New opportunities for regional development: From social tension to social cooperation

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a monitoring study on the social well-being of the residents of Krasnoyarsk carried out between September 2013 and November 2014; the results are compared with those of nationwide studies and are interpreted by the author’s model to assess social tension and anxiety. The unique situation of 2014 is shown, when in spite of a rise in social tension and anxiety, the level of protest activity started to decrease. The conditions facilitating such a social phenomenon are considered. Sources of growing trust in major political and social institutions are identified. The characteristics of opportunities for cooperation between the population and the authorities are given. A significant increase in conformist attitudes is reported. The brevity of such “social peace” and the inevitability of the transition to another character of social relations, if there are no new regional development strategies, are noted.