No 4 (2009)

The article provides the analysis of identification mechanisms and its presentation patterns in the contemporary megapolis, the reasons for identification challenges emerging in the contemporary multicultural world where the contemporary urban community offers the opportunity for identity transformation, so that the citizens of metropolis are faced with the challenge of finding new identification tools. The notions of «dramatization» and «social attraction» offered in the article for the identity problem analysis in the context of diverse style and taste options of the contemporary urban community serve to form an estimate of the behaviour of an individual who keeps deciding on his own behavioral pattern.

The article helms the reader to the results of the second stage of the joint Russian-Chinese research project devoted to the comparative analysis of the value system of students in both countries. The comparative analysis of the representative questionnaire survey of Beijing and Moscow students prompted the authors to address the problems of regional differences at home. As a result the researchers turned their attention to value priorities of students of metropolitan and regional institutions of higher education. In Russia the survey was conducted in Maikop (the capital of Adygeya). It has been demonstrated that although value systems of young people in both cities bear enough similarities in their structure and appropriate dominants on the whole, one can observe significant and pronounced differences determined by socio-cultural features of the region as well as by institutional limitations on youth opportunities.

The article provides the definition for the concept of conflict interaction culture, reveals its functions as well as the structure of its elements and components. Conflict interactions are also examined in the paper.

The concept of regional identity underlies the new emerging field of science - sociology of regional development. The well-developed regional (local) identity is associated with the specific perception of territory (location area) of the community members which requires their everyday support. The peculiarity of the author's theoretical model manifests itself in the interpretation of regional identity and the associated concepts of rationality, action, values (culture), institutions and social norms identified at the level of the acting subjects and localizable in the definite regional space (regional context). The author's theoretical model is verified by the actual empirical study. The main result of the survey conducted by the author is the verification of the regional identity concept which provides an opportunity to reveal social effects attributed to power holders' identification with value preferences of regional communities and the individuals involved.

The axis of the publication is the survey of the major approaches applied to the analysis of the issues pertaining to inequality in educational opportunities in contemporary Russian sociology. The author highlights three lines of research of inequality in the given sphere and provides a detailed description of each of them.