Social Investing Modeling for Sustainable Development of the Russian Arctic

The method of the social investing of the Arctic subsoil users is considered in this article. As the portfolio of social investments is formed based on the interests of indigenous peoples, the authors used expert assessment and sociological research for social investing modeling. A two-stage procedure for forming a portfolio of such projects is proposed. An approach has also been developed for assessing and selecting investment projects for the Arctic sustainable development according to different criteria of optimality. The authors substantiate the need for a new approach to sustainable development of the Arctic, based not on compensation for the negative consequences of industrial development used in many countries, but on social investment. In this article the proposed approach is tested on the case of the Arctic indigenous community in Taimyr and the optimal social investing portfolio is justified.

URBAN CONSCIOUSNESS, CULTURE, QUALITY OF LIFE AND TAMBOV RESIDENTS’ IDEA OF FAVORABLE URBAN ENVIRONMENT

В статье изложены результаты полевых социологических исследований по проблемам оценки горожанами градостроительных проблем и городской среды в г. Тамбове в 2008 и 2020 гг. Показано, что количественный состав жителей г. Тамбова в последние 30 лет остается стабильным, при возросшем жилищном фонде за это время на 1 жителя с 14,1 м до 29,6 м. Из 75 городов России г. Тамбов находится, на основании мнений тамбовчан, на 36-м месте по качеству жизни. Актуальность статьи обусловлена научным интересом к проблеме взаимодействия горожан со средой обитания и формирования комфортной городской среды. Целью статьи является срез субъективного мнения горожан о градостроительных проблемах и условиях формирования оптимальной среды проживания. По результатам опросов установлены основные негативные факторы городской среды, в частности, плохая экология, отсутствие благоустройства. Названы предпочитаемые и нежелательные районы города для проживания. На основе ответов респондентов сформирован «социальный заказ» по оптимизации городской среды, решению градостроительных проблем. Показано, что приобщение населения к решению городских проблем повышает социальную ответственность горожан за создание комфортной среды проживания. На основании эмпирического исследования делается вывод о том, что для создания благоприятной городской среды обитания в самих горожанах должны появиться градостроительное сознание и культура с человеческим измерением. The paper presents the results of field sociological research on the problems of assessing urban planning problems and urban environment in Tambov in 2008 and 2020. The research shows that the quantitative composition of Tambov inhabitants in the last 30 years remains stable, but the housing stock during this time increased from 14.1 m to 29.6 m per inhabitant. Tambov is ranked 36th out of 75 cities in Russia in terms of quality of life according to the opinions of Tambov residents. The relevance of the publication is due to the scientific interest in the sphere of interaction of citizens with the environment and comfortable urban environment formation. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the subjective opinion of residents about urban planning problems and the conditions of optimal living environment formation. Based on the results of the polls the main negative factors of the urban environment were identified, in particular, poor ecology, lack of landscaping. Preferred and undesirable areas of the city for living have been named. Based on the respondents' answers, a “social order” was formed to optimize the urban environment and solve urban planning problems. The authors suggest that involving the citizens in solving urban problems increases their social responsibility for creating a comfortable living environment. The empirical research allows us to think that in order to create a favorable urban environment, urban planning consciousness and culture with a human dimension must appear among townspeople. In this article according to sociological surveys, we have broadly subjectively revealed and assessed the quality of life of respondents in the non-production fixed assets of social consumption in Tambov.

Effective Integration of Distance Courses Through Project-Based Learning

The paper aims to single out critical success factors contributing to efficient implementation of distance learning practices and to explain the role of project-based learning in ensuring effective teaching of profession-oriented foreign language in a distance format. The authors argue in favor of distance learning as a beneficial educational tool providing for the training of large groups of people regardless of the place of residence and placing a priority on students’ individual capacities. Study design included a preliminary survey of 150 respondents specializing in the natural sciences and the humanities identifying the key analysis criteria, a complex of experimental online lessons incorporating project-based teaching principles, and a summarizing questionnaire verifying respondents’ post-experiment outlooks. The methodology of empirical research was based on a systematic approach and deployed the methods of pedagogical observation, project-based teaching, sociological research, and statistical analysis using Neural Designer software for calculating questionnaire results. Analyzing the obtained results, the authors conclude that: 1) Students specializing in the humanities have a higher motivation to study related minor subjects; 2) interdisciplinary integration using the English language allows to achieve a cumulative effect for major and related minor subjects; 3) interdisciplinary integration based on the project method is an effective means of improving academic performance in major subjects; 4) interdisciplinary integration based on the project method makes it possible to acquaint students with the best practices in their chosen specialty; 5) project method allows to achieve related didactic goals—self-expression, independent continuous learning and the formation of professional competencies.

Book Review: “Playing With My Dog Katie. An Ethnomethodological Study of Dog – Human Interaction.” by David Goode. Purdue University Press, 2007, pp. 228

The book by David Goode gives us a possibility to take an extraordinary excursion to unremarkable and inscrutable world, so common for us that we do not usually notice it, although we participate in it everyday. It is a reconstructed world that shows us methods that we use in mundane life to establish an order in it and to live with others going through concrete situations. Our live consists of just these situations that we live by (as playing with a dog, talking with others, lining up the store, etc.) and not of socio – demographic data from the end of sociological questionnaires and of many other abstractions used by sociologists. What is observable and analisable not always becomes a topic of the sociological research. Ethnomethodology, a perspective used in the book, wants just to go into details and to extract them to the surface. We should not rest our analysis on the “shadows” of reality, that are cast by still available and analyzable empirical phenomena, although difficult to analyze because of sociological methods and common sense perception used by sociologists.

Contributions of Ethnography to Gendered Sociology: the French Jazz World

In the last few years a number of studies have explored the epistemological uses of the ethnographer’s gender in sociological research and the effects of gender on research results. These studies aim either to analyze how ethnographers can use their “gender” to open up observational possibilities, or to analyze observations made while maintaining as much control as possible over the conditions of their sociological interpretation. But relatively few papers discuss using ethnography to study gendered social relations. This article applies that approach to the observations made in our field study of the “world” of French jazz. We present here three of the main ways that the epistemological enrichment offered by ethnography may in turn enrich analysis of gender relations: access to “invisible” practices, analysis in terms of “the arrangement between the sexes", the possibility of generalization.

ADVANTAGES AND PROSPECTS OF CO-BRANDING IN THE UKRAINIAN MARKET

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES. The marketing practices of companies over the past two decades have increasingly been based on co-marketing, or inter-firm marketing alliances. The mutual recognition and understanding that each firm's success depends in part on the other firm forms the foundation underlying co-marketing activities. Firms move from trying to win alone to forming networks of partner firms. Corporations understand the need for alliances to acquire and maintain competitive advantage.METHODS. We used general scientific and special research methods: abstract-logical – to summarize theoretical and methodological foundations of co-branding as an integrative marketing tool for joint development of companies; economic-statistical – to analyze the level of development of poultry companies; monographic – to study the experience of individual companies with horizontal form of co-branding; analysis and synthesis – to study the components of co-branding companies; sociological research – to identify key success factors of co-branding.FINDINGS. The structural and logical model of co-branding alliances of poultry companies, the use of which is based on a co-branding strategy, creates the necessary basis for its further development within the framework of modern marketing theory, will increase the effectiveness of co-branding.CONCLUSION. Co-branding, which is a form of strategic collaboration between two brands that involves bringing them together to create a new product or service, makes the marketing alliances of companies visible to the consumer. In doing so, companies imply recognition of the fact that their prominence represents added value. Closer collaboration with retailers, more focused promotion, and co-branding are becoming ways for many consumer companies to control costs and keep prices down. An example of such cooperation is the use of a co-branding strategy for poultry companies.

ВИКОРИСТАННЯ ХАКАТОН-ЕКОСИСТЕМИ ДЛЯ ФОРСАЙТУ ЗАЙНЯТОСТІ МОЛОДІ: МАСШТАБИ, СТРУКТУРА ТА ФУНКЦІЇ

This article is an attempt to explore the opportunities of using the Hackathon ecosystem tools to perform a quality forecasting of a wide range of youth employment issues. It is observed that despite vast experience of psychological training in higher education institutions based on the transformation of self-awareness, shaping professional perceptions related to changes in professional knowledge of professional occupation as it is, its object, professional community, etc., modern University realia lack targeted management efforts towards developing job-related skills as well as comprehensive assessment of their changing trends in the process of professional enhancement of students’ self-consciousness. At best, specific good practice of individual specialists is used, often without its interpretation by teachers and psychologists and beyond the scope of systemic analysis of the research issues. All this challenges an impetus to further studies on developing professional self-awareness of future specialists and encourages active implementation of the Hackathon ecosystem tools to render a foresight on youth secondary employment and self-employment at the level of University as well as in a regional setting. To attain the research agenda, the study employed the following general and special research methods: a system analysis method, an analytical grouping technique, comparative analysis, and dynamic and graph series construction. To summarise the research outcomes and to prepare a proposal draft on the opportunities to use the Hackathon ecosystem for offering a foresight on youth secondary employment and self-employment, the methods of abstract logical analysis and content analysis were used. Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design was chosen as the basis for this study. A questionnaire was chosen as a method of sociological research on student secondary employment. As a research toolkit, two questionnaires were developed: for students and for graduates. The study suggests using the Hackathon ecosystem to perform a foresight on student secondary employment and self-employment as a model to promote professional socialization of Ukrainian youth. According to the research findings, it is argued that there are three trajectories of student secondary employment: spontaneously formed (a good high paying job offered by chance), planned (targeted search for secondary employment according to the study major to gain professional competencies and work experience) and forced (employment to improve or maintain financial and economic well-being, usually beyond the education profile). An emphasis is put that secondary employment for Ukrainian students is not only the way to gain work experience and an extra pay opportunity but also an instrument of student professionalization. It is concluded that the terms and nature of secondary employment affect the professionalization effectiveness where gaining work experience, building professional contacts and employment prospects after graduation are viewed as a benefit for a wider student youth involvement in secondary employment.

Dialogue and social participation in the context of education and development of youth in Poland

Background: The development of civil society is based on dialogue and participation. Young people are characterized by low interest in social activity and building a civil society, therefore it seems crucial to look at what education for participation looks like. Objectives: The authors considered the issue of dialogue and social participation in the context of education and development of young Poles. The authors drew attention to the forms and importance of civic dialogue, as well as diagnosed the goals, functions and deficits of civic education. Methodology: The topic was presented on the basis of the literature on the subject, the results of sociological research and hard data on the forms and scale of civic involvement in Poland, especially in Warsaw. Data analysis in the form of desk research was used. Results: Research by CBOS and KBPN shows that only 40% of young people who could take part in the 2018 elections for the first time in their lives intended to exercise their right. Also in the parliamentary elections in 2019, the youngest eligible respondents voted least frequently. Young Poles significantly less often than adults in general show involvement in the affairs of the local community, and are also characterized by an above-average lack of trust in others and increasing individualism. Conclusions: Civic involvement of young Poles and their participation in building a civic society are low and are accompanied by a high level of individualism combined with a lack of trust in others. Therefore, a more effective education for participation seems to be of key importance. Examples of good practice in this area, although still carried out on a small scale, are classes conducted for students in the field of public transport and tools for social participation developed and used by some local governments, such as the Civic Budget or Local Initiative.

Mental Health Treatment Histories, Recovery, and Well-being

Epidemiological and sociological research on recovery from mental disorder is based on three rarely tested medical model assumptions: (1) recovery without treatment is the result of less severe illness, (2) treatment predicts recovery, and (3) recovery and well–being do not depend on individuals’ treatment histories. I challenge these assumptions using National Comorbidity Survey-Replication data for individuals with any disorder occurring prior to the current year ( N = 2,305). Results indicated that (1) untreated remissions were fully explained by less serious prior illness, (2) treated individuals were less likely to recover due to more serious illness, and (3) people who had past–only treatment were more likely to recover than the never–treated, while those in recurring and recently initiated care were less likely to recover. Treatment histories predicted greater well–being only if recovery had been attained. Histories of care help to explain recovery rates and suggest new directions for treatment–seeking theory and research.

Increasing the prestige of local self-government bodies and the effectiveness of activities should begin in the process of studying at the university

The subject of the research are the materials of judicial practice (texts of court decisions and information sources, the content of information about the results of court hearings), data from sociological surveys.The purpose of the article is to identify the relationship between the knowledge of municipal law, local self-government or urbanism obtained during training at a university and subsequent professional activities related to local self-government carried out at different levels of public authority.The methodology. A comprehensive methodology was used, including legal and sociological research methods. Formal legal, legal technical and comparative legal were used among the legal methods. The sociological methods include the method of expert survey and the method of content analysis, which makes it possible to reveal the real position of the respondent, if he wants to disguise it not only the positions expressed, but also the words actually used were analyzed. The most repeatable ones were identified with the help of special software products.The main results, scope of application. Quite significant amendments were made to the Russian Constitution in 2020. One of the novels concerns a unified system of public power, the inclusion of a new term in the text of the constitution. The implementation of these novels in the legislation on local self-government is expected after the completion of the formation of the updated composition of the Federal Assembly. For this, it is necessary not only to reveal the term itself and list the levels of public authority, but also to establish new principles of their relationship, incl. in a sense, uniform standards, rules and requirements for state and local authorities. One of the possible consequences of this may be an increase in the prestige of work in local self-government bodies, a change in attitudes towards work in local self-government bodies.Conclusions. The analysis of the materials of law enforcement practice, the data of opinion polls on trust in local self-government bodies, attitude to the results of the work of local self-government bodies and their officials show that of all levels of government the municipal level is least trusted. Unfortunately, such an attitude begins to form in the process of training future employees of public authorities at different levels.