An empirical model for the analysis of Russian state values (based on the results of a survey of students)

Abstract

Introduction. The topic of values in general, as well as the problem of their study, in particular, is gaining increasing popularity in modern Russian discourse, which is explained by the significant acceleration of social changes mediated by geopolitical and domestic political processes, as well as the updated framework of legal regulation: strengthening the integration into public life of traditional Russian values, enshrined by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation 09.11.2022 No. 809 "On the approval of the Fundamentals of State Policy for the preservation and strengthening of Traditional Russian spiritual and Moral values." This state of affairs suggests the need for a sociological diagnosis of the value space of modern Russian society. Purpose. Today, there are many tools for studying values, but most of them are aimed at assessing individual values, while we are interested in social values, which determined the purpose of the article: to develop and describe an empirical model for analyzing social values, which is based on the idea of the need to use a set of indicators for their cumulative assessment. Methods. The indicators of the assessment of social values by the author include: value relations, value preferences, value attitudes, value actions. Based on the proposed approach, a sociological toolkit has been developed, which has been tested during the diagnostics of the student youth's value space. The survey was conducted from May 17 to June 1, 2023 (N=4338). Results. The results of the testing of the empirical model of the analysis of social values demonstrated a pronounced disparity in the respondents' attitude to the proposed indicators of their measurement, which is explained by the presence of a noticeable gap between the understanding of the ideal idea of values and the actual adherence to them. Conclusions. The proven empirical model of social values analysis can form the basis for studying social values not only of other socio-demographic groups, but also of Russian society as a whole.