Socio-cultural aspects of differentiation of regional indicators of occupational injuries: evaluation of historical projections

The paper discusses the comprehensive nature of regional differentiation of indicators of injury in Belarus and the Russian Federation; the sociocultural and psychological factors are considered to be the key ones. The work consists of two parts. In the first part the authors evaluate the distribution of indicators of occupational injuries in different sectors of the national economy of Belarus in 1970-1990. Analysis of the distribution of indicators of occupational injuries in Belarus demonstrates the effect of chiasm in the action of two historical gradients: ethno-anthropological directed along the axis “North-South” and socio-cultural (civilizational) - along the axis “West- East”. The next part of the paper discusses the distribution of occupational injuries indicators from the perspective of the historical zoning of the territory of modern Russia. The author carries out valuation of the paired nature in the distribution of regional indicators of industrial injuries and the groups of indicators characterizing the level of socio-cultural disadvantage of the regions. This group includes social (crime, divorce rate, % of children born out of wedlock, mortality from external causes, suicide) and demographic and health (incidence of tuberculosis, syphilis, drug addiction, alcoholism, number of abortions) indicators. The paper compares and ranks federal districts by level of each indicator. A gradient of spatial differentiation along the axis “West-East” is identified for the whole group of considered parameters. This gradient is a projection of the process of historical colonization and development of the territory of Russia in the eastern direction. The nature of spatial distribution of the index of industrial injuries can be considered in the general group of indicators of ill-being of the socio-cultural environment. The following grouping of regional data for 81 constituent entities of the Russian Federation by assessing the factor loadings with varimax rotation has revealed the combined nature of regional disparities in the selected indicators of socio-cultural sphere, in contrast to the indicators of economic well-being of regions. The paper confirms the view that historically conditioned characteristics of the social space are a significant factor that determines regional peculiarities of the level of industrial injuries.