Destructive civic activity of young people: theoretical and methodological conceptualization

Theauthors analyze the interdisciplinary discourse andfunctional-content specificityof the phenomenon of youth civic activity, study the theoretical and methodological positions, categorical signs of destructive civic activity, as well as the contexts of possible manifestations of destructive youth civic practices. There is an increase in the need to study the civic youth activity, which acquires various forms of expression of positive and destructive orientation, reflecting the current political, economic, socio-cultural values of society. The processes of destabilization in society, negativelyaffecting the level ofsocial protection of young people, due to youth maximalism, instability of life priorities, push to engage in socially dangerous activities, including extremist orientation. The potential space for the implementation of destructive practices of young people is expanding at the expense of social Internet networks, where their informal self-organization is activated. Internet activism is developing - purposeful actions in the online space, built around the situation-problems and aimed at its solution. The authors perform the categorization of civic activism of the youth through the analysis of cause-effect relations, which are necessary contiguous concepts as a response of young people to anysocial injustice, dysfunction of the economic and political system, an important condition for the normal functioning of society. The researchers define destructive behavior as a type of human activity that changes social objects through their destruction. Destructive civic activity of young people is understood as a sophisticated, multi-level, thematically diverse manifestation of social activity with a certain potential. The authors assume that destructive youth activism is expressed in aggressive individual and collective, verbal and non-verbal actions (including the form of destructive civic content in the Internet space). The paper states that destructiveness of civic activity is manifested in delinquent socially dangerous, aggressive forms. However, the authors conclude that destructive civil initiatives can also be sociallyuseful, aimed at solving urgent problems related to social inequality, injustice, corruption, non-compliance with laws, and under certain conditions become the driving force of the “recovery” of society.