Priority of the Population’s Quality of Life Components in the Contemporary Russian Conditions

About the author:

Yuliya M. Pasovets, Cand. Sci. (Soc.), Associate Professor, Department of the Sociology and Political Science, Kursk State University; yulia_pasovets@mail.ru

Abstract:

This paper presents a new foreshortening of a perspective of population quality of life that is connected with a problem of determining the content of quality of life as a social phenomenon, its structural components, and their interpretation as priority for society or social community at a certain stage of development.

The author defines the components of quality of life, priority for contemporary Russian conditions, reflecting the social problems significant both for Russians in general and for inhabitants of concrete regions on the analysis basis of methodological approaches and empirical data. The empirical base of research involves the results of sociological surveys: the focus group interview conducted by the author with participation of young people from the Kursk Region, and the All-Russian polls realized by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM).

The authors have revealed that the majority of Russians consider the most significant components of quality of life to be the following: health, safety, quality and availability of food, ecology as quality of water and air, stable earnings, quality education, and comfortable living conditions.

In the conditions of the Kursk Region as one of Russian regions, the most prioritized components of quality of life, according to youth, are income and consumption. This opinion reflects the regional importance of the low-income level and material security of the main part of the population. At the same time, the quality of food and goods, living conditions, availability and quality of medical services, education are also the key components of quality of life in the region.

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