SOCIAL WELL-BEING OF THE POPULATION IN THE CONTEXT OF BEHAVIORAL GEOGRAPHY

Abstract

The article deals with the theoretical and methodological issues of studying the social well-being of the population as one of the indicators showing the state of the territorial community of people. The scientific foundation of the study is behavioral geography, which is presented as a relatively new and dynamically developing branch of human geography. The paper emphasizes theconnection of social geography with behavioral, cultural, and humanitarian geography, the featuresofapproaches and methods; the subject intersection and mutual enrichment with sociology, cultural studies, psychology, and other related sciences are shown. The strengthening of social priorities in the development of social geography necessitates search for sources of growth in human capital, its social component, which is the focus of behavioral geography. The methodological basis for studying the social well-being of the population in behavioral geography is the territorial community of people, representing a conceptual model of the society. The authors substantiate the need to apply new methods of geographical diagnostics of the quality of life througha number of indicators, among which social well-being is to be preferred. The article presents the concept of ‘social well-being of the population’ as a set of parameters that characterize the state of the territorial community of people, suggests methods for conducting its diagnostics and monitoring, and shows the leading role of sociological methods in the study of this issue.The results of studies conducted in the Perm region in the monitoring mode for the period from the early 1990s to 2021 are presented. The role of diagnosing and assessing the well-being of members of the society as an important factor in the preservation of human capital and the social development of the country and the region has been verified.