Study of “Digital Portraits” and Value Priorities of Rural and Urban Residents as a Component of Strategic Planning and Forecasting of Rural Socio-economic Development

The paper analyzes the value priorities of urban and rural residents to identify factors influencing the positive and negative perception of rural lifestyles to form proposals that contribute to a positive image of the village and the conditions for sustainable development of rural areas. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the authors applied big data analysis to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of users of social networks, expressing the intention to move to rural areas. For this purpose, the authors formed a register of users of the social network “VKontakte,” including 1,828,232 profiles. Based on digital traces, the main values (motives) of users willing to move to rural areas are highlighted, and the problems associated with living in rural areas are identified. The psychological testing involved 2104 respondents living in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Stavropol Territory, Krasnodar Territory, Kirov Region, Tambov Region, Saratov Region, Sverdlovsk Region, Samara Region, Belgorod Region, and Pskov Region. The obtained results allow us to outline the main directions of work to influence the behavioral patterns of urban and rural residents to change them in the direction of forming a positive image of rural areas and moving to them for permanent residence and work in agriculture.