Socio-cultural features of the population of the Russian Arctic regions

Abstract

The article presents the results of a sociological study of the population of two Arctic regions of Russia using the actual tools for measuring six Hofstede’s ethnometric indicators (“masculinity”, “power distance”, “collectivism/individualism”, “uncertainty avoidance”, “longterm orientations”, “indulgence” at the individual level. The field stage of the study was carried out in October-November 2021 in the Arctic territories of Arkhangelsk oblast and the Komi Republic. The tasks of identifying indicators of the cultural specificity of the population of these territories, differences in the values of ethnometric indicators between separate social groups (gender, age, income level), as well as in the inter-territorial context, were solved. The results of the study show that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between the level of income and the values of the indicators “long-term orientations”, “masculinity” and “power distance” — the higher the value of these ethnometric indicators, the higher the individual’s income. It has been established that the population of the Arctic territories of the Komi Republic is characterized by a higher level of “collectivism”, “masculinity” and “uncertainty avoidance” than the population of Arkhangelsk oblast. The population of the Arctic territories of Arkhangelsk oblast, in turn, is characterized by higher values of the “permissibility of satisfaction of desires” indicator. A hypothesis is formulated about the mechanism of spatially determined socio-economic selection of cultural patterns of individuals, implemented in the mechanisms of human capital reproduction. This hypothesis needs to be operationalized and verified in the course of further research. The results obtained can be used in solving a wide range of tasks of public administration, in particular, for regional specification of State programs to stimulate entrepreneurial activity of the population and activities in the field of NGOs. The process of adaptation of the toolkit and its verification deserves a detailed consideration in a separate publication.