Theoretical and methodological approaches to human potential research of rural areas

The paper shows the relevance of the study of the human potential of rural areas due to the emergence of such negative trends as depopulation of rural areas, villages dying out, the degradation of the human potential of the village, impoverishment of the rural population, and precariatization. The purpose of the study is to analyze the experience of human potential research accumulated by science and action, as well as the possibilities of its application (or adaptation) to the assessment of the human potential of Russian rural areas. The authors identify the approaches to the treatment of human potential, including the system approach, ability and readiness approaches, reserve approach, as well as the possibilities approach. The paper defines their specific character and gives examples of definitions relating to each approach. The study shows that the diversity of components of human potential leads to the need to take into account the most commonly used components that have proved to be intellectual, creative, communicative, value-based and activity potentials. The methods for assessing the human potential of rural areas are summarized in the article, among which the authors single out approaches based on the system of indicators, such as social indicators, integral criterion (construction of composite indices), and sociological measurement. General scientific methods were also used extensively, in particular analysis and synthesis (content analysis of various structures of human potential), and the inductive method of cognition (generalization). The conclusion is made that the study of human potential should be based on the use of a system approach implying both the qualitative and the quantitative analysis of human potential, as well as the use of the results of sociological surveys along with the statistical data. The study also shows that the assessment of human potential based on sociological data can assume both calculations by values of the composite index and the use of disaggregated data. The paper presents the main criteria for assessing the human potential of rural areas, among them, in particular, the provision of a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative characterization of the human potential of rural areas, taking into consideration specific character of rural areas, being a subject of the research, with a focus on the pressing issues of the Russian village, begotten by post-Soviet transformations.