Quality of life in a turbulent society: disaster and state of emergency from the point of view of sociology of everyday life

The article presents an unconventional approach to the concept of quality of life. Quality of life is considered as a measure of social wellbeing. The proposed approach uses the conceptual apparatus of sociology of everyday life. Sustainable everyday practices (routines) are considered as the basic mechanism for constructing wellbeing of the community forming the conditions of "ontological security". Quality of life is characterized by the "strength" (stability) of the usual forms of life. Violation of customary rules of organization of everyday practices leads to a lower quality of life. This approach is examined in the two examples - disaster and the state of emergency. In both examples it is shown that due to these events everyday practices are completely destroyed. This is the reason of sharp decrease in the quality of life. Disaster is understood as a very rapid change in time of the existing (usual) procedures and structures of the reality. This leads to the disintegration of sustainable networks between the natural, the technical, and the social. The impact of disaster on the population's life quality does not depend on its nature. Of decisive influence is the process of a drastic destruction of sustainable structures of everyday life. The state of emergency is understood as a stop of legal rules application (as a rule, it is the case of a civil war). The state of emergency in terms of sociology of everyday life is the abolition of the existing regulations (primarily, of the law enforcement nature) that organize the everyday interaction between people. This also leads to a decrease of life quality as familiar and understandable rules no longer apply and the new ones have not yet been established. The causes of these events can be the realization of the immanent laws of the social system. In modern society, the generation of the complexity of technical and social systems leads to a rapid growth of uncertainty, instability and turbulence. It generates a large number of failures and accidents. "Disaster" and "emergency" cover the society, become its normal state. In this regard, the task of improving the quality of life should include the prevention of such "normal" events as a disaster at different levels of social organization. Disaster is an implementation of the environmental risk. Therefore, the amount of risk should be considered as a measure of the welfare of society and, accordingly, as a quantitative expression of the quality of life. Such a view on the problem of everyday life allows presenting a new perspective of studies of the quality of life within the risk-science approach. The criterion of life quality is the amount of aggregate risks of life (which is understood as time resistance ("strength") of everyday background practices).

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