Lifestyle of Employees in Hazardous Industries: Specifics of Adaptation to Everyday Risks

Abstract

In the subject area of risk sociology, one topical direction is the study of the phenomenon of social responsibility of enterprises, the production process of which is characterized by technological risks, and contains a probability of damage to human health and threats to the environment. For workers in hazardous industries and emergency response services, risk as a probability of damage to health is a factor that in one way or another determines lifestyles. In Russia, almost half of those working in various industries work in hazardous conditions. The article compares the main indicators of everyday lifestyles of workers engaged in hazardous industries and working at safe production facilities. The empirical base is the data of the 25th wave (2016) of the Russian Monitoring of the Economic Situation and Health of the Population of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE). Target groups were formed for comparative analysis in order to obtain reliable information about the presence and nature of differences in the form and subjective self-assessment of respondents’ satisfaction with everyday life related to hazardous or safe working conditions. The indicators are grouped into several blocks: working environment; satisfaction with various aspects of life; socio-psychological well-being; health; attitude to risk. Comparative analysis of empirical data in general confirms that there are a number of specific parameters that characterize the daily life and adaptation practices of workers in hazardous industries, along with general parameters. The specifics identified require further in-depth research within the subject area of risk sociology.