The Village in Urban Projections of Modern Russians

Abstract

The article is the guest editor’s introduction to the special theme of the issue on the “New Rurality in Present-Day Russia: Institutions, Practices, and Social Interaction”, which focuses on new forms of rural life shaped by the modernization processes of the last century. The phenomenon is widely discussed in social sciences including anthropology which opens broader perspectives on the interpretation of modern migration, social identities, and local economies. The focal point of attention is the specificities of “new rurality” in Russia and its diverse manifestations in popular culture, marketing, and territorial branding. I briefly outline the theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the phenomenon and argue that “new rurality” is not limited to the ideology of rural and nature romanticism that has become a highly profitable product, but reveals itself as a new model of rural life and new identity produced and valued mostly among Russian urbanites. The contributions reflect the outcome of the collaborative project carried out in 2019–2020 and include the articles by Ju.O. Andreeva, P.S. Kupriyanov and N.A. Savina, M.L. Lurie, E.A. Melnikova, T.B. Shchepanskaia.