Social and economic development. Рубрика в журнале - Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
Статья научная
The paper analyzes the dynamics and resources of volunteering in Russia for 2016–2024. The relevance of the study is due to the growing interest in volunteering, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as active government support, including the federal project “Social Activity”. The main aim of the work is to study the involvement of citizens in volunteering and identify key resources for its development, taking into account demographic and social changes. Scientific novelty of the research lies in a comprehensive analysis of volunteering through the prism of a resource-based approach, including social capital. The transformation of forms of volunteering from traditional to digital and occasional is shown, which distinguishes the work from previous studies. Special attention is paid to gender and territorial imbalances. The methodology includes an analysis of the results of a Rosstat labor force survey (2016–2024) and a sociological study in the Tyumen Region (N=1,430). The methods of structural and dynamic analysis, clustering, as well as statistical criteria (χ2, Student's t-test) are applied. The number of volunteers in Russia has tripled, despite its population decline. Such activities as fundraising, social assistance and animal welfare prevail, but their coverage does not exceed 3% of the population. A gender bias has been identified: women make up 72% of volunteers and spend more time volunteering. Engaging in volunteering depends to a great extent on social capital (trust, membership in organizations). The limitations of the study are related to incomplete representativeness of the data and predominance of government sources. Prospects for further research include studying the motivation of men, the effectiveness of digital volunteering formats, and development of programs for young people and retirees
Бесплатно
Volunteerism in Russia: Trends, regional differences and the impact of sociodemographic factors
Статья научная
The article presents the results of a study of volunteering in the Russian Federation from a regional perspective for the period 2022–2024 according to the following indicators: level of volunteerism, median age of volunteers, number of female volunteers per 1,000 male volunteers, number of rural volunteers per 1,000 urban volunteers, proportion of working-age volunteers in the total number of volunteers. The analysis is based on official data from Rosstat – a sample survey of volunteering workforce for 2022–2024. The study shows that the median age of Russians engaged in volunteering is increasing. As a rule, there are more women than men among the volunteers. The ratio of rural to urban volunteers is growing. The share of working-age volunteers in the total number of volunteers in Russia as a whole is quite stable and ranges from 73–74%. In the course of the study, we calculate the following labor market indicators: volunteers’ labor force participation rate, volunteers’ employment rate, volunteers’ unemployment rate (or the proportion of volunteers who are currently unemployed), ratio of the number of volunteers who are unemployed to the number of volunteers who are employed (per 1,000 employed volunteers). The relationship between the level of volunteerism and other indicators was determined based on the use of paired (linear) Pearson correlation coefficients and paired Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients. In addition, we conduct a statistical analysis of individual regional quintile groups formed on the basis of the values of the level of volunteerism in the regions. The article will be of interest to economists, sociologists, political scientists, and others interested in research on volunteerism in Russia.
Бесплатно
Youth involvement in digital civic activism: from online encounter to participation
Статья научная
The involvement of the younger generation in civic participation practices is a relevant task for youth policy actors and public activists. The digital environment not only expands the forms and directions of civic activism, but also designs new mobilization mechanisms. Network communities have a high involvement potential, but they exist in a saturated information flow. Therefore, it is important to understand how users encounter messages on socially significant issues and initiatives to address them, and how they react to them (“input level”: coming across an offer to participate in a civic project); and whether this experience affects the intensity of involvement in real practices of digital civic activism (“output level”: reacting in the form of participation/non-participation in the project). The article is based on the results of an online survey of young residents of the Sverdlovsk Oblast (n = 1150). The sample population includes students and working youth. According to the results of cluster analysis, we propose a typology of models showing how young people encounter the content about civic initiatives; we identify and describe three types: involved, superficial and scrolling readers. We provide a classification of resources that young citizens are subscribed to, in terms of their connection with issues of civic activism; we also reveal that subscriptions to specialized resources are closely connected with the typology of encountering this type of content. We reveal how young people react when they come across civic messages, and find out that they mostly show denying and interested reactions, while the amount of supportive and active responses is negligible. We build a typology of digital participation based on assessing the intensity of involvement. The share of those highly involved in the information field and real practices is 5%; the majority of respondents belong to the medium-active and low-active participants in civic activism.
Бесплатно
