SOCIAL SELF-DETERMINATION AND REGIONAL SELF-IDENTIFICATION OF STUDENTS OF THE TRANS-BAIKAL TERRITORY

The article deals with the problem of social self-determination of student youth and the influence on this process of regional identification caused by the entry of the Trans-Baikal Territory into the Far Eastern Federal District. The authors present the results and conclusions of a questionnaire survey of students of Trans-Baikal universities conducted within the framework of a large-scale sociological project "Social Self-Determination of Youth in the Formation of a New Regional Identity (Based on the Materials of the TransBaikal Territory and the Republic of Buryatia)". The project is based on the idea of the interrelation between two scientific categories - "regional identity" and "social selfdetermination". Moreover, regional identity is considered not only as a traditionally and historically grounded territorial and cultural identification, but as an artificially created geographical, economically conditioned territorial reality, which originates from November 4, 2018, when the Trans- Baikal Territory and the Republic of Buryatia were transferred from the Siberian Federal District to the Far Eastern Federal District by the Decree of President Vladimir Putin. The authors understand social self-determination as the inclusion of a person in all spheres of society, a person's awareness and achievement of a stable position in the system of social relations. The components of social self-determination of student youth were identified: socio-professional self-determination, socio-political self-determination and socio-cultural self-determination within the framework of the studied missile defense. The analysis of the survey results allowed the authors to determine: (1) the most typical professional and motivational profiles and strategies of professional self-determination of Trans-Baikal students; (2) political orientations and attitudes of Trans-Baikal student youth in socio-political self-determination; (3) value orientations and life position in socio-cultural self-determination. The authors used the method of "layer proximity" identifying the level of regional identification of students of Trans-Baikal universities. The analysis of the identification profiles of the interviewed students showed that the new regional reality (I am a Far Easterner), artificially created for certain state purposes, has not yet entered the consciousness of the student youth and is not perceived by them as "close" and "native". But in fact this is a strategic level of regional identity associated with the construction of a new regional image, the positioning of a new territorial entity, the invention of new territorial traditions and the formation of a new symbolic policy.