Looking back: Russian environmental movement in the late 1980s

The article presents a combination of systematically organized field-research, the study of literature, and the author’s personal experience. The description of approaches and methods, the main features of those turbulent years, the EM’s diversification processes and the relationships with the power structures and other social movements, and the main outcomes of the early years of reforms are the main points of the articl

Critical situations and civil activism in the digital era

Nowadays, a civil society and its volunteers are the active participants of a global political process, especially when it’s going on about current critical situations (natural disasters, technological accidents and so on). Such civil activism is defined by a lack of vital resources, poverty and illnesses, an atmospheric and water pollutions as well as by various forms of social inequalit

Looking back: Russian environmental movement in the late 1980s

The article presents a combination of systematically organized field-research, the study of literature, and the author’s personal experience. The description of approaches and methods, the main features of those turbulent years, the EM’s diversification processes and the relationships with the power structures and other social movements, and the main outcomes of the early years of reforms are the main points of the articl

On sociobiotechnical systems

© 2019 Izdatel'stvo Nauka. All rights reserved. The article provide insight on the phenomenon of sociobiotechnical systems (SBT-systems) - the open systems of nonlinear ties and interactions that possess the internal 'asymmetry' because the 'the human factor' plays a key role in them. The emergence of SBT-systems is inseparably connected with the formation of a human civilization, and the process of globalization as a result of the former is by its nature includes the process of formation of a single sociobiotechnical system in planetary scale. Interactions of 'technical', 'natural' and 'social' dimensions need to consider as processes of metabolic transformation. We understand all types of SBT systems, regardless of their scale, as conflict, contradictory and internally risky by nature. The problems created by SBT systems have both ontological and epistemological character. The fruitful theoretic and methodological approaches vis-а-vis SBT systems include problem-oriented and interdisciplinary approaches, the methodological combination of 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches, an emphasis on a study of metabolic processes, recurrent development of critical situations and global risks, a phenomenon of 'space inversion', the relativity of concepts the 'subject' and the 'environment', and the network nature of SBT systems

On sociobiotechnical systems

© 2019 Izdatel'stvo Nauka. All rights reserved. The article provide insight on the phenomenon of sociobiotechnical systems (SBT-systems) - the open systems of nonlinear ties and interactions that possess the internal 'asymmetry' because the 'the human factor' plays a key role in them. The emergence of SBT-systems is inseparably connected with the formation of a human civilization, and the process of globalization as a result of the former is by its nature includes the process of formation of a single sociobiotechnical system in planetary scale. Interactions of 'technical', 'natural' and 'social' dimensions need to consider as processes of metabolic transformation. We understand all types of SBT systems, regardless of their scale, as conflict, contradictory and internally risky by nature. The problems created by SBT systems have both ontological and epistemological character. The fruitful theoretic and methodological approaches vis-а-vis SBT systems include problem-oriented and interdisciplinary approaches, the methodological combination of 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches, an emphasis on a study of metabolic processes, recurrent development of critical situations and global risks, a phenomenon of 'space inversion', the relativity of concepts the 'subject' and the 'environment', and the network nature of SBT systems

Social and environmental 'sustainability through changes' of Russian mega-cities: The search for theoretical and methodological approaches.

© 2019 Russian Public Opinion Research Center, VCIOM. All rights reserved. The article is aimed at critical understanding of the conceptual foundations of the study of social and environmental sustainability and urban transformations based on the concept of 'green' city, the analysis of the historical, social, economic and political contexts of the development of such cities for Russia, as well as relevant theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the 'sustainability through changes' of Russian mega-cities based on the meta-analysis of more than 150 peer-reviewed papers. The 'green' city in Russian context is a city, combining high efficiency and innovation; a city in which the best living conditions of its population have been created (given the existing limitations and opportunities), a city that can survive in response to global changes. Among the main features of the development of 'green' cities in Russia, the authors highlighted their double transformation, direct connection with modern geopolitical processes in the world and the state's resource policy, rapid informatization and digitalization, exacerbation of old and emerging environmental risks (primarily problems waste disposal in large cities). Analysis of the existing methodologies for measuring the sustainability of Russian cities showed that all of them are based on quantitative (statistical) data, which on the one hand is their advantage, making their results maximally objective, but on the other hand, is a drawback, because due to the delay in the publication of statistics or even its absence, it does not allow to observe the annual dynamics. The authors believe that the main theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the 'green' city in the modern Russian context should be problem-oriented and interdisciplinary approaches, including the concept of socio-bio-technical systems, the so-cio-ecological metabolism approach, sustainability transitions framework and the related middle-range theories. Under the framework of these approaches, changes in urban systems are understood, firstly, as complex, dynamic, systemic (changes occur immediately in a variety of systems) and nonlinear processes, and, secondly, the trajectories of changes arise from joint interactions between multiple systems

Social and environmental 'sustainability through changes' of Russian mega-cities: The search for theoretical and methodological approaches.

© 2019 Russian Public Opinion Research Center, VCIOM. All rights reserved. The article is aimed at critical understanding of the conceptual foundations of the study of social and environmental sustainability and urban transformations based on the concept of 'green' city, the analysis of the historical, social, economic and political contexts of the development of such cities for Russia, as well as relevant theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the 'sustainability through changes' of Russian mega-cities based on the meta-analysis of more than 150 peer-reviewed papers. The 'green' city in Russian context is a city, combining high efficiency and innovation; a city in which the best living conditions of its population have been created (given the existing limitations and opportunities), a city that can survive in response to global changes. Among the main features of the development of 'green' cities in Russia, the authors highlighted their double transformation, direct connection with modern geopolitical processes in the world and the state's resource policy, rapid informatization and digitalization, exacerbation of old and emerging environmental risks (primarily problems waste disposal in large cities). Analysis of the existing methodologies for measuring the sustainability of Russian cities showed that all of them are based on quantitative (statistical) data, which on the one hand is their advantage, making their results maximally objective, but on the other hand, is a drawback, because due to the delay in the publication of statistics or even its absence, it does not allow to observe the annual dynamics. The authors believe that the main theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the 'green' city in the modern Russian context should be problem-oriented and interdisciplinary approaches, including the concept of socio-bio-technical systems, the so-cio-ecological metabolism approach, sustainability transitions framework and the related middle-range theories. Under the framework of these approaches, changes in urban systems are understood, firstly, as complex, dynamic, systemic (changes occur immediately in a variety of systems) and nonlinear processes, and, secondly, the trajectories of changes arise from joint interactions between multiple systems