A review of major themes and questions in youth studies in post-reform Russia

The review is aimed not only to reveal the first-priority for Russia youth problems and respective directions of sociological researches, but also to create a theoretical and methodological basis for comparative analysis of situation in the youth field in all four BRIC countries under the conditions of rapid social changes, large-scale political and economic transformations, as well as increasing cultural globalization.  

From the Russian side the group of authors is presented by the staff scientists of the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, who in accordance with their scientific interests and areas of activity discusses a certain set of urgent issues and topical problems, including:

• demographic characteristics of youth as well as quite different from country to country demographic factors influencing age-sex structure of population and so on;
• youth social identity as a product of interaction and cooperation between the global and the local;
• new models and practices of consumption and leisure in the context of high level openness of modern youth to the World;
• family, marriage and sexuality;
• the state and political values, including those influencing political activity of youth in the BRIC countries under the condition of transition to market oriented economy;
• mass education and employment opportunities: work as a key factor in the development and affirmation of personal identity and self-esteem, specific pathway for incorporation into the social life as well as for the achievement of economic independence; some certain difficulties for getting a job, etc;
• Internet participation and new models of social communication.