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Twenty Five Years of Youth Studies: Global Names—Local Trends
The chapter provides the author’s perspective on the development of youth space in post-Soviet Russia in the wider context of the emergence of new forms of youth sociality. It focuses on the specific formation of authentic, shared cultural identities of solidarity, set against the background of the shifting patterns of discursive production and political regulation of youth activity. The research question posed in the chapter is to find the uniqueness of the Russian cultural youth experience both in a global perspective and especially in comparison with peers throughout the post-Soviet (post-communist) space. Particular attention is paid to the key transformations of Russian youth cultures which have taken place during this historical period, in comparison with what has occurred at the global level over the last three decades, as presented in key works by leading scholars in the field of youth studies. The empirical material and theoretical background for the consecutive three-stage analysis of the types and forms of youth communities’ development, which structures the chapter, were provided by the research projects carried out by the team of authors of this book—employees of two research centres—the Scientific Research Centre ‘Region’ at Ul’yanovsk State University and the Centre for Youth Studies of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg.