Potential mobility of citizens

Sociology

Abstract

The article deals with the dynamics of orientations towards stability or migration of the residents of a large city. Mobility can be set from «above», from the center, and can develop from «below», from regions. The speed of this interaction provides potential and «marks» the degree of the communities’ subjectivity development . The main contradiction arises between a large city as a value in the eyes of the inhabitants and the lack of a social demand for highly skilled labor, low wages and lack of specialists to meet the needs of the citizens.A differentiated triadic assessment of urban conditions is given on the basis of social and professional employment of groups, evaluation of the main elements of the city’s material infrastructure by the individual, satisfaction of the person with life in the city. Students of higher educational institutions, teachers, library workers, and workers of the construction organization were interviewed during the research. The following three groups of citizens are distinguished: stable, latent-mobile and progressive-mobile. The orientation toward stability indicates the relative moral and psychological tranquility of the city. Latent-mobile groups show a «subsidence» of the social situation. Progressive-mobile individuals are the color of the urban community (for example, vigorous entrepreneurs and scientists oriented toward migration). The vital tone of the city is determined by the ratio of orientation to stability or to departure from the city. The future of the city is largely determined by the intentions of young people Student youth gives real and ideal characteristics: symbols (myths) of districts, material and architectural environment and infrastructure, as well as culture of the city as a socializing environment. Students view internal mobility as an important condition for the necessary circulation of the society’s forces, but critically assess unregulated migration from outside. In the symbolic forms the youth of Perm has the desire to migrate to where there is development, where work of the energetic and educatedpeople is estimated higher than in their city. The practical significance of the research lies in the fact that the urban community acquires knowledge about itself as a modern subject of social action, in particular, about the quality of social mobility; satisfaction with employment; socializing conditions of life of the citizens.