Consumer preferences of today's youth as a specific socio-demographic group. Consumer behavior of young people (on the example of Belgorod) Features of the consumer sphere of youth

75-2529 Sociology Diploma Content

Introduction 3

1. Theoretical aspects of consumer behavior of students in the context of globalization 9

1.1. globalization trend 9

1.2. Youth in the context of globalization 12

1.4. Essence and structure of consumer behavior 21

1.3. The specifics of youth consumer behavior in the labor market 27

1.5. Values of Russian student youth in the context of globalization 347

2 Analysis of the study of the factors of consumer behavior of students in the context of globalization 48

2.1. Social perspectives of youth in the context of globalization 48

2.2. Youth Self-Determination in a Transforming Society 55

Conclusion 59

List of sources and literature 64

Annotation:

Purpose of the study.

Research objectives.

Subject of study- consumer behavior of Russian students in the context of globalization.

Object of study– student youth as a social role group of consumers.

Introduction
The relevance of the work
Consumer behavior is a form of human economic behavior and fully reflects the social status of the group and the individual. Russia's transition from a distribution system of resources and goods to a system of free market production and consumption has radically changed the consumer market for goods and services. The living conditions of all social groups and strata of Russian society, including young people, have changed. Market reforms have led to a significant stratification of Russian society, both in terms of income, and in terms of the level and quality of life. The main form of behavior of the population in the context of a deep transformation of society has become adaptation to new socio-economic conditions.
Modern youth is a generation whose worldview was formed under the influence of the transition to a market economy and social relations in the economy, politics, cultural and spiritual spheres, and the new realities of modern life do not require the adaptation necessary for older generations of Russians.
The youth in the structure of the Russian population is over 20%. As a socio-demographic community, youth is not homogeneous. It is differentiated by gender, age, education, financial situation, place in the social structure of society, value orientations, structure and degree of satisfaction of needs. The stratification of the youth community determines the specifics of consumption depending on the social status, position in the system of social and labor relations, the amount and method of income. Considering the income of young people, it is also necessary to take into account the "dependent factor" - the dependence of the satisfaction of needs on the material possibilities of the parental family. The effect of this factor extends, first of all, to representatives of young people who do not have economic independence.
Young people are distinguished by a high level of social mobility, and a change in the status (family, education, work, etc.) of a young person is associated with an increase in needs, which is not always accompanied by an increase in opportunities sufficient to satisfy them. This often provokes deviant behavior - offenses aimed at satisfying needs in an illegal way.
The values that young Russians accept and reject largely determine their behavior as consumers. Researchers note that as a result of the transition to a market economy system, a radical reorientation of young people from the preference for intangible values to material ones took place. Such a pragmatic orientation is evaluated ambiguously. Practicality as a dominant value is often associated with extremely selfish aspirations, the implementation of which entails a violation of morality and law. At the same time, pragmatism and practicality also have a positive side, initiating the desire for real specific goals: ensuring a decent social position, material well-being, cultural leisure opportunities and are a kind of springboard for leveling the existing imbalance in the social structure of Russian society, creating and subsequent reproduction basic social stratum - the middle class.
Young people are aimed at raising the standard of living, obtaining a sufficiently high level of education, professional and career growth, they do not have persistent stereotypes in economic thinking that are characteristic of older generations. The youth is the least conservative part of the society. It is safe to say that young people have attitudes towards change and innovation. The propensity for innovation cannot but affect the style of consumer behavior of young people. Most of the new products entering the market of goods and services are aimed specifically at young consumers who are open to new things and not afraid of experiments.
In today's dynamically developing world, the role of young people as a "conductor" of information flows, new knowledge and skills that form new models of their behavior, including consumer behavior, is growing. The changes that have taken place in the social status of Russian youth have a direct impact on their consciousness. Noticeable shifts have taken place in the motivational structure, the structure of needs, and consumer behavior. The current generation of young people will have to become the "social resultant of the past century", the bearer of the social experience of the previous century.
Thus, the relevance of the topic of the graduation project is dictated by the urgent need for knowledge about the consumer behavior of Russian youth as a large social community of active consumers of goods and services with great consumer potential, directly affecting the development of the Russian consumer market, and hence the state of productive forces. The study of youth consumer behavior is also necessary for the development of youth and economic policy of the state, aimed at improving the socio-economic situation of young members of Russian society, creating sufficient guarantees for young citizens to exercise their rights to education, work, health care, recreation, to harmonious spiritual, moral and physical development.
Problematic situation.
The problematic situation lies in a complex of interrelated social contradictions that have formed in the Russian consumer market and in society as a whole:
- first of all, this is a contradiction between the desire of young people for overestimated, in relation to the real financial situation, consumption standards: growing needs in an ever-expanding consumer market, on the one hand, and the lack of opportunities to satisfy them due to the low standard of living of a significant part of young people, on the other ;
- A social contradiction has also formed between the interest of business and the state in expanding the purchasing power of young people, on the one hand, and the lack of real material conditions for its expansion, on the other.
Scientific development of the problem.
An analysis of the scientific literature on the topic of the graduation project allows us to identify several of the most common scientific approaches to the study of consumer behavior: economic, sociological, socio-psychological and commercial approaches.
Purpose of the study.
To study the features of the consumer behavior of Russian youth in the market of goods and services and the influence of their social characteristics on its formation.
Research objectives.
Conduct a theoretical analysis of the consumer behavior of student youth as one of the forms of its behavior in the context of globalization.
Determine the factors that determine the consumer behavior of Russian youth in the context of globalization.
Analyze the impact of socio-demographic indicators on the consumer status of young people and the specifics of their consumer behavior.
To identify the main characteristics of the consumer behavior of young people and build its typology.
To study the system of social values and needs of young people, the degree of their satisfaction in the conditions of market relations.
The subject of the study is the consumer behavior of Russian students in the context of globalization.
The object of the study is student youth as a social role group of consumers,
Hypothesis-base: the consumer behavior of young people has a number of characteristic features that are common to the group as a whole and are associated primarily with the age specifics of this group of consumers. Due to social stratification, young people are stratified in terms of living standards, which causes heterogeneity in the consumer behavior of its various groups. It can be expected that with the improvement in the standard of living of this group of consumers, the quantitative characteristics of consumer behavior associated with the volume and structure of consumption will change; the qualitative characteristics associated with the age specificity of this group of consumers will not change significantly.
Material security is one of the key factors that determine the characteristics of consumer behavior.
Growing up, accompanied by the involvement of young people in the system of labor and social relations, the acquisition of material independence, leads to an increase in consumer status.
The social values that young Russians accept and reject largely determine their behavior as consumers. Among the values of modern Russian youth, material values prevail over spiritual ones.
Russian youth has a wide range of unsatisfied or incompletely satisfied needs. It can be expected that even the basic needs of young people are not fully met. The level of material security has a significant impact on the degree of satisfaction of the needs of young people.
Scientific novelty.
The consumer behavior of young people is considered in a broad social context: not only as behavior in the sphere of material consumption, but as behavior aimed at satisfying all types of needs, including non-material ones.
On the basis of empirical data, the social portrait of modern Russian youth is characterized as a heterogeneous social community, differentiated according to a number of characteristics - from socio-demographic to social class.
The system of social values of modern youth, their influence on the formation of their needs and the degree of their satisfaction has been studied.
Theoretical and practical significance of the research.
The obtained empirical results and theoretical conclusions make it possible to make a certain contribution to the development of knowledge about the behavior of young people, as a specific ...

1. Theoretical aspects of student youth consumer behavior in the context of globalization

1.1. globalization trend

The trend of globalization is the continuation of the unification now at the global level. Civilization tends to level out provincial and national types, argues Durkheim.
The trend of globalization of modern life is manifested in various spheres of reality:
1. Political - the gradual transformation of states into a single world political system by creating global political bodies that serve to coordinate political decisions by representatives of various countries. An example is the UN, created by the victorious countries in World War II - the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France - after it ended. The predecessor of the UN in the 20-30s of the XX century. was the League of Nations. In addition to the UN, there are other world organizations that coordinate the policies of states in various spheres of life: UNESCO is a world organization that solves the problems of development and preservation of culture at the global level, the World Food Organization, the World Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Health Organization, etc. Transnational parties are being created ( the harbinger of which were the I, II, III, IV Internationals), which a resident of any state could join. An important step towards globalization is regional associations such as the European Union with its own parliament and court. Borders between European countries are removed, common visas (Schengen agreements) are introduced;
2. Economic - the emergence of transnational corporations that cover, like tentacles, the entire globe (Sony, Philips, Samsung, etc.). You buy a Sony color TV, but it turns out that it is made, let's say, in Hungary. There are also global financial organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), etc. There is an international division of labor with new dependencies between states. Accordingly, the sovereignty of nation-states weakens;
3. Information - the emergence of global information transmission systems such as the Internet, which creates information belts around the Earth and serves as confirmation of the concept of the noosphere;
4. Transport - the emergence of new vehicles (aircraft, and in the near future, a spacecraft), allowing you to quickly get to anywhere in the world;
5. Environmental - the discovery of the limited nature of earth's resources and the intensification of the struggle for them, the increased impact on nature as a whole and the negative environmental consequences of such an impact;
6. Demographic - a sharp increase in the total population of the planet, which exceeded 6 billion in 1999, and the growing disproportions in the distribution of the population over the Earth's surface, which increased human pressure on the biosphere and aggravated the general situation on the globe;
7. Military - the creation of means of mass destruction (atomic weapons), which are capable of repeatedly destroying not only humanity, but almost all life on the planet;
8. Cultural - universal science and global mass culture.
Each of these changes can be considered, if desired, with both a plus sign and a minus sign. For example, globalization in the environmental sphere leads to an ever greater intensification of relationships with the natural environment. At the same time, the globalization of human impact on the natural environment is accompanied by an unprecedented intensification and globalization of the negative consequences of this impact. And if earlier mankind experienced local and regional ecological crises that could lead to the death of any civilization, but did not prevent the further progress of the human race as a whole, then the current ecological situation is fraught with a global ecological collapse, since modern man destroys the mechanisms of the integral functioning of the biosphere in the planetary scale. There are more and more crisis points, both in the problematic and in the spatial sense, and they turn out to be closely interconnected, forming an increasingly frequent network. It is this circumstance that makes it possible to speak about the presence of a global ecological crisis and the threat of an ecological catastrophe.
The trend of globalization is closely connected with other social trends: with the trend...
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1.2. Youth in the context of globalization

Youth in society belonged and still has a key place. This is an age group that over time occupies a leading position in the economy and politics, social and spiritual spheres of society.
Three research approaches are known in the sociology of youth:
1. Scientific approach. It is inherent in scientists who study young people in their formation and development, taking into account the specific historical social conditions in which their life activity takes place.
2. Critically judgmental or negative approach. It is typical for sociologists who call young people the “lost”, “confused”, “indifferent”, “late”, “exploding”, etc. generation.
3. Enthusiastic and optimistic, manifested in the idealization and praise of young people. Theories of biologism and psychologism are in circulation, on the basis of which the behavior of young people, expressed, in particular, in waywardness, opposition, rebellion, the desire for self-affirmation, the formation of asocial groups, is explained as a transitional period of physical development (the period of "storm and stress") and qualifies mostly negatively. The second and third approaches have nothing to do with sociological theory. There is nothing new in them.
The main principles of scientific research of youth are:
1. Historical approach to youth problems. The sociology of youth explores the specific features of youth as a socio-demographic group, reveals the causality of changes in the life of the coming generations in specific historical conditions.
2. Analysis of the actual way of life of young people, both at the theoretical and empirical levels.
3. Analysis of the ways of continuous development of youth. It should be borne in mind that each new generation of young people grows up in new, different from the previous, social conditions.
4. Differentiated approach to young people: they are not a homogeneous group.
5. Understanding the educational, professional, cultural, national and socio-political heterogeneity of young people, the presence of differences in their environment, which often turn out to be decisive at one time or another in the development of society.
6. The conditionality of youth problems by social relations prevailing in society, the possibility of their solution only on the basis of socio-political and economic transformations. The role and place of young people in public affairs are determined by what opportunities are available for the realization of their abilities and energy, and at the same time by how actively young people themselves participate in the life of society.
The analysis of modern problems of youth cannot but begin with a clarification of the concept of "youth".
Generally accepted for Russian reality, the boundaries of the concept of "youth" are defined in the range from 15 to 29 years, that is, at 15 years old. Naturally, the integral process of socialization and individualization of young people is delimited into certain time stages. Conditionally: teenagers - up to 18 years old, youth - 18-24 years old, "young adults" - 25-29 years old. Each of these time periods sets certain tasks for the young man.
At the end of the XX century. publications on youth issues. In them, young people are considered as a socio-demographic group with their characteristic age, socio-psychological properties and social values, which are determined by the level of socio-economic, cultural development, and features of socialization in Russian society. Such a view contributes to a deeper understanding of youth problems, a differentiated approach to youth as an internally heterogeneous and, at the same time, specifically special social group.
The allocation of youth to an independent stage of a person's life is reflected in all forms of labor, recreation, reproductive, settlement, migration, religious, educational and other social practices. Due to this, the structure of ensuring the continuity of the social, the technology of its self-reproduction, is actually changing. An innovative society provides each social subject with more and more opportunities, the use of which implies an increase in responsibility. And for the “ripening” to such a responsible, full-fledged, corresponding to the level of requirements of the time of self-realization for the generation of people emerging from childhood, a specialized niche is formed.
Without the use of this niche "for its intended purpose", the self-realization of an adult turns out to be less and less effective, practically impossible. Getting an education - the main activity of young people - today turns from a desirable de facto into a mandatory one.
The use of this niche by young people, as well as the regulation of its reproduction by society, are complex processes. On the one hand, society, as already noted, has very little historical experience in establishing the functioning of this space. And young people, on the other hand, each time develop peculiar difficulties in adapting and self-realization within this social field allotted to them.
A feature common to the world of youth and the world of children is security. However, if the protection of children is due to their physical immaturity, then young people are the object of guardianship and protection, even "service" due to their socio-cultural immaturity - in connection with society's expectation that they will "ripen". Physical maturity is determined by the complete formation of the human body to perform reproductive activity, to reproduce similar biological creatures. Sociocultural maturity could - by analogy - be defined as the complete formation of a person as a subject of the reproduction of social life. But such a definition is clearly insufficient for understanding the essence of what is being defined. We can talk about preparing a person to fulfill the main social roles - in political, economic, spiritual life. Not so long ago, the formation of citizenship, patriotism was considered as the main process of forming youth; today more and more often - vitality, self-actualization; probably tomorrow - the development of the ability to "live for". With any definitions, the vagueness of the “image of tasks” remains, the solution of which would make it possible to record the success of the fulfillment of the main goal - preparing young people for mature self-realization.
The very existence of a youth niche is determined by the presence in the public consciousness of the “ideal type of the young” - a student who seeks and, in this increasingly independent search, learns to reproduce practices characteristic of an adult, primarily labor, family, household, and recreational. Public representations are formed, formalized in laws that protect young people from excessive pressure from the external environment. Therefore, the world of youth is sometimes likened to a fenced space, the role of which can be interpreted both positively and negatively.
Doubts are constantly present in the public consciousness and often expressed in scientific discussions about the expediency of creating hothouse, incubator conditions for young people that protect them from the “truth of life” and thereby weaken their will and stability. And at the same time, on the other hand, the conditions for the existence of young people as a generation in the niche educated for them are interpreted as discriminatory. In this variant of interpretation, instead of the image of a protected garden, an image of a corral appears, in which adults keep young people artificially alienating them from full-fledged participation in competition, primarily economic.
In fact, both images reflect features of reality. For example, an increase in unemployment is indeed associated with a lengthening of the period of study. As one of the ways to "soften" the situations generated by unemployment, there is a "delayed education" and the simulation of education. The bureaucratized society of adults can indeed influence the delay in education, requiring more and more diplomas and certificates from the newcomer to work. However, the initiators, for example, of "leaving for education" from serving in the army are young people themselves (of course, together with their parents).
At the same time, in the modern vision of the prospects for the development of education, the idea of lifelong education, supported by UNESCO, the idea of moving towards “education for all throughout life” (F. Major) is becoming increasingly influential. The implementation of such an approach could, in a sense, mean the rejuvenation of the entire social life by extending the characteristics of the reproduction of the youth space to the social space as a Whole, but, of course, “within reasonable limits”. The lifelong education of the future, promoted by UNESCO, differs significantly from the education that young people receive in that it complements the active, mature self-realization of the individual in social practices. The education now received by the youth precedes its self-realization. It turns young people into a delayed-status generation, thereby complicating their self-esteem. And society as a whole, not being able to judge "by deeds", naturally finds it difficult to determine the future contribution to the social life of yesterday's children growing up into tomorrow's adults: is this the hope of the future society or the next "lost generation"?
Relations between generations have never been, and certainly today they are not idyllic, just as they are not antagonistic. Each generational niche has its own opportunities and limitations. But it is precisely the problems of youth that turn out to be the subject of the most acute contradictions in sociological analysis, causing the most social anxiety, since both the future of society and its present depend on how young people use their youth.
In real social life, young people are the least predictable generation, as they are the least integrated into social ties. Children are directly connected with adults by their complete dependence, people of mature age themselves form stable social ties: family, business, political, which inevitably have a stabilizing effect on their activity. The activities of the generation of older people do not threaten society with destabilization.
It is the generation of the young that changes the structure of social ties by freeing itself from the "fetters" of old ties and creating its own. The greatest difficulty in doing so - both for society as a whole and for young people - is related to maintaining a balance between the desire of young people for independence and their real ability to be independent. The feeling of moral, intellectual independence (already adulthood) most often subjectively and consistently coexists with the feeling of naturalness that the satisfaction of material needs is still (as in childhood) provided by parents.
The psychophysiological characteristics of young people determine their high need for a powerful sense of life, for strong experiences - internal or external, as well as the need for their own free choice. Therefore, the eras of revolutions are characterized by the dominance of younger age groups (P. A. Sorokin).
F. M. Dostoevsky wrote about youth as an age at which it is easier and most defenseless to fall under the perversion of ideas. And modern social life demonstrates this extremely clearly. In it, everything is more accurate and more efficient, everything is “easier” with the help of mass media, advertising, the manipulation of the desires and needs of young people is carried out. The need for freedom turns into an impulse, a reflex (lat. reflexus - reflection), as, for example, the free-reflex choice of weight loss by girls, leading to the massification of anorexia. Along with the traditional formative influence of authorities, reference groups, the systems of “relations with the youth community” of producers are working more and more effectively, which “connect” fragments of the younger generation to certain stereotypes of social behavior and, consequently, consumption.
The social activity of young people formed in this way turns out to be oversaturated at the everyday level and emasculated, devastated at the level of being. A generation of axiological vacuum is emerging, which is more and more strikingly different from the rebels of the sixties. As a characteristic feature of those “preparing for life”, an instrumental attitude towards life is being formed - towards people, work, marriage in the future, and, most importantly, above all towards education. The purpose of education narrows down in the minds of young people to gaining knowledge and a diploma as a “pass to the country of money” .
The crisis is going through the "first principle of learning", introduced by Socrates and later developed by Aristotle, - the recognition by the participant in the process of education of the insufficiency of their knowledge, in the search for which thinking, reflection, and creative activity are activated. Of course, routine reproduction has been involved in education before. However, in education - and above all we are talking about higher education - the system of liberation, self-purification of knowledge from ballast, from various forms of simulation, also worked flawlessly. The current situation with the spread of plagiarism has gone - due to the Internet - beyond the scope of the knowledge self-control system and is developing more and more dramatically. The increase in the volume of secondary, tertiary, etc. texts (with the inevitable decrease in the symbolic quality of each subsequent “correspondence”) that simulate originality litters, litters the space of knowledge, fills it with noise, deprives the possibility of a clear orientation of the person in this space, especially a young person.
The habit of standardized patterns lowers the threshold of sensitivity to nuances, complex connections and interactions. Separated from the previous ones by a new way of communication (Internet, CMC, cell phones), the new generation reproduces an altered mentality. A characteristic feature of this process is the degradation of verbal culture. An analysis of the change in the generation of young people in Poland, for example, carried out for more than half a century by Hanna Schwida-Ziemba, shows that today's young people write worse, speak worse, understand written text much worse, find it difficult to distinguish the essence of a text of 20-30 pages, which they did not have problems, former students want to be given a “chewed” meaning, shades, the probable paths of development of which elude them ...
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1.3. Essence and structure of consumer behavior

Consumer behavior has long been a peripheral subject in sociology, which has been more interested in the labor process and labor relations, as well as distributive conflicts and inequality relations. At the end of the 20th century, consumer issues began to develop very actively. However, the main part of sociological research unfolded in the culturological field, focusing primarily on the symbolic side of consumption. An additional impetus to these studies was given by the widespread fascination with postmodernist debates. As a result, the sociology of consumption developed somewhat apart not only from economic theory, but also from the main currents of modern economic sociology, and such issues as the structure of consumer markets, the composition and motives of their participants, the organizational and institutional design of the consumption process were clearly insufficiently studied, remaining in the field of the interests of marketers. However, by the beginning of the XXI century. in the sociology of consumption, there has been a convergence between cultural and economically oriented currents, which allows us to hope for fruitful results in the future.
What is consumption? For many, consumption is associated with the physical expenditure (destruction) of material goods (for example, the absorption of food). In this regard, it is immediately necessary to notice that in the modern world an increasingly significant part of the consumed goods is expressed not by things, but by services that may not take an objective form at all, being realized through relations between people. Therefore, the physical side of the consumption process has a subordinate character.
Consumption is also usually understood as the use of useful properties of objects or processes, thanks to which they acquire the character of a good. And this is undoubtedly true. But consumption, defined from an economic point of view, should include the use of only limited goods, which are called "economic goods" (economic goods), in contrast to goods that are in unlimited quantities and are called "free goods". In this sense, it is legitimate to talk about the consumption of purified drinking water and it is not legitimate to talk about the "consumption" of ordinary air.
The sign of the use of goods leads us to the main purpose of consumption - the satisfaction of human needs. But here, too, a serious caveat must be made. We are not talking about all kinds of needs - for example, in the process of creative work, a person also satisfies his need for creative activity, but we do not call this consumption. Or, say, a person can enjoy watching a picturesque landscape, but defining this as consumption is a dubious matter. In other words, we do not attribute to consumption either processes connected with the addition of value, or processes that do not affect value relations at all. Consumption is associated with the irrevocable expenditure of value (it does not matter whether the objective forms of goods are affected in this process). And this is the difference between consumption and other elements of the economic process - production, distribution and exchange - associated with the creation, preservation of value and the change of its forms.
It should also be emphasized that we are talking about the personal needs of the person. In this sense, the use of intermediate products as inputs does not refer to consumption per se. In other words, it refers to the final consumption of goods and services in the household. True, the question of the relationship between the final consumption of goods and their production also has its own political and economic subtleties. On the one hand, such consumption is taken out of the production process, and on the other hand, it is characterized as an internal element of the production and reproduction of the most important economic resource - a person, more precisely, his ability to work, his physiological and human capital.
It is not necessary to perceive the sphere of consumption exclusively as an area of activity alienated from a person and semi-automatic following the habits and fashion trends. Consumption should not be reduced to the passive possession of things, separating and even contrasting it with the processes of active and creative activity. There is another, brighter side of the issue. Consumption is turning into a sphere of human self-expression and, moreover, is increasingly becoming a sphere of innovative practices associated with the development of new social skills. This is due not only to its use as an instrument of social differentiation and symbolic manipulation, but also to the functional complication of the consumer processes themselves. Today, the choice of even relatively inexpensive everyday items is associated with the need for at least minimal market research, knowledge about the beneficial properties of different things that exist in almost countless variations, the differences between which are becoming more and more ephemeral. In addition, things, becoming easier to use, become more and more complex in content, offering an ever-increasing number of functions and services that often exceed the level of knowledge and needs of the average user. Consumers must master a new thing, and not in order to bring it up to their needs ("finish", as it happened before - lying under the wheels of a car or climbing into the "inside" of a simple tape recorder), but in order to bring their needs to the possibilities things.
So "consumption" is...
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1.4. Specifics of youth consumer behavior in the labor market

The transition to market relations in the field of labor and employment in the context of the structural restructuring of the economy has led to the emergence of a fundamentally new situation in social and labor relations This situation turned out to be especially difficult and painful for young people, who, due to the specifics of their socio-psychological characteristics, are not sufficiently prepared for modern market realities. labor.
As shown by various monitoring conducted at the end of the 20th century, about one third of young people were not able to successfully adapt to the tough economic situation. These young people experienced significant material and psychological difficulties, had difficulty integrating into the “free” economy, and were skeptical and pessimistic about reforms.
Studies by sociologists in recent years have shown that the stratification of young people according to socio-economic characteristics has increased significantly. At the end of 2009, young people under 30 made up 39% of the upper middle stratum, 24% of the middle and basic strata, and 21% of the lower stratum. In the total number of young people who managed to open their own business, they range from 2.5 to 3.5%. The previously manifested trend of special activity of young people in the development of the private sector of the economy is confirmed: about 70-80% of non-state commercial enterprises were created by 25-30-year-olds. Among those employed in the private sector of the economy, non-wage workers have the highest proportion of young people. In prestigious fields of activity with high wages and high qualification requirements, young people have the best chances.
However, the rich make up a small part of the youth (about 2%). In Russia as a whole, young people aged 16 to 30 at the end of 2006 accounted for 19.3% of the poor.
The number of young people in material productive labor is significantly reduced. Statistics show that the share of young people in the unemployed remains high. In 2004 it was 35.5%, in 2005 - 41%, in 2007 - 35%. In the lives of young people in recent years, the “feeling of anxiety about becoming unemployed” has become widespread. Every third (34%) registered at the labor exchange is a person under 29 years old. This figure varies significantly across regions. According to the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation, in 13 regions of Russia in 1996 it exceeded 40%, in Altai and North Ossetia - 45%, in Dagestan - 57%.
Youth unemployment in Russia has its own characteristics. It arose not due to demographic factors, as in developing countries, and not as a result of overproduction, characteristic of developed countries, and not even in the competition in the labor market with a more qualified older generation, which takes place in modern societies. Each of these causes may occur episodically, such as the expected entry into working age of more numerous cohorts in the coming years, but they have not yet created a threat to youth employment. On the contrary, depopulation is growing, labor productivity is falling, and there is practically no competition. The main reason is the ineffective socio-economic policy, which resulted in the collapse of production, the cessation of funding for many industries, the predominant reduction in those jobs that ensured the development of material production, traditionally occupied by the young.
As a result, the optimism inherent in young people is replaced by anxiety in 21.8%; indifference in 13.8%; despair in 3.4%; indignation in 3.7% of young people. These are signs of an escalating social tension between the youth and the new Russian establishment, leading to further alienation and the reproduction of social instability.
An important condition for the adaptation of young people to the market is work in their specialty. According to this indicator, the youth was distributed as follows:
Group I - work in full accordance with the received profession, which indicates a high level of their professional status - 35.6%;
Group II - work in a completely different specialty or do not have it, which corresponds to a low level of their professional status. They have not yet taken place as a professional group - 45.2%;
Group III - work in a close, similar specialty and occupy an intermediate position in terms of professional status. Their professional position is ambiguous, unstable - 19.2%.
One of the main modern problems in the labor market is the discrepancy between the level of specialists graduating from universities and the needs of society. A paradoxical situation has developed on the Russian labor market: in regions where there is a particularly acute shortage of specialists, their number is reduced to 10%. And almost half of university graduates are forced to change their specialization, and the new profession often differs significantly from the one received according to the diploma.
Professionally untrained and undereducated young people enter the labor market. Such a qualification level of graduates satisfies those managers whose enterprises use outdated technologies and equipment. Most employers, however, are oriented towards personnel who have several related professions or specialties and are capable of dynamic professional mobility.
According to the study, the main condition for employers is a high level of general technical and special training. However, new requirements are also put forward: deep knowledge in the field of economics, electronic computing, psychology, sociology, law, ecology, foreign languages, etc.
Significant changes in the structure of the needs of the labor market dictate the need for a restructuring of educational policy. An analysis of the preferences of school graduates shows that the priorities dominating in this group of young people are connected, first of all, with the financial, economic and legal spheres of activity. "Economist", "lawyer" are iconic professions that have become stereotypes of attractiveness in the public mind. These stereotypes continue to work, despite the saturation of the labor market with specialists of this profile, the lack of corresponding vacancies (demand) and the emergence of unemployment among graduates with these specialties.
As another stereotype of attractiveness, high school students are oriented toward humanitarian professions in the fields of education, science, culture, art, and healthcare. They are attractive to future graduates rather by the content of their education than by the status and material prospects for future professional activity, which in fact can guarantee a low level of wages for most graduates. Further on the “ladder” of attractiveness are the spheres of trade, commerce, and public administration. Completing the overall picture are the areas of professional employment related to engineering and technical activities and industrial production.
The current situation on the labor market is such that the supply of managers at various levels exceeds demand by more than 2 times, lawyers - by almost 2 times, economists - by one third. At the present stage, the demand for specialists-engineers has increased. He doubled the offer. The upward trend in the demand of manufacturing companies and large enterprises for middle managers, heads of production, workshops, and craftsmen has been confirmed. Specialists with successful experience in sales of industrial products, programmers, information technology specialists, as well as industrial and construction workers are becoming more and more in demand.
An analysis of the correspondence of higher educational institutions to the Russian economy showed that most educational institutions do not have adequate planning for the volumes, profiles and level of training of graduates adequate to the requirements of a market economy. Educational institutions operate on the principle of survival, not adaptation to socio-economic transformations. There has been a clear oversupply of specialists: up to 50% of all professions that university graduates receive remain unclaimed in the labor market (technical even up to 80%).
At the present stage, young people are increasingly beginning to understand that education, specialty, qualifications are capital for investment, and the success of inclusion in the processes of social differentiation is determined by passing through the formal organizational structures of the institution of vocational education.
A study of the educational plans of high school students showed that 67.8% of them are going to enter a university, 18.2% - to a technical school or college, 3.8% - to vocational schools, various professional training courses, 3.1% - have other intentions. The number of applications submitted to state universities is growing year by year; thus, from 2005 to 2009 it more than doubled.
At the same time, the trend towards an increase in the proportion of young people with primary and incomplete secondary education in all branches of material production attracts attention. In modern Russian conditions, the number of young people entering the labor market with an already existing profession (specialty) is growing, and at the same time, the number and proportion of those who are looking for work without having not only a professional, but also a completed general secondary education is increasing. This is also confirmed by the trends in social and property stratification among the youth, which is the result of a similar process in society as a whole.
Participation in labor of 14-17-year-olds is the result of a decline in the standard of living of the population. The lower the family income, the more the family is interested in the work of a teenager. It is the family in this case that can stimulate the termination of education and the entry into the labor market of an unskilled worker. The labor prospects of a young person in this case are unfavorable: there is a real danger of forever gaining a foothold in the field of unskilled, as a rule, manual labor, which is fraught with lumpenization of the worker, his transition to the marginal strata of society.
The process of acquiring professional knowledge, skills and abilities proceeds most intensively in the group of 18-24-year-olds. Within this framework, the majority of young people complete vocational training and aspire not to episodic, but to permanent employment. Among the characteristics of labor activity, employment guarantees, opportunities for professional development and career advancement come to the fore. Therefore, young people also strive to obtain additional skills and abilities.
It is at the age of 21-24 that most young people experience the so-called “reality shock”, due to the fact that their ideal ideas about their future work activity conflict with the real situation in the workplace.
At the same age, there is also the period of the initial stage of a career, characterized by entry into the organization, finding one's place in it.
The desire of the individual to express himself, to achieve success, to win recognition in the organization characterizes an employee of 25-29 years old. During this period, the initial development of the profession is completed, a qualified specialist or leader is being formed; among moral values, the need for self-affirmation comes to the fore, a person tries to achieve independence in his actions. The success of aspirations depends on how successful the first stage of a career was, whether the employee showed competence. If this condition is met, then he has the opportunity to become independent specialists in his field and rely as little as possible on others.
In the period of 21-29 years, most young people get married, the first children are born in families. An increasing proportion of young people, even those who are not married, need a sufficiently high individual labor income due to the low standard of living of the family. This has a great impact on the labor behavior of young people. It is at this age that gender (sex) differences in the position of an employee in the labor market begin to appear. The birth and upbringing of children forces women to postpone their professional aspirations, which leads to their lagging behind their male peers in career growth. In the system of labor motivation, material incentives return to the fore, which is associated with the need to support a family.
By 2010, the process of socialization of young people is completed, and society has the right to expect independent and responsible behavior in the sphere of social and labor relations from a fully formed personality.
The research materials show that for the majority of young people the defining value of a “good job” is money, not content. Young people build their plans for work activity, first of all, based on the positions of “good salary” (67%), and not “interesting work” (33%). Money - this motive turned out to be decisive when choosing a job (according to the survey) for 59.9% of 17-year-olds, 65.3% of 24-year-olds and 64.4% of 31-year-olds.
Under the influence of structural transformations in the economy, the crisis of the public sector, the position of young people in material production has also changed. The outflow of young people from the public sector remains at a high level. The credibility of young professionals in the public sector is shrinking, because, firstly, in the minds of young people, the public sector continues to be associated with the administrative-command system. And secondly, forced downtime, beggarly wages, the constant threat of bankruptcy of enterprises undermined the hope of young people to work in the public sector as a guarantee of stability.
Most remain committed to state structures, either because they have no choice, or in order to be listed in the enterprise, and earn on the side. Only 24.4% of respondents would prefer to work in a state-owned enterprise or institution if they had the opportunity to choose.
The labor market associated with the private sector of various forms of ownership appears to be a potential space in which young professionals orient themselves, intending to offer their future workforce. The vast majority of respondents (67%) expressed their desire to work in the non-state sector of the economy.
Thus, the position of young people in the labor market has its own characteristics:
- Firstly, it is necessary to note the high level of social and labor mobility of young people. Readiness to change the type of activity was demonstrated by a significant number of young specialists (more than a third of the respondents);
- secondly, young people enter the working life with a focus not on experience, but on the ideals learned in the process of education and upbringing. This phenomenon is considered as a negative feature of the young worker. Most organizations that have achieved a certain level of business resilience, pursuing strategies to diversify or develop new markets, choose to conservatize their staffing requirements by highlighting the requirements associated with already established experience. Organizations pursuing an entrepreneurial or change of course strategy may be interested in employees who are oriented towards “ideal” ideas about the basic elements of work, especially when these ideas are consistent with the organizational culture of the firm. Lack of practical production experience will be welcomed by employers if the majority of those employed in a specific narrow segment of the labor market have a negative experience in terms of the changed business environment;
- thirdly, the unambiguous interpretation of the ability of young people to innovate seems insufficiently substantiated, since only those people who are well acquainted with the current state of affairs, see all the advantages and disadvantages of the current situation, can bring new ideas to the activities of the organization. A young specialist will not be able to do this, no matter how deep his theoretical knowledge and broad outlook may be. Sociological studies show that young people often turn out to be more conservative in practical activities than workers of middle and even older age groups, since the lack of work and life experience does not allow them to correctly predict the possible consequences of changes. Another thing is that young employees may turn out to be less resistant to innovations, but not so much because of their commitment to them, but because of their lack of commitment to the old;
- fourthly, the higher educational level traditionally attributed to young people in comparison with the older generations in modern Russian conditions is no longer indisputable. All large contingents of young people find themselves in the labor market without not only a professional, but also a completed general secondary education.
Almost all employers negatively assess such qualities of young workers as the lack of skills in working life and building relationships in the work group, instability of behavior, excessive emotionality, that is, everything that ...
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2 Analysis of the study of the factors of consumer behavior of students in the context of globalization

2.1. Social Perspectives of Youth in the Context of Globalization

So, when analyzing the study of the factors of student youth consumer behavior, it is important to understand how the new generation reflects the specifics of the time, picks up innovative, progressive, develops itself and improves life, or it gets lost, succumbs to difficulties, finds itself on the social sidelines.
When public figures - politicians, philosophers, economists, architects, scientists - conceive and implement their projects or programs, they most often explain (or justify) these accomplishments by the benefits that descendants receive or can receive. Whatever the quality of projects or programs, laws and decrees, the main argument is children and grandchildren, their good.
If the socio-economic changes in Russian public life that took place towards the end of the 20th century are really aimed at the good, then the majority of young people should feel this and assess the prospect of their life as more or less prosperous. On the level of common sense, this means that the attitude of today's youth towards their future should be, for the most part, optimistic.
It is impossible not to notice that young people are always more optimistic compared to the older generation. Youth is not burdened by the difficulties of life, the young have the ability and desire to look at the world easily, as they say, through rose-colored glasses. However, the reason for optimism-pessimism, of course, is the development of socio-economic processes, and not just age.
The impact of ongoing social changes on the formation of people's social well-being is twofold: on the one hand, they open up new opportunities for achieving vital goals, increase the chances for the development of abilities, self-realization, help to achieve what was planned, on the other hand, they lead to a deterioration in the quality of life, a decrease in income, and others. means of realizing these new social opportunities.
To achieve the goals and achieve the desired success, it is not always enough to have only personal qualities, such as activity, energy, diligence. The future of a young person often even depends on which school he attends - urban or rural, which largely determines his admission and study at a particular university. The social and economic status of the parents is very important. Many young people, experiencing a lack of material resources bordering on poverty, are forced to go to work. In connection with the introduction of tuition fees, many talented but not rich children sometimes remain “overboard” and cannot develop their abilities to the fullest.
However, in general, with the transition from centralized state planning to a market economy, from the rigid framework of an authoritarian system to democratization, people felt more free, as their opportunities for self-realization and achievement of their own goals expanded.
Do they feel...
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You can get the full version at the offices of the All-Russian Training Center Elite Education or by e-mail.

sociological sciences

Osinkina Alina Sergeevna, bachelor, student
Belgorod State University

CONSUMER
CONSUMER GROUPS
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
YOUTH

Consumer behavior in modern society is one of the most important social practices. Youth, as the most active participant in the consumption of goods and services, has an impact on the whole society as a whole, as well as its development. Thus, the study of consumption styles in the youth environment is relevant. This article discusses the main factors influencing the consumer behavior of young people.

Analysis of the results of the study of the degree of interest of students in the direction of training "Organization of work with youth" in the formation and development of professional competencies
Problems of organizing the educational process of young people with disabilities (on the example of the National Research University "BelSU")

At present, Russia lives in the conditions of choosing products, goods, goods and resources for consumption, which is due to the presence of a market economy. This type of economy considers one of the main problems the limited resources, as well as the impossibility of satisfying all human needs. Therefore, we can say that the study of consumer behavior helps to answer many questions in the modern economy.

The change in the type of economic system (from distributive to market) led to the transformation of the consumer market, as well as consumer behavior, which is a reflection of the social status of both the individual and the group. Accordingly, this led to the stratification of society in terms of income, and hence the quality of life. These changes affected the entire society as a whole, including young people.

The worldview of young people, as well as their values, were formed during the change of economic, cultural and spiritual, as well as political systems. Therefore, it is this age group that does not need to adapt to modern life, which distinguishes it from older generations.

Youth, as a socio-demographic group, is differentiated by such indicators as: gender, age, financial situation, level of education, social status, etc. Therefore, these features explain the presence of various forms of consumption. It should be noted that one of the most important factors determining consumer behavior is the size and method of obtaining income. When studying it, it is necessary to take into account that part of the youth is dependent on the material resources of their parents. This is the so-called dependent factor, which refers primarily to the consumer opportunities of economically dependent youth - schoolchildren and students.

In addition, the factor that determines the consumer behavior of young people is the value system that is accepted by young people. It is noted that during the transition to a market economy, a value reorientation of young people takes place - young people prefer material values to intangible values. The pragmatism of young people in this case can be viewed from two sides. First, sometimes it can be associated with aspirations and needs associated with the violation of both morality and law. Secondly, considering pragmatism on the positive side, it can be noted that such a strategy of behavior reflects the desire for a high social status, the achievement of material well-being, the growth of culture, etc., that is, for specific goals. Young people see as their goal a high standard of living, career growth, and, accordingly, a high income.

In contrast to the older age groups, young people are less conservative, they tend to be innovative, which cannot but affect consumer behavior, namely, its style. Therefore, most of the new goods and services are produced with a focus on young people.

Currently, young people are assessed as a group that participates more than others in the transmission of information, knowledge necessary for the life of society and shaping the strategy of the behavior of the younger generation, including the consumer.

Thus, the changes that have taken place in the structure of the motivation and needs of young people, their social status and consciousness, significantly affect their consumer behavior.

The relevance of studying the consumer behavior of young people is due to the status of this group. Young people are the most active consumers in the market of goods and services, which influence its development more than others. Studying the consumption style of young people is a necessary condition for improving both their social and economic situation, for creating and maintaining guarantees for the realization of their rights by young people, as well as for pursuing an effective youth and economic policy of the state.

We conducted a sociological study on the topic: “Consumer behavior of young people (on the example of Belgorod). The study participants were 600 residents of the city of Belgorod aged 15 to 29 years.

As a result of the survey of the population, we received the following data:

The brand does not play an important role for Belgorod youth when choosing clothes. We can assume that this is due to the free access of branded stores in the city. Buying such things for urban youth has long become commonplace.

Figure 1. Distribution of answers to the question "When you choose something for yourself, is the brand of this thing important to you?"

Figure 2. Distribution of answers to the question "Is it typical for you to buy clothes that have become "mass" (fashionable)?"

Most of the young people surveyed are not ready to buy expensive goods at once, even if they acquire “uniqueness” through these goods. At the same time, respondents are ready to save money for the sake of a prestigious purchase.

Figure 3. Distribution of answers to the question "Are you ready to buy a thing that is very expensive, but its presence will make you "unique"?"

Figure 4. Distribution of answers to the question "Does advertising influence your buying decision?"

The desire to “stand out from the crowd” rarely or almost never guides Belgorod residents when deciding to buy clothes, accessories and other goods.

Figure 5. Distribution of answers to the question “When choosing clothes, accessories and other things, are you driven by the desire to “stand out from the crowd”?”

Figure 6. Distribution of answers to the question "Does advertising influence your buying decision?"

Most of the respondents try to draw up an income distribution plan. But the number of young people who never do income sharing outnumbers those who do it all the time.

Figure 7. Distribution of answers to the question "Do you draw up an income distribution plan?"

Young Belgorod residents tend to make "impulsive" purchases. This fact is closely related to the lack of ongoing cost planning.

Figure 8. Distribution of answers to the question "Do you draw up an income distribution plan?"

Thus, we can characterize the Belgorod youth as consumers who are not influenced by advertising and raising the importance of the brand of goods. Young people do not have the opportunity to purchase expensive goods at a time, but are ready to save money for similar needs. At the same time, respondents do not realize the need to plan their budget, and therefore are subject to unnecessary waste. The level of rationality of Belgorod residents' consumption is rather low. Consequently, there is a need to carry out activities aimed at improving the economic, consumer literacy of the city's population.

Bibliography

Gunter, B. Types of consumers: an introduction to psychographics / B. Gunter. St. Petersburg: Piter, 2001. 304 p.
Tarakanovskaya, E.V. Consumer behavior of Russian youth in conditions of market relations / E.V. Tarakanovskaya. M.: Moscow, 2007. 202 p.