Life after and Beyond the City: Challenging Alternatives to Disturbing Urbanization

The critical cataclysms that recently struck the world (COVID-19 and war conflict 2022) clearly demonstrated the vulnerability of modern cities, especially megacities, to the threat of mass crises, danger of nuclear attack, avalanchine centrifugal migration, etc. The plots of Hollywood horror movies become reality. This forces us to rethink non-urban spaces as not only and not so much as recreational areas in the lap of nature (amenity migration), but also as a means of protection against threats to life. This is especially true of countries with large unoccupied territories (primarily the U.S., Canada, and Russia). Out-of-town rural settlements and small towns in many countries of the world have demonstrated their potential for the survival for fugitive urban populations. Non-urban style of life - what previously seemed to be a long past stage of human development - is acquiring a completely new perspective. De-urbanization (counter-urbanization, ruralization) is not a step back into the past and archaic, but a real prospect of cities moving beyond their borders, "spreading out" across near and distant territories. Megacities are growing, generating a lot of social problems and being forced to go beyond their borders. Not-yet-urbanized vergin territories become a resource for survival and development.This is not a step backward, but a step forward, using all the advanced technological achievements and applying them outside the cities. Sociology can and must define the contours of this new world beyond traditional cities.