Citizen (dis)engagement during assessment of sports mega-events: The case of the 2013 Universiade in Kazan, Russia

Based on the environmental case of the 2013 Universiade in Kazan, this research highlights that despite the variety of tools employed for citizen engagement, the key procedures can be claimed as 'false dialogues'. The study identifies the key factors for such a discrepancy. The main external barriers for post-socialist Russian cities include the limited time frame for building sports venues, poor execution of environmental legislation, and complicated bureaucratic procedures maintained by governmental actors. The internal factors are polarized positions in the community due to the complexity of the project, the gap between the citizen environmental concern and actual engagement in environmentally friendly behaviours associated with the lack of the environmental knowledge, time, and financial resources, lack of knowledge of the environmental impact assessment process, and dominance of the material and paternalistic values and low trust in government proponents. © 2014 © 2014 IAIA

The ecological culture of Russian and american college students

Comparative research data show that there is both a high level of ecological concern and a high level of ecological passivity among students in Russia, indicating that their ecological culture exists only on the symbolic level. The "green" culture of American college students, in contrast to that of Russia's college students, has become the "normal" paradigm and is propagated by the main social agents and social institutions. © 2014 M.E. Sharpe, Inc

«Green? Cool. yours»: The effect of sports mega-events in post-soviet Russia on citizens' environmental consumption practises (cases of 2013 Universiade in Kazan and 2014 Sochi Olympics)

The study provides insights on the influences of sports mega-events in post-soviet Russia on the citizens' environmental consumption practices and adaptation of new green infrastructure and technologies. Based on the representative survey of the citizens, semi-structured interviews with city's stakeholders and discourse analysis of the local and national mass media, the research portrayed the dominance of the "Declarative" type both among Kazan and Sochi residents. The environmental consumption practices among Kazan and Sochi residents are mainly driven by social-altruistic values, self-egoistic values, monetary incentives and costs, habitual practices and community expectations. Findings suggested that after the sports megaevents citizens became more environmentally friendly and run more environmental green lifestyle that could be partly linked to the increase of accessibility of green infrastructure. The main green initiatives that citizens suggest to correspondent their cities with the international standards refer to new types of environmental infrastructure: the widespread implementation of containers for recycling, development of cycling tracks, introduction of green technologies, environmental certification of products and goods

Metabolic Transformations in the Area of Municipal Solid Waste Management in Russian Megalopolises: The City of Moscow Case

Received 15 June 2022. Accepted 23 December 2022. Published online 30 December 2022.Based on secondary data analysis and semi-structured expert interviews (n = 90), the study analyses metabolic transformations in the area of municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Russian megalopolises using the city of Moscow as a case study. The findings suggest that the key node that triggered numerous interdependent processes involved the changes introduced in the legislation on MSW management and the decision to shut down several large MSW landfills without the simultaneous implementation of other landfills. These actions affected the health of the population and contributed to environmental inequality. The authors provide recommendations for the mitigation of risks associated with MSW generation, recycling, and storage in large Russian cities.The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under Grant No. 22-28-00392 “Waste production and disposal in the megalopolises of Russia: multisectoral and interdisciplinary analysis”

Public assessment of social and economic effects of climate change based on the case of the republic of tatarstan

© 2018 Moskovskij Universitet. All rights reserved. The results of a sociological survey aimed at identifying the views of experts and general public on climate change in Tatarstan and Russia, as well as at the assessment of social, environmental and economic impacts, and possible ways of minimizing the negative effects of climate change for the Republic of Tatarstan, are discussed. The study was performed as a part of an interdisciplinary project, which targets at studying the modem global and regional processes of climate change, their natural, social and environmental impacts in the Volga Federal District. The results of the study highlighted that both experts and general public related the awareness of vulnerability to climate anomalies with, on the one hand, the general feeling unwell, the pressure swing and the emergence of new pathogenic viruses and bacteria, and, on the other hand, with phenomena relating to different socio-economic characteristics of the Republic, i.e. hot weather, cold weather, droughts, floods, large amount of precipitation, rising mean annual temperatures, soil freezing etc. Certain advantages resulting from the climate change were revealed, such as the shorter heating period or the longer period of vegetation. The increased environmental culture and environmental awareness of all social agents, the economic and legal regulation, for example, in the case of cleaner production, and the introduction of non-waste technologies are suggested as effective social adaptation measures. Negligence of the federal and local authorities to climate change problems was also pointed out. The lack of regional strategies to mitigate climate change and reduce its negative effects as well as poor harmonization in addressing the problems associated with the climate policy could enhance social and economic risks in the long term

Sustainable Energy Transition in Russia and Ghana Within a Multi-Level Perspective

Received 5 April 2023. Accepted 30 August 2023. Published online 6 October 2023.This paper is a case study based on a critical review of existing literature and primary data through interviews to investigate energy transition framing and manifestation in the Global South. It provides critical insights into sustainable energy transition in Ghana and Russia within a multi-level perspective (MLP). We argue that whereas Ghana’s energy transition concepts and policies are mirrored by landscape, regime, and niche, practical transitioning has been slow due to inadequate resources and incentives, limited historical culpability in global greenhouse gas, and the country being locked-in to existing hydrocarbon socio-technical systems. The MLP approach is useful in describing energy technologies, markets, and consumption practices. But in Russia, social policy at distinct levels is united by centralised energy law and technical systems, as well as institutional rules and differences based on costs in economic regions. This paper contributes to the energy transitioning discourse within the Global South using Russia and Ghana as cases to highlight how transition policies and practices differ from country to country, driven by economic, political, social, cultural, and historical elements with global frameworks serving as guides. Rigid application of landscape, regime, and niche concepts is challenged in describing and analysing the context-specific nuances in sustainable energy transition policy across spaces. There is a fundamental challenge of mechanically fusing a one-fits-all approach to sustainable energy transitioning in developing countries and societies due to differences in historical contributions to climatic issues and inequality of access to resources and technologies. Energy transition processes and practices should be compatible with social justice.The fieldwork and data analysis for the Russian case was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under Grant No. 22-28-00392 “Waste production and disposal in the megalopolises of Russia: multisectoral and interdisciplinary analysis”. The Ghana section wish to acknowledge the funding support for the literature review and writing from the University of Ghana, through the Institute of African Studies (IAS) annual research support fund for research fellows at IAS

Health determinants for Russians

© 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, London.Health, according to the opinion of the most modern national sociologists [5, 6], is among the fundamental factors of quality of living. Health is the basis of physical, labor, and social activity of the human, and the state of health depends—directly or indirectly—on the main indicators of quality of living, both work and working time, material well-being, life and free time, marriage and family

Evaluating the effectiveness of social protection of the population in the Russian federation

© 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, London.In this paper, we consider a system of evaluating the effectiveness of social protection. We analyze the social protection criteria and methods in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the Russian Federation

Public insights to the image construction of the Republic of Tatarstan

© 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, London.Based on the complex original research of authors, this study investigates some dimensions of the construction of the image of the modern Russian city-Kazan. This study highlights the absence of the singular image of Kazan among different city’s stakeholders rather an “umbrella construct” and the difference in the perceptions of the city image between city authorities and city population. An attempt to multiply brand identity of the Kazan city dictates its flexibility and loyalty to broad economic, sociocultural trends, and vulnerable geopolitical climate

Quête d’avenirs : rapport d'activité du CRDI en 1980 … et petite revue rétrospective de la première décennie du CRDI, 1970-1980

Version anglaise disponible dans la Bibliothèque numérique du CRDI: Searching : review of IDRC activities, 1980 … and a look back at IDRC’s first decade, 1970-1980Version espagnole disponible dans la Bibliothèque numérique du CRDI: Búsqueda : informe anual de actividades del CIID, 1980 … y una mirada a la primera década del CIID, 1970-198