Growing Up in a Small Town: From Responsibility for Others to Self-Responsibility
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2023.6.2353Keywords:
growing up, transition to adulthood, models of growing up, markers of growing up, youthAbstract
The article focuses on the interpretations of adulthood and growing up among residents of small cities in Russia. The authors analyze the features and markers of growing up in cities with population of less than 200.000 (using the examples of Belorechensk, Vyborg, and Kamensk-Uralsky), based on biographical interviews with residents aged 28—33 years and 38—43 years. The discovered markers are compared with the characteristics and markers of growing up identified in the previous research regarding residents of megacities. The growing up is considered based on the ideal-typical (societal expectations) and individual (one’s own interpretation) models. The authors conclude that one of the main characteristics of growing up among residents of small towns is the “responsibility” that they take for other people (parents, children, other family members), while among megacities’ residents such “responsibility” extends only to themselves. Separation from parents for residents of small towns may not occur for quite a long time, but this does not in any way affect the feeling of being an adult. In this group, awareness of the significance of one’s own decisions is more important than physical separation, while for residents of megacities, complete separation from parents is a more striking marker of growing up, which is perceived as an achievement. The birth of the first child is not always a conscious step for residents of small towns and therefore not a clear sign of adulthood. For residents of megacities, parenthood is a clear sign of their own maturation, since this is the most conscious step in their life, often occurring after separation from parents and ensuring a stable income. Comparing markers of maturation among residents of small and large cities, the authors conclude that the traditional model of growing up is more suitable for the former, while the modern model of growing up applies to the latter.
Acknowledgments. This work uses the results of the project “Growing Up of Russian Youth in the 21st Century: Generational Analysis”, carried out within the framework of the HSE University Basic Research Program in 2022. The authors express their gratitude to the project leader Elena Omelchenko and coordinator Nadezhda Nartova, and thank their colleagues Daria Petrunina, Irina Lisovskaya, and Anastasia Sablina for the joint collection of field materials. The authors are also grateful to the informants who agreed to be interviewed.
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