Student Youth’s Evasion of Socio-Political Activity: Causes, Forms, and Ways of Involvement

Abstract

In modern society, more and more students show an avoidance of participation in public and political life. This phenomenon causes serious concern and deserves attention from society. Modern students may feel helpless in the face of the complexity of political processes and their impact on everyday life. They may believe that their participation will not change anything and will not bring meaningful results. Such pessimism and alienation from politics form a negative image of a student who does not show interest in public affairs and leads to the choice of an evasion strategy, that is, avoidance and non-participation in socio-political processes. In this regard, the article analyzes the factors influencing the choice of an evasion strategy, identifies possible tactics and suggests ways to involve students in the socio-political sphere. The purpose of the study is to identify the causes, tactics and consequences of the use of evasion among students in the socio-political sphere, as well as ways to involve students in socio-political activities. The methods of collecting empirical data were: a series of focus groups among students in four regions: Kostroma, Vologda, Vladimir and Yaroslavl regions (the choice of regions is associated with the presence of universities in them, members of the consortium “Upper Volga - the territory of innovation”), in-depth interviews of experts (university administrators and teachers, representatives of public and student organizations working directly with young people within the framework of the main activities of their organizations), as well as content analysis of students’ essays. According to the results of the study, the main factors influencing the choice of an avoidance strategy by students were identified, the forms of student avoidance from socio-political life were determined, and ways of involvement were proposed.

Keywords

• evasion
• avoidance
• absenteeism
• student youth
• engagement
• non-participation
• behavior strategies
• values
• attitudes