The study was conducted by an international team of scientists from Bulgaria, Poland and Russia in accordance with the project "Models of social participation and social structure of local communities". Empirical data were obtained from a comparative analysis of the forms of individual and collective behavior, types of social action of people in rural and small urban communities in Poland, Russia, and Bulgaria. 3 Polish, 3 Bulgarian and 2 Russian administrative-territorial settlements were surveyed. The number of respondents was 1,616. The main hypothesis concerned the assessment of changes in the relations of residents of various territorial units, measured by the scope and intensity of informal acts of cooperation (mutual assistance) in the economic sphere. It was suggested that mutual assistance among residents of local communities, including informal economic assistance, should be reduced, and that market relations should be monetarized. Since forms of voluntary cooperation express solidarity and strengthen social contacts within primary structures, their decomposition should be considered as an indicator of gradual individualization. For the analyzed countries, the 1990s are a period of intense social changes, political and economic upheavals associated with the modernization process. page 34 It represents a transition from a traditional to a modern society. According to Polish sociologists, the traditional local community of our century represents the following:: the village today is almost the same local community as it was a few hundred years ago. A community, in the sense of a closed community, includes almost all forms of collective life, and it is opposed to similar communities: other villages, as well as groups and organizations that remain outside its borders. The traditional local community met the most important social needs, regulated all types of activities and behaviors. The village regulated all spheres of life through formal channels of communica ... Read more