Elena Omelchenko attended the XVI International Grushinskaya Sociological Conference
Elena Omelchenko, Director of the Center for Youth Studies, spoke at the Grushinskaya Conference in Moscow at the end of March. This year's theme is the image of the future. Elena Leonidovna's report presents the ideas, expectations and plans for the future of young scientists at the Higher School of Economics.
On March 26-27, the XVI International Grushinskaya Sociological Conference, one of the most key and significant events for professional sociologists in Russia, was held in Moscow at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University Congress Center. This year, her focus is on the future of youth, the country, and the world in a variety of dimensions — from science fiction and modern art projects, technological and AI breakthroughs, to an analysis of future plans and prospects in optics to topical discussions and expectations of various groups about the imaginary future.
At the conference, Elena Leonidovna Omelchenko made a presentation "There, beyond the horizon...": Young scientists on the road from the past and the lived present to the imaginary future. The presentation presented the results of 30 interviews with researchers from research institutions in the HSE buildings, collected as part of the Fundamental Research Program project “Generation Z in search of balance: working conditions, work modes, and life values in the minds of youth and employers.” In the thematic section devoted to the consideration of mechanisms for constructing a collective image of Russia's future, the focus of the report allowed us to focus on young people as agents of innovation and the main ones responsible for creating that very future. Young scientists acquire special importance as the most critical and involved part of their generation in the global discussion.
Young scientists are not only the cutting edge of science and a key resource for growth and scientific discoveries for the university. They are the leading part of the generation. Young scientists belong to peers in a broader sense: everyday life, friendship and love, precarious employment, uncertain plans and a stretched present. All this is the general background of growing up of all young people, and not only Russian ones. Therefore, their voice is the voice of the advanced part of Generation Z — the urban educated youth of the middle class. And, in a certain sense, he is given the right to speak on behalf of his generation.
The report raised many questions and provoked a discussion. The thesis about the "ghosts" of the past (we are the children of the 90s) became especially discussed as a significant stage in the formation of generational identity. The analysis showed that the past is being recruited by young people to find stability in the present, and that the future is not some kind of separate indefinite something "beyond the horizon", but an imaginary stage of a long road — from the past through the extended present and beyond.
The optics of temporality allows us to pay attention to the metaphorical and changeable images of time, and the complex relationship between memory of the past, survival in the present and imagination about the future. Especially in the context of global crises and uncertainty. To invent the future, you still need to experience the present.
The intense interest in the conclusions of the report was continued in the media: according to the results of the director's report, the RBC material was released.
