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The problem of identity has come to the fore of contemporary societies in the conditions when the institutional structures of these societies their ascriptive statuses have become looser when modernity is “liquid”, “soft”. Varions conceptualizations of identity are becoming a basic part of contemporary sociological theory. The paper aims to reveal the key problems that sociology faces when striving to work out a theory of identity. The paper takes as its starting point the classic notion of identity. This notion was shaped by Erik Erikson on the basis of his dynamic psychology. The paper proves that the contemporary identity is connected with the process of individualization in modern societies. Numerous and varied studies of contemporary identity can be divided into three large groups according to three methodological approaches: constructivist, postmodern and interactionist. The paper compares the major theories based on these approaches and reveals their theoretical and methodological problems. The paper shows that the constructivist approach is based on the notion of reflexivity which is viewed as a mechanism of identity formation by an individual. Identity is a reflexive project which is being realized in a conscious manner. The postmodern theories of identity reveal the fragmentation incompleteness of ego-identitity and it’s narcissic decay. They also reveal the inability of the individual to solve the problem of continuity and unity of her (his) own personality. Identity as a notion is replaced by the notion of identification which reduces identity to varions modes of repsentation. The interactionist methodology conld open up the way to tackle, the problem of individual’s unity and continuity as the main problem of human existence. This is the condition of the individual’s psychic and social health.

The paper deals with the analysis of one of the most important and always relevant social phenomena called social inequality, which is viewed through the prism of youth ideas about the forms of its manifestation and features. The authors present the results of a sociological study aimed at identifying the attitude of modern Russian youth to the problem of social inequality in general, as well as the diversification of its forms in the modern world and in Russia. The study was conducted in 2020 by professors of the Sociological Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University under the direction of Doctor of Sociological Sciences Professor N.G. Osipova and Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Professor S.O. Elishev with the Financial support of the RFBR, within the framework of the project No. 18-011-01106 “New forms of social inequality and the peculiarities of their manifestation in modern Russia”.In the course of the study in the summer of 2020, 628 young people (aged 16 to 30) from different regions of Russia were interviewed using the online questionnaire survey method. The distribution of respondents by gender and occupation corresponds to the parameters of graduates of humanitarian universities. 28% of young people surveyed were males, and 72% were females. 9% of the respondents (that is, more than half of them) were young people aged 20 to 24 years, 24,84% — from 16 to 19 years old, 12,26% — from 25 to 30 years old.The research methodology (which is based on the questionnaire) was in many ways similar to the methodology used by the authors in 2019 to analyze the value orientations and perceptions of student youth in Moscow universities. This methodology was supplemented with new blocks of questions related to the peculiarities and specifics of the manifestation in Russia of such relatively new forms of social inequality as digital divide and inequality in health. The questions to which the answers were received were of both general and specific nature and, in general, reflected the key trends in the attitude of young people to the problem of social inequality in the conditions of the complex social situation that developed in 2020 in all respects. A detailed analysis of the answers to the questions presented in the questionnaire showed that, although social inequality is recognized by modern Russian youth as an urgent social problem, it does not occupy a key place among the topical problems for Russian youth.

This paper deals with an analysis of the results of a sociological research aimed at studying the students’ perceptions of the nature and various forms of social inequality that occur in Russia as well as the modern world. The study was conducted in 2019 at the sociology faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, in the framework of regular monitoring (since 2013) of Moscow student youth’ perception of socio-political processes, institutions of socialization and subjects of youth policy. A sociological study was conducted. During the study, 811 students of 50 “humanitarian” and 50 “natural” faculties of higher educational institutions in Moscow were interviewed. 45,6% of young people interviewed were males, and 54,4% were females. 60,4% of the respondents were young people aged 18 to 22 years, 18,9% — from 23 to 26 years old, 13,3% — from 14 to 18 years old, 7,4% — from 27 to 30 years old. The article analyzes the students’ answers to the following questions: Do you think that acute social inequality occurs in the modern world? What reasons underlie social inequality? What, in your opinion, is the cause of social inequality? What types of social inequality are most common in the modern world? What forms and types of social inequality are most common in modern Russian society? How often do you encounter the following manifestations of social inequality? How do you feel about the problem of global social inequality? and a number of others. A detailed analysis of the answers to these and other questions presented in the article showed that social inequality is recognized by students as an urgent social problem, which, unfortunately, the authorities do not pay enough attention to.

The paper deals with the knowledge of Moscow students about the processes, institutions of socialization and the subjects of youth policy in Russia. The basis of the empirical base is the sociological study conducted by the authors in April–May 2019 in Moscow. It is noted that students adequately and critically assess the state of modern Russian society and the state, understand the causes of the crisis. The greatest impact on the formation of value orientations of modern Russian youth is provided by the media, family and education institutions. Moreover, the media form both positive and negative benchmarks for young people. Students are aware of the presence of various negative phenomena in the youth environment and show a critical attitude towards them. Comparative analysis with 2013–2017 studies shows that in 2019 the levels of patriotic sentiments among Moscow students and their approval of the activities of political figures, socio-political institutions decreased. The trends of prevalence in the values of young people of consumer orientations, approval of traditionally negative phenomena intensified. This contributes to the desocialization of youth, the manifestation of asocial and unlawful forms of their self-realization, the development of various countercultures, increased conflict tension and aggressiveness of young people, and the growth of extremism in the youth environment. Measures are proposed that increase the social efficiency of the state youth policy of the Russian Federation. The research materials are of interest to specialists involved in the problems of youth socialization and the implementation of state youth policy.

In modern society the phenomenon of polyamory arises in terms of growing tendency of personality individualization, crisis in nuclear family, spiritual and moral fragility, increasing feelings of abandonment and loneliness, “shrinking present” and shortening of interpersonal relations due to the extension of social circles and intensified interaction. The paper aims to define the concept of polyamory, its formal and substantive boundaries, to research components of ethos of polyamory, and also to detect prerequisites for the emergence and spread of the phenomenon of polyamory in modern social reality. The analysis is devoted to transformation of intimacy – from classical kind of love to nascent neopostclassical, from romantic relationship through confluent love to polyamory. Besides, it is a demarcation between promiscuity and polyamory. It is also emphasized that postclassical confluent love is in a substantial crisis now – sexuality without love is being transformed into omnisexuality, which has a variety of forms and absence of sense, and then converted to asexuality, transsexuality and love to inanimate objects. In such a case polyamory tries to bridge the crisis of sexuality and reincarnate the elements of history by combination of different sexual practices of postclassical love and spirit of classical love.

One of the major trends of the modern world is a process of individualization. Despite the fact that the term “individualization” has existed since the XVII century, it is often confused, mixing with the concept of “individualism”, “individuation” and “individuality”. But individualization is not a political or moral worldview, it is not a process of identity formation, and it is the natural multi-level complex social process associated with defined design conditions of life of the individual and the conditions of its existence. The purpose of this paper is to, based on the works of U. Beck and Z. Bauman, to define the process of individualization, to consider the process of occurrence and development of individualization in the modern society. To reveal features of this process at the present stage of development of society, where the process of individualization acquires new features. According to sociologists, the process of individualization affects all aspects of society and has two levels of its manifestation. The first level the author calls structural or objective level, because it is independent on the actions of individuals and the inertia phenomenon associated with the spreading of social space, social differentiation, division of labor, with the processes of globalization and modernization. The second level is the sphere of individual action. At this level the meaning of individualization is the expansion of individual rights and opportunities and the liberation of the individual from traditional social forms and relationships that defined his model of behavior in the modern society. Due to the change in “life situations”, there is an increase of opportunities of the individual for independent decision-making, self-selection and successful action. The change in “life situations” (under U. Beck) due to detraditionalization life spheres and emergence of new “spaces of freedom”, which create new challenges for society and for the individual in particular. Social classes and layers, small family, market, secures employment are not mandatory forms of life and labor, ensuring the stability and development of society. They cease to be fundamental values and public landmarks in modern society, the “second or late modernity”.

The paper examines the problems of social inequality in the era of globalization. Globalization is leading to major changes in the socio-political sphere that directly affect, albeit to varying degrees, all members of the international community. One of the most disturbing trends is that increased globalization is not accompanied by political integration or reduction of global imbalances in respect of wealth and power. It is proved that the ideology of globalism, supported by agents of globalization, violates the sovereignty, the thin fabric of equality, democracy and pluralism in many countries of the world community. The examples of different kinds of equality, caused by the global expansion of Western patterns of social behavior and neo-liberal values, are presented. Sociology possibilities in softening of an existing inequality are considered.