A resource approach towards examining territorial communities

Abstract

Within the context of conditions for the existence, activity and development prospects of a region’s territorial communities, a resource approach is something of particular significance. A region’s development depends on the participation of city dwellers and villagers, these being the main territorial communities, in processes such as modernization and the social development of territories. From the author’s perspective, the future of any given region is determined by social resources bearing a space-time nature, which include the quantitative and qualitative composition of the population (human resources), human and social capital, eventfulness, and social activism. The social resources of territorial communities are one of the important basic components for fulfilling the domestic demands of the population: life-supporting, existential; the demand for solidarity connections, national-ethnical, labor, leisure, educational and cultural relations; as well as self-fulfillment and self-actualization. This article’s author notes that the social resources of territorial communities provide external communication with other communities and territories, defining the competitive capacity and investment appeal of any given region, as well as the qualitative and quantitative composition of migration flow. What makes social resources, which can be defined as a product of people collaborating and cooperating, unique in comparison to material resources, according the author of this article, is down to such properties as the ability to capitalize and constantly reproduce, replenish as a result of the development of territorial communities, the advancement of forms of governance and self-management, shifts in people’s social qualities during the process of socialization, education, self-education and self-fulfillment on a certain territory. The sociological-managerial approach’s “new agenda” consists of proactive creation, development and advancement of social resources, while keeping them within a certain territory. A region’s social resources ensure its stable operation and advancement as a socio-economical and communicative system, existing within a certain space-time continuum. A multitude of differences in the existence of territorial communities, on the one hand, and the reduction of the uniqueness, individuality and manners of cultural consumption, social interests and relations under the influence of globalization on the other hand – this all indicates the emergence of a new scenario, new opportunities and limitations in terms of regional development. These social transformational processes are in need of sociological introspection in order to define the trajectory for the development of Russian regions, to examine collaboration between urban and rural social communities within the context of a single regional system, and to improve social management.