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Komornikova O.M. [Human capital and social change] World of Science. Series: Sociology, Philology, Cultural Studies, 2021, Vol. 12, No. 3. Available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/17SCSK321.pdf (in Russian).

Human capital and social change

Komornikova Olga Mikhailovna
Shadrinsk State Pedagogical University, Shadrinsk, Russia
E-mail: olya.orexovo@yandex.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5048-3627
RSCI: https://elibrary.ru/author_profile.asp?id=855666

Abstract. The article deals with the problem of the relationship between human capital and social changes. The starting point for the analysis was various concepts of modernization and transformation. Based on the specifics of the current stage of society’s development, the concept of transformation seems more appropriate for understanding the processes of social change, since it focuses on qualitative changes, the emergence of new social patterns. The concept of modernization is less acceptable, since it focuses on changes according to a certain accepted scale of improvements and can generate additional contradictions in determining the direction of social transformations.

An attempt is made to consider from the standpoint of a systematic approach the role played by human capital in determining the direction of social changes, the effective functioning of their mechanism.

The author emphasizes that human capital is not something new that society needs to create from scratch. The development of the conceptual foundations of its study began not so long ago, but the characteristics that make up the essence of its content have been spoken about for more than one century. Objective changes in social relations expand the list of these characteristics.

The concept of human capital allows us to more accurately identify the direction of social changes through the specification of personality qualities necessary for the transformation of the existing system of relations.

Its role in the mechanism of social change is twofold. Most often, it is spoken of as a resource of qualitative transformation, that is, without the dissemination of certain personality qualities at the mass level, transformational processes may become impossible. On the other hand, social changes that have already clearly identified themselves stimulate the development of human capital and the maintenance of its quality.

The study of this phenomenon allows us to understand the multilevel nature of the process of social change, to identify attitudes, ideas that prevent the transformation of social structures, relationships at the individual level.

Keywords: social changes; modernization; transformation; human capital; personality; values

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