, and therefore there were constant clashes. The situation gradually changed - tribal unions and other associations of different groups appeared. At the same time, the special features of the former groups remained. This is how the interaction of ethnic groups appeared.
Ethnic group- a group of people with special ethnic, that is, cultural, linguistic or racial traits, who are united by a full or partial common origin and who themselves are aware of their belonging to a common group. Learned and perceived ethnic differences - language, culture, religion, racial traits are inherited. As a rule, numerous ethnic groups live in modern states.
A characteristic feature of an ethnic group- the fact that its members classify themselves as a separate group with their own culture, which they strive to preserve in every way. There are 4 mandatory criteria for assigning an individual to a certain ethnic group: self-determination (assigning oneself to an ethnic group, the individual's own desire to belong to it, to classify himself as a member of a group), the presence of family ties, cultural characteristics, the presence of a social organization for internal contacts and for interaction with others.
Thus, an ethnic group can be characterized as an association of people who have common cultural, linguistic, religious or racial traits, are characterized by a common origin and are aware of their belonging to a single group.
The main feature of such groups is distinguishing themselves from the people around them, understanding the peculiarities of their culture and striving to preserve it by all means. Most scientists point out three main types of ethnic communities that existed in the history of mankind: tribes, nationalities and nations.
While studying the history of the ancient world, you often heard about clans and tribes ... The clan was an association of blood relatives with a common origin, a common place of settlement, a single language, common customs and beliefs.
The next step in bringing people together there was a tribe - a union of several clans. Exactly tribes are historically considered the first ethnic union... Each of them had a special myth about its origin, which showed its originality and dissimilarity from other tribes. Many were descended from ancestors-animals and tried to resemble them in every possible way - in dances they tried to repeat the habits and movements of sacred animals, painted themselves like tigers, bears or snakes. Thus, their own position in the surrounding world was emphasized. Now there are almost no tribes left in the world - they survived only in some regions of Africa, on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, in the forests of South America. Their life remains the same as it was thousands of years ago, the ideas of their ancestors about the world, traditions, way of life, and behavior are transmitted from generation to generation. Representatives of these tribes have never seen cities, modern cars, do not know anything about television and cinema. Scientists study the surviving tribes and draw conclusions about what life was like in ancient times.
With the emergence of states, tribes began to turn into nationalities are larger communities with a common language, territory, economic and cultural ties. They often formed one state, but they themselves still remained quite fragmented, because subsistence economy prevailed, in which each village produced everything necessary for life and had little need to establish trade relations. Not all nationalities were able to survive to this day - the fate of the Scythians, Etruscans, Assyrians, Khazars and many others is mysterious. Yet most of them have become nations and exist in the modern world.
Nations are understood as a stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common origin, common culture, cohabitation and close communication with each other. The most important thing in the formation of nations is established relations - economic, political, cultural and interpersonal. Historically, they emerged with the expansion of trade relations. Historians attribute the formation of many of the European nations to the 16th – 17th centuries. These groups are also characterized by the presence of their own national idea, which is understood as their answers to questions about the origin of the people, the meaning of its existence, about its place in the world, about relations with neighbors, about the features of uniqueness and peculiarities of the national character.
The commonality of a nation is expressed in a special national culture.

Interethnic relations

In the modern world, no nation can live in complete isolation and necessarily enters into interethnic relations, establishes economic, political, ideological, cultural, legal, diplomatic and other ties. They can be stable (constant) and unstable (periodic), based on competition and cooperation, equal and unequal... At the same time, it is not always possible to do without conflicts. Usually, their reasons are territorial disputes, historically established tensions, oppression of small nations and peoples, the use of national feelings by individual political leaders in order to create a tense situation, the desire of individual peoples to leave the multinational state and create their own (otherwise it is called separatism).
There are enough examples of national conflicts in the world - the crisis and many years of bloody war in the former Yugoslavia, territorial disputes between the republics of the former Soviet Union, separatist sentiments in Northern Ireland and the Canadian province of Quebec, wars between Central African states, and so on.
The basis of these conflicts is formed by ideas about the special role of their group in society, which have been characteristic of many peoples since ancient times. Here is an example from an Indian myth: “To complete the structure of the world, God fashioned three human figures from dough and put them in the oven. After a while, burning with impatience, he took out of the stove the first man, whose appearance was too light and not very pleasant. It was "unbaked" inside too. A little later, God got the second one, it was a success - it was beautifully brown on the outside and "ripe" on the inside. God gladly made him the founder of the Indian family. Well, the third during this time was very burnt and became completely black. The first of the baked little men became the founder of the white clan, and the last - the black one. " This approach in its extreme forms leads to the conclusion that certain people, by their biological racial qualities, are initially supposedly more gifted and talented, both physically and mentally, and therefore more capable of leadership and management.
Position of ethnic superiority results in discrimination- reduction or deprivation of rights and freedoms for a certain group of the population. In everyday life, this is expressed by the prohibition of visiting certain restaurants, beaches, cinemas or urban areas; in the industrial sphere - the ban on professions, the inaccessibility of education, the impossibility of a successful career; in psychological terms - offensive nicknames, ridicule, anecdotes about "underdeveloped" people, etc. In extreme cases, minorities live separately in special settlements, marry within their group. Such a system of separation existed for a long time in South Africa (South Africa), where the black population was isolated and deprived of most of their rights.
The twentieth century gave many examples of stirring up passions on ethnic grounds. Fascist Germany has adopted racist ideas about the superiority of one group of people over all others and the existence of a special race Aryans - the chosen people who must rule the whole world. The implementation of this idea led to the desire to completely destroy the Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and to subjugate others to the "true Aryans." The external parameters of the highest race were even determined - a certain hair color, physique, eye shape, face shape, etc. It is curious that neither Hitler, nor many of his entourage themselves did not fit these parameters.
Now there are many neo-Nazi parties and movements that use nationalist ideas to increase their authority and popularity. Who doesn't want to hear that he is the best in the world, the most intelligent and noble, has the only true religion, has a heroic history, and his ancestors ruled over other people? Similar ideas are used at meetings and preached in the press. The newly-minted leaders declare about unfair oppression by "outsiders" and the need to "restore order" by force, for which special military units are being created. Usually, the less internal culture a person has, the easier it is to convince him of special exclusivity and the presence of enemies that prevent it from manifesting. The people behind all this strive for power, fame and popularity, for personal enrichment through pogroms. Strong personal interests are behind their visible concerns about the fate of the nation. It was, is, and probably will still be. How long? Much depends on the citizens themselves - as long as there is painful national pride and the desire to blame the responsibility for their personal failures on internal or external enemies, ethnic contradictions and hostility between peoples will remain.

Humanity is trying to solve this problem. There are various organizations dealing with the issues of interaction between peoples - the United Nations, the League of Arab States, the Organization of African Unity, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and others. Many conflicts have been ended thanks to their assistance or with the direct intervention of these organizations.
A reasonable solution to national problems is possible only with a combination of two main trends in the development of national relations - differentiation(the people's desire for independence, preservation and development of national culture, economy, politics) and integration(close cooperation, exchange of cultural values, overcoming alienation and maintaining mutually beneficial contacts). The diversity of national cultures should not lead to their isolation, and the rapprochement of nations does not mean the disappearance of differences between them.
When solving interethnic conflicts, it is necessary to observe the following humanistic principles:
- rejection of violence and coercion;
- search for agreement (consensus);
- recognition of human rights and freedoms as the most important principle;
- readiness for a peaceful settlement of disputed problems.

Causes of interethnic conflicts:

Socio-economic - inequality in the standard of living, different representation in prestigious professions, social strata, government bodies.

Cultural and linguistic - insufficient, from the point of view of an ethnic minority, the use of its language and culture in public life.

Ethno-demographic - a rapid change in the ratio of the number of contacting peoples due to migration and differences in the level of natural population growth.

Environmental - deterioration of the quality of the environment as a result of its pollution or depletion of natural resources due to the use of representatives of a different ethnic group.

Extraterritorial - non-coincidence of state or administrative boundaries with the boundaries of the settlement of peoples.

Historical - past relationships of peoples (wars, the former relationship of domination-subordination, etc.).

Confessional - due to belonging to different religions and confessions, differences in the level of modern religiosity of the population.

Cultural - from the features of everyday behavior to the specifics of the political culture of the people.