Trofimova, I. N. Territorial Communities and Social Development of Youth: Levels, Models and Structures of Influence

Abstract: The article is devoted to the problem of influence of a territorial community on the social development of youth. Territorial communities are viewed as the social institutional environment which specifics are defined by the structure, content of the environment and internal and external interactions. Special attention is paid to the problem of the social and territorial inequality as the factor of social disadvantages of youth, negative socialization and distribution of deviant forms of behavior in their environment. As the main reason of social inequality of youth, the author views the reduction of the social institutional capacities of territorial communities which is typical for low-resource territories. Analyzing the problem, the author of the article takes into account the main provisions of the theory of influence of the local community and the theory of social disorganization. These theories allow to conceptualize the role of the territorial community as the critical element in creation of social disadvantages of youth. The author concludes that the development of the youth is dependent on peculiarities of the surrounding social and institutional environment and therefore the main element of work with the youth should be arrangement of both everyday and planned activities on development of the social cohesion of territorial communities. One of the most important conditions for defining the priorities of social policy and planning social service programs should be the solution of the problems of youth from the point of view of their social and territorial inequality.

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