Objective: to study the features of the social micro- and meso-environment as potential conditions for the formation, functioning and evolution of latent social groups. Hypotheses: 1. Various conditions of the social environment are not regarded as equivalent by people (persons of diff erent genders, ages, working in diff erent fi elds of activity, having diff erent social experience, etc.). 2. The conditions of the social environment have diff erent subjective signifi cance for people and collectively represent relatively autonomous and closed social spaces.