The Value Sphere of Native and Newcomer Youth in Their Subjective Assessment of the Environment of a Megalopolis

IntroductionThe modern world is a civilization of cities. The development of society, technology, culture, wealth, and new knowledge are today the primary functions of cities but not of other socio-territorial formations. Cities are now centers of freight logistics, information, and social streams. Therefore, the fullness of city life -- especially if we speak about a large city with multiple events and a large number of alternatives for work, leisure, education, sources of information, services, and other benefits (Kogan, 1990) -- makes this type of settlement the most attractive location for many groups of people. This attraction is also evidenced by the population growth of large Russian cities (including as a result of internal migration) and the sparser rural population (Volkova, Sokolov, & Terentyev, 2015).The development of modern cities depends on their human resources -- that is to say, on their populations. Therefore, to attract and retain in the city the "creative class" -- young people -- the city has to create conditions for its future development. To this end, many cities have implemented targeted programs of social support for young people and the formation of specific conditions of the urban environment conducive to the maximum fulfillment of the capacity of their young residents. Thus, in the strategic development plan of the municipality of Ekaterinburg (Strategic development plan of Ekaterinburg through 2020, 2010), one of the priorities is the development of conditions for active self-determination and self-realization of young people as the carriers of innovation. However, the socioeconomic-development strategy for Moscow (Strategy for the socio-economic development of Moscow through 2025, 2012) emphasizes that one of the major challenges will be the reduction of the population of 20-35 year-olds by a third; as a result, Moscow will become a city with a strongly deformed age structure. In connection with these trends special attention in the development strategy of Moscow is paid to the mechanisms for creating special conditions to attract the people necessary for a megalopolis: representatives of "the creative class," highly qualified specialists, as well as active, talented youth.A significant proportion of young people migrate actively inside the country. For example, more than 70% of high school graduates from small settlements moved to the Central federal region. And, in 2013, 114,347 people from rural settlements arrived in the cities of the Ural federal region; of them 39,754 people were from other regions of the Russian Federation and 74,593 migrated inside the Ural federal region[1] (Migration inside Russia by the territories of arrival and departure, 2014).141The experience of living in certain places affects the perceptions and environmental preferences of people. They may prefer or look for what they are accustomed to (Hauge, 2007). When they transfer their residence experience in other areas to the urban environment, certain risks of pseudourbanization are created. But also arriving in cities are young people with increasing experience of interaction within an urban community; they are changing themselves more and more, and the city and its way of life have already become for them a measure for evaluating environmental living conditions. The acquired experience of life in a city creates the individual stories of young people as citizens who identify themselves with the city. Identity with place is formed through a combination of human-ascribed meanings and values of a particular location (for example, a city) and various features (Lalli, 1992). Thus the urban environment becomes for young people a place of opportunities for self-realization. This process takes place with a background of the risks of urban life, and the goals that young people set reflect their need-motivational bases of personality.A city concentrates opportunities, but young people are quite aware of the obvious disadvantages of the artificial, highly dynamic environment of a city (Kruzhkova, 2014); this environment runs counter to the natural conformity built up for thousands of years by the rural way of life that was typical for the majority of the population of Russia one hundred years ago (Bondyreva & Kolesov, 2004). …