Self-Direction As A Success Marker Of The Indigenous Peoples’ Economic Behaviour

Abstract

Changes in industrial development in the regions where indigenous ethnic groups inhabit the living and working conditions of the indigenous peoples of the Russian Arctic have worsened, the ecological balance of the territories has been violated, the land of traditional nature management for industrial use has been alienated. New conditions have led to new economic behaviour by indigenous peoples. The article discusses the interrelation between the self-direction as a value and the success of economic behaviour among the indigenous peoples. In order to identify the success of the economic behaviour, we used the scale of the Furnham subjective income level in the adaptation of Deineka. We compared the life values of respondents with high and low levels of subjective income and revealed the impact of the values of the self-direction on subjective economic well-being. Representatives of different age groups were interviewed, data were processed and relevant conclusions were made. The future of the indigenous peoples of the North largely depends on their own activity, on their ethnocultural potential and their self-direction. The results can be useful for developing programs to increase these representatives' independence, as well as for further work on the study of the peoples of the Russian Arctic.

Keywords: Economic behaviourindigenous ethnic groupsself-direction

Introduction

In connection with globalization trends, the problems of peoples who are living in the North in the Arctic zone of the Russia are updated (Borisov & Pochukaeva, 2016; Lar, Kurnosova, & Shchukina, 2019; Zabelina & Kurnosova, 2018). Most of the indigenous peoples of that area live on the territory outside the cities and suburbs. Their traditional way of life is based on a deep relationship - both physical and spiritual - with traditional lands, territories and natural resources, engaging in traditional economic activities that are directly related to biological resources and environmental sustainability: reindeer husbandry, hunting, fisheries, gathering and processing of products.

Possessing centuries-old experience of harmonious coexistence with nature and survival in extreme climatic conditions, the indigenous peoples of the North were not ready for emerging market relations and are struggling to adapt to changing socio-economic conditions. Contact with a developed industrial society has violated this balance, has caused and continues to damage the native habitat and traditional methods of management. (Kistova, Zamaraeva, Pimenova, Reznikova, Koptseva, & Seredkina, 2016; Luzan, Koptseva, Zabelina, Kurnosova, &Trushina, 2019; Pavlenko et al., 2017 ; Pavlov, 2016).

The fact that the territories of traditional nature management of the northern indigenous peoples are being reduced due to the direct expansion activity of oil producing enterprises, two main problems of the indigenous population arise (Detter, 2018; Izyumov & Kharamzin, 2015):

1) adverse socio-economic living conditions of the inhabitants of that area;

2) reduction of territories suitable for the development of nature management and the maintenance of the traditional life-support system of these peoples.

In recent years, the search for a way that contributes to the creation of economic living conditions for the indigenous people of the North, which meet both modern needs and real, centuries-old forms and methods of managing, has become obvious. However, the economic behaviour of the indigenous ethnic groups of the Russian Arctic has been studied extremely limited, which complicates the resolution of the problem (Lar et al., 2019; Luzan et al., 2019).

Traditionally, economic behavior defines as the behavior of people, which includes economic decisions, determinants and consequences of this decision. Economic Behavior of the person is formed by the following psychological processes such as motivation, value system, information processing, the process of social comparison and influence, subjective criteria for success and failure (Sergienko, 2002).

Detter (2019) determines the economic behavior of indigenous peoples on the following points:

1) their mentality, way of thinking, their beliefs and traditions, as well as their behavior in society and what cultural values they have;

2) their place of residence; what resources they own and how accessible markets are from a transport point of view, whether trade and economic relations are developing;

3) their geopolitical conditions and events, including relations with neighboring states, association or joining other nations and states;

4) their ethnosocial stratification and stratification by phratries, genera, classes, strata, social groups;

5) the legislative framework, namely, what laws, acts, regulatory acts exist to regulate the ethno-economy; whether support is provided to the regional economy at the state level;

6) technologies inside and outside the ethnic group and their impact on people;

7) their understanding of economic problems at the ethnic level; how educated and professionally trained they are.

Thus, we see that indigenous ethnic groups have a traditional worldview, they depend on the climate and available resources; their way of life is peculiar, and their social relations are original; the external technological environment plays an important role in their lives (Detter, 2019).

Indigenous peoples are one of the most vulnerable categories of the population and need effective government support. The Government of the Russian Federation enshrined in the decree No. 1064 "Socio-economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation" dated August 31, 2017 and updated the list of subprograms, main tasks, target indicators and rates which implementation will create conditions for accelerating improvements in socio-economic sphere of the Arctic zone, achieving strategic interests and ensuring Russia's national security in the Arctic.

We see that state support is not limited to the economic sphere, and that the social environment needs assistance to no lesser extent. The development of human Arctic capital and solving social problems will lead to a positive result in the economic aspect. The territory cannot limit itself only to the role of the creator of material values. It should serve the development of person. Therefore, the priority task is not only to increase material wealth, expressed in terms of gross regional product, but also to increase the quality of people's well-being and the development of each person's personality in a professional and spiritual sense.

Problem Statement

In modern conditions, the classical theory of analysis of economic behaviour cannot be applied to the indigenous population. An analysis of existing studies shows that this issue has been studied extremely limited, which leads to the need of development a fundamentally new model of behavioral transformation in the fields of economics of the peoples living in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. This model would take into account not only the characteristics of the global consumer society, but also the specifics of life in this region.

Research Questions

The first question we test is that representatives of indigenous peoples with high and low levels of subjective income have differences in the level of self-direction. The second questions we answer is that people with the higher level of self-direction demonstrate more successful economic behavior than people with the low level of self-direction.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to determine whether self-direction is a factor affecting the success of economic behavior of indigenous ethnic groups.

Research Methods

The study involved 105 people. These are representatives of Nenets nationality aged 17 to 73 years (average age 28.6), including 42 men, 63 women living in the villages of Aksarka and Yar-Sale (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), as well as in the city of Naryan-Mar. In order to identify the success of economic behavior, the scale of the Furnham (Furnham, 1996) subjective income level in the adaptation of Deineka and Zabelina (2018) was used. Respondents were asked to rate their income on a 7-point scale (1– very low, 7 - very high).

The main method of diagnosing life values was an extended and updated version of Schwartz et al. (2001) PVQ-R questionnaire, adapted by scholars from the National Research University "Higher School of Economics". The convenience of this adaptation is that along with 19 refined values, it provides an opportunity to diagnose 10 basic values identified in the original concept, thus making a comparison with previous studies.

According to Schwartz and Bilsky (1987), personal values are considered as types of motivational goals. They view values as often unconscious criteria for a person's choice and evaluation of his/her actions, other people and events. Schwartz and Bilsky (1987) claim that values are the desired goals and behavior patterns contributing to the achievement of these goals. Values have their own hierarchy – a system of value priorities, which allows characterizing both individuals and different cultures.

In the method of studying personal values, Schwartz identified ten motivationally different types of values, which include the following:

1. Power as the desire for social status or prestige, domination over people and resources.

2. Achievement as personal success through competence demonstration according to social standards, success and ambitiousness.

3. Hedonism as pleasure or sensual pleasure, satisfaction of biological needs and then pleasure experienced.

4. Stimulation as the desire for novelty and deep feelings.

5. Self - direction as independence of thinking and action decision in creativity and research activity.

6. Universalism as understanding, tolerance and protection of well-being of all people and nature.

7. Benevolence as preservation and improvement of well-being of close people who the individual is in personal contact with: utility, loyalty, condescension, honesty, responsibility, friendship, mature love.

8. Tradition as respect, acceptance of customs and ideas that exist in the culture and following them.

9. Conformity as control and prevention of actions, as well as propensities and motivations to actions that may harm others or do not meet social expectations: obedience, self-discipline, politeness, respect for parents and elders.

10. Security as security for other people and oneself, harmony, stability of society and elationships. It is based on the need for adaptability and predictability of the world, reducing uncertainty.

We carried out mathematical and statistical data using the statistical package SPSS 21.0. In order to compare the life values ​​of respondents with high and low levels of subjective income, we used Man-Whitney U-test. For identifying the influence of the value of self-direction on subjective economic well-being (level of success of economic behaviour), we applied a regression analysis (linear regression).

Findings

At the first stage, we tested the hypothesis about the difference in values ​​of self-direction as a desire to independently think and act among representatives of indigenous peoples with varying degrees of success in economic behaviour. For this, we divided the entire sample into 2 groups according to the criterion of satisfaction with their income level. Further, in these groups, the indicator of life values ​​was compared (Table 1 ).

Table 1 -
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As we can see from the table, only the value of self-direction has significant differences in groups where levels of subjective income diverge, and in the group of indigenous peoples who value their income more highly, the value of self-direction is higher. It can be concluded that representatives of the indigenous peoples who demonstrate more successful economic behaviour tend to be more independent in their thoughts and actions, and they show greater creativity and activity in their lives. Thus, the first hypothesis was confirmed – self-direction really serves as a marker that distinguishes economically more successful representatives of indigenous peoples.

Further, the hypothesis was tested on whether the value of self-direction affects the formation of the success of economic behaviour. For this purpose, a regression analysis was carried out, where the subjective income level acted as an independent variable, and life values ​​acted as dependent variables (Tables 2 and 3 ).

Table 2 -
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The results of the regression analysis reliably showed the significant contribution of self-direction as a life value to the success of the indigenous economic behaviour. The second model for the formation of successful economic behaviour is the contribution of combining a high level of the value of self- direction and traditions. Probably, making effective economic decisions, the indigenous peoples' representatives rely on their opinion, formed by the experience and traditions of the people.

Table 3 -
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Conclusion

The future of the indigenous peoples of the North largely depends on their own activity, on how and how much their ethnocultural potential and their independence will be involved. It is this approach that will allow the indigenous peoples of the North not to get lost in the era of globalization and prove their own historical viability. At the same time, the solution of this problem is impossible without the comprehensive assistance of the state, the effectiveness of which can be seen in the near future.

This is essential to find a way which will bring the traditional industries and lifestyles of the indigenous ethnic groups to a new modern technical, technological and organizational level using prevailing and centuries-old experience of economic life conditions: changes in the field of upbringing and education, cultural and leisure, family and household spheres with the aim of preservation and development national culture, ethnic identity.

Acknowledgments

The funding for the reported study was provided by RFBR according to the research project № 19-013-00394 “Transformation of the economic behaviour of the indigenous peoples of the North living in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation in the context of globalization”.

References

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About this article

Publication Date

03 August 2020

eBook ISBN

978-1-80296-085-3

Publisher

European Publisher

Volume

86

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Edition Number

1st Edition

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Subjects

Sociolinguistics, linguistics, semantics, discourse analysis, translation, interpretation

Cite this article as:

Bobykina, I. A., Koleeva, E. R., Kurnosova, S. A., Shchukina, K. E., & Zabelina, E. V. (2020). Self-Direction As A Success Marker Of The Indigenous Peoples’ Economic Behaviour. In N. L. Amiryanovna (Ed.), Word, Utterance, Text: Cognitive, Pragmatic and Cultural Aspects, vol 86. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 122-129). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.08.15