The article deals with various theoretical and applied aspects of “cellular globalisation” in its application to the analysis of social processes taking place in the areas of the Near North of Russia and, in particular, in the Kostroma region. Using theoretical conceptualization, statistical analysis and field research, the authors trace the development and current status of the settlement structure of villages and hamlets in the Manturovo district of the Kostroma region and discover certain regularities in the emergence of patterns of centrifugal and centripetal migration. The methodology of social analysis used to study the current state of rural households (including the use of quadcopters) makes it possible to adequately assess the formation of a new social structure of traditional rural settlements with a growing segment of urban dacha residents. Special attention is paid to the dynamics of urban population growth and the emergence of de-urbanization clusters.