Methodological and methodical aspects of studying the social well-being of the population of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation in the context of its value orientation

Abstract

The article considers the methodology problems of studying the population social well-being in relation to its hierarchies of values and attitudes. Social well-being is interpreted as an integral indicator with two aspects. First, social well-being represents the objective parameters of the quality of life related to the state of the socio-economic system of a society, the level of infrastructure development, social security and the quantity of political rights. Secondly, an evaluation of subjective well-being, including the overall satisfaction with life and social optimism. The article gives a general description of the main international and Russian methods for measuring the quality of life. The necessity of modification of existing methods is shown. It's proposed to be implemented by incorporating indicators that represent the specifics of living conditions in the Arctic, along with the preservation of universal tools for measuring social well-being. The characteristic of the international measurement methods of quality of life in the Arctic is given as an example of such modification. The article offers the idea that the study of social well-being should be done out in the context of the value orientation studies, because the latter is an important part of the individuals' interpretation of socio-economic, political and legal situation. It's proposed to use the additional variables, affecting the state of social well-being, such as personal motivational and value characteristics (dominant terminal and instrumental values) and culturally determinated value-behavioral imperatives common in a society.

Keywords

• social well-being
• value orientations
• the quality of life
• subjective well-being
• the Russian Arctic