The selections in this issue of the Russian Social Science Review converge, from their authors’ varied points of view, on a heightened awareness of unpredictability. In “Race for the Future,” psychologist Aleksandr G. Asmolov describes the stress of adapting to today’s rapid pace of change—which has driven many to long for an “escape from freedom”—and the challenge of preparing young people to deal with the uncertainty, complexity, and diversity of modern life. In “Meeting Tomorrow’s Expectations,” Oleg A. Podolskiy and Varvara A. Pogozhina discuss the key competencies of problem solving, information literacy, and critical thinking, which—come what may—will equip students to solve complex tasks and future problems by using critical analysis and assessing the information that is available. Alexandra A. Bochaver and her coauthors observe that some young people recoil from the challenges of setting reasonable goals and planning a life course, and instead, obsessively record their most mundane experiences and attempt to distinguish themselves in other ways, including by engaging in reckless behavior.
Sociologist Natalia Tikhonova, drawing on materials from a number of national studies, traces the evolution of the “Russian dream” as people have come around to the view that it is not a replication of the Western path. In the ideal, the Russian civilizational project is built on the dream of a just and rationally organized society, but in recent times it has ceded space to dreams about personal well-being—some minimum amount of prosperity, health, and happiness for one’s children (in their own apartments). Perhaps it should not be surprising, then, that this inward turning finds reflection in speculative fiction. In “High Waves, Quiet Backwaters,” literary critic Sergei Shikharev surveys the current generation of fantasy and science fiction writers in Russia. Rather than futuristic projections, their works tend to be concerned with “the inner psychological space, as opposed to outer space.” They are literary, introverted, and even sentimental, set in “far-off, invented cities, which are backwaters that almost completely lack any social problems or political turmoil.” And here, the reader who wishes to resist the pull of escapism may want to return to Professor Asmolov’s article!
—P.A.K.