The social bottom is called a special class (category) of citizens, which consists of people who, as it were, find themselves outside of modern civilization. It is also called the underclass - the lowest layer of society, consisting of homeless people, vagrants, homeless people, drug addicts and alcoholics, as well as prostitutes, in general, all those who lead an obscene, by the standards of an ordinary person, lifestyle. Those who were on social day, are called outcasts, beggars, homeless people, etc. This category of society can contribute to an increase in crime.
Poverty Studies
Vagabonds and vagrants sometimes become the object of scientific research. So, according to one of them, not only low-skilled workers, but also those who had good qualifications in the past, find themselves on the social bottom. They make up about a quarter of the representatives of the lower stratum of society. Quite significant among them is the share of the former intelligentsia - from 10 to 15 percent.
According to one of the experts in sociology, E. N. Zaborov, the world community should pay more attention to the problems of employment. Otherwise, in the future, 4/5 of the total number of residents may be left without a livelihood, while the remaining 20% will become even richer. Unfortunately, such a separation is very relevant for modern Russia. As a result of these processes, most of the citizens of our country may end up at the bottom.
The consequence will be the disappearance of the middle class, as well as the likely emergence of conflict situations due to social inequality.
Social bottom in literature
The stratification into rich and poor has become main theme some works and feature films. The long-term consequences of all these processes are colorfully described in the book by Herbert Wells "The Time Machine". In this novel, the poor and deprived of their homes and prosperity gradually went underground, making room on the surface of the earth for the rich elite. Over time, even the biology of these people has changed. The representatives of the lower class from the underground turned into almost colorless small creatures with twilight vision, and those who lived in paradise on the surface became defenseless and naive creatures with a harmonious but fragile body.
In cinematography
The film "The Destroyer" with Sylvester Stallone in the title role describes a future where the descendants of the exfoliated lower class lived in the underground catacombs, eating rats, and on the surface of the earth - rich members of the elite. The hatred that existed between them formed the basis of this feature film.
Bottom social life in its current form is vividly illustrated in the movie Home Alone 2. The protagonist of this film, a boy named Kevin, had a chance to see him "in all its glory". Episodes showing the life of the homeless and vagrants are found in many American films.
Poverty in the Russian Federation
The social bottom in Russia is quite well expressed. According to Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences T. I. Zaslavskaya, there are 4 strata of society in our country: upper, middle, basic and lower. separate category the scientist identifies the so-called desocialized social bottom. Its main feature is complete alienation from the main social institutions and, conversely, involvement in criminal or partially criminalized groups. All this leads to the loss of abilities for a normal civilized life and desocialization. In her opinion, representatives of the bottom in Russia are people engaged in illegal criminal activities and engaged in banditry, theft, illegal underground trade, maintenance of brothels, as well as homeless people, drug addicts, vagrants, alcoholics and prostitutes.
According to I. M. Ilyinsky, in 2007 there were 14 million people at the bottom. Of these, 4 million are homeless and the same number are homeless children, 3 are beggars and 3 more are prostitutes.
According to Academician Inozemtsev, up to 15% of the total population fall into the category of the lower strata. At the same time, the same number of people have borderline incomes between poverty and poverty. However, they do not fall out of the general canons of life and remain within the framework of a civilized society. But if the socio-economic situation in the country worsens, this second group can easily merge with the first, which will lead to a dangerous transformation of society and an increase in tension in the country.
According to the sociologist N. D. Vavilina, the social bottom consists of homeless people, the homeless, ex-prisoners, beggars, alcoholics and drug addicts, homeless people, refugees and prostitutes.
Why do people go to the "bottom"?
In addition to those who become marginalized by their “vocation” (the so-called professional homeless), many fall out of civilized life due to a combination of circumstances, the lack of clear life goals and life strategies, addiction to alcohol and / or drugs, and sometimes due to pliability in in terms of defending their own rights and interests. Children can also become homeless for a variety of reasons.
Personal tragedies, dissatisfaction with society, widespread unemployment and social stratification. Many limit themselves to drinking and/or wallowing in depression, but some go even further, thus falling out of the modern bustle of life.
The cruelty of modern life
Today's life is inherently no less cruel than it was several centuries ago. Only the form of this cruelty has changed, but the struggle for survival and a place under the sun, unfortunately, have not disappeared anywhere, they still play a leading role. If earlier such qualities as strength and endurance came to the fore, now it is intelligence, ingenuity, stress resistance, the ability to join a team, etc. Not everyone is able to cope with all these loads, and chronic stress has become problem No. 1 at 21 century. social injustice and social inequality, including the massive spread of nepotism in modern Russia, leave obviously fewer chances for the majority of citizens of our country to meet their needs. At the same time, the so-called elite, on the contrary, enjoy privileges and an additional amount of social and material benefits.
Signs of stratification are clearly visible in the comparison of living standards in the Russian capital and in the regions.
Losing a job can also cause a change in lifestyle in a negative direction.
Varieties of representatives of the bottom
Depending on the circumstances in which a particular person finds himself, and his personal characteristics, there are several types of marginals of the social bottom:
- People Their appearance is often associated with deprivation of housing due to divorce, deceit or lack of means of subsistence. It can also be caused by serving a prison sentence. Those who are mired in debts and unable to pay them off can also become homeless. In the US, there are also homeless "by vocation" who choose this way of life on purpose. Homeless people prefer landfills and other filthy places away from the hustle and bustle of the city. However, they can also be located in crowded areas (stations, underground passages). Often homeless people have an average or higher education.
- Beggars who make money by begging passers-by. They can be found at train stations and other crowded places. They can either have their own housing or be deprived of it. In the second case, there is no clear line between the beggar and the homeless.
- Homeless children. They were left homeless due to the loss of their parents or on their own initiative (as a rule, against the backdrop of a conflict with their parents). In the future, homeless children can become homeless.
- Street prostitutes who do not work officially and receive their income from random clients. They can be found on the streets, especially in hot places. There are even children among them. A quarter of street prostitutes do not have a place of residence, that is, they are homeless. The minimum age is 14 years old. Often they are associated with criminal activity, drug addiction, alcoholism. These factors are often also the reasons why these people slide into the social ranks.
How do the inhabitants of the bottom live?
Two-thirds of the people who are at the bottom social society, are men. The most common age for homeless people and beggars is 45 years old, for prostitutes - 28 years old, for homeless people - 10 years old. The smallest street children are 6 years old, and the poorest - 12 years old. Most of those who found themselves at the "bottom" recently experience a feeling of despair and hopelessness, and those who have already got used to such a life experience hopeless calmness.
Street children are more optimistic.
Homeless people choose landfills, basements, railway stations, heating mains and sewage systems as their place of residence. Vagabonds and homeless people are distinguished by the maximum unsettled life. In addition to begging for money from passers-by, beggars can collect metal, glass containers, food and things in landfills; use temporary jobs. They eat low quality food and often in insufficient quantities. Many do not use medication at all. Vagabonds and homeless people, as a rule, do not use the services of doctors. Among prostitutes, about a third of their total number go to medical institutions.
What the statistics say
Almost 50% of the representatives of the social bottom do not see any way out of their situation, and 36% allow one. Most of them hope for social assistance and the opportunity to find a job in a low-skilled job, for medical and material assistance, and for the opening of free food outlets. However, the attitude of ordinary people to representatives of the social bottom is mostly negative.
Being on the margins of society is typical for 10% of the urban population. According to statistics, there are about the same number of beggars as there are homeless people, a little less homeless children and much less street prostitutes. Homeless are 10 percent of the total number of children. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs Russian Federation, homeless children in Russia from 100 to 350 thousand people.
The danger of representatives
People who are on the social bottom are not always peaceful. Difficult living conditions and a sense of desperation or a criminal past make its representatives quite dangerous to society. They may be armed, including firearms, and prone to violence. Many may be under the influence of intoxicants. There are many criminalized personalities among prostitutes. Vagabonds and beggars are less often associated with crime and there are fewer of them dangerous people.
Those who are on the brink
The process of stratification of society in our country is clearly expressed. On the one hand, the incomes of many already poor Russians are falling. On the other hand, those who are already well settled in their current lives become even richer. Therefore, more and more people are approaching the brink of the social bottom. Characteristically, if wealthy citizens look to the future more often with optimism (or neutrality), then representatives of the poor, on the contrary, with anxiety, fear, pessimism and despair. All this breeds apathy and depression and thus reduces the incentive to fight further. That is, it predetermines an even greater downward slide. According to statistics, more than 80% of the poor experience a constant feeling of anxiety. Many people worry about the risk of sudden dismissal, loss of a job and the inability to find a replacement, the risk of non-payment of salaries and sharp growth prices. And this is understandable, because all these factors can generally deprive a person of their livelihood.
The problem of the poor in Russia is most often seen by them in the risk of losing even more than in dissatisfaction with their current situation, to which they are somehow already accustomed. Being, thus, representatives of the bottom, they can at any moment be thrown out to the real social bottom.
In the category of the Don, you can meet educated, qualified and unskilled people, as well as citizens without education. Most of them are not to blame for the current situation, but turned out to be hostages of external circumstances in which they could not get along or even did not have such an opportunity. Most of them are unable to radically change their situation without external support. The only way to get away from the state of panic for many of them is faith in God.
Conclusion
Thus, main reason appearance of the lower social stratum are unfavorable living conditions for people. Those who find themselves on the social bottom are called outcasts, beggars, homeless people, etc. According to forecasts, there may be even more of them in the future.
Shot from the series "Black Mirror"
In the third season of the series "Black Mirror" there is such an episode "Dive" (Nosedive). According to the plot of the episode, the main character Lacey lives in a world where people can rate each other and influence their personal rating. To be able to buy a house in a good area, to get a priority right to a plane ticket before a flight, to rent a car, and finally, just to get to a party with wealthy and respectable people, you need a high rating. If the rating is low, the window of opportunity narrows significantly, and the person "dives" to the social bottom - in fact, hence the name of the series.
Do you think it's dystopian? And here it is not.
Great and Beautiful China is already actively building a "social credit" system. So far, this is all at the experimental level in several cities, but by 2020 the authorities are going to create a behavior assessment system for all 1.4 billion citizens.
Each citizen is initially assigned a rating of 1000 points. If you have done something positive from the point of view of the state (for example, you have moved your grandmother across the road or snitched on a neighbor using a VPN) - and your rating goes up: you get 30 points. The rating has grown, and you are given a discount on utility bills, bank loans - at a reduced rate. According to some rumors, even on dating sites, your profile is in priority.
But here you are (for some reason) did not pay taxes on time. Crossed the street in the wrong place. Violated parking rules (minus 5 points). Light a cigarette outside the smoking area... Your rating is going down. The rating has fallen too low - and you cannot buy a plane ticket and a train, you cannot buy real estate and a car, your child will not go to good school and you won't get access to high speed internet! What a convenient!
As conceived by the authorities, the system is designed in such a way that "trustworthy people could travel all over the Celestial Empire, and unreliable people could not even take a step"!
The most interesting thing is that the rating works, even if the person or the company does not follow it. Many people find out that their rating is too low only when they are no longer allowed on the plane. And there are quite a lot of them: according to the data given in the official newspaper "Global Times", more than 11 million people have not been allowed to board the plane, another 4 million people - to the train. And before you had to think!
Why is all this being done? The state, as usual, justifies itself by saying that the people it has come across are not like that. The same newspaper "Global Times" notes that "modern Chinese society is stricken with a disease of distrust - that's where corruption, expired vaccines, fraud, tax evasion and plagiarism in dissertations come from!"
From all this, of course, the state and social rating will save! Yang Lihong, a resident of the city where the experiment is being conducted, also thinks so: "I trust the state. And who else should I trust if not him?" True, for some reason she decided to speak with reporters under a fictitious name, in fact her name is not Yang Lihong.
Sooner or later, this system will spread everywhere. Do you think it won't affect you? You don't get drunk and you don't get rowdy on the plane, you don't cross the street in the wrong place, you pay your taxes on time? You really hope. It's like with "Telegram" and "Navalny's buzzers": sooner or later you will simply be confronted with the fact of blocking the Internet, your child will not be allowed to go to school, and you will not be given a driver's license. You had to think before.
"Social bottom": what is it?
Definition 1
The social “bottom” is a collective concept that refers to people who do not have a profession, education, and do not have sufficiently stable behavior. In addition, representatives of the social bottom are people with pronounced aggressive asocial behavior who suffer from various physical and mental illnesses, as well as from a number of bad habits(drug addiction, alcohol and nicotine addiction).
In fact, the social bottom is rejected by the rest of society, but at the same time, few people can realistically assess its size and level of coverage. Special studies that were carried out within the framework of this problem singled out four key groups people who are the basis of the so-called marginalized "social bottom". Let's list them:
- Beggars who openly beg in public places (unemployed, homeless, orphans, gypsies);
- Persons without a fixed place of residence (homeless) who have lost their homes due to the emergence of the housing market. But not everyone loses their homes of their own free will: some are kicked out of their homes by their own relatives, and they have no choice but to live on the street. There is also no money to rent an apartment or a room, since most often people without a fixed place of residence do not work anywhere;
- Homeless children, orphans. There are two ways in which they faced such a life: the loss of their parents or running away from home for own will. Most often, the child is in a dangerous situation for himself, and for this reason he prefers to stay at home living on the street and begging to buy necessary goods (food);
- Street prostitutes. You can also include children who are forced to engage in prostitution and lead an asocial lifestyle in order to somehow survive.
Signs of social bottom groups
Representatives of the social bottom, despite their gender, age and the reasons why they were forced to lead such a lifestyle, have common features. First of all, these are people who are in a state of social exclusion. They do not have social resources to meet their own needs, there are no sustainable social connections with the outside world.
Remark 1
In fact, these people and representatives of certain social groups have lost their social skills and do not support the norms and values that are accepted in society.
Nevertheless, the social bottom groups that we listed in the previous part of our work have their own specifics, but the lines between them are rather blurred. For example, a person without a fixed place of residence may also be a beggar. A child who escapes from parental abuse can become a homeless person. All representatives of the social bottom have signs, features of the formation of their social group, as well as socio-demographic properties, according to which in scientific knowledge they should be identified and distinguished from each other.
The key feature of a beggar is to beg on the streets. These people do not have their own source of income, or it is not enough to feed other family members. If there is no help from the state, society, as well as from close relatives, then a person is forced to beg in order to somehow earn. The main feature of a person without a fixed place of residence is the lack of a roof over his head. As a rule, a person finds himself in such a situation in case of deception, sale of housing. Some simply drink it or pawn it in exchange for drugs. Naturally, they do not receive their housing back, which leads to their street life.
A sign of another group - homeless children - is their age. Most often they are children from 6 to 17 years old. To some extent, they were rejected by the family (cruel attitude of parents, denial of parental rights, the presence of bad habits). Sometimes children are taken home from nurseries, but later, the trustees, realizing the full degree of responsibility, refuse the children, and they already experience a double betrayal. Homeless children are both hooligans and just children who have decided that life on the street is the only way out of this situation. Nevertheless, the street criminogenic situation makes them cruel, demanding of society. They are the heroes of criminal reports on minor offenses, thefts, robberies, attacks.
In general, the grouping of the "social bottom" can also be made into two key groups. They differ not only in signs, but also in the reasons for which they found themselves in such a situation. So, the first group of the “social bottom” includes those people and categories of citizens who ended up at the bottom because of their immoral, dangerous behavior for others. In addition, they are distinguished by laziness, unwillingness to look for work, additional legal income, education is also considered not a prestigious option. Such people are vicious, envious, but because of impatience they cannot achieve sufficient success, therefore, as a result, instead of a luxurious life, they are left with nothing. They love "handouts" from the outside, income "for nothing", but they rarely do their work efficiently and competently, because it takes time, and they prefer to spend more on vacation.
The second group, which belongs to the social bottom - people who were deprived of support from the state, their loved ones. Life is rarely fair to them. These are old people, lonely pensioners, people without a fixed place of residence who have lost their homes due to the manipulations of scammers. Also it is the vagabonds and those who do not receive social assistance from the outside. As we can see, both groups have the same results of their lives - lack of housing, earnings, means of subsistence. At the same time, the circumstances under which they faced such conditions differ. In this situation, a person can be helped if only he himself seeks to improve the conditions of his life, as well as his position in society.
Sections: History and social studies
Lesson Objectives:
- To give students an idea of the nature, features and trends in the development of social relations in modern world and especially in our society.
- Continue to develop general educational skills: comparative analysis phenomena and processes, differences in facts and assessments, opinions and evidence, correlations between theoretical generalizations and real processes.
- To help schoolchildren realize their own social position and possible prospects for changing it.
Equipment: fiction, textbooks, magazines, illustrations.
Basic concepts: society, social structure, social status, outcasts, lumpen, social bottom, underclasses.
DURING THE CLASSES
Preliminary stage. In the previous lesson, the students were divided into groups. Each group was given a task: from fiction, films, as well as from real life, to select material about the way of life, forms of behavior that characterize the so-called social "bottom".
I. Beginning of the lesson
Motivation: Set up for the lesson. Wishing good luck to each other in solving a very difficult task.
Goal setting: Students must independently determine and set the objectives of the lesson.
Children should pay special attention to the attitude of society towards these people.
II. Working with terms and concepts
It is important that students remember or write down the concepts and terms with which they will work.
Writing on the board: society, social structure, social status, marginal, lumpen, social bottom.
1. Dive into the problem."Meetings" with representatives of the marginalized segments of the population. (Fragment of the film)
Groups of students present the information they have collected to the class and give verbal portraits people who find themselves on the social "day"
2. Discussion: determination of positions. At this stage, the guys should determine what, in their opinion, should be the position of the state towards this group, as well as determine their own position in relation to it.
The discussion begins with the following questions:
- Who are these people - the "dregs" of society, who consciously chose such a way of life, or persons in need of help and special care?
- Is the state obliged to spend money to help such people?
In order to avoid semitones in the proposed assessments, the question should be posed in a rather rigid formulation "either" - "or".
3. Statements of students and their position on this problem
- In my opinion, the state should help socially unprotected segments of the population - pensioners, disabled children, large families.
- I believe that the state needs to take care of the development of education and medicine, and not spend the money of such people who are not even trying to get out of this "bottom".
- In today's society, everyone has an equal opportunity.
- Each person is the master of his own destiny, each must take care of himself, and not wait for "handouts" from the state.
- The people of the social "bottom" are the degraded, lazy, former prisoners, the homeless who live in basements, slums or garbage dumps - they most often do not try to get out of this "bottom".
- The homeless, vagrants, the unemployed are people first and foremost, and they also need help. There is no guarantee that trouble will not happen to you tomorrow and you will not end up on the street. The state is obliged to help its citizens in difficult circumstances. no one is immune from fire, war or other natural disasters. Some people, having lost their passport or become a victim of scammers, may become homeless. Those people who are in trouble need help.
III. Relaxation
IV. Problematization and group work
The result of the previous work should be an understanding by children of the very problem of the relationship of society and the state to representatives of the social “bottom”. The guys see that even in the classroom the attitude towards these people is different, their problems, the possibility and need to help them are different.
The topic of the social "bottom" raised in the lesson is very complex and ambiguous, there are many rhetorical questions that do not require immediate answers.
How to determine - who consciously chose such a life for himself, and who sank to the "bottom" due to difficult life circumstances, and is it even possible to determine this?
If the state serves a person, then should it divide people into those worthy of his care and those unworthy?
A person is always a person or only when he meets social standards, i.e. similar to others in their behavior and lifestyle?
And if you look at all this through the eyes of the people we are talking about today?
V. Health-saving pause
The children are encouraged to work again in groups.
Imagine yourself in the place of these very representatives of the marginalized strata of the population and try to reproduce their views on themselves, society, and the state.
The guys immediately note the wary attitude of these people to the state, to the authorities.
They characterize those around them as indifferent, callous people who do not understand their problems, do not show any sympathy for them, reject and despise them.
Students describe the self-perception of these people in the following terms: hopelessness, doom, abandonment, uncertainty, pessimism.
It should also be noted that, in addition to the moral side of the problem of attitudes towards the marginalized strata of society, there is also a political one.
It lies in the fact that the presence of a large stratum of such people in the social structure poses a certain danger to democracy.
As a rule, it is these people who dream of order and justice, who sincerely believe in all sorts of election promises, and then, disappointed in democratic principles that did not bring them real material benefits, begin to support extremist forces and aid terrorists.
How should the policy of the state manifest itself in these cases?
In the next lesson, students are invited to determine the policy of the state for themselves.
VI. Continuation of the discussion
In order to diversify the range of positions that the students developed at the beginning of the lesson, it is proposed to discuss the well-known formula of social assistance in the West: "it is better to give the needy not a fish, but a fishing rod".
Groups of students express their point of view, argue.
Then the guys offer their specific options for social assistance to marginalized groups of the population.
VII. Homework: To finally decide, formalize and draw up a program of state policy in relation to the social "bottom".
VIII. Reflection
A) Students at the end of the lesson in groups should fill out a table and evaluate (reflect) the dynamics of their own position on this issue: "Have you confirmed your initial opinion, have you added something different to it or changed it completely?"
B) I distribute sheets with clusters to the guys. I propose around this keyword or in this case the concept of "social "bottom", to prescribe a personal attitude and an idea about it. The result of filling in the cluster.
IX. Summarizing
