Suchergebnisse

The article reveals the evolution of legal regulation of the procedure for creating public organizations in Russia in the second half of the 19th century. It is established that the main criterion for the legality of public organizations in Russia was the presence of a charter approved by the state authority. Legislative regulation of the creation of private initiative societies was reduced to determining the list of state authorities authorized to approve the charters of new societies. Through the publication of a wide range of secondary legislation, the state authority established the requirements for the content of statutory norms and determined the procedure for their approval. The author found that in the second half of the 19th century there was a decentralization of the mechanism for creating private initiative societies and simplification of the administrative licensing procedure.

The article shows that the Chinese company Ant Financial is developing a social credit system named Sesame Credit going beyond the traditional credit scoring mechanism on this way. Sesame Credit aims to form "civilized behavior" of citizens as an instrument of social management and control. In the late of the 2010s some of Sesame Credit's technologies and information resources have been integrated into a large-scale state system of social credit which is still in its infancy.

The article is devoted to a policy document that defines the main directions and principles of creating a social credit system in China. It is shown that the reform plan and the ongoing changes are quite consistent with the Chinese bureaucratic traditions of coercion and paternalism, and are associated with the use of a social regulator that forms the appropriate behavioral incentives, such as reputation. Ultimately, the new model of social governance is aimed at ensuring social and political stability in China and proactively addressing the development problems of Chinese society.

The importance of human capital and human development for understanding economics and social relations has repeatedly been proven since the time of Adam Smith. Theories on human capital and human development were conceptualized in their modern form in the USA in the 1960's to 1980's. However, in recent decades they have been seriously criticized in scientific literature, primarily due to issues pertaining to how they approach measurement. In this article a critical revision of the main approaches towards evaluating human capital in modern social sciences is conducted. New strategies for measuring human capital and human development include not only a "quantitative" indicator (number of years spent receiving formal education), but also an indicator showing the quality of acquired knowledge and skills. Such approaches provide a possibility to observe the improvement or degradation of human capital outside of conventional formal education, which allows perceiving human capital as embedded in the processes of local social, economic and historical development. This historical rootedness of human capital and human development seems to be of utmost importance for fluid societies in a state of crisis. The prospects for sociologization of the concepts of human capital and human development as well as the potential of life-course sociology for their analysis are discussed. It is suggested to view human capital through a cohort approach lens. The discussion outlines research strategies for studying human capital and human development within the proposed logic.

From the moment when wide spread of large scale assessments in sociology and economics began, the most commonly used indicators of peoples' qualifications are the number of years spent in education and the possession of a high school/college/university diploma. But what if these formal indicators are unreliable under certain conditions and do not reflect actual literacy and competency of people? This article, drawing on data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), questions accuracy of the basic educational indicators in Russia. There is a linear relationship between the possession of a formal graduation diploma and the measurement of PIAAC literacy of the able-bodied population in OECD countries, including the Eastern European ones. However, the analysis shows that in Russia there is an inconsistency between literacy and formal educational status. This fact in itself casts doubt on the effectiveness of formal education indicators in Russia. The social implications resulting from this inconsistency become apparent through an international comparison of research results. These ill effects have been documented in the areas of employment, education and social reproduction and in the social self-awareness of the Russian people.

In the paper Russian results of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competency (PIAAC) are analyzed and compared to the data from the OECD countries. In the focus of the research is the concept of "participation in society" proposed by the developers of the PIAAC. The results show that "social inclusion" and "success" measured in the PIAAC through peoples' individual achievements are not always connected with high level of competence in Russia. There is a large proportion of people in the group of respondents with the lowest level of literacy, who are "included" and "successful" (at least according to formal criteria). This distinguishes Russia from the OECD countries with developed economies.

In many countries, including Russia, the COVID-19 epidemic became a catalyst for the technological, "digital" renewal of the school educational process. This renewal occurred rapidly and, in some respects, chaotically, therefore it was described in literature using a special term — "emergency teaching". Teachers resisting change is sometimes seen as the main reason for the stability and conservatism of schools, as well as for the failed attempts to introduce innovations. Drawing a parallel between modern teachers and Luddites, it is important to assess not only resistance to technological change, but also the social consequences of these changes for the school and for teachers. This article is based on the materials of a long-term observation of Russian school teachers, implemented using qualitative research logic during the time of the most active spread of COVID in 2020–2022. The study revealed the difficulties that teachers face in integrating digital practices into the emergency educational process, as well as their fears related to prospects of a crisis in the profession of teaching. One component of this looming crisis is the expansion of external formal control, as well as the teachers themselves losing control, with the prospect (and fear) of losing autonomy and the teaching profession losing its creative element.

Russian-Danish economic cooperation has a long and rich history, in which St. Petersburg, due to its geographical location, has always played an important role. The study of the role of large megacities in national foreign economic policy is now of great scientific and practical importance. The authors of this article attempt to examine the economic sphere of paradiplomacy based on the example of St. Petersburg. The article analyzes the legal framework for economic cooperation between St. Petersburg and Denmark, trade and investment cooperation, determines the place of St. Petersburg in the total trade turnover of Russia with Denmark, and the importance of Danish exports and imports for St. Petersburg's economy. Special attention is paid to the period 2014–2020, namely, the impact of the sanctions regime on Danish and St. Petersburg economic cooperation, as well as the new role of the Danish autonomous regions — the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The authors determine that there were no drastic changes in the economic interaction between St. Petersburg and Denmark after the introduction of sanctions. Although the counter-sanctions reduced the supply of Danish food products, the export of St. Petersburg goods to Denmark increased. The vacuum created by the reduction in the supply of Danish products was filled by enterprising residents of the Faroe Islands, who are not members of the European Union (EU). St. Petersburg has become one of the key centers of consumption of Faroese fish and seafood. The main obstacles to the development of economic cooperation between St. Petersburg and Denmark remain: value differences between the Russian Federation and the EU, the sanctions regime, an outdated regulatory framework, and a high degree of distrust between partners, which is beginning to affect the pragmatic sphere of the economy. The global economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic also has a negative impact on economic cooperation between St. Petersburg and Denmark. However, the epidemic opens up new opportunities for cooperation in areas that were on the periphery of Danish-Russian economic relations: digitalization of the economy and education, urbanism and the implementation of the ideas of a "smart city", cooperation in the field of pharmaceuticals and medical technologies, and cybersecurity.