The Mechanism of Work Attitudes Formation among the Youth: Network Connections and Perception of Institutions

One of the acute issues of contemporary Russian reality is understanding the youth and their ambivalent attitude to work. Based on a series of empirical studies examining Russian university students` work values, the author concludes that the main dilemma of future professionals lies in the choice between personally beneficial (presumably highly paid and prestigious) and socially significant labour market positions (not always rewarded with status and money). Developing the theory of embeddedness in networks and institutions, the author derives and substantiates a conceptual apparatus for describing the mechanism of choice formation in favour of one of these two approaches to work. The following concepts are introduced to scientific discourse: (1) agents supporting market orientation towards work (influence of parasocial connections and psychological legitimation of individualistic work values); (2) anchors that form values oriented at social utility (rootedness in family and professional communities, strong-weak ties and models of virtue as the basis for collectivistic work values` formation); (3) the perception of institutional problems as symbolic and positional, hindering or implying the active participation of young people in their professional activities. The proposed concepts draw on classical sociological sources (G. Simmel, E. Durkheim, M. Weber, M.Scheler, K. Polanyi), as well as contemporary approaches in economic sociology (network, sociocultural, and institutional). The author emphasizes the social determinacy of young people’s choice of future career path, which stems from the nature of their relationships with the others and institutions, which shapes their ways of perceiving the existing structural conditions as limiting or motivating to act.