This paper empirically analyzes the agglomeration-related productivity premium at the enterprise level of the manufacturing industry in Russia. A settlement is counted as part of an urban agglomeration in two cases: that of a large, central city and that of a town located within 50 kilometers of the central city. Data obtained from a 2009 manufacturing enterprise survey are used, along with linked data on hosting regions and cities. We employ a multilevel model, which allows us to consider firm, urban and regional heterogeneity and test two possible explanations of the productivity advantages of firms in urban agglomerations – own-sector and all economic activity concentration in the city and the surrounding region. The results suggest that Russian plants in urban agglomerations enjoy 17-21% higher labor productivity. This gain arises as a result of urbanization and external scale economy – the agglomeration of firms belonging to different industries at both the urban and the regional levels of analysis. We also found that productivity gained from urban agglomeration is the highest in towns with populations of 100,000 to 250,000 people. Localization and clustering – the own-sector concentration of plants in the city – is not associated with higher labor productivity. The structure and size of the surrounding economy always matter: in contrast to urban clusters, regional own-industry clustering satisfactorily explains the productivity premium, suggesting that efficient clustering requires a scale economy larger than only a city. The region’s trade openness almost doubles the productivity premium of a firm in an urban agglomeration. All of our results are robust to changes in estimation technique, sample structure and choice of spatial objects.
Added: Jan 15, 2013
Shepotylo O. Comparative Economic Studies. 2012. Vol. 54. No. 3. P. 661-688.
This paper looks at the urban development of transition countries in 1991–2010, primarily focusing on the last decade. Cities in transition face a unique set of challenges that came forth due to interplay of the legacy of socialist urban policies and the transition to the market economy. The socialist urban policies restrained growth of the largest cities and distorted the spatial equilibrium towards more uniform distribution of urban population. The transition to the market economy reduces distortions, but the convergence is slow. Housing market rigidities, inadequate urban infrastructure, and inconsistent government policies prevent people from moving to the largest cities.
Added: Nov 18, 2013
The chapter proposes a wide overview of social processes in the nineteenth-century world. First of all, with all the exceptions also treated in the chapter, it deals with urbanization, democratization and the formation of capitalist classes and class conscience.
Added: Oct 17, 2014
Lavrinec J.,
Zaporozhets O. In bk.: Urban Public Space: Facing the Challenges of Mobility and Aestheticization. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH, 2013. Ch. 6.
P. 132-145.
Urban Studies currently apply the concept of creativity to the whole cities but not to the particular sites or practices within. We apply the micro-perspective to discover how the creative practices and actions such as flash mobs, performances, etc. change urban conventions and urban scenarios. Facilitating the physical contacts and communication among urban citizens, these events empower urbanites with communicative skills, decrease the alienation through bodily contacts and emotional reactions. Involving passersby into spontaneous improvisations, these open-ended actions turn them into creators of new urban practices, scenarios, and meanings. So, these actions may be considered as the mechanisms for producing and training social skills. Thus creativity becomes a general urban skill and not the attribute of some particular groups or classes. These ephemeral urban events are prolonged through their medialization (photo, video, internet, etc.). Being medialized, they keep affecting the viewers fostering emotional reactions and becoming the part of urban imagionary.
Added: Nov 21, 2013
Spencer S. B., Parish W. L. In bk.: The Changing Social Contract: Chinese Urban Life Under Reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. P. 209-231.
Added: Feb 25, 2016
Scherbak A. N. Sociology. SOC. Высшая школа экономики, 2014. No. WP BRP 45/SOC/2014.
The research project aims to find link between genetic diversity and social change. Although some studies associate certain genes with prosocial behavior, it is hardly to say that any genetic polymorphisms are responsible for social change. We assume that some existing differences in particular genotypes could be explained by extent of ancient urbanization, change in population density and historic pathogen prevalence. The pathogen load might have led to some genetic mutations that in their turn might have caused difference in some allele frequency among regions and populations.
Our case study is the use of strong alcohol as factor of European colonization in America, Africa and Eurasia. Historically, alcohol was one of the major trade items between Europeans and indigenous populations. I argue that there is a positive correlation between probability of being colonized by Europeans and particular allele frequency responsible for metabolism of alcohol. The risk of colonization by European powers is higher for indigenous populations which had genotype with lower allele frequencies which could ’protect’ them against alcohol abuse. I test this hypothesis using binary logistic regression. The dependent variable is the binomial variable which is coded colonization1900 of a given native population by Europeans from the 1500s to 1900. The unit of analysis is not a state, but a population. Independent variable is allele frequencies of Arg48His polymorphism among 56 populations from Africa, Asia and America. The suggested causal mechanism is uneven trade: the exchange of alcohol for local goods was unfavorable for indigenous populations. Economic dependence was followed by colonization.
Added: Jul 7, 2014
Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH, 2013.
Urban public space continues to be the focus of debate regarding its conceptualization and how it is designed, (re)produced and managed. Nowadays public spaces are facing new challenges conceptually and practically. This book focuses on two of them: mobility and aestheticization. Mobility and flows are considered to be key characteristics of the post-modern era. While for some scholars it means the «end of place», others are trying to re-conceptualize it by bringing together notions of space, place, mobility and identity. Still surprisingly few authors address the concept of public space in this respect. Principles of aesthetic and diverse forms of aestheticization seem to have affected urban space and culture throughout Modernity, forming a dimension where power and conflict around urban space are performed. In this book nine authors with social science and arts backgrounds from six countries discuss how these processes shape the life of modern cities, and where the social sciences should move for a better understanding of them.
Added: Nov 21, 2013
Edited by: И. В. Морозова, J. B. Fernandez, L. Hepner et al. M.; Orlando: The University of Central Florida, 2015.
The volume presents papers delivered o the topic of Urban Dimensions of American Civilization.It reflects major themes and methodological approaches-interdisciplinary, comparative, imagological-applied to the national and transnational views of the ethnicity, race and gender identity, and to the multicultural society of the USA as projected in its literary, polemical, art, historical, social and political essays.
Added: Oct 19, 2015
Барнаул: 2013.
Added: Oct 23, 2013
Clothing and fashion play significant role in the process of ageing, and help put bodily experiences in the context of culture. It is especially important for young people as social subjects, who are starting to become independent but do not have sufficient experience and social competences to do this. This paper explores how youth of middle and working class in Russia use clothing to denote their social identity and construct boundaries.The paper is based on materials of 81 IDI with young people from St. Petersburg.
Added: Feb 3, 2015
Вып. 1. М.: Издательский дом ГУ-ВШЭ, 2009.
Added: Oct 27, 2012
Edited by: N. Bandelj. Sage, 2009.
Added: Apr 8, 2014
Вып. 1. М.: Некоммерческая исследовательская служба «Среда», 2011.
Added: Feb 7, 2013
Щербакова Е. М. Демоскоп Weekly. 2016. № 693-694.
Added: Oct 23, 2017
Липасова А. Н. Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов. Серия: Социология. 2016. № 3. С. 637-648.
Several approaches to the concept of fatherhood present in Western sociological tradition are analyzed and compared: biological determinism, social constructivism and biosocial theory. The problematics of fatherhood and men’s parental practices is marginalized in modern Russian social research devoted to family and this fact makes the traditional inequality in family relations, when the father’s role is considered secondary compared to that of mother, even stronger. However, in Western critical men’s studies several stages can be outlined: the development of “sex roles” paradigm (biological determinism), the emergence of the hegemonic masculinity concept, inter-disciplinary stage (biosocial theory). According to the approach of biological determinism, the role of a father is that of the patriarch, he continues the family line and serves as a model for his ascendants. Social constructivism looks into man’s functions in the family from the point of view of masculine pressure and establishing hegemony over a woman and children. Biosocial theory aims to unite the biological determinacy of fatherhood with social, cultural and personal context. It is shown that these approaches are directly connected with the level of the society development, marriage and family perceptions, the level of egality of gender order.
Added: Dec 9, 2016
Ч. 1. Волгоград: Волгоградское научное издательство, 2010.
Added: Jan 18, 2013
Черных А. И. Политическая теория и политический анализ. WP14. Высшая школа экономики, 2012. № 03.
Added: May 3, 2012
Татарко А. Н. Психология образования в поликультурном пространстве. 2012. Т. 17. № 1.
С. 47-55.
Added: Sep 12, 2012
2012.
Added: Feb 22, 2013
Edited by: А. Михайлов Вып. 14. М.: Социологический факультет МГУ, 2012.
Added: Mar 14, 2013
Тулякова И. И., Бочкарева Н. С. Мировая литература в контексте культуры. 2008. № 3(1). С. 150-154.
Added: Dec 11, 2014