Attitudes of the tomsk region population to non-profit associations as a marker of civil society

Non-profit associations consitute an important part of civil society. Performing the function of self-organization, they are aimed at solving urgent social problems. This article presents the results of the survey research concerning the population's attitude to civil society organizations - the overall awareness and assessment of public organizations, the existing participation level and the future commitment to participate in the activities of these organizations, and the dynamics of these indicators (comparative analysis of the survey results of 2011 and 2014). The social base of civil society is analyzed within the framework of he concept offered by the Research Laboratory of Civil Society, HSE. According to the concept, the people are divided in terms of their social activity and form the core, the satellites kernel, the buffer, as well as peripherals and outsiders. Our results demonstrate a tendency of increasing total awareness of the activities of non-governmental organizations with a simultaneous decrease of social activity in most areas. We can see loss of interest in social activities -the trend of reduction in the volume of the nucleus, the satellite and the buffer zone, ie, those segments of the society who have a stable and periodic activity in social activities or principled commitment to that kind of work. At the same time, the share peripherals and outsiders, ie those who are not ready to participate in any social activities and generally possess negative attitude towards civil society organizations is increasing. Analysis of the barriers and the catalysts of social activity demonstrated an increase of functional pragmatic attitude with "the lack of spare time" as the main barrier, and the rising importance of personal benefits as the main catalyst.

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