Virtual State: Scoping Review of Russian Political and Social Sciences

This review focuses on analysis and determination of problematic field based on phenomena and related concepts such as micronation, cyber-state, virtual state and others. Actualization of this topic is carried out due to the technological development of modern society, the emergence of new social, political, economic and other actors, the concentration of a large amount of resources by them which could make them an influential power or an alternative of social and political organization. Using scoping methods, comparative and content analysis, as well as services of network and statistical analysis the article examines the level of virtual states’ embeddedness into Russian political and social sciences, the formation of the corresponding research field, direction or school. Special attention is paid to the Russian segment of world science in the framework of the study of virtual states and problems are faced by Russian researchers. This will allow researchers to see the context, the most relevant areas of work, help to correctly use the concepts in Russian and English academic texts.