Changing social reality: a reflection on theoretical and empirical aspects of sociological research on youth

The processes of social reality formation and changes as well as the role of youth in these processes are analyzed in the article from the phenomenological point of view. Both formation and change are considered in the interaction of objective and subjec-tive aspects of human life, where the objective side is determined by the living condi-tions and culture of society, and the subjective side is defined by the semantic con-structions and images of reality, arising in the minds of people in the process of social interactions. Meaning-making is fundamental to the formation of reality, and the ba-sis for the continuity of meaning-images, their deconstruction and "reassembly" are linked to the process of reproduction and change of reality, in which young people play a key role. The theme of youth in a changing reality is examined through the prism of changing human existence in a dynamically changing world, in the context of changing the semantic foundations of reality. The article illustrates changes in the understanding of reality phenomena by young people, the meanings given to the ob-jects of reality and the practices of young people's life, which are constructed in in-teraction with these objects. Examples of changes made by the young generation at each stage of constructing reality and their manifestation in different spheres of life are given. Contradictions between different aspects – objective and subjective, tradi-tional and modern, conscious and unconscious, social and cultural in the mechanism of formation and change of social reality in the youth environment are described. Theoretical reasoning and empirical approaches to the analysis of changes are based on many years of sociological research carried out by the Centre of Sociology of Youth ISPR FCTAS RAS as part of the study of the mechanisms of interaction be-tween youth and society.