Creative localities as self-organizing forms of social life are a poorly studied phenomenon from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The article presents a theoretical interpretation of the concept of “creative locality” and the results of an empirical study of youth creative localities in Russian megacities. Using a microsocio-logical approach to creativity and Joas’s theory of situational action, the authors identified the key features of creative locality inherent in it as a new form of organization of socio-territorial space - self-organization, localization of interaction, creative nature of activity. The empirical basis of the study is in-depth interviews with the subjects of the “production” of the creative “product” - representatives of business and urban creative activism. Based on the analysis of interview data, the following results were obtained: subjects participating in creative localities interpret creativity through the adaptation of existing technologies, practices, accumulated experience, knowledge and expertise - “observation” - to solving problems in their field of activity; representatives of urban creative activism focus additional attention on its semantic, value component, which is explained by the specifics of the sphere of creativity application (creation of public good) and the mental portrait of activists (expressed humanistic orientations); the motives for the creative activities of business representatives are associated primarily with the implementation of instrumental-material and career-self-reali-zation goals; the activities of urban activists are motivated by humanistic “noble” goals - to create a public good, to bring benefit, to unite.