Abstract: The subject of this research is the migrants participating in the program of the voluntary resettlement of compatriots living abroad. The attention is focused on the peculiarities of integration process of the migrants, determination of the factors affecting this process, as well as the reasons for selecting one or another mode of integration or adaptation. The research is structured based on the interviews with the participants of such program, residing in Tambov Region for 4-5 years, materials from social networks (personal pages of the migrants), corresponding forums and online communities. The theoretical-methodological framework were established by the works of J. Lacan; particularly, the study of empirical material proceeded through the category of “desire”. The conducted analysis allowed determining the following results: motivation of the migrants can be divided into pragmatic and romantic; the representatives of the second group attempt to return “home”, however, their image of “home” and “Motherland” can contradict the actual realities in Russia. The desire to acquire the “recognition” of Motherland leads to the conscious cultivation of the “new” identity by the migrants and pursuance of assimilation. Actualization of the previous experience (memory) takes place regardless of whether or not the migrants consider their integration successful. For the first time, integration process of the migrants is analyzed through the prism of the ideas of J. Lacan. The materials can be used for the development of strategies and practices of work with participants of the program and other migrants. Study of the problems of identity, social memory, etc.

Abstract: The subject of the research is a comparison of actor-network theory with the theory of self-organized criticality. Despite the fact that the analyzed theories belong to different scientific fields (sociology and physics, respectively), they both represent a discourse of the non-linear world, and focus main attention not on the entities (objects), but interactions between them. The author turns attention to the individual components of the reviewed theories, as well as their function and heuristic potential as a whole. The author demonstrates that the actor-network theory alongside the theory of self-organized criticality manifest as a new language for describing the asymmetric universe, as well as underline the role of minimal impact that can lead to a maximal result. However, the self-organized criticality represents an explanatory meta-theory aimed at determination of the universal laws, which contradicts the principle of irreduction, insisted by the supporters of the actor-network theory. This article is first to pursue correlation between the two aforementioned theories.