The conflict potential of youth representations and expectations: opportunities for institutional reformatting

Abstract

The article deals with the problems of managing the conflict potential of the ideas and expectations of young people using the institutional practices of youth policy at the regional level. As a theoretical framework for the study, the concept of conflict regulation with the participation of young people proposed by Yu. A. Zubok based on integrative and differentiating approaches is used. The empirical base of the study was the data obtained from the analysis of materials from fourteen focus group interviews and twelve expert sessions held on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory in June-July 2021. The study made it possible to identify four groups of young people with different behavior patterns in conflicts (differential-negative, differential -positive, integrative-conformal, intergative-innovative). A significant size of the group with an integrative-conformal model of behavior was revealed, which is not typical for the youth environment, as well as the threat of a group with a differential-positive model of behavior moving to practices characteristic of a differential-negative model. The presence of a number of factors, both situational (restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic) and long-term ones (the presence of significant differences in the ideas and expectations of young people with common practices in the implementation of youth policy, a high level of expectations of assistance from the state), has been determined. Based on the conclusions made, recommendations are formulated for the institutional design of youth policy, which would allow reformatting the conflict potential of the ideas and expectations of young people on a constructive basis.