Life After the City: Metropolitan Youth and the Process of De-urbanization Prospects and barriers

This project raises the issue of a new focus of research on the topical problem - de-urbanization - with an emphasis on potential migrants, which allows shedding light on some resonant issues - the divergence of survey results showing us a colossal number of people wishing to leave the city and a relatively small number of those who really decided to do so. Thus, the main question raised in this paper is quite simple: "Why even the people interested in moving do not move?" However, answering it requires carrying out a large-scale research. The theoretical basis for this project was the author's conceptual model, built on the basis of the mobility paradigm - works of J. Urry and T. Cresswell; principles of the actor-network theory, developed out by B. Latour, M. Callon, and J. Law, popularized in Russia by theoretic V. Vakhshtayn, and applied by N. Rudenko and S. Mokhov; as well as the concept of the ‘attracted experience’ developed by V.B. Zvonovsky. Thus, the main goal of this project is to identify the specifics of the system of de-urbanizaton mobility, which affects the direction and progress of the process at its various stages. The focus of our research affects the barriers encountered by the migrants, as well as the specifics of the impact of the attracted experience and interaction with its agents on the trajectory of the move. In addition, through the category of barriers, describing the main actors of this mobility system, we proceed to the category of "crash" and “repair” within it. Applied methods of empirical research in this context were: discourse analysis ('SKAD' - R. Keller), content analysis, method of narrative interviews, as well as 'mobile' methods marked by J. Urry - informant's diary, and within the virtual ethnography (R. Kozinets) - analysis of the history of online activities and 'surf along'.