Adaptation to the uncertainty of the environment: resources of big cities residents

The methodological basis of the article lies in the adoption of the position that at the present stage of development of social systems, the uncertainty of social processes loses the quality of emergency and becomes an integral property of everyday life. In this context, studies of the specifics of adaptation of citizens to environmental conditions are of particular relevance. Adaptation is interpreted as the interaction of the individual with the macro-and micro-environment to achieve comfortable well-being, security and stability of external factors as conditions for the implementation of certain personal goals, life strategy in general. The purpose of the analysis undertaken in the article is to identify the type of urban settlements on the basis of the all-Russian monitoring data, the population of which is most vulnerable in situations of social transformations in modern Russia. The analysis is based on the conclusions of previous developments of the authors that one of the most important factors of successful adaptation of the population to social transformations are the resources that are available to different categories of the population. The article reveals the type of urban settlements, the inhabitants of which are characterized by a specific assessment of the quality of the environment and life satisfaction. Residents of cities with a population of 100 thousand to 250 thousand people (“big cities”), unlike other urban settlements, think the microenvironment rather psychologically negative and consider mesic environment - crisis-ridden, with a tendency to increase tension and negative changes and these residents are characterized by a low level of life satisfaction. All this indicates a low level of adaptation of the population of cities of this type to the conditions of uncertainty caused by the crisis. The comparative assessment of material resources of adaptation of the population of these and all other urban settlements showed, first of all, that, that observed in large cities, the average values of indicators of actual material status and its subjective estimates indicate a specific status of material adaptation resources of respondents from this target group, which can be characterized as “once nothing has changed, then it will not change further”. Secondly, material adaptation resources are not the key factors determining the lower level of adaptation to the uncertainty of the environment of residents of large cities in comparison with other urban settlements. Apparently, resources of non-material, ideological nature have a more significant differentiating value.