Social development. Рубрика в журнале - Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
Research on influence of social transformation on rural poor aged people
Статья научная
China is in the acceleration period of social transformation. In this period, Chinese rural area is experiencing profound change in political system, production mode, living style, family structure and income composition, which is the progress of society. Meanwhile, due to the complexity and persistence of social transformation, it results in rural poor aged people and causes some difficulties for rural poor aged people to get rid of poverty. Problems and difficulties in the social transformation process must be solved and overcome in the process of social transformation.
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Rising necessities: controversial transformation
Статья научная
The phenomenon of rising necessities is studied in the mechanism of the dialectical development of production and consumption and is represented as a set of interrelated aspects. This is an increase in the number of needs and consumption; distribution of needs in the broader circle of consumers; changed quality of needs; complication of the consumption method; changed forms of consumption; development of intellectual and social needs. The article shows that the process of rising necessities includes the complication of the consumption method, which leads to the formation of needs in services, and then to the emergence of social forms of consumption and services. It reveals the features and effects of this process: broad development of non-vital needs, emergence of quality and quantity hyper-consumption, demonstrative consumption and pursuit of brands; existence of antisocial needs that turns the rise in needs in its opposite; prevalence of consumer demand over income that results in “life on credit” of individuals and entire countries; unrestrained growth of needs, consumption and production respectively that give rise to unprecedented environmental pollution; hedonistic orientation of consumption, violation of dialectical connection of needs-abilities, crisis of culture and morality; formation of poly-needs that combine several components (material and non-material); accelerated development of needs in communication, entertainment and games...
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Risks of poverty in the modern Russian conditions
Статья научная
Poverty acts as an indicator of insufficiency and deficit of economic resources of the population; its boundaries serve as a demarcation line between people’s adaptation to social and economic changes and their maladjustment. The construction of a socio-demographic portrait of the poor, reflecting its recent dynamics and the current state helps identify the key risks of poverty and their stability in the modern Russian conditions. It is difficult for certain social categories to adapt. The specificity of socio-economic differentiation of the population in the modern Russian society is connected with the persistence of the stratification profile defined by the unequal distribution of money income among the population groups during the period of reforms. Raised standards of living of most population in the 2000s led to the drastic reduction in absolute poverty, defined by the boundaries of income below the subsistence minimum. However, nowadays, according to the objective indicators of the income amount, the tenth part of the Russians is considered as the poor...
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Road traffic accident rate as an indicator of the quality of life
Статья научная
The paper considers the issues devoted to assessing the connection between the quality of life and road traffic accident rate in different countries. The hypothesis put forward in the paper is based on the idea that the organization and functioning of the state road traffic safety management system and the outcome characteristics of road traffic accident rate in the road complex are closely related and are derived from the level of development of non-governmental institutions in a particular country. In order to determine how true this hypothesis is, the author carried out statistical studies of the relations between the estimates of the Quality of Life presented for 60 countries in the US News & World Report and the Human Risk indicators estimated for these countries. This indicator proposed by R. Smeed in 1949 for assessing the state of affairs in the field of road safety allows us to evaluate adequately the position of countries in the world ranking of road traffic accident rate...
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Статья научная
For more than a decade, the Russian state has been actively engaged in issues of preservation of people, but the positive effects of this work quickly disappeared (2014-2016), and the trend again changed to a negative one. The First (2006-2012) and the Second (2013-2020) Federal Target Programs on Road Safety were aimed at reducing the number of deaths in road traffic accidents, and made a positive contribution to the field of preservation of people. For instance, in 2006-2019, the annual number of deaths in road traffic accidents decreased from 32,724 to 16,981 people per year, or almost twice. Nevertheless, there are still many problems in ensuring road safety. One of them is the complexity of the system processes of road safety management in such a large country as the Russian Federation. Russia consists of 85 heterogeneously developed economically and socially entities on the territory of which representatives of 190 peoples live. The article analyses a wide range of issues related to the assessment of the impact of the sociocenosis features on one of the most important characteristics of road traffic accident rate - the severity. The purpose of the research is to study the influence of the characteristics of representative socio-economic factors on road traffic accident severity in Russian regions, and to develop the most effective differentiated approach to the financing of regional road safety programs on this basis. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the model confirmation of the previously put forward ideas about the positive impact of the basic socio-economic institutions that shape road users’ transport behavior on its safety. The authors consider these ideas in relation to Russia as a whole and to the relationship of regional road traffic accident rate with the economic and demographic characteristics of Russians’ life. The paper presents the rank patterns of influence on road traffic accident severity of such characteristics of regional sociocenosis as the population’s median age, the share of population with income below the minimum wage, and the average monthly income. We show the conceptual considerations for improving road safety in the Russian Federation in the spatiotemporal continuum.
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Russian model of population ageing (in the case of the northern regions)
Статья научная
The article dwells on the characteristics of the Russian model of population ageing, conditioned by the demographic wave, migration and short life expectancy. It has been revealed that Russia is approaching the demographic ageing model, typical of developed countries. The article describes the specific features of demographic ageing in Russia’s Northern regions. These features are conditioned by the ‘younger’ age structure of the population, low life expectancy, and large-scale migration outflows in the last two and a half decades. In addition, the article analyzes economic consequences of population ageing and defines the main social problems of old age.
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Self-regulation of the image of labor in young people's cultural space
Статья научная
The idea of the essence of labor is largely socio-cultural, i.e. it is conditioned by a connection with a certain type of culture. Therefore, this article looks into the socio-cultural approach to self-regulation of the image of labor. Self-regulation of the image of labor is investigated in connection with the cultural space of young people. With the help of theoretical positions of phenomenological sociology we substantiate the concept of socio-cultural foundation used by young people to create an image of labor; we describe the process of formation of cultural space, consider a role of different types of culture in the process of formation of the meanings that form the image and act as semantic basis of what young people expect from labor. This approach contributes to a more adequate understanding of how young people form their attitude toward labor and of the contradictions arising in this sphere of life. The way in which young people understand the meaning of labor forms a basis on which the image of labor is created. We substantiate the most significant features of the conditions for the formation of meanings, reflecting the following changes in social reality in modern society - social uncertainty, destruction of normativity, and semantic hybridization. The construction of young people's new ideas about labor takes place through the contradictory interaction between traditional and modern semantic patterns. We use data of sociological studies to analyze the connection between various characteristics of the image of labor and types of culture; we also analyze the influence of terminal and instrumental values in the constructed image of labor on young people's attitude toward actual labor. The mechanism of self-regulation of the attitude toward labor is revealed as a process of realization of expectations, in trust or distrust toward labor. The role of moral and psychological state of young people in this process is shown. The analysis allows us to understand more deeply the features of self-regulation of the image of labor and its role in the formation of young people's attitude toward labor. We make conclusions about the changes in the image of labor in the direction of more flexible forms that often depend on the moral and psychological state of young people, which is manifested in their attitude toward labor. We show a connection between self-regulation models based on terminal and instrumental values of labor and “adaptive” and “spiritual” types of culture.
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Small business and living standards of the population: mutual influence and management issues
Статья научная
Small entrepreneurship is an important element of the socio-economic system of the region, because it contributes to the creation of competitive environment, the consumer’s market saturation and stimulation of aggregate demand, as well as to structural changes, etc. As a systemically important element of the municipal units’ economy, it has an impact on developing the infrastructure and filling the budget of local territories. It contributes to solving one of the main tasks of the social state - to increase the population’s living standards in the country. The high significance of small business determines the demand and necessity of its development. However, at present the aspects of its interconnection with the population’s living standards remain insufficiently elaborated, which makes it difficult to implement effective public policy on managing these categories. The researchers have presented two main approaches to defining this interaction. In the first variant, the functioning of small business contributes to improving the population’s living standards. In the second variant, the availability of capital and consumer demand, provided with people’s high revenues, are the main factors of small business development. Under the conditions of limited resources, the ambiguity of such dependence confirms the relevance and necessity of elaborating scientifically based directions of state influence and the system of measures for stimulating the development of these categories. Therefore, the aim of the study is to assess dependence of small business and the population’s living standards, as well as to establish mainstreaming scientifically based directions of public management and the system of measures, contributing to the development of the small business sector and the improvement of the population’s living standards as a whole. In order to achieve the goal, the empirical assessment of interconnection between the development of small business and the population’s living standards has been carried out, which allows to determine the specific characteristics of their mutual influence. The recommendations on improving the existing system of public management regarding the development processes of small business and improving the population’s living standards in the Russian Federation’s entities have been scientifically justified. The empirical basis of the study includes the data from the Federal State Statistics Service and the results of monitorings, conducted by Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The materials of the article can be used by the federal and regional government bodies and administrative authorities for adjusting public policy in the field of developing the regional economy.
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Small business as the factor increasing the employment rate and incomes of the population
Статья научная
Small and medium business is the most important source of increasing employment and incomes of the population. The statistics show that at present the potential of this sphere is not used to the fullest extent in Russia. In order to overcome the existing difficulties, involve the population in business, it is necessary to implement a set of measures aimed at the improvement of the business climate and the disclosure of the population’s entrepreneurial potential. Furthermore, an important step is the development and adoption of the concept of the long-term development programme of small and middle business in the region.
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Social and cultural portrait of the region in the context of changes during 2008 - 2010
Статья научная
The article considers the social and cultural transformation of the region, which appeared in the crisis period of 2008 - 2010. The study based on data of empirical analysis shows the changes in social well-being and social structure, value motivations of the region inhabitants. It identifies positive and negative aspects of social and cultural shifts in the regional development during the global financial crisis.
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Social and economic damage due to population's mortality from suicides
Статья научная
The paper presents an analysis of the social and economic burden of suicide death rate in Russia, conducted by research team of ISEDT RAS in research “Social health of the population” in cooperation with the Federal State University “The Moscow Scientific Research Institute of Psychiatry” of the Health Ministry in Russian Federation. The place of suicide in the structure of mortality is defined. It is shown that Russia is a country with the highest suicide rate in Europe. Social and economic costs of suicide in different age and gender groups at the regional and state levels are counted. Its highest level is among men aged 20 to 29 years. The regions with the highest number of lost years of productive life due to suicide are concentrated in the south of Russia (the Volga, Urals and Siberian federal districts). A comparative assessment of suicides burden in the rankings with the common mortality causes from natural and external causes is given. By the level of socio-economic loss suicides far exceed the other causes of the class, “Accidents, injuries and poisoning” and are comparable to the losses caused by coronary heart disease.
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Social aspects of modernization in Russia's regions
Статья научная
Modernization is a long process that is going on unevenly in the world and in every country, and especially in Russia taking into account its vast territory and national diversity. Moreover, very acute issues that our country has to face include its lagging behind developed countries by 2-4 times in terms of the standard of living, and profound interregional differences. Each subject of the Russian Federation has its own degree of socio-economic development and, consequently, its own level of modernization. This article aims to outline some important social aspects of territories' development on the background of modernization change. The authors try to show the specifics of change in the trends in health, education, and financial situation on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of statistical and sociological data. The authors conclude that modernization in Russia's regions should be considered not only as an achievement of the highest international standard in economic and technological fields, but also as an updating of the society in thesocio-cultural and spiritual perspective.
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Social capital in a region: revisiting the measurement and building of an indicator model
Статья научная
The concept of social capital is gaining certain stability in the social studies. The heuristic potential of the concept is confirmed by numerous studies which prove the positive impact of levels and types of social capital on a wide range of social phenomena. Approaches to theoretical justification of social capital empirical appraisal are being formed, which is particularly relevant amid of general economic and structural crisis. However, science still lacks a generally accepted definition of social capital and the agreement on the ways to measure it. The article aims to theoretically justify the building of an indicator model for empirical measurement of social capital, which implies a set of indicators generated for a particular conceptual framework and helping obtain organized information about the phenomenon under study in order to identify the correlation between its components. The article is intended to foreground the need for social capital empirical measurement and comparison...
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Social capital of the urban community: trust, solidarity, responsibility
Статья научная
Social capital formation of the urban community contributes to the compactness of living, involvement in a variety of activities, the diversity of emerging problems and the possibility of their joint solutions. The purpose for the study is to study the social capital of urban communities of two major cities of the Vologda oblast - Vologda and Cherepovets - and identify their common and distinctive features. The theoretical framework of analysis lies in the concept of social capital, which demonstrated the role and importance of social relations for growth and development. Further expansion of the concept’s problems caused interest in specific environments of its formation, including the city. The empirical framework of the study includes the results of a public opinion survey in the mentioned cities conducted by the experts of the Russian Academy of Sciences in June, 2017. The hypothesis of the study is that cultural, economic, and social differences affect the state of structural characteristics of social capital, particularly trust, which in turn affects the relations of solidarity and the level of responsibility for the state of affairs in the city...
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Social impact assessment as a tool for sustainable development of the Russian Arctic
Статья научная
In the context of dynamic economic development of the Arctic, one of the strategic tasks is to ensure environmental safety and preserve the conditions and quality of life of the local population. It is possible to solve this problem by conducting environmental impact assessment (EIA) at the stage of economic activity planning, which is mandatory in all Arctic countries. During the EIA process, companies assess possible environmental and related social and economic impact of the planned investment project. For this purpose, appropriate techniques are used, and their number is sufficient to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the impact on the natural environment. At the same time, assessing social impact of economic initiatives is quite a challenge for companies due to the fact that Russia lacks the documents and methodological recommendations that regulate the implementation of such an assessment. This fact is confirmed by the practice of EIA and by scientific research, according to which the assessment of social impact of economic activity is one of the most difficult and least studied issues in modern science. It becomes particularly important to find a solution to this problem for the Russian Arctic, where the indigenous population lives, whose conditions and quality of life largely depend on the state of the environment and preservation of traditional economic activities. In this regard, we set a goal to find an approach to the development of a methodology for forecasting social changes for the Arctic region of Russia. To achieve the goal, we do the following 1) we analyze the existing methodological approaches to assessing the social impact of the planned economic activity in the context of Russian and foreign research, as well as the practice of EIA; 2) we describe a system of indicators of the social environment of the Russian Arctic; 3) we build a matrix of social impact of the planned economic activity. The findings of our study can become the basis for the development of specific techniques, including sectoral methods, to assess social impact of the planned economic activity; these techniques can be used for a comprehensive environmental assessment of the planned economic activity by public and private companies.
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Social investment as a tool for modernization of the demographic development in the Far East
Статья научная
The experience of domestic and foreign studies demonstrates a growth of interest in the problem of rational distribution of public financial resources as social investments in human capital development, which is described in our paper with the help of demographic development parameters; this corresponds to the modern tradition of considering the relationship of economic and social dynamics in extreme regions through the prism of demographic changes. In this context, the perspective estimates of public spending on the social sphere in relation to the Far East, a region that was proclaimed a strategic priority of Russia in the 21st century, are of particular value. The goal of our study is to develop and test the tools that allow us to quantify the scale and structure of public spending on education, healthcare and social policy, and that promote the achievement of the target values set out in the concept of demographic policy of the Far East for the period up to 2025. Using the model constructions built on the basis of dynamic data for 2000-2017, we obtain the estimates of the impact of social investment on demographic development parameters on the example of Khabarovsk Krai...
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Статья научная
The present-day Russia is characterized by the decline in population size and its health impairment. The author considers that it is possible to overcome this negative trend and lowering human capital when the poverty being decreasing and the population inequality in income and pay being overcoming.
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Social risks of international immigration into Russia
Статья научная
The article explains the sociological theory of immigration risks. Despite the fact that domestic sociology has been recently attracting more attention to the risk theory, risks of migration processes have not yet been properly considered. According to the authors, such a theory must consider social risks for all participants of the migration process: host countries, countries of origin and immigrants. The typological model of immigration risks is based on the theory of integration by H. Esser and F. Heckmann. The model describes how various risks are manifested at the micro, meso and macro level of social reality taking into account the four dimensions of social integration: cultural, structural, interactional and identification. Based on the theoretical model the authors identify several groups of risks for the host population: risks based on local and migrant population interaction at the micro level and perceived risks which can be formed by the media under the influence of certain political forces at the macro level...
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Social vulnerability of families with children in modern Russia
Статья научная
When performing its reproductive function, the family - the main institution for population reproduction - continues to bear increased risks of poverty. The goal of our paper is to study manifestations of social vulnerability of modern Russian families with children. Despite the active demographic policy implemented with the help of national projects since 2006, the actual situation concerning families with children has not undergone any significant changes. The birth of a child continues to reduce the standard of living to the point of crossing the poverty line; the housing market remains inaccessible, and the tools for combining parenthood and professional activities do not work. The resources of an average family do not promote the formation of human potential of the child population that would meet the demands of the knowledge economy and are reduced to a set of primary needs. The existing mechanisms of social support do not guarantee that the life of families with children will actually improve; childcare allowances are not growing and are not focused on achieving any standard of living, even the minimum subsistence level. Having few children becomes a conscious choice against the background of the crisis of marriage, which ceased to serve as a kind of contract according to which the husband is a breadwinner, and the wife gives birth to children and runs the house. Women have become full-fledged actors in the labor market. However, they still face discrimination in this regard. The analysis of gender statistics shows that women who have the same level of education, sphere of activity and official status as men receive an average wage that is one third lower compared to that of men. However, the phenomenon of working wives is not only and not so much a reflection of their desire for professional self-realization. Two working adults in an average family will provide a per capita income at the subsistence level in case they have no more than two children. In addition, satisfaction with the availability and quality of education and health services - the institutions that support the reproduction of the population and human potential - remains far from the desired level. Under the circumstances, the family with children remains one of the most socially vulnerable population groups; this fact requires the revision of the mechanisms of social policy and the principles of the social state in general. Scientific novelty of our study consists in the fact that it analyzes and classifies the manifestations of social vulnerability of modern families with children and puts forward the proposals to improve the social and demographic policy of the state. The findings of our research can be used in the practice of public administration.
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