Plural Character and Versions of Configuration of Russian Youth Identity : Theoretical Framework and Empirical Studies

The phenomenon of personal social identity has been studied by researchers representing various research areas for a long time, which has helped accumulate an essential fund of knowledge on these topics. At the same time, cultural and historical changes that had resulted in scientific paradigm shifts underlay the necessity of considering the problematic area of the social identity of individuals within changing contexts, such as political, economic or cultural environments. Following the researchers, our authoring team has prepared the present article on the problems in characterizing the youth identity configurations at the current stage of Russia’s and global development. The main challenge of contemporary social live is its complicity and plurality of social roles the one should play. As a result, we face with so called “plural”, “floating” identity and therefore we have to solve the problem of identity’s configuration. It is very important for researchers especially when we study the youth. The authors try to present their version of identity’s configuration of Russian youth (especially students) that is based on theoretical and empirical study of the problem.


INTRODUCTION
The multiplicity of identifications may come into focus in a simultaneous combination of national (civil) and ethnic (ethno-cultural) identities, such as those of Italian Americans.With the development of technology, communication networks, and virtual space, new roles, values, and landmarks arise, which results in appearing new identities.Consumer and cyber identity coming from the proliferation of Internet-based network technologies becomes more important.
The problem of multiply formatted identities is conceptualized as both a conflict and a 'package of identities'.In our interpretation, identifications represent a phenomenon that is something that appears within the context of social interaction and has a configuration fan.This understanding provided the basis for choosing the empirical research methods, including questionnaire methods, such as questionnaires, focus groups, and non-questionnaire methods, such as content and discourse analyses.This allowed us to identify the specific versions of identity configurations in matrix form, with respect to the coordinates of political, social, consumer and cyber identities.
In general, the configurations considered appear as the most important social categories that reflect the core aspects of the social development of a society or a person.The content of the person's identification within one or another social group is dynamic and may change contextually.Certain conditions may contribute to actualizing some components of social identity as compared to the other ones.Taking main ideas from approaches of foreign and Russians scholars we put forward the concept of three-dimensional schema of Russian youth identity's configuration that includes dimension of citizenship, dimension of social and professional group as well as the mix of cyber and consumer identity.We chose students for our empirical study because nowadays the great number of Russian young people is studying at the universities and colleges.Moreover, this part of Russian youth is most active and potentially influential.

Methods of Research
Within this study, we conducted a comprehensive research (content analysis of media reports and social network posts, the focus groups with students and secondary analyses of our previous mass survey which was based on questionary technique).

Experimental Research Base
The moderator identified 3 spheres in the appearance of youth identities: Civil, Socio-professional, and Consumer (cyber) spheres.For the purpose of our study, the method of focus groups is actualized due to the fact that the participants formed a social reality and, being unaware of that, identified the most important identities of both themselves and the entire youth of Russia.For the purpose of our study, free associations and what-if scenarios were used in the focus group most frequently.Within this study, the authors organized several focus groups by 10 people in each in Kirov and Kirov Oblast, the Republic of Bashkortostan, and the Republic of Tatarstan.The homogeneity of the groups was achieved due to their being a part of the social group of youth (especially students).However, a study cannot be integral and fundamental if it is only based on the method of focus groups, so the hypothesis of our study is also proved/disproved as a result of the data obtained on the basis of surveys and the content/discourse analyses of media reports and posts in social networks.Also our research is based on the content analysis of Russian social networks (predominantly, VKontakte).The authors hereof have analyzed 40 pages of young people (of both sexes in equal parts) in such regions as Kalinigrad Oblast -Kaliningrad, Republic of Adygea -Maykop, Republic of Bashkortostan-Ufa, Mari El Republic -Yoshkar-Ola, Sakha (Yakutia) Republic -Yakutsk, Republic of Tatarstan -Kazan, Rostov Oblast -Rostov, Kirov Oblast -Kirov.Analysis revealed that an average respondent is subscribed for 5-2,000 communities.

Stages of Research
The study of the problem was carried out in three stages: -at the first stage the theoretical framework of the research project was chosen; -at the second stage we focused om methodological issues and organization of empirical research in the chosen geographical regions; -at the third stage we interpreted data, the results were summarized and systematized.

Experimental Part
Analyzing a group interview by the method of focus groups demonstrated how the youth of Russia sees identities.Taking the total number of answers to the question "What identity is most typical of the modern youth today?" as one (1), we can form the image of youth that can also be shown graphically (Figure 1).
In the young people's opinion, young Russian people have socio-professional and consumer identities to the same extent.No questions arise regarding the socio-professional identity of youth: Practically all respondents point out that young people either are students or work somewhere and have many ambitions and extensive plans.That is why it is clear that people who start out have their main identity in the sphere of social and professional statuses.The matter of concern is the identity in the sphere of consumerism.We also include here the term of 'cyber-identity' within the framework of our study, since, with its social networks, online purchases, and, actually, the virtual reality, Internet becomes an integral part of the life of young people.Thus, L. Siedentop, a British researcher, wrote in his book Democracy in Europe: "The 'economism' and the fact that in Europe, the language of economics has driven out the language of politics in public discussions results in treating Europeans by their leaders as consumers, not citizens... Liberalism, the dominant ideology of our time, has been dangerously distorted by the impact of economism.It is that impact which has knocked the citizen off his pedestal and replaced him with the consumer… A human... is considered as a passive, not active being… As a result, increasingly we find ourselves worshipping at the altar of economic growth instead of citizenship..." [1, pg. 42-45].While in classical economics, consumption is satisfaction of basic needs, today we are speaking about consumer behavior and universal consumption.Scientists point out that one's consumption pattern becomes a way of identification and the basis of one's role behavior [2].Thus, the views of focus-group respondents are very interesting: "Youth has typically the identity of a person that wants to get out of life everything without giving something in return", or: "This is the identity of consumption and infantilism," or: "Modern youth is unfortunately very many-sided, which is good, on one hand… At times, it's beyond my reach why young people behave that way.This is why I cannot tell you how they identify themselves now.But I know exactly that they grow up to be selfish, and everything they do they try to do to their benefit.This frightens me."However, consumption does not act as a negatively characterizing feature for all the respondents: "They are more influenced by the pop culture, perhaps, that would be one way of looking at it, I cannot characterize them that strongly," or: "There is a small problem of their overindulgence with some processes or new trends.Everything must be in moderation, one should not be fully devoted to only one movement, because then some spheres or interests would be infringed.So everything must be combined, compromise, and 50x50," or, for example: "Recently, I was in the Russian State Library, it's the largest library of Russia.I saw that young people and also older people come to the library, take books, and read them.It's interesting to them.Those were not only post-graduates, but also aged people." In the snapshot conducted by WCIOM/RCSPO (Russian Center for Studying of Public Opinion) in 2016, we found it interesting that problems related to peace and security were almost absolutely inessential for the youth.This problem only racked the older generation (over 60).It would seem, though, that civil identity could also be formed in young people within the formation of global identity -since terrorism threat is very acute today, and nobody feels secure.However, youth is interested in issues related to their life here and now.Turning back to the focus group results, we can say that civic positions also occasionally characterize the so-called portray of the youth of the modern Russia.Civil identity (Figure 1) takes the smallest volume within the total bulk, but the statements of young people are interesting, such as: "It is a visible trend that the youth tends to demonstrate their civil identity.They may not understand to the full extent, but, based on the analysis of their pages in social networks, where there are phrases, such as "I'm a Russian national" or "Russia", we can track their aspirations towards such identification," or: "I think that I am a citizen of the world."No larger civic consciousness among young people within the identification system is a little disturbing.At the same time, this statement confirms the content analysis of the social networks of Russia (as we have mentioned above we focused on the most popular in Russia social network "VKontakte").About 20% of young people whose pages have been analyzed are subscribed for groups that present themselves as 18+.These are mostly entertainment groups.The group themes differ, but most of them are for entertainment.The same posts are posted in different-topic groups.In each group, along with their chief editors, there is a devoted advertising specialist.Therefore, we can interpret it as the influence of the discourse of consumerism.
According to the focus-group results, it is quite important that, independently on the most significant selfidentity chosen by young people, no respondent could name a sphere or application in life where it could hinder them.From this, a conclusion can be drawn that, despite a small number of civil self-identities among young people, these identities act as realized and positively estimated.About one fourth of the focus group respondents, when asked by the moderator about their additional identities, defined them in the civil area: A Russian national; a Tatar; first of all, religious identity, I identify myself as a Jew, ethnic identity -I identify myself as a Hebrewess; a citizen of the Russian Federation; a patriot of my country and republic; ethnic Russian; a Kirov inhabitant; or an Orthodox Christian.An important message is contained in the phrases of young people, which build up their civic selfdetermination: "The youth wear T-shirts 'Russia', participate in events willingly, and there are many patriotic actions," "Students are Russia's inhabitants and may choose an ethnic identity," "I cannot say which one to the largest extent.I can say that there is an obvious trend that the youth eagers to manifest their civic mindness;" "Many of my acquaintances are from the different regions of Russia, so I often hear statements, such as 'I'm an Udmurt', 'I'm a Tatar', or 'I'm a Muscovite'.I.e. the majority identify themselves with the location where they live, while some of them -with the location where they were born," and "I'm the citizen of the world."Ethnic and religious identities, in some cases, have already been named by the respondents as the main or an additional identity, but we have also obtained a number of interesting statements within the course of focus groups activities: "These are religious and ethnic identities, on which the spiritual development of every person is based," "People most frequently identify themselves through this identity," "In our country, this is of mass nature, particularly, in our region, since it was determined by history that very many peoples and representatives of many confessions live here; moreover, self-identification allows presenting oneself from the perspective of one ethnic group or another.And, well, of course, there are very many mixed marriages," "Russia also allows us what religion we want, i.e. liberates us," "Russia is a secular state, everyone believes in what he or she wants," "Independently on what ethnicity or religion you identify yourself with, you must be human, first of all," "Ethnic identity may be strong in the representatives of the towns/communities that have strong traditions and living principles.Or in those who are represented as a few people in a large multinational country.As to religious identity, this is the preserve or believers for whom the differences between religions are essential," "I don't see anything bad in their identifying themselves on this basis," or "These two types of identity predominate in the people of older generation." Just a few people of the entire array see one issue or another in this identity: "Both religious and ethnic identities are quite acute issues in the modern world," "In my opinion, if religious and ethnic identities predominate in a person, he or she will experience difficulties in communicating with the representatives of other ethnic groups or confessions," "In the conditions of the modern world, religious identity does not play any significant role, I think.However, the ethnic one does.In Russia, this is demonstrated as follows: Every employer wants to have employees with 'Slavic' appearance.And a lessor would rent his or her flat only to Russians if he or she is the same (predominately)." Our research shows that politics does not play the significant role as the factor of identification.In VKontakte, the amount of groups or communities related to political matters is extremely small, and young people are not interested in them.As the moderator asked the question: "How important are political preferences for you personally and for the society?" in focus groups, the following explanations were received: Over one half of all respondents demonstrate neutral or even indifferent attitude towards politics and do not think that this sphere is very important for the Russian society or youth.Respondents of the focus groups emphasize the role of politics in their life and in the life of society with the following statements: "It is important for the society, but for me, it's not the case," "My attitude to politics is neutral.It's everyone's choice.Everyone may have his or her own opinion about it," "I'm not However, there are drastically opposite statements that determine the role and place of politics in the life of the society and young people in person: "Politics are now an integral part of every person's life.Because these are political decisions and the situation throughout the country, on which our well-being depends.Everyone must identify him or herself to a political trend that is closer to him or her.Somebody may say: I am a citizen.This is correct.Everyone must be, first of all, a citizen of his or her country.Moreover, he or she must be a patriot, because they say: Dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad.You should love your Motherland and prove with your behavior that you are proud of having been born in your country," or: "The same may be said about political identity.They are all interrelated.Today, political identity and political preferences determine the degree of tension in international relations.'

DISCUSSION
The methodological grounds for analyzing the identity problems can be divided into socio-economic and sociocultural research frameworks.Socio-economic factors that influence identification are inextricably linked to the dynamics of certification processes in the society (classes, strata, clusters, allocated on the basis of property relations, resource potentials, material security, etc.).A prominent modern representative of the 'socio-structural' approaches is N. Tikhonova [3], who studies the socio-economic identification factors in the context of 'social stratification' concept.Thus, she notes that "the central tasks of social stratification analysis include: 1) Identification of the main groups of statuses (status positions) characteristic of this type of society, 2) analyzing features of manifestation and causes of inequality predetermined by these statuses, and 3) defining mechanisms of 'ranging' people in specific statuses, taking up respective status positions by them."[3, p.12]In the modern society, which she refers to as 'modernized', "macroidentities begin to form primarily through civic identities.There comes the era of economic rationality, and there is a commodification of social relations, and interpersonal relations lose their integral character and become function-and-role-based." [3, p.13] N. Tikhonova, in her research, does not only rely on statistics in the level and methods of income generation, but also actively uses the respondents' subjective views on their place in the social structure, noting that '... they say with unfailing regularity that when determining their status in the society, they base, first of all, on the level of their material well-being.Indeed, the data indicate a direct effect of the level of material well-being on people's selfawareness in terms of their social status.With that, the formal indication of average per capita income in the one's material security directly affecting the indicators of social status' [4].To determine respondents' perceptions of their place in the society, both graphical and verbal tests are used.One of such graphical tests is the vertical ten-point scale of social statuses ('social ladder'), at which the respondent should indicate his or her place in the society.This test is widely used in both foreign and Russian sociology.Thus, for example, it has been used for decades in the ISSP research program As studies show, Russians by and large continue to assess their social status mainly based either on their level of material well-being or on their life style (which means, in fact, the same level of well-being, but with the refraction of the latter through the life style features of different social strata).
If in the above studies the socio-economic factors of identity have a more pronounced 'economic and social emphasis', one cannot but mention studies with a 'social emphasis'.Thus, typical of such studies is the approach of M. Gorshkov, who focuses on either the labeling of social groups on the basis of the awareness of belonging to microsocial communities (family, friends), or the awareness of belonging to abstract symbolic communities (people with similar views, representatives of a certain generation or the same profession), or the value and civilizational grounds (modernists-traditionalists) [5,6].
The socio-cultural dimension of social phenomena is inextricably linked with the trend of refusal to consider 'the person in general', the 'individual' in favor of approaches that accentuate the leading role of culture in the development of public institutions, group and personal behavior.The most important socio-cultural characteristics of identity are worldview and ideology.Worldview is one of the key social characteristics of individuals and social groups that constitute the society.Worldview attitudes, apart from the 'global picture', also comprise ideological components that manifest themselves in the processes of social identification, representation, rationalization of social actions and status claims.
The relationship between the category of 'identity' and the concept of 'ideology' was first put forward by the American scientist E. Erikson [7] in the context of the personality development problem.It was not accidental that the work was titled "Identity: Youth and Crisis".Interpreting identity as role and ideological adaptation to the changing stages of the development of the human 'Self', Erickson clearly pursues a line on the changing nature of identity and, at the same time, emphasizes that adolescence is the most important period of worldview development and is connected with seeking answers to questions like "Who am I? Who I want to be?Who do I not want to be?"It is the loss of confidence in the old ideology that the crisis of identity, so much spoken about after the collapse of the USSR, shows itself.To overcome it, a new ideology is required as "an unconscious set of values and messages reflecting religious, scientific and political thinking."Language in its socio-symbolic meaning of discursive constructions (what, how, where and by whom to is spoken, and what it is customary to keep silent about) has been considered the most important tool for the formation of social relations.At the same time, language is the environment and instrument of ideologies operation.Accordingly, ideological discourse can be regarded as a tool for ideological construction of identifications.Examples include feminist discourse, discourse of nationalism, discourse of extremism, etc.
Identifications multiplicity can be manifested in the simultaneous combination of national (civil) and ethnic (ethno-cultural) identity -for example, an American of Italian origin.Accordingly, in this case, the challenge lies in the construction of a common citizenship ideology, which allows combining these two identities.T. Parsons [8] wrote about the possibility of such a combination, insisting that "maintaining the unity of the nation does not require the 'dissolution' of ethnic groups in the national community, and in order to overcome ethnic conflict it is necessary to strengthen the general civil basis of the modern nation." Multiple identities contribute to some extent to better adaptation, since the loss of one identity does not entail complete self-destruction, as it would be in case of a 'one-modal' identity.Multiplicity (pluralism of identities) reflects the multiplicity and hierarchy of social roles that a person must play in modern societies, which is more, under the constant dynamics of changes.Ideology in this case can serve as some system-forming and "chaotization" opposing force.However, the world of modern ideologies is also not strictly hierarchical but we can use the concept of ideological discourse that is functional to our topic of study.
In 1991, J. Burke [9] put forward the thesis about the 'set of identities', with which he tried to 'cover' the disintegrating plurality of identifications.Russian researcher A. G. Sanina (2014), studying modern Russian identity, sees it as a 'set of identities', namely, civil, state and ethnic, and emphasizes the need to balance these identities as the main configuring mechanism [10].
The rise of polar approaches in the format of primordialism -constructivism and 'traditional objectivity' -'subjective objectivity' creates a situation of search for complementarity and polyparadigmality.In Russian theory and practice of sociological study of identity, we note the approach of V. M. Capitsyn.[11] The author made an attempt to show the dynamics of forming of the 'unifying' national identity.He identifies the components of 'partial' identities and their configurations -the social and the political.The social configuration includes the 'horizontal' identities of everyday life.Such identities include: territorial (instinct), natural (corporeal), spiritual (cultural), agent (professional).
Normally, "the majority of population prefers a quiet life unshadowed by any calamity.Especially that there is a delimiting 'stockade' of private interests between people; it is formidable to start political actions.However, if every day's benefits, ecology, transport, public utilities, education, health services, employment, etc. worsen, then people, going beyond their everyday life, try to protect their violated rights.Social identity cannot stay within the scope of everyday life and goes into the area of interest interaction (political life) where vertical identities function with their respective values and symbols" [11].
The vertical (political) configuration includes the following varieties of identities: international, national, collective, individual.At the intersection of horizontal and vertical axes of identities, 'unifying' identities are formed (national and historical).
Today's society is largely associated with the dominance of the discourse of consumerism.Moreover, it is quite reasonable to talk about the ideology of consumerism.Under the influence of ideological discourse of western style globalism, to be very often means to have.The dominant imperative in the relationship between man and thing is possession.Descartes could say today: "I consume, therefore I am."Or, as is customary to say now: "Tell me what you possess (what you have), and I'll tell you who you are."So, it appears that society members can practically build their identities based on what and where they consume.But, in addition, no less important is why (in what sense context) this or that thing and service is purchased.This is particularly true of young people.As S. Miles fairly notes: "Young people construct their identity under the influence of the surrounding community of their agemates, rather than based on the fact of purchasing specific goods, since even the nature of their interrelations presupposes consuming certain things, often playing a key role in the lifestyle of a specific 'set'" [2, pg.153].
The identifying role of consumption is increasingly recognized by researchers in our country, too.Thus, in 2015, the Public Opinion Foundation presented a study which revealed the existence of six types of Russians, depending on their consumer behavior and life strategy [12].
As can be seen from the above, marketization and commodification (becoming a product or service) of an increasing number of social life manifestations results in dominance of the ideological discourse of consumerism in identification processes as well, that cannot be ignored by researchers.
Another extremely important point in the sociocultural parameters of youth identity determined by the ideology of communication in cyberspace -'neticism' (from the English 'net').There is even the term of 'netizen', i.e. the acronym for 'net citzen'.'Being online' is practically an imperative for the modern young people.Gadgets and various devices that allow you to be a participant of communications in social networks are the main identifying attribute.The discourse of communication, on the one hand, creates the feeling of solidarity of all members of the network over the class superiority or material or ethnic differences and on the other hand, it increases the emphasis towards professional, ethnic, and other cyber-communities.Identification of a 'netizen' is expressed by an imperative like "Tell me what Internet resources you use, and I'll tell you who you are."Evolving Capitsyn's matrix approach, in our opinion, it is expedient to supplement the list of social and political dimensions of identities.In particular, to the identities defined by him as social, i.e. territorial (instinct), natural (corporeal), spiritual (cultural), and agent (professional) varieties we would add consumer and cyberspace (network) identities.This will allow us, in our opinion, to more closely grasp the configuration of the identities of contemporary Russian youth and to give their specifications.In fact, our approach involves constructing of a threedimensional matrix that allows us to compare empirical data and identify the specifics of configurations of multiple identities in Russia.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we want to underline that our research let us to argue that plural character of youth's identity shapes the multidimensional approach.We put forward three axes model of Russian youth identity's study.We mean civil, social-professional, consumer and cyber dimensions of identity.
The results of focus group and content analysis of the posts in social networks provide the evidence of the trend in the modern youth identifying -young people consider it to be important to identify first of all their social and professional belonging, then comes ethnicity, religion, place of residence, and civility.However, they do not consider political life as something important or depending on them.
Discourse of consumerism is more influential than political one.Our study of social networks proves this statement because the majority of groups are for entertainment and is closely connected with marketing activity of resource owners.
But we want to underline that this configuration is not absolutely stable and depends on certain circumstances.It means that it is possible to face with activation of this or that sides of plural identity which can be in temporally "sleeping" form.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Graphical model of the modern Russian youth's identity (by the results of focus groups)

Table 1 .
Distribution of Group/Community Themes within a Region Who to vote for is also one's choice.Politics, of course, decides on many things, but I try not to touch that," "I cannot say anything in particular.I don't identify myself well in this field," "I'm not dealing with politics at the moment," "Emphasizing such identities is quite a frequent thing today.I don't identify myself in terms of religion, and I'm not religious.But I haven't thought much whether I'm atheist or agnostic.It is difficult to me to identify myself ethnically, because I was born in Udmurtia and know the language, though I'm starting to lose its culture, but I live in a Russian-speaking environment, and I'm of Udmurt origin, so I identify myself as a Russian national.I don't know how identify myself politically; I think the most of our youth is in the same situation."Political identity is a complicated thing.Most people do not understand what political views they have"; etc.