Digital space as a new agora: political practices of youth in the Russian cities[Цифровое Пространство Как Новая Агора: Политические Практики Молодежи Российских Городов]

The article defines and characterizes main digital political practices of the Russian youth, as well as the possible outcomes of their influence on communication in the 'youth – power' relations system. The digital space is considered by the authors as a new agora - a space for young people to implement marginal ('hybrid', virulent, nonlinear) political practices such as 'black swan' (N. Taleb). Marginal political practices of the youth are explored in the context of anti-reductionist approach, due to which the reduction of the marginal to the abnormal, dysfunctional and peripheral is overcome. The authors attempt to substantiate the perception of marginal political practices of modern youth as a norm, constant and trend of the urban environment. Theresearch is of multi-method nature, the basis of which was: content analysis of accounts in social networks, a questionnaire survey of young people (18-30 years old, N = 420) in various RF entities, such as Moscow and the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, Omsk and other regions, Perm and Krasnoyarsk territories, and also game theory methods. As a result of empirical research, the authors revealed the variability of the coordination of marginal political practices assessment (approval / censure) and the practice itself (use / refusal to use), which formed the basis of the authors' classification of strategies for political communication of young people in the digital space. The presence of these strategies and their practice can be sanctioned or not sanctioned by the state, which can cause conflict communication in the 'youth – power' relations system. Having set ourselves the goal of identifying the most efficient strategy to develop the constructive and productive communication between the authorities and the youth, with the chosen dialogue method approved by both parties, we relied on game theory, in particular, on finding balance in matrix non-coalition games. The initial premise of the research is the fact that the participants of the communication under consideration are not antagonists, i.e., they are not focusing on the 'lose-lose' scenario, but, on the contrary, aim at the 'win-win' outcome, which determined our choice of calculation based on the matrix non-coalitional game theory. The research results will contribute to filling the scientific knowledge gap on marginal political practices of the youth, such as Digital Natives, to abandon the practices cataloging in favor of trend-watching and foresight as the basis of political conflicts management – to minimize their destructive effects and maximize the constructive potential, as well as to better understand the nature of the new practices of the youth patriotism emerging under politics digitalization and urban space virtualization.