The phenomenon of distributed lifestyle and counter-urbanization processes as factors of rural and urban settlements development

Urbanization processes in Russia are currently viewed as an exclusively unidirectional trend of a permanent growth of big cities, downshifting of towns and outmigration from rural areas.The object of research is households, whose members are distributed with only those for whom the primary exploration of space is a city and the secondary one is countryside. The subject of research is socio-economic aspects of the distributed way of life and its role in the development of rural and urban settlements. The aims of research are: forming and/or clarifying conceptual terms which describe the phenomenon; describing socio-economic features of the research object, its impact on local community, economy and power. Empirical research was conducted in 4 rural settlements of three regions. Methods of collecting information were interview and observation. Conclusions: (1) theories and concepts good for class societies are hardly fit for researches in Russia; (2) the widely- spread view of villages death and degradation is one-sided, which can be explained by wrong prognoses and conclusions drawn with the help of class concepts while analyzing Russias official statistics; (3) exploration of a country area is not taking place only at the expense of counter-urbanization and villas that city people have there, but also due to the phenomenon of a distributed way of life, which means that real estate and employment in the city are combined with the conduct of villa economy and partial living in a country area.