Specific value orientations of the village residents of Karelian lake Ladoga area: cross-cultural approach

The article studies the structure of the axiosphere of people currently living in Karelia, in the territory of Northern Ladoga area. The study used the cross-cultural approach based on the validation of the well-established and much respected Shalom Schwartz’s methodology for studying value orientations, as well as in-depth interviews, questionnaires and focus groups. The study utilized the materials of the field expedition conducted by Petrozavodsk State University as part of the project "Ways to preserve human capital as a topical problem for the Republic of Karelia." The expedition materials processing resulted in the identification of multidimensional factors that determined the originality of the structure of the axiosphere of Lake Ladoga area inhabitants and the difference from the "common cultural profile of mankind" declared by Schwartz. The main difference in the structure of the value sphere of our contemporaries in the studied territory was that they identified the value of security as the most significant, necessary and desirable one. The analysis of the sociocultural context for the reasons of such identification showed that there are historical, geographical and economic prerequisites that influenced the status of this value. A separate analysis was carried out with regard to the low demand for the value of traditions, which also revealed a set of reasons that shaped the low status of this value orientation. The validation of Schwartz’s methodology confirmed the high level of concordance between the structure of the axiosphere of the population currently inhabiting Lake Ladoga area with the "common cultural profile of mankind", as well as the specific original features of the axiosphere of the respondents involved in the study.