ABSTRACT
The proposed frame of reference will be based on a combination of Pierre Bourdieu's relational analysis and theories of dependent and path-dependent development, primarily those put forwards by Immanuel Wallerstein and Fernand Braudel. As far as the Bourdieu's approach is concerned, the author particularly inspired by his vision of the social world as composed of multiple fields where actors accumulate and exchange different types and sub-types of capital. In the author's analysis of characteristic traits of particular zones, he uses the notion of a "field of power", proposed by Pierre Bourdieu, to study structures of broadly defined upper strata of modern societies. The field of power is a notion encompassing fields of politics, economy and culture, as well as several others. The topography of the field of power defines mutual relations between these fields and usually shapes their internal structures, which appear to be more or less homologous.
