Home – Home – Jornals – Region: Economics and Sociology 2026 number 2

In the context of implementing Federal Law No. 330-FZ “On the Development of Creative Industries in the Russian Federation ", informal institutions, primarily professional and thematic communities, are acquiring special significance in the formation of social capital as a resource for regional development. This study aims to identify the role and functions of such communities as institutions for the creation, mobilization, and conversion of social capital in the creative industries. The study empirically documents, for the first time, self-reported changes in key components of social capital (trust, networking, access to resources, emotional support) resulting from participation in communities. Based on an online survey of 132 participants in the “PR-sreda" professional community and the thematic club “‘Women’s Territory" in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, it was found that the most pronounced effects are seen in the expansion of professional connections (+90.2%) and increased confidence in the ability to mobilize social resources through the use of other participants’ contacts (+87.9%); an increase in trust (+48.5%) was also recorded. The results confirm that communities act not only as repositories but also as generative institutions of social capital, fulfilling both instrumental (networking, knowledge) and expressive (support, inclusion) functions, which makes them a strategically important asset for the development of the creative economy at the regional level.