Book chapter
Russian higher education: a sociological analysis
The chapter provides an analysis of the Russian system of higher education in a comparative perspective, including massification and social inequality issues.
This book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of inequality and the stratification of the digital sphere.
Grounded in classical sociological theories of inequality, as well as empirical evidence, this book defines ‘the digital divide’ as the unequal access and utility of internet communications technologies and explores how it has the potential to replicate existing social inequalities, as well as create new forms of stratification. The Digital Divide examines how various demographic and socio-economic factors including income, education, age and gender, as well as infrastructure, products and services affect how the internet is used and accessed. Comprised of six parts, the first section examines theories of the digital divide, and then looks in turn at:
Highly developed nations and regions (including the USA, the EU and Japan); Emerging large powers (Brazil, China, India, Russia); Eastern European countries (Estonia, Romania, Serbia); Arab and Middle Eastern nations (Egypt, Iran, Israel); Under-studied areas (East and Central Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa).Providing an interwoven analysis of the international inequalities in internet usage and access, this important work offers a comprehensive approach to studying the digital divide around the globe. It is an important resource for academic and students in sociology, social policy, communication studies, media studies and all those interested in the questions and issues around social inequality.
Global warming is arguably the most critical and controversial issue facing the world in the twenty-first century, one that will affect every living creature on the planet. It is also an extraordinarily complex problem, which everyone needs to understand as clearly and completely as possible. This book provides a concise and accessible explanation of the key aspects of global warming. It discusses how and why changes are occurring, sets current warming trends in the context of past climate change, examines the predicted impact of global warming, as well as the political controversies of recent years and the many proposed solutions.
The article is devoted to a new type of educational programs that are formed at the intersection of higher and secondary education. Education as an institute is seen as an instrument of social stratification of society. The authors analyze the major developments of education as an institute, for instance differentiation between of academic and vocational educational programs and the creation of programs of production a “Homo habilis” — a skilled performer. Changes in the vocational education system are considered in the light of the introduction of the new educational standards FSES 2011 (Federal State Educational Standards).
This is the second volume in a series of five books bringing together the results of intensive research on the national systems of innovation (NSI) in the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. This book analyses the co-evolution of inequality and NSI across the BRICS economies. Inequality and Development Challenges argues that inequalities (assets, access to basic services, infrastructure, knowledge, race, gender, ethnicity, and geographic location) that go beyond the aspects of income, must be factored into development strategies since the benefits of innovation are not distributed equally. It combines original and detailed data, making this book an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars in economics, development studies and political science, as well as policymakers and development practitioners interested in the BRICS countries.
Meta-analytic research in psychology of academic performance proved that Big Five Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience predict scholastic achievements of university students (O’Connor, Paunonen, 2007; Poropat, 2009). But we claim that psychological predictiors of academic success depend on educational environment and can be culture-related. We examined 176 2nd and 3rd year economy and computer science university students in Russia with the Big Five – Ipsative version test (Shmelyov, 2010) and discovered that GPA and USE (United State Examination in Russia) scores are significantly correlated with Agreeableness (r = 0.15; p < 0.01 for GPA and r = 0.22 p < 0.01 for USE math) and Neuroticism (r = 0.2, p < 0.01 for GPA and r = -0,17; p < 0,01 for USE math). We suppose that the difference between our result and results provided by the meta-analyses mentioned above can be explained by the differences in educational environment in Russia and other countries. We assume that big number of classes and relatively small amount of individual and analytical assignments create the environment where Agreeableness and Neuroticism are important for the academic success.