The future image as a component of political subjective space: testing the conceptual model

Abstract

The image of the future of youth is described in this paper and its relationship with the subjective space of politics is identified. The article provides a brief analysis of research on the image of the future within the framework of social and political sciences, describes the main theoretical approaches to analyzing the future image of youth. The authors give their own conceptual definition of the future image as a component of the political subjective space, a set of symbolic, ideological and cultural meanings that determine the orientation and behavior of various political actors. The authors as a methodology use focus group interviews, online questionnaires of youth representatives in order to verify the conceptual model of the study. The dynamic nature of the future image as a part of political subjective space is determined by a system of institutions, agents and factors of socialization. Five key components have been identified in the structure of the future image: content, value, emotions, activity and technology. Four projection levels of the future image are defined: personal, group, projection at the level of the macro community and global. The study indicates the predominance of personal projection in the respondents' ideas about the future. Despite the presence of worries and fears for their personal future, young people are generally confident in their own future and believe that the Russian state will continue to play an important role as a world power. An important characteristic of the future image is the subjectivity of its bearer, the degree of activity or proactivity and the willingness to take responsibility for their own future and the future of their families, local community, region, country, and the world. Locus control, that is, a subjective assessment of the factors (personal efforts or external circumstances) on which the future depends, according to the study, is associated with the degree of confidence in the future, the formation of a positive future image. The predominance of civic identity in the hierarchy of identities is also revealed. Young people feel responsible for the future of their country. At the moment, Russian civic identity has a positive impact on the future image of young people. It is significant that among students studying in the Luhansk People's Republic, the level of concern about the future is higher, the level of civil identity is lower, which indicates that the task of forming civil identity should be prioritized in the new regions of the Russian Federation.