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The article analyzes the influence of Saskia Sassen’s urban research on the globalization studies. The author argues that the major advantage of the global city concept can be seen in the methodological shift towards the analysis of global tendencies through the lens of urban practices. Sassen considers globalization as a complicated process, which leads to the restructuring of the global political geography. On the one hand, such a view allows to define the global city as a key site of this geography; on the other hand, it transforms the global city into unique research site for examination of the global trends. The global appears to be placed in the local forms, which constitute a sort of globalization “microenvironment”. In this regard, today’s major cities can be considered not just as a place where global process occur, but also as a place where they are “produced”.

Keywords: urban studies, global city, globalization processes, localities, “microenvironment” of globalization.

The article focuses on problems of studying identity of Russian regions using the example of Chelyabinsk oblast. The authors carry out qualitative sociological research of identity, which provides the basis for the article. While conducting the focus groups in five municipal units of Chelyabinsk oblast, the authors purposed to reveal positive characteristics of the regional identity. The intensity of utterances about different identification characteristics makes possible to define and rate several groups of such characteristics. The article describes the following identifiers in descending order of importance: “nature”, “industry”, “people”, “sport and culture”. Negative identification characteristics are included into separate group. Special attention is attracted to the fact of the significant amount of such identification characteristics, which relate to industry and sport. This is not typical for Russian regions. At the same time, those identifiers, which seem to be traditional for Russia and relate to history and culture, are poorly represented in the identity of Chelyabinsk oblast. It is concluded that the use of methodology for studying regional identity proves to be successful, and the perspectives of the second stage of research oriented on application of the qualitative sociological approaches are estimated as promising. The article provides recommendations for authorities concerning construction of regional identifiers, and evaluates perspectives of the development of regional identity of Chelyabinsk oblast.

Keywords: regional identity, Chelyabinsk oblast, Ural, methodology of identity studying, focus group.

The author refers to the critical reflection of capitalist society. Modernity is the time of global risks and disasters, the cause of which can be found in the model of rational subject. According to the author, there are two ways of overcoming it: to destroy capitalism as such, or (over against) to operate existing subjectivity model, in which individual utility becomes the only acceptable argument. Social capital theory is notable here trough considering society in the mode of benefits derived by individuals from social relations. “Social capital” term, to our opinion, can be the concept framing possible vector of practical action – an attempt to overcome the increasing atomization of society. However, the author finds a number of conceptual vulnerabilities of social capital theory which are connected to the radical anti-capitalist theory criticism. This encourages us to revise and expand social capital theory by a new concept – «public capital». Social capital often implies local (personal) benefits derived from social interactions, but the nature of public capital is in critical rethinking of these "local benefits", which are often becomes a source of global risks.

Keywords: consumer society, public capital, social capital.