Social readiness for the consequences of the pandemic: sociological view

The speed of development and transformation of modern society is directly related to the conditions in which people live. The development of science and technology leads to transformations in social structures. The article analyzes the concept of social readiness in relation to the consequences of a number of social transformations, in particular, the coronavirus infection pandemic. Connections, interactions and relationships in all spheres of society have changed dramatically over the past year. These changes in the article are compared with the consequences of the Spanish Flu pandemic, which took place more than a hundred years ago. The article reveals the peculiarities of the perception of quarantine measures, distance learning and other consequences of self-isolation due to coronavirus infection by various categories of citizens, these conclusions are made based on the analysis of qualitative and quantitative sociological data. When disclosing the concept of «social readiness», attention is paid to both internal and external factors - factors of the social environment. Among the external factors, as an example, the measures introduced after the start of the pandemic by the governments of different countries, including the Russian Federation, are given in relation to various categories of citizens. Elderly citizens, the working-age population and students are the object of research of this article. The features of the perception of work in the online format, compulsory and voluntary self-isolation, distance education in departmental and civil universities by students are considered. The empirical basis of the work was semi-structured interviews with representatives of these social groups, a questionnaire survey among one of the categories of citizens, as well as a secondary analysis of sociological research. The conducted research allowed us to conclude that the age and perception of the threat of coronavirus infection for oneself are important internal factors affecting social readiness for the consequences of the pandemic; among the external factors, socialization agents and government measures have a great influence. Promising directions for further research are indicated