Historical Descriptive Approach Research Articles

Long-term changes and recurrent patterns in fisheries landings from Large Marine Ecosystems (1950–2004)

The regional dynamics of industrial fisheries within Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) boundaries were investigated by means of a historical-descriptive approach. Landings data from the Sea Around Us Project database were used to detect trends in total yields and variations in landings composition by functional groups over time. The temporal and spatial scales covered by this study allowed general issues to be addressed such as the detection of recurrent patterns and synchronies in fisheries landings. An unsupervised artificial neural network, Self Organizing Map (SOM), is used as a tool to analyze fisheries landings composition variation over five decades in 51 LMEs all over the world. From the historical analysis of “fishing behaviors” within LMEs a broad distinction between two main types of fisheries emerged: (1) small and medium pelagics fisheries, with stable compositions or cyclic behaviors, occurred in LMEs which share common productive features, despite different geographical locations and (2) demersal fisheries, which are more affected by economic drivers and tend to concentrate in LMEs in the Northern Hemisphere. Our analysis can be regarded as a first step towards the challenging scope of describing the relative influence of environmental and economic drivers on exploited ecosystems.

Euroregions as a factor of successful international integration in modern conditions

The article focuses on the relationship of contemporary crises that occur in the euro area and in some CIS countries, with the existing Euroregions. The main objective is to analyze the interdependence of the qualitative aspect of cross-border linkages of European countries with their economic sustainability in the context of regional international integration. The theoretical significance of this work is to determine compliance with the efficiency of the existing across the perimeter of state’s borders Euroregions with additional resources that can be implemented within the framework of their national economic policy during the recession in the global economy. The practical component is to identify the conceptual contours of the formation of successful cross-border education in Europe today. The authors used historical-descriptive approach and factual review of cross-border and macro-regional level of interaction between European countries.The main results are the following. The crisis in several EU countries is associated with a complex of causes that deplete the platform for multilateral cooperation in Europe. To a lesser extent the crisis has affected the state which are actively involved in cross-border cooperation projects. Formation of European regions is closely related to the high industrial development of their constituent regions. The Post-Soviet Space has the need to redistribute excess of centralized authority. The abundance of existing Euro-regions along the perimeter of some states may be an indicator of the stability of the economy to potential shocks.Provisions set forth in the article contribute to improve the scientific understanding of the political regionalistic and detail current understanding of the international system to the level of cross-border linkages and institutions, creating a set of interrelated elements of macro-regional and national building. Practical application of results seen in the formation of a conceptual and legal framework for the construction of cross-border political formations in Post-Soviet Space, especially in the framework of the Eurasian Economic Community, which has drawn this line in the form of appearance of a new concept of eurasiaregion.

Еврорегионы как фактор успешной международной интеграции в современных условиях

This article focuses on the correlation between the contemporary crisis phenomena in the Eurozone and some CIS countries with the existing Euroregions. We attempt to analyze the interdependence of the qualitative aspect of cross-border relations of European countries with their economic sustainability in the context of regional international integration. The theoretical significance of this work lies in the revealed correlation between the efficiency of cross-border Euroregions and the additional resources that can be retrieved in the framework of national economic policy during global recession. The practical component consists in clarifying the conceptual framework for the formation of successful cross-border education in today's Europe. The authors employed the historical-descriptive approach and factual consideration of the cross-border and macro-regional level of interaction between European countries. The main results are as follows. The crisis in several EU countries is associated with a complex of causes that deplete the platform for multilateral cooperation in Europe. To a lesser extent, the crisis has affected the states that are actively involved in cross-border cooperation projects. The formation of European regions is closely related to the industrial development of their regions. The Post-Soviet space requires a redistribution of overcentralized power. The abundance of Euro-regions along the perimeter of certain states may be an indicator of economy's resilience to potential shocks. The provisions set forth in the article contribute to the improvement of scientific understanding of political regionalistics and takes the current understanding of international system to the level of cross-border relations and institutions creating a system of interrelated elements of macro-regional and national building. The results can be applied in the development of a conceptual and legal framework for the construction of cross-border political formations in the Post-Soviet space, especially, within the Eurasian Economic Community, which coined the concept of «eurasiaregion».

Dialectics of enlightenment or dialectic of enlightening

In this article problem of the Enlightenment is analyzed through the contest among the historical-descriptive and the philosophical-normative approach to the Enlightenment, that has essentially practical-polemical sense in author’s opinion. The author reconstructs this contest in the following way. Until the half of 20th century, the philosophical-normative concept of the Enlightenment, which was constructed by critics and enemies of the Enlightenment under the decisive influence of Hegel’s philosophy, was dominate. Since the Enlightenment is essentially disqualified by this approach, an attempt of its defense is directed at the historical study of the Enlightenment intending to be shown that the philosophical normative conception of the Enlightenment is construct of its critics which don’t correspond to historical facts. The author emphasizes that a rejection of the philosophical-normative approach, which reconstruct the Enlightenment through a certain synthetic principle, and an examination of the Enlightenment as historical phenomenon, result in a destruction of the very concept of the Enlightenment and a risk of the loss of meaning. The author considers that the failure of the historical-descriptive approach to the Enlightenment is evident because it reaffirms a constructivistic approach, that was the fundamental objection to the philosophical-normative approach. In the concluding part of the article, the author proposes a solution of the conceptual problem of the Enlightenment through the conceptual distinguishing of the Enlightenment, as a historical phenomenon, and enlightenment, as a intellectual activity and process. In that case, the Enlightenment would represent only a part of the more comprehensive problem of enlightenment in that the Enlightenment’s and the Counter-Enlightenment’s conceptions of enlightenment are moments no more in the "dialectic of the Enlightenment", but in the "dialectic of enlightenment".