Sources of Protest Moods among Students (Based on the Materials of a Sociological Study in the Altai Territory)

Artyukhina Valentina Andreevna PhD in Sociology Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Conflictology, Altai State University 656049, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Dimitrova str., 66, office 520 a-walentina@mail.ru Shraiber Angelina Nikolaevna PhD in Sociology Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Conflictology, Altai State University 656049, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Dimitrova str., 66, office 520 336680@bk.ru Akhmedova Angelina Rustamovna Student, Department of General Sociology and Conflictology, Altai State University 656049, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Dimitrova str., 66, office 520 axmedovaangelina@mail.ru Other publications by this author     Zheldakova Arina Vladimirovna Student, Department of Sociology and Conflictology, Altai State University 656049, Russia, Altai region, Barnaul, Dimitrova str., 66, room 520 arina.zheldakova@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Medvedeva Margarita Vyacheslavovna Student, Department of Sociology and Conflictology, Altai State University 656049, Russia, Altai region, Barnaul, Dimitrova str., 66, office 520 margaritochkamed@gmail.com Other publications by this author

IntroductionSocial tension is an integral phenomenon of modern society.

The sociological understanding of this phenomenon is inextricably linked with the analysis of social protest, protest potential and protest moods. The research interest in protest moods is due to the fact that they are a latent stage of open protest actions, and their study provides an opportunity to regulate open protest: reducing its negative effects and increasing the positive ones. Given the recent events taking place in Russia and the world, monitoring protest moods is especially important in regulating social tension in society. ^[1]In this regard, special attention should be paid to young people, because this social group is most often the main participant in protest actions due to its more acute perception of the imperfections of society and inflated expectations from themselves and others.

This article presents an analysis of the main sources of protest sentiments among students.

Scientific elaboration of the problemFirst of all, we will present a description of the term "protest moods".

It seems appropriate to define it using two basic concepts – "protest" and "social sentiments". In Russian sociology, the phenomenon of "social moods" began to be studied by J.T. Toshchenko ^[1]. In his work "Social mood – a phenomenon of modern sociological theory and practice", the author examines the genesis of scientific ideas about social mood. Initially, the idea of public sentiment was being worked out, which was "not only the most mass phenomenon, but also one of the most significant forces that motivate people to activities that imprint on the behavior of various collectives, groups, strata of society, as well as classes, nations and even peoples" ^[1].

In the work of Khaykin S.R. and Popov N.P. "Protest moods in the North Caucasus: general and special", the term "protest moods" is defined as "a state of public consciousness, discontent that arises in a situation of real or imaginary impossibility of satisfying the dominant needs and interests of social communities" ^{[2; 3]}.

From the point of view of Bushuev D. V., the protest behavior of young people is a kind of political participation, a feature of which may be the public expression by an individual or group of dissatisfaction with the existing socio-political system or individual results of its functioning through various forms of protest activity ^[4].

In general, the factor of economic deprivation is less significant compared to political and ideological discontent. Young people living in unsatisfactory economic conditions are forced to solve their material problems without resorting to ineffective protest actions in this case. Social discontent, which has an economic, material basis, first of all finds a way out not so much in protest moods as in additional labor activity, serves, among other factors, as a kind of "motor" for more constructive social actions ^[5].

Thus, by protest moods we will understand in a broad sense, the kind of social moods accumulating the influence of objective and subjective factors of protest and anticipating protest behavior; in a narrow sense, the kind of social moods that are characterized by dissatisfaction of social groups or an individual with the existing situation and "the state of things, unjustified expectations and, at the same time, willingness to take concrete actions." to change a subjectively perceived unfavorable situation" ^[6].

Without delving into the history of the origin of the term "protest", we note that in the most general form, protest is understood as "an acute unwillingness to put up with the existing state of affairs and an active desire to change it for the better" ^[3]. It is also defined as collective actions of people; as a clash of interests of social groups with opposing socio-political and economic interests; as "a strong objection to something, a statement of disagreement with something" ^[7]; as a form of social activity, which is a way of self-expression of people and a means of influencing the authorities ^{[5; 8]}.

In modern sociological literature, it is customary to attribute a number of factors to the sources of protest. First of all, this is social inequality, provoking social discontent of certain groups and strata of the population. As a rule, these are the masses who consider themselves to some extent deprived of social benefits. Of course, we cannot talk about an objective assessment of this inequality, due to the fact that people themselves set limits, depending on their own ideas about justice.

Social inequality must be considered from the economic and financial side. If a person is dissatisfied with his financial situation, he is ready for a violation of social tranquility. The economic factor includes a whole hierarchical system of indicators, starting from the economic situation of the country and ending with the level of material prosperity of the family. Living conditions also affect the protest mood of society, but this is secondary. As in previous periods of history, it is clear that economic factors have a direct impact on the financial situation of people: the amount of wages and arrears of enterprises to pay them, as well as the overall price increase ^[9].

Protest sentiments also directly depend on the political stability of the state. The external and internal security of the state plays a key role in the dissatisfaction of citizens. If a person does not feel safe, then she is ready to take any measures to achieve it, even by going beyond the limits of social and legislative permissiveness. Bychkov P. and Seravin A., in their work on the analysis of the protest movement in 2011-2012, argue that the cause of the protests are systemic errors, which, first of all, do not provide other mechanisms for political participation of people outside of rallies. In the case of political independence of citizens and the lack of clear actions on the part of the opposition and a low level of trust in the leaders, the consequences can be even worse and worse ^[10].

The dynamics of social expectations of the population plays an important role. In sociological knowledge, social expectations can be represented as an element of public opinion that has its properties. Reflecting the social situation, based on the existing social, political, economic and spiritual conditions, social expectations simultaneously determine the directions of social change and, thus, contain an element of the future ^[11].

A feature of the study of protest moods can be called the complexity of this phenomenon, because, based on the above information, they manifest themselves to varying degrees and at different levels. It makes sense to use different data collection methods. Based on the fact that social protest is a form of conflict, it is logical to consider how the protest mood manifests itself at each stage and what methods are best to study it, because it will be either technically impossible to conduct a study by one method at each stage of the protest, or it will be dangerous for the interviewer (social protest does not always take place in a peaceful form). However, this is not the only difficulty in studying protest moods.

Modern researchers also touch upon such aspects as the influence of various factors on the formation of protest moods: the Internet space (Dementieva I.N.) ^[12], psychological characteristics of the personality/group of student youth (Talanov S.L.) ^[13], social media (Zayats D.Ya., Manoilova S.A.) ^[14]; prospects in the studies of protest moods (Bolshakov A.G., Khramova E.V.) ^[15]; technologies for the formation of protest moods of Russian youth (Franz V.A.) ^{[16; 17]}; protest moods as a manifestation of destructive forms of civic activity (Dementieva I.N.) ^[7], etc. The presence of a large number of works on the topics of social protest and protest moods speak about its relevance and the multidimensional nature of the study. However, there is a certain shortage of comprehensive empirical studies that directly consider protest moods, without replacing this term with synonyms.

Methodology and methods of researchBased on the understanding of protest moods as one of the stages of the development of social protest, a methodology was developed and a sociological study was conducted among students of the Altai Territory, the purpose of which was to characterize the main sources of protest moods in the student environment.

The research was implemented through a combination of quantitative (mass survey) and qualitative (in-depth interview and focus group) methods of collecting, processing and analyzing sociological information.

The field part of the study took place in three stages. At the first stage, a mass survey of students of educational institutions of higher and secondary vocational education (four institutions, respectively) was conducted. The general totality of the study was made up of students from Barnaul, Altai Krai. The sample size was 608 respondents. For its construction, the principles of improbability, purposeful sampling were used. Quota sampling has become the method of selecting units of the general population. The selection parameters were the level of education received and the gender of the respondent. The sample included 304 students receiving higher education (152 men and 152 women), and 304 students receiving secondary vocational education (152 men and 152 women).

At the second stage, in-depth interviews were conducted (n=12). The questions for the in-depth interview were based on the primary data of the mass survey, which allowed us to get detailed comments on the patterns already identified. 12 informants took part in the in-depth interview, including 3 men and 3 women receiving higher education, and 3 men and 3 women receiving secondary vocational education. At the third stage, a focus group was held, the participants of which were 10 students: 5 university students (3 men and 2 women) and 5 college students (2 men and 3 women). The questions were similar to the in-depth interview, as it was important to observe the respondents' reaction during a group discussion to a given problem.

Research resultsTo characterize the sources of protest moods in the student environment, the study measured indicators affecting various issues relevant to students: the comfort of the learning environment; attitude to distance learning, relationships with teachers, classmates and close associates of the student, the chosen educational institution and the chosen specialty, their academic performance.

In addition to problems in the educational environment, the formation of protest moods is also influenced by external factors, such as: the financial situation of the student, discrimination on any basis, concern about something affecting the future of the student. Another block of problems that concern the student youth can be considered external and internal political and economic factors. Let's focus on a more detailed description of these indicators.

Firstly, in the course of the study, the problems of students in the field of education were characterized, since the presence of problems and dissatisfaction with something in their main field of activity can influence the formation of protest moods. Based on this, first of all, respondents were asked about the components of a comfortable learning environment.

It is possible to distinguish aspects of a comfortable learning environment according to the degree of importance for students. The first group: comfortable classrooms (78.3%), interesting internships and internships (62.2%), adequate tuition fees (56.6%) and favorable relationships with classmates (56.6%), delicious food in the cafeteria (53.9%).

The second group: financial support from the educational institution (48%), competent and willing to help the administration of the educational institution (47.4%), availability of an accessible computer class (46.1%), "buns" from the educational institution (43.1%), the opportunity to increase their scholarship depending on active participation in the extracurricular life of the institution and from grades (41.4%), the possibility of distance learning (39.5%).

The third group in terms of the importance of the components of a comfortable learning environment are: extracurricular student "movement" (36.2%), well-equipped libraries (35.5%), creative (38.5%), scientific (28%) and sports (28.3%) associations of interests, inexpensive additional education (26.3%).

Students of secondary educational institutions more often noted the need for adequate tuition fees (59.2%) and interesting practices/internships (65.8%). In turn, students of higher educational institutions lack material support for comfortable study (59.2%), delicious food in the canteen (58.6%), "buns" from the university (48%), scientific and creative associations (30.9% and 40.8%, respectively), as well as the opportunity to study remotely (44.7 %).

Since 2020, the distance learning format has become an innovation in the educational environment, and at the initial stages there were problems both with adapting to it and with the subtleties of learning in such conditions. Therefore, it is worth finding out how students relate to distance learning and what problems arise.

So, a number of questions were asked about the distance learning format. The majority of students of both higher and secondary educational institutions are mostly positive about distance learning (36.2% and 30.9%, respectively). However, 27.3% of respondents speak negatively about the distance, especially college students are dissatisfied (12.5%). In general, 75.2% of respondents are satisfied with the distance learning format, 23.8% are not satisfied. This distribution of responses may be related to difficulties and problems that arose during distance learning.

In addition to the questionnaire question, the issue of distance learning was also discussed as part of the focus group and in-depth interview. So, to the question "Distance learning became relevant in 2020 with the advent of Covid-19, how did you react to it at that time? Have you been troubled by fears and apprehensions?" respondents also noted a positive attitude to the distance: "I reacted positively, I wanted to rest at that moment, and with the introduction of the distance there was a kind of "freebie" and more free time"; "Positively, since it was a great opportunity to pass the exams positively."However, to the question "Have you changed your attitude to it after 2 years?" negative answers were received, emphasizing the problems and difficulties that have appeared during this time: "Problems have emerged regarding the availability of distance education, many are experiencing problems with the availability of technology, as well as connections to electronic platforms."

In this regard, it is advisable to find out the reasons for negative assessments of distance learning. Negativity is most often associated with problems that arise in the learning process. The main problems faced by students are related to the complexity of the organization of the school day (43.3%), laziness (42.7%), instability of the Internet connection (41%). The same opinion is shared by the informants of the focus group: "... my productivity and discipline decreases, I start to be more lazy, and at the same time, even when performing tasks, nothing remains in my head."

As can be seen from the statements of the participant of the focus group and the questionnaire survey, an important problem is the unsatisfactoriness of the acquired material (38%), because it is important for students to get the knowledge for which they came to the educational institution. In the distance format, the presented material is quite difficult for independent study, especially if students study in natural science and technical areas.

In addition, students lack feedback from teachers (23.7%), especially in situations of checking practical assignments. Students are also concerned about the lack of live communication: "Distance deprives students of the opportunity to communicate with their peers, in the future it becomes more difficult for them to adapt and socialize in society."

Respondents noted that the disciplines have become uninteresting for both students themselves (20.7%) and teachers (12.3%), which, again, is due to the limited possibilities of the distance learning format. In addition to the above, students note the negative impact of distance on health: "I think that distance learning has had a very negative impact on our health, and spending a long time at the computer has had a very detrimental effect on our back, vision and general well-being."

The participants of the focus group and in-depth interview were asked the question "In what format is it more convenient for you to study and why?". The majority replied that the full-time format is preferable to the distance: "It is more convenient in full-time, because it is more pleasant to contact the teacher directly"; "Full-time. Why? Well, I have already voiced remote problems, lack of information. And so, you can talk to teachers who will give, if anything, advice." Moreover, the entrance to full-time study pleased the students "because it is difficult to stay at home all the time and not go out anywhere." Thus, despite the positive attitude towards distance learning and satisfaction with this form of education, some students prefer full-time education for a number of reasons: live communication with the group and teachers, discipline, assimilation of the material is better.

However, all the problems that arise during the distance somehow affect the morale of both teachers, who find it much more difficult to adapt to such conditions, and students who have come for full-fledged knowledge and communication. In the end, without getting what they want or expected, students begin to protest in the form of fundamental failure to complete tasks on educational platforms. But it is not only the problems of distance learning that are becoming sources of protest moods.

Almost half of the respondents are satisfied with their specialty (48%), which is important for students when studying, because many applicants enter those specialties that are easier to pass according to the USE scores, the results of the certificate or because of the dictates of relatives. 8.2% are not satisfied with their specialty, i.e. they are forced to study in a specialty that they do not need, which is why they feel pressure from dissatisfaction with their desires.

Satisfaction with their academic performance, which 10.9% of respondents are not satisfied with, also depends on this. Also, students negatively assess their satisfaction with the quality of their education (2.6%), the prestige of the educational institution (2.3%) and paid education (12.2%). The latter was noted only by those who study on a paid basis.

Students of secondary educational institutions (55.9%) are more often fully satisfied with their specialty than university students (40.1%). However, compared with university students, university students are more often dissatisfied with their chosen specialty (2.6% of respondents versus 0.7%). In turn, students of higher educational institutions are mostly dissatisfied with the quality of their education (3.9%), while among college students the percentage of dissatisfied is three times less (1.3%).

In addition to satisfaction with the chosen specialty, the quality of education and academic performance, the formation of protest moods is particularly influenced by relationships with their surroundings.

Fig. 1. Distribution of respondents' responses to the question of satisfaction with relationships with teaching staff and classmates (in% of the number of respondents)

Figure 1 shows that unsatisfactory relationships with teachers and classmates are observed in 7.9% and 10.5% of respondents, respectively. However, the majority of respondents note satisfaction with relationships with teachers (46.4%) and classmates (52.6%). Unlike women, it is more difficult for men to interact with the staff of the administration of their educational institution – 13.2% of men are not satisfied, while more than half of women are completely satisfied with the relations with employees (55.3%). 68.1% of respondents maintain good relations with family members. Women studying at universities are more likely to be completely satisfied with their family relationships (71.1%). Men were more likely to report negative ratings in relationships with their family members (13.2%). Difficulties in relationships with the opposite sex, which are observed in 7.9% of respondents, most often they occur in men (8.5%). More than half (57.9%) are completely satisfied with relationships with the opposite sex, most of them are women (62.5%).

Based on the data analyzed above, it can be concluded that students do not experience problems in communicating either with their close environment, or with other students, or with teachers and staff of the administration of the educational institution. But it should be assumed that the percentage of those who negatively assessed the relationship with their group and teachers could experience a biased attitude towards themselves on their part. Almost half of the respondents (48.7%) experienced a biased attitude on the part of teachers and/or students. Of these, 2.3% of students are under constant harassment, quite often 6.6% and sometimes 39.8% experience this. The latter is more typical for university students (44.1%), while university students are characterized by the absence of bias on the part of teachers and other students (45.4%).

Thus, in the educational environment of students of higher and secondary educational institutions, in general, everything satisfies. However, there are some points that they would like to improve. Also, it is not necessary to exclude from attention, albeit insignificant, but the existing percentage of dissatisfied students. It is worth considering the fact that satisfaction assessments are subjective, so it is not advisable to say for sure that the percentage of dissatisfied will necessarily reproduce their protest moods. However, in combination with other aspects, protest moods can increase, therefore, attention should be paid to, albeit not significant, but the existing negative assessments of students.

The next question concerns the problem of discrimination against young people on such grounds as: age, gender, financial status, orientation (sexual characteristic), religion, nationality and the problems of the pandemic. The results are more clearly shown in Figure 2.

Fig. 2. Distribution of respondents' answers to the question "Have you witnessed cases of harassment on the following grounds: religious, national, sexual, age, financial, sexual, pandemic problems" (in% of the number of respondents)

Despite the fact that the majority of respondents noted the absence of cases of harassment on all grounds, discrimination is also observed on a permanent basis on all grounds. This is especially common by gender (10.1%) and age (10.2%) signs. The financial (8.2%) sign and the problems of the pandemic (8.6%) are also noted by students as one of the main signs of discrimination. The least common signs of harassment are: sexual (6.6%), national (3.6%) and religious (3.6%). The latter signs are less relevant, because orientation in our country is not openly disclosed, and harassment by nationality and religion is rare due to the multinational composition of the Russian population.

The following results were obtained on the question of assessing overall satisfaction with the quality of life and financial situation. Men (21.1%) are more often satisfied with their material wealth than women (19.7%), as well as students of secondary educational institutions (26.3%). Women are more often than not completely dissatisfied with their wealth (11.2%). Students of higher educational institutions are less likely to assess their wealth positively compared to college students (36.2%) versus 19.1% according to the option "rather not satisfied").

More than half of the respondents (70.1%) are satisfied with the financial situation of their family, of which men (44.1%) and university students (44.7%) are quite satisfied. Both men and women (27.6% and 28.9%, respectively), as well as university students (32.2%) are completely satisfied with the family's prosperity. At the same time, 30.9% of women note dissatisfaction with the level of material wealth of the family, as well as 26.3% of university students.

Only 16.8% are fully satisfied with the quality of life in the region, the majority of students of colleges (20.4%) think so. University students have a more negative assessment of the quality of life in the region (46% dissatisfied). Men are less likely than women to be concerned about getting further education (25.7%). Women are concerned about earning their own housing (52.6%), employment (49.3%) and financial security (52.6%). It is also important for women to choose a locality for a comfortable life (25%) and they are more likely than men to care about their appearance (15.1%) and their own health (24.3%). Men are also concerned about the same problems as women, but in a less pronounced form. Unlike women, men think more rationally and are less exposed to emotional changes. Therefore, we can say that men are more confident in their future and in their stability.

Table 1. Distribution of respondents' answers to the question "Which of the following problems are most relevant to you?" depending on the level of education received (in% of the number of respondents).

*The sum of percentages in the table exceeds 100%, because respondents could point to several answer options.Table 1 shows that the most pressing problems for students are foreign and domestic political (57.3% and 52.3%, respectively), economic (57%) and in the field of education (40.7%).

Equally important are problems in the field of health (38.4%), ecology and pandemic problems (33.1% and 32.8%, respectively). Respondents also noted the urgency of problems in the sphere of interethnic relations (21.9%) and the spiritual sphere (16.2%).

Thus, students are concerned about problems in the field of foreign and domestic policy, as well as in the economy. Answering the question about the factors that may be the cause of people's protest behavior, there is a similar variability. The distribution of answers to this question is shown in table 2.

Table 2. Distribution of respondents' answers to the question "What do you think are the main factors that cause people's protest behavior" (in% of the number of respondents).

*The sum of percentages in the table exceeds 100%, because respondents could point to several answer options.Students see the main reasons for people's protest behavior in domestic, foreign policy and economic factors (68.4%, 54.8% and 57.8%, respectively).

In addition, students put ideological (33.6%) and psychological (31.6%), as well as ethnic/national (25.9%) and religious (20.3%) among the determining factors of protest behavior. To a lesser extent, the formation of protest behavior in people is influenced by ecology (15.6%), the pandemic (15.9%) and the spiritual sphere (13.3%). Women are more likely to note the influence of foreign and domestic policy (71.1% and 61.8%), as well as psychological state (34.9%). Men more often than women noted ethnic/national (30.2%) and religious (22.1%) reasons for people's protest behavior.

ConclusionsHaving analyzed the data on the main indicators characterizing the sources of protest moods in the student environment, the following conclusions can be drawn.

Firstly, students' assessments of the conditions of the learning environment have an impact on the formation of protest moods among students. However, it is not only the lack of material support (scholarships, financial assistance, etc.) and comfortable classrooms that form students' satisfaction with educational needs. This is also influenced by good relationships with the environment at school and at home, as well as a sense of bias in communication. In general, students are satisfied with the conditions of the learning environment, but there is a percentage of those who are completely dissatisfied and such should be paid attention to.

Secondly, the presence of problems that concern students indicates a potential risk of manifestation of protest moods, because there is a need to find solutions to them. The most urgent problems for young people are the state of affairs in the economic and political spheres, both external and internal. In this regard, there is concern about the financial situation of both the students themselves and their families, as well as problems related to their future.

Thirdly, various kinds of discrimination can become an impetus to protest actions of young people for defending their rights. This is especially true for women, because they are more often subjected to harassment compared to men. Students experiencing harassment are more likely to name their gender and age as their sources, less often their financial situation.

Fourth, the main factors that can cause people's protest behavior lie in external and internal political, as well as economic aspects. Psychological, religious and ethnic components also have an impact.

Fifth, students have an idea of the events taking place in the world / country/region, which also proves their interest in the current state of affairs. Accordingly, information about protest activity and actions taking place in the world is also viewed by students, which could potentially interest them in taking direct part.

^[1] the research was carried out with the financial support of Altai State University, the grant agreement for the implementation of research works dated 11/26/2021