Functional and semantic meaning of subculture of informal youth associations in modern Russia

The article is devoted to the investigation of basic functions of informal youth associations, such as value, socializing, integrative, cognitive, normative and regulatory. The author gives examples of functional and semantic content of specific youth subcultures: the groups of preservation and restoration of natural monuments, the search engines, the roleplayers-enactors, the clubs of intellectual games, punks, hippies, researchers of native Americans, gopniks, skinheads, satanists, football hooligans, emo, bikers, rockers, metalheads, gamers, rappers, skaters and graffers. The assumptions were made about their number, and the technique of working with them was analyzed. The variety of subculture of informal associations provides the opportunity to join the activity and diversity and allows people to express their vital interests ensuring the high-quality new system of education, socialization and adaptation to the real world.