Russian Macro-region Research Articles

The potential of modernization transformations of the Russian macroregion: a case study of the Central Black Earth region

The article raises the problem of socio-cultural modernization in a Russian macroregion - the Central Black Earth region. The author focuses attention on unevenness and discrepancy in the modernization processes. Based on results of the field studies, the paper describes opportunities and barriers to the implementation of modernization transformations in the macroregion. The structure of modernization potential is shown through reformatory, socially innovative and adaptive potentials. The reformatory potential of modernization is considered as low; the socially innovative potential as ambivalent; and the adaptive potential manifests itself through social wellbeing. Regional communities are characterized by the dissonance between the declared and the actual state of affairs, between inertial practices of social institutions and socio-cultural challenges of the present day. The author concludes that strategic management of development is important to optimize modernization processes in regional communities. The article also notes that active support of the inhabitants of the regions is also essential to successful implementation of modernization.
 Acknowledgment. The article is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 18-011-00739 titled “The socio-cultural foundations for strategic planning of the development of the Russian macroregion (the Central Black Earth case study)”.

Trust in Higher Education as a Sociological Problem

The purpose of this article is to characterize trust in higher education as a fundamental problem of sociological research, review existing achievements in its analysis and the presentation of experience in the empirical study of trust in higher education facilities of the Ural macro-region. Trust is interpreted by the authors as a major non-material asset of the development of higher education in a situation of crisis, social and economic uncertainty. It is proposed to consider the establishment of trust and the formation of a culture of trust in higher education as a constructive way to implement positive changes in the institution and the country’s system of higher education, increasing its social effectiveness. Substantiated is the need for an interdisciplinary methodology for studying trust in higher education, developed at the intersection of sociological, psychological, socio-psychological, economic, moral and professional-ethical, educational, and management approaches. Going beyond the narrow disciplinary route, according to the authors, provides an opportunity to identify the resource potential of trust as an non-material asset. This article shows the main directions for researching trust in higher education in foreign and Russian science. The discourse of trust in higher education is shown as undergoing dynamic changes. On this basis, there are prospects for the further theoretical and empirical study of this problem. Data from the empirical study of trust as a new resource of higher education in the aforementioned Russian macro-region demonstrates the most acute contradictions given its current state and development, which have to do with an ever growing distrust in educational policies and the strategies for their implementation.

Analysis of distinctions of the development of education of the Russian macro-regions

The methodical approach to the analysis of distinctions of development of educational sphere in macro-regions, the federal administrative districts of Russia, is offered in the article. Feature of methodical approach consists in the choice, calculation and ranging of relative indicators of an assessment of preschool, general, professional and higher education in the macro-regions, and also in carrying out the analysis of variability of the specified indicators by application of methods of statistics.

DETERMINANTS OF THE GENESIS OF HISTORICAL EDUCATION AND SCIENCE IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE SIBERIAN SCIENTIFIC-EDUCATIONAL COMPLEX: SYNTHESIS OF METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES

The article is devoted to analysis of the experience of methodological synthesis, carried out during the reconstruction of the historical evolution of science and higher historical education in Siberia. In relation to the object of study three approaches were used: modernization theory, the theory of internal colonization and the concept of centre-periphery relations. The critical analysis of various research strategies allowed us to reveal and formulate their cumulative heuristic potential which can be staticized and applied at the present stage of historical researches at the level of any Russian macro-region. Shortcomings and expenses of their research application are compensated on condition of their complex use and mutual addition. The results received by means of their synthesis make it possible to consider the Siberian macroregional system of historical science and education which developed in the 20th century as a complex multiple-factor socio-political phenomenon performing, first of all, integrative function in the space of social consciousness. The Soviet practices of the organization and carrying out historical researches within system of the higher school on the territory of the Siberian region correspond to trajectories and logic of development the center – the peripheral relations. Formation of the Soviet scientific and historical worldview took place in the context of socio-political and socio-cultural evolution of the Soviet state and, in general, fit within the frame of the modernization processes initiated as early as in the second half of the 19th century.

MANAGEMENT OF UNIVERSITIES IN THE ASSESSMENTS OF EDUCATIONAL GROUPS

The article is of a research type. Its aim is to present evaluation of key educational communities of Ural macroregion universities: academic and teaching community and students' community dealing with different aspects of university management. The empirical basis of the publication consists of the results of sociological research conducted by Ural Federal University team in 2016-2017 under the supervision of one of the authors. The research included expert interview with representatives of academic and teaching community and university administration, as well as mass poll for university lecturers and students of Ural Federal University. The article presents evaluation of management of teaching and research activities of students and lecturers. It demonstrates the degree of their inclusion into university management system and satisfaction with existing situation in this sphere. The level of preparedness of each educational community to participate in different forms of managerial activities is determined. The research results are seen by the authors in the reflection of existing prerequisites for transforming university management as a part of transition from linear to nonlinear higher education model in the macroregion. The conclusion of the article is set on the need for qualitative changes in the system of university management towards openness, democratization, participativity as a prerequisite for improving its social efficacy. The importance of the research is in identifying the prerequisites for transforming university management at the level of the Russian macroregion (Federal Area). For the first time it demonstrates the problems of university management in the macroregion from the point of view of subjective opinions, positions and evaluations of main educational communities. The peculiar feature of the article is the demonstration of positive perspectives of university management related to transformation from linear to nonlinear model.

Organizational issues of expert review and evaluation of macroregional development projects in Russia

Abstract—This article identifies particular characteristics of expert appraisal of projects included in macroregional development programs. These features are determined by uniqueness of these administrative-territorial entities, which is exemplified by the Russian Arctic Zone. This article also analyzes the potential of organizing expert appraisals (first of all, government expert appraisals) in Russia for use when analyzing and assessing Arctic projects. The basic guidelines and provisions are substantiated with regard to organizing an expert appraisal of the project component of development projects for the Russian Arctic Zone and other Russian macroregions.

Предпосылки и проблемы концепции нелинейного развития высшего образования в российском макрорегионе

Предпосылки и проблемы концепции нелинейного развития высшего образования в российском макрорегионе

Premises and Problems af the Non-linear Conception of Higher Education in the Russian Macro-region

The main conclusion of the article is the need for transition from linear higher education model prevailing in Russia to a nonlinear one. The focus is made on opportunities and challenges of nonlinear higher education model implementation in the macro-region. Theoretical premise for understanding transition from linear to nonlinear higher education model in the region is the analysis of regional and macro-regional peculiarities in the Russian higher education. Such differences can include macro-regional and regional inequalities in the field of higher education. Their main manifestations based on objective and subjective reasons are presented via qualitative and quantitative characteristics. The article demonstrates that ways of overcoming university educational inequalities should be first of all found in an experimental project within one of the macro-regions of the country. The situation of possible transition to nonlinear higher education model in the Ural macro-region is used as a case, as it is one of most suitable macro-regions for testing this theoretical concept. The research uses such methods as the analysis of statistic data and in-depths expert interviews aimed at studying expert evaluations and conducted by a research group of the Ural Federal University under author's supervision together with the acknowledged specialists in the field of higher education from two macro-regions - Ural and Volga regions.

European Diasporas in Russia of the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries: National and Regional Formation Features (As Illustrated in the Case of Jews, Germans and Poles)

The imperial policy of Russia in the 18th and early 19th centuries led to the formation of various diasporas, with the largest being of Polish, Jewish, German and Finnish origin. They were the focus of attention of the tsarist administration while their status was regulated by a variety of laws. Specific features that distinguished social, political and economic development of the Russian Empire were behind the fact that different regions became home to emerging ethnic communities. Jews, Germans, Poles, Finns, Latvians, and Estonians moved to the outskirts of the state both by forced and voluntarily. Laws of the Russian Empire specified places they could reside in and types of economic activities they could undertake. This article is aimed at defining the formation features pertaining European diasporas in Russia in the late 18th and early 19th century on the national and regional scale. To this end we need to determine the nature of the emergence of the ethnic communities in the Russian macro-regions (such as Siberia), reveal specificity of the Russian legislation regarding Jews, Germans and Poles in historic different periods of the Russian Empire and give a quantitative characterization of the communities. Accomplishing this will make it possible to describe the way the European diasporas formed and developed in Russia over the 18th and 19th centuries. Our approach to these objectives is based on the assumption that Russia throughout the 18th and early 20th century was a classical empire with the diasporas being actors in the national and regional policies rather than existing in isolation. This will help determine the stages and nature of the diasporas' formation and their place in the economic, social and cultural life of individual macro-regions and across Russia. The basis for the study have been published sources and materials from Russian archives. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s1p460

Migration Activity of Population and Migrant Workers in Modern Russia

Different migration flows – resettlement to the permanent residence and seasonal labor migrations both of Russian population and foreign workers – are analyzed. Higher level of correlation between the intensity of labour migration of Russian population and their resettlement to the permanent residence, their orientation to the central regions of Russia and the largest cities, as well as the divergence with migrate paths of foreign workers are identified. The analysis of regional labor migration was founded on different statistical sources and at the same time used indirect methods of study of socioeconomic state and migration attractiveness of cities of different size in Russian macroregions from 1991 to 2011. The results of sociological studies of key rural areas also are used. In modern institutional conditions seasonal works as a kind of temporary labor migration with week, month, and more long periods are considered as one of the main way of ensuring the necessary living level outside large agglomerations. This process not only has social consequences for the population, but also enhances the polarization of the Russian space, blocks the development of peripheral areas, small and medium towns. The article is accompanied with maps, charts and tables.

Economy of southern Russia: Features of functioning and prospects of development

The article presents the results of an analysis of the economic situation of the Southern Russian macro region and discusses the current problems of its development and potential threats. In addition, it shows the possibilities of solving problems by stimulating the modernization of leading branches of regional economy, support of territorial and sectoral clusters and realizing innovative potential.

Forecasts and estimates of spatial transformations of the economy on the basis of a complex of hierarchical calculations of the multiregional system development of Russia

A system of hierarchal forecast calculations is described, permitting to extrapolate scenario conditions of the country’s socioeconomic development to regions. Estimates of Russia’s “future image” are formulated on the basis of international comparisons. A number of calculations were performed to estimate the possible development of Russian macroregions in the framework of the scenario when the Russian economy achieves the level of developed countries by 2030. Estimates of the evolution of Siberia’s territorial structure are provided.