The article analyzes main causes and consequences of the interdisciplinary crisis of the reproducibility and reliability of the results of scientific research that has unfolded in the social sciences in parallel with the «data revolution». This crisis is expressed not only in the growing concern of scientists about the reliability of research results and the possibilities to establish the practices securing the transparency of empirical data and the statistical software used for their analysis, but also in disputes on limitations of the routine approach to significance testing and feasibility of alternatives based on Bayesian approach. Some aspects of the relationship between theory and data-driven methods of searching for patterns in empirical data are briefly discussed in the context of describing a new approach to multimodel analysis aiming at evaluation of model robustness and model uncertainty.

As the situation in education and labour market is changing in Russia, characterized by the expansion of services sectors and high participation in higher education, the mechanisms of social inequality reproduction are evolving. According to the intersectionality theory, social advantages and disadvantages are reproduced at the intersection of various social categories – social class, gender and others. In the paper, the outcomes of individuals in education and in the labour market representing three cohorts, born in 1954–1964, 1965–1975 and 1976–1986, were analyzed. Using the data provided by the European Social Survey, rounds 3–6 and 8, the hypotheses about the presence of cumulative effect from the intersection of gender and social class were tested. The results partially confirm the formulated hypotheses in case of achieved socio-professional status, but not in case of achieved higher education. 1) Women have more chances than men to obtain higher education; 2) women from families where fathers were workers have more chances than men from such families to move to the group “lower services class”. The latter positive effect is observed in case social class is specified based on mother’s profession; however, it is not significant. Therefore, women are likely to benefit most from the recent changes in education and labour market, compared to men. However, women are likely to find themselves in less prestigious and less paid segments of the services sector, despite the fact that their jobs require more skills.

This article analyses the schoolchildren`s parents subjective perceptions of risks related with receiving education by children in Moscow. The study examines the prevalence of different opinions on this process and attempts to implement a classification of subjective risks. Basing on the data of survey of 1-11th grade pupils` parent conducted in 2013 in Moscow by Institute of Megalopolis Human Development (IMHD), three different types of risks are identified. The first type is system risks which includes dissatisfaction with the characteristics of schools (educational programs and teaching stuff as well as ethnic composition of school classes). According to the data, this sort of risks is spread to 67% of families with schoolchildren in Russian capital. The second type – intra-household risks – covers risks of lack of households` resources. Approximately 39% of respondents declare at list a component of the intra-household risks. The third type – external risks – concerns with indicators of child-friendliness of urban space. About 83% of pupils` parents are preoccupied with fear of street crime on the way to school or the lack of reciprocity among citizens. A special attention is paid to the intersection of different risks and concentration of system, Intra-household and external risks in the minds of respondents. It should be point out that more than half of schoolchildren`s parents do not find a risk in the context of education. However a considerable quantity of respondents – 44% – presumes that at list one type of risk occurs and almost 23% notice at once system, intra-household and external risks.

The article considers various factors shaping the educational strategies of potential students from the NIS countries applying to Russian universities. On the basis of interviews conducted in Moscow in 2014 we identify a number of factors that explain the choice of specific Moscow universities by such students.   The key factors mentioned by students include: 1) "common history"; 2) opportunities for tuition-free study; 3) family connections; 4) intention to emigrate from their home country. The article considers the sources of information on opportunities for study in Russia. We argue that the mastery of Russian language is not the most important or primary factor driving the choice of a Russian university: students rarely select a specific university, but rather  choose a town where they would like to study. The choice of Russia as a place to study is to a significant degree driven by the existing social and/or family ties. Student choices are also shaped by perception of relative prestige (or lack thereof) of a given university, which are largely determined by the Soviet-era inertia, and not the university's place in global rankings or any certainty regarding the quality of education there.