SOCIAL-ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR OF RUSSIANS IN THE FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL CAPITAL CONCEPT

Abstract

The formation of socio-economic behavior of population is occurring in unstable socio-economic conditions. Behavioral practices are realized on concrete territories, and, thus, have territorial specificity. As scholars note, territorial behavior has integrative character, it forms a system of social relations, where social capital of territorial community is created. The concept of social capital, which has become very popular at the beginning of the present century, offers considerable potential for studying the system of social relations in different spheres of social life. This concept makes it possible to identify the influence of social capital on the choice of socio-economic behavior patterns and on the anchoring of effective practices. The empirical basis was represented by the results of sociological survey, conducted by specialists from the Vologda Research Center in June 2017 in Vologda, Cherepovets and Pskov with representative quota sample (n=900). Methodical goals, realized during the research, included the adjustment of the indicator model for social capital measurement, the correction of research instruments. Further analysis was made by means of statistical procedures and methods integrated in the SPSS package, including correlation and factor analysis. The results obtained revealed groups of social capital holders, bonding and bridging, a model of different types of social capital was elaborated. The identified groups differ considerably by basic indicators, such as trust, engagement, and attitudes. The division into groups by level of social capital made it possible to analyze its impact on socio-economic attitudes of population. The research has demonstrated existing relationship between the level of accumulated capital and innovative economic behavioral practices, economic optimism/pessimism, trust towards economic institutions. The results give possibility to formulate tasks for further research, including comparative analysis of social capital characteristics among different territorial communities, the analysis of the potential for community cooperation, based on trust. The research has confirmed heuristic opportunities of the social capital concept.