Modernization of Values and Its Implications

This work is based on the understanding of culture following the lines laid out in the works of L. White, P. Bohannan, A. Montague etc, and defined, loosely, as a system of non-biological regulators of human behavior (such as values, norms, attitudes, etc.).
Just a few generations ago the majority of Russian population was rural, lived in the countryside environment and was engaged in natural-subsistence economy. Their culture corresponded to the low-level technological environment. The process of modernization has changed the environment in just a few dozen years, leaving the some cultural adaptors far behind. Some people experience conflict with impacts and challenges of modernization such as new women status, political democracy, market economy etc. We can see cultural differentiation on culture modernization continuation. Two poles of the continuation axes can be found. One of them is pole of modern culture acceptation, another one is pole of modern culture rejection. The both poles are Weber’s ideal types. The Likert scale was used for culture modernization measurement in our survey.  The scale was validated by R.Indelhart’s index and S. Schwartz’s scale.

Socio-cultural types often differ according to the condition of socialization also corresponding to the generational differences. More modernized type of culture is adapted to more modernized type of social environment. New generation has an opportunity to enjoy a more modernized culture than the old one. In this work, we attempted to evaluate the cultural changes between generations and polar socio-cultural types quantitatively. This longitudinal study was mostly based on a survey response data among university students in the city of Perm (Russian Urals) since 1991 till 2013. All samples covered more than 500 students. We can compare values of modernization between last Soviet generation and first Post-Soviet generation. The study also discovers the implications of these value changes.