This book introduces a 'Big History' perspective to understand the acceleration of social, technological and economic trends towards a near-term singularity, marking a radical turning point in the evolution of our planet. It traces the emergence of accelerating innovation rates through global history and highlights major historical transformations throughout the evolution of life, humans, and civilization. The authors pursue an interdisciplinary approach, also drawing on concepts from physics and evolutionary biology, to offer potential models of the underlying mechanisms driving this acceleration, along with potential clues on how it might progress.  The contributions gathered here are divided into five parts, the first of which studies historical mega-trends in relation to a variety of aspects including technology, population, energy, and information. The second part is dedicated to a variety of models that can help understand the potential mechanisms, and support extrapolation. In turn, the third part explores various potential future scenarios, along with the paths and decisions that are required. The fourth part presents philosophical perspectives on the potential deeper meaning and implications of the trend towards singularity, while the fifth and last part discusses the implications of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars from various disciplines interested in historical trends, technological change and evolutionary processes. 

This book presents the main findings of a study on school learning environments and student outcomes, which the World Bank conducted in 2019 in three regions of the Russian Federation. Using data collected through the OECD School User Survey and the pilot “Trends in Mathematics and Science Study” (TIMSS), the book analyzes how a school’s infrastructure and learning environment may affect the progress and success of students in math and science. It also delves into teaching practices, analyzing their impact on learning and highlighting the important nexus between learning environments and teaching methods. The book concludes by recommending areas in which focused attention by educational authorities could improve educational policy and help maintain high-quality learning environments. The book will be useful for educators, school principals, architects, and policy makers who are involved in school infrastructure projects and are interested in increasing their knowledge of school design planning.

The paper provides findings of the research work and scientific discussions under the “Global Sustainability Strategy Forum” (GSSF) that aims to develop evidence-informed judgments on challenges and solutions. It views attaining sustainability as a set of closely-coupled societal and environmental challenges and opportunities that require integration of multiple disciplines, new research methods, and new knowledge sources with sensitivity to regional and cultural diversities. The project is designed to produce innovative insights and strategies to support effective governance of transitions to sustainability of our complex global social-ecological system within its inherent resource limitations, and to develop sustainable lifestyles that are practical and appealing in the different regions and cultures of the world. 

The global climate change is one of the most dangerous threats to human society in the 21st Century. The dramatic losses have already been observed, and the risks are rising over time. CEECCA region experiences many negative impacts of global warming, which is faster and stronger than the world average. Numerous adaptation and resilience measures are required to protect people, but regional governments often underestimate and ignore the social implications of climate policies.This paper explores what are the priority challenges for CEECCA countries and how to address them effectively.

The book focuses most of all on women's and partly on men's agency, to discuss variant ways in which women and men actively use their scopes of action - through political activism, protest, movements, in the military. The book is aiming to dicuss variant perspectives on these issues in different contexts witin Eastern Europe.  How do these in change affect conservative societies and the concepts of masculinity?

The volume is structured in four parts:

I) Floating concepts of Femininities and Masculinities

    (essentially this is a discussion on the role of feminism in the transformation period in Eastern Europe)

II) Political Activism

    (this part deals with political participation of women - also within conservative parties - and of variant forms of protest)

III) Nationalism and Militarization of societies

 (also papers on violence)

IV) Social Roles and Concepts of Women and Men

We propose a novel machine-learning-based approach to detect bid leakage in first-price sealed-bid auctions. We extract and analyze the data on more than 1.4 million Russian procurement auctions between 2014 and 2018. As bid leakage in each particular auction is tacit, the direct classification is impossible. Instead, we reduce the problem of bid leakage detection to Positive-Unlabeled Classification. The key idea is to regard the losing participants as fair and the winners as possibly corrupted. This allows us to estimate the prior probability of bid leakage in the sample, as well as the posterior probability of bid leakage for each specific auction. We find that at least 16% of auctions are exposed to bid leakage. Bid leakage is more likely in auctions with a higher reserve price, lower number of bidders and lower price fall, and where the winning bid is received in the last hour before the deadline.

The pocket data book contains main digital economy indicators for the Russian Federation. Contains information on the use of ICT by individuals and enterprises, e-government development, personnel for digital economy, telecommunications and ICT sector development. International comparisons are provided for a number of indicators. The data book includes information of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Bank of Russia, OECD, Eurostat, ITU, World Intellectual Property Organisation, and results of own methodological and analytical studies of the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge.

Corporate Learning for the Digital World. Edited by Valery Katkalo, Martin Moehrle, Dmitry Volkov. — Moscow: Sberbank Corporate University, 2019, 252 p., incl. illustrations, tables. This book is the first reference dictionary on corporate learning in the Digital Age and unique among international specialized literature. The purpose of this reference dictionary is to establish a unified conceptual field for advanced corporate learning technologies and to help organize the conceptual and practical knowledge of those involved in development and implementation of the learning solutions that are relevant for this new age and economy. Our publication includes 58 dictionary entries and appendixes on more than 285 basic terms that describe specific aspects of corporate learning necessary for successful operation in the digital world. This reference dictionary is intended for managers and specialists working in the field of corporate learning and talent development, corporate universities and training centers, providers of learning solutions, management, faculty of universities and business schools, and, in general, anyone interested in modern learning technologies.

 

The report addresses the issue of business communication and its role in organizations in the aspects of personnel management. We study how communication influences the retention and good performance of personnel. Communications are an integral part of the activity of organizations. Communications largely determine the effectiveness of personnel management. Well-designed communications reduce the time of problem solving and of adaptation of employees, help in conflict resolutions etc. In spite of obvious importance of the communications in organization the studies of this problem require new approaches and methods. We explore mechanisms that help to keep the staff in organization and to create a desire to continue its activities in this organization. On base of social identity approach (H. Tajfel, J.C. Turner) and business psychology approach (S Benton, N. Ivanova,) we studied the Identity Focused Communication (IFC). This type of communication realizes, through integrated work of organization, the development of cognitive, value-motivational and behavioral characteristics of social identity. IFC can be considered as a human development technology which helps employers in clear understanding of values, professional and social role and pattern of behavior in organization. On this theoretical basis and case studies method in different organizations we observed the role of IFC in the development of organizational culture for rising of personnel engagement and loyalty. Results of this research can be useful for business counseling and business management process, development of personnel identity, loyalty, and performance. The results allow us to see new aspects in communication, develop training programs and staff development, and improve internal communication. Our results can develop the understanding of the semantic core of effective communication’s strategy of organization which include corporate “picture of world” and image of the organization. We can add the knowledge of professional values and patterns of behavioral and social roles. The data obtained can be considered as a pilot to build new hypotheses and further research on a broader sample and with the use of experimental procedures.

This book covers the challenges posed by digitalisation of labour markets in different countries of the world (a number of EU counties, Russia, Belarus, India, Arab countries and China). The authors address such aspects of digitalisation as: (1) the impact of new technologies in the labour market; (2) the impact of new technologies in the employees’ private life; and (3) the impact of new technologies on the labour process. 

The pocket data book contains main indicators characterizing trends in the development of general, secondary vocational, higher education as well as vocational training and additional education in the Russian Federation. It also covers key education indicators for the OECD countries. The data book includes information of the Federal State Statistics Service, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the Federal Treasury, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as well as results of own methodological and analytical studies of the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge.

In the twenty-first century, universities worldwide have found themselves thrust into a great "brain race" as nations, both developed and developing, seek to enhance their place in the global knowledge economy. As the concept of the de-localized university—one that has radically expanded, perhaps even beyond national borders—grows, competing nations have begun reshaping aspects of their national systems to accommodate global standards and metrics.

In Professorial Pathways, Martin J. Finkelstein and Glen A. Jones consider how academic careers vary in countries that are fundamentally different in their organization and dynamics. Building on 25 years of scholarship, the book confronts major questions: What can we learn from the experience of other nations as they seek to balance the seemingly contradictory imperatives of expanding access and ensuring global competitiveness? What are the implications of this rapidly changing policy environment for the health of the academic professions on which university teaching and scholarship depends? And how can we advance the comparative study of higher education and, in particular, of the academic profession?

The volume brings together detailed case studies of the latest—and ever-changing—educational developments in ten countries across Europe (France, Germany, United Kingdom, Russia), Asia (China, India, Japan), North America (United States, Canada), and South America (Brazil). Essays written by respected scholars in the field identify the major structural features of national higher education systems and academic markets that directly shape academic work and careers. Professorial Pathways will be of interest to anyone who toils in the vineyards of comparative and international higher education.

Workshop concentrates on an interdisciplinary approach to modelling human behavior incorporating data mining and expert knowledge from behavioral sciences. Data analysis results extracted from clean data of laboratory experiments will be compared with noisy industrial datasets from the web e.g. Insights from behavioral sciences will help data scientists. Behavior scientists will see new inspirations to research from industrial data science. Market leaders in Big Data, as Microsoft, Facebook, and Google, have already realized the importance of experimental economics know-how for their business. 

In Experimental Economics, although financial rewards restrict subjects preferences in experiments, exclusive application of analytical game theory is not enough to explain the collected data. It calls for the development and evaluation of more sophisticated models. The more data is used for evaluation, the more statistical significance can be achieved. Since large amounts of behavioral data are required to scan for regularities, along with automated agents needed to simulate and intervene in human interactions, Machine Learning is the tool of choice for research in Experimental Economics. This workshop is aimed at bringing together researchers from both Data Analysis and Economics in order to achieve mutually beneficial results.

This book discusses the role of regional design and visioning in the formation of regional territorial governance to offer a better understanding of (1) how a recognition of spatial dynamics and the visualization of spatial futures informs, and is informed by, planning frameworks and (2) how such design processes inform co-operation and collaboration on planning in metropolitan regions. It gathers theoretical reflections on these topics, and illustrates them by means of practical experiences in several European countries. Innovatively associating ideas with knowledge, it appeals to anyone with an interest in planning experiments in a post-regulative era. It aims at an increased understanding of how practices, engaged with the imagination of possible futures, support the creation of institutional capacity for strategic spatial planning at regional scales.

 

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Digital Transformation and Global Society, DTGS 2019, held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in June 2019.

The 56 revised full papers and 9 short papers presented in the volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 194 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on ​e-polity: governance; e-polity: politics online; e-city: smart cities and urban planning; e-economy: online consumers and solutions; e-society: computational social science; e-society: humanities and education; international workshop on internet psychology; international workshop on computational linguistics.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the world's largest regional security organisation, possesses most of the attributes traditionally ascribed to an international organisation, but lacks a constitutive treaty and an established international legal personality. Moreover, OSCE decisions are considered mere political commitments and thus not legally binding. As such, it seems to correspond to the general zeitgeist, in which new, less formal actors and forms of international cooperation gain prominence, while traditional actors and instruments of international law are in stagnation. However, an increasing number of voices - including the OSCE participating states - have been advocating for more formal and autonomous OSCE institutional structures, for international legal personality, or even for the adoption of a constitutive treaty. The book analyses why and how these demands have emerged, critically analyses the reform proposals and provides new arguments for revisiting the OSCE legal framework.

Provides an overview of the developments and advances in the field of network clustering and blockmodeling over the last 10 years

This book offers an integrated treatment of network clustering and blockmodeling, covering all of the newest approaches and methods that have been developed over the last decade. Presented in a comprehensive manner, it offers the foundations for understanding network structures and processes, and features a wide variety of new techniques addressing issues that occur during the partitioning of networks across multiple disciplines such as community detection, blockmodeling of valued networks, role assignment, and stochastic blockmodeling.

Written by a team of international experts in the field, Advances in Network Clustering and Blockmodeling offers a plethora of diverse perspectives covering topics such as: bibliometric analyses of the network clustering literature; clustering approaches to networks; label propagation for clustering; and treating missing network data before partitioning. It also examines the partitioning of signed networks, multimode networks, and linked networks. A chapter on structured networks and coarsegrained descriptions is presented, along with another on scientific coauthorship networks. The book finishes with a section covering conclusions and directions for future work. In addition, the editors provide numerous tables, figures, case studies, examples, datasets, and more.

Offers a clear and insightful look at the state of the art in network clustering and blockmodeling Provides an excellent mix of mathematical rigor and practical application in a comprehensive manner Presents a suite of new methods, procedures, algorithms for partitioning networks, as well as new techniques for visualizing matrix arrays Features numerous examples throughout, enabling readers to gain a better understanding of research methods and to conduct their own research effectively Written by leading contributors in the field of spatial networks analysis

Advances in Network Clustering and Blockmodeling is an ideal book for graduate and undergraduate students taking courses on network analysis or working with networks using real data. It will also benefit researchers and practitioners interested in network analysis.

In this article we analyze the independent Tatar rap scene in two relevant contexts: the globalization of this musical culture, and the post-Soviet nation-building efforts in the Republic of Tatarstan (Russian Federation). Having analyzed 29 in-depth biographical interviews with young rap scene participants and diary entries obtained in the course of a one-month-long participant observation, we conclude that the Tatar rap scene is a special case in the Tatar urban youth culture shaped by the younger generation of Tatar-speaking intelligentsia (humanities graduates and creative professionals) in opposition to both the cultural policy of Russification of the imperial center (Moscow) and the folklorized version of the Soviet Tatar culture.

It has been shown that multiple objects can be efficiently represented as ensemble summary statistics, such as the average. Recently, Kanaya et al. (2018) demonstrated the amplification effect in the perception of average. Their participants judged the mean size or temporal frequency of ensembles, and they tended to exaggerate their estimates, especially larger set sizes. Kanaya et al. explained it by non-exhaustive sampling mechanism favoring ~sqrt(N) most salient items, which are either largest or most frequently ones. But how do the rest of elements contribute to ensemble perception? In our study, we used orientation averaging (which does not have any inevitably salient values) and manipulated the salience of individual items via size. Participants had to adjust the average orientation of 4, 8, or 16 triangles. We measured systematic biases, like Kanaya et al. (2018), and SD of errors that are known to correlate with the physical ensemble range. In Experiment 1, most clockwise elements could be bigger, counterclockwise, middle, or all elements were same-size. We found strong clockwise and counterclockwise biases in the corresponding conditions. The biases increased with set size replicating Kanaya et al. (2018). But we found no SD difference between the conditions suggesting that all items were somehow taken into account. In Experiment 2, we compared distributions with same ranges (full-sets) but salient elements being middle or extreme (most clockwise and counterclockwise). We used distribution with only middle elements or only extremes as controls (half-sets). We found that SD in the full-sets were greater than in the middle half-sets and smaller than in the extreme half-sets suggesting that all items were taken into account. We also found that SD in the extreme full-sets were greater than in the middle full-sets in large set size. We conclude that both exhaustive and amplification types of sampling work in averaging.

This paper retraces the development of Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of Western multinational corporations from the late 1980s until 2019. Using secondary sources and a unique hand-crafted database on significant extensions of manufacturing facilities of Western multinational corporations in Russia during 2012–2018, we present the position of Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of Western multinational corporations before and after the beginning of sanctions. We also indicate the major strategic challenges that they currently face, including the necessity to maintain dual loyalty (to home country and host country authorities), manage the deteriorating quality of business regulations in Russia, and overcome the increasing shortage of qualified personnel at all levels. The data on the opening of new facilities in 2017–2018 reveal that such issues impede but cannot stop the quantitative development of foreign-owned Russian manufacturing facilities. At the same time, saving on managerial expenses and low ‘investments in non-current assets’ of the established manufacturing subsidiaries may break down ‘the innovation engine’ assembled in many Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of Western multinational corporations and bring them into the periphery of their corporate parents, where the attention and resources from the corporate centre are lacking.

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The study focuses on the relationship between intercultural friendships, social identities, and well-being of ethnic Russians in three different contexts of the North and South Caucasus. We revealed the positive relations of intercultural friendships with the host society identity in all contexts and with the well-being of Russians in the culturally diverse contexts. Ethnic identity is positively related to the self-esteem of Russians in two more inclusive contexts, and, negatively associated with their life satisfaction in the least inclusive context. The ethnic and host society identities mediated the relationship between intercultural friendships and psychological well-being only in the most inclusive context.

The article examines the problem of the ICO (Initial Coin Offering, from English — “initial offer of coins, initial placement of coins”). The information source is the ICO rating data of the return on investment in blockchain startups. The methodological base of the research is a situational comparative analysis of the ICO, DAOICO, IEO and STO and systematization of information. The author analyzes three new ICO models. The first one includes elements of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO). Its aim is to minimize the difficulties and risks associated with the ICO. The second model (Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), from English — “primary exchange offer”) is designed to minimize risks, liquidity problems and a delay in listing tokens at the end of the token sale. The third model — the Security Token Offering (STO, from English — “offer of security token”) — was designed to support real assets and comply with the SEC requirements. These models are a new direction for small and medium enterprises and investors. The absence of any scientific work emphasizes the relevance and scientific novelty of the study. The article is a follow-up of the empirical work related to the success of the ICO, as well as the basis for its revision using the case study results.

Using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Study – Higher School of Economics (RLMS), we estimate the relationship between the sense of control, measured as the belief that one has control over one’s important future life circumstances and job-related training for women and men in a transitional context. We test the theory of alternative resources and the critical approaches in the analysis of the role of gender in individual outcomes from training. We show that while job-related training is associated with higher sense of control (measured using Pearlin Mastery Scale), its effect varies by gender and therefore, its absolute value is limited. We conclude that job-related training exacerbates the existing differences in the sense of control between women and men in Russia, which can potentially have prolonged, negative effects on the wider outcomes of women in the labour market.

People’s attachment to the plant world makes a great contribution to the maintenance of psychological well-being. At the same time, little is known regarding the contribution of attitudes to plants to people’s morality; the current study is aimed at filling this gap. We assumed that the more positive the attitude to plants is, the higher the level of moral motives is. The survey was conducted on the Russian sample; 257 participants (students from Moscow universities, 199 female, Mage = 21.1, SDage = 2.5), were recruited. The following tools were used: a questionnaire People and Plants (PaP) consisting of five sub-scales (joy, esthetics, practice, closeness to nature, and ecology) and Moral Motives Model scale (MMM scale) including six sub-scales (self-restraint, not harming, social order, self-reliance (industriousness), helping/fairness, and social justice). It was found that all parameters of positive attitudes to plants, except practice, were strongly positively connected with moral motives. Multi-regression analysis allowed developing certain models demonstrating the contribution of attachment to the plant world to people's morality. The proscriptive motives (especially self-restraint) are more sensitive to attitudes to flora as compared to prescriptive motives; prescriptive motive self-reliance was not predicted by the attitude to flora at all. Moreover, the findings seem to be gender-sensitive (predictions are higher in females). The obtained results are discussed referring to the reverence for life ethics by Schweitzer, deep ecology by Næss, Biophilia hypothesis by Wilson, and psychology of moral expansiveness by Crimston et al.

What characteristics of firms give them the confidence to invest in settings rife with expropriation by local officials? Empirically, firms in the developing world often face the threat of expropriation from local agents of the state rather than a centralized autocrat. Because policing local officials is costly, the state cannot easily credibly commit to doing so. This has negative consequences for investment. We argue that one solution is to allow firms to approach the state directly to ask for intervention. Not all firms are equally able to successfully get the attention of the state, however, so this mechanism only works for some. We develop an argument about the firm-level characteristics – large-scale employment, political connections, foreign ownership, and business association membership – that should make the central state more attentive to calls for help. Because firm with these characteristics are more likely to secure intervention against predatory bureaucrats, the latter are less likely to try to expropriate them. These firms’ investment decisions should be less sensitive to local expropriation than other firms. We test this argument using data on cases of decentralized expropriation across Russia’s regions and firm-level data from a cross-regional, large scale survey of Russian firms.

Unlike in the 1990s and early 2000s, nowadays scholars rarely address the issue of international activity of Russian regions (phenomenon known as paradiplomacy). Due to the successful centralization efforts, Russian governors almost lost their domestic as well as external agency. However, there is still a considerable variation in the levels of their international activity which remains unexplained. Employing an original dataset on the international activity of Russian governors from 2005 to 2015 I investigate the effect local political regime, ethnicity and other factors have on the level of gubernatorial participation in paradiplomacy. Contrary to other studies I find that ethnicity has a positive effect on the external activity. I argue that paradiplomacy of republics serves as a tool of their ethnic policy. I also find that more democratic local political regimes bolster the willingness of the governors to participate in paradiplomacy. Varyag governors with no prior connections to the region are also more active internationally.

This paper investigates the underlying nature of the demand for state support in Russia in the labor market and employment, social investments, and material support. Based on recent findings from social policy studies, the authors tested four different mechanisms: (a) the demographic features of the population, (b) household incomes and disposable assets including human and social capital, (c) interests, and (d) locus of control and cultural attitudes. Drawing on an all-Russian representative monitoring survey conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2018, the authors argue that the popula- tion’s demand for state support has a very complex nature. The relative effect of income has a para- doxical nature. On the one hand, the Russian data confirm the hypothesis of ‘the altruistic rich’, de- veloped in recent studies, which predicts that, in societies with high inequalities, higher incomes boost the likelihood of demand for redistributive policies. On the other hand, higher incomes foster state escapism among those Russians who do not consider the state as a reliable agent capable of solving their problems.

This paper discusses an example of an early childhood development facility intervention in the Khanty-Mansyisk region of the Russian Federation and its potential to produce efficiency gains in the region and the country overall. The government of the region is introducing changes to the built environment of its early childhood development centers. The proposed new design is based on the concept of the learning environment as a third teacher. The smaller footprint of the new buildings will increase the amount of active space per child, and the new design will include energy efficiency measures. The economic impact of these measures will reduce operating costs throughout the lifecycle of the building and provide strong evidence to education policy makers in the rest of the region and the country as a whole in favor of child-centered, healthy, and energy efficient early childhood development infrastructure.

The paper is focused on the interrelations between citizens’ everyday mobilities and the ways they cope with urban fears. It describes situations when people expect and experience security threats that trigger their fears, while moving in the city. To deal with fears urban citizens develop coping strategies - a set of actions that helps them to manage their emotional experiences. Coping strategies transform various elements of everyday urban mobility and, thus, rearrange and redefine it. The paper is based on semi-structured interviews with Moscow residents and digital diaries of emotions.

We consider an economic geography setting in which firms are free to choose one of the following organizational types: (i) integrated firms, which perform all their activities at the same location, (ii) horizontal firms, which operate several plants producing the same good at different locations, and (iii) vertical firms, which perform distinct activities at separated locations. We show that there exists a unique organizational equilibrium, which typically involves the coexistence of various organizational forms. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for the three types of firms to coexist within the same region and show that transportation and communication costs have opposite effects on firms’ organizational choices. This suggests that, depending on its nature, the supply of a new transportation infrastructure may lead to contrasted locational patterns.

In the recent years facial emotion recognition algorithms have evolved and in some cases top commercial algorithms detect emotions like happiness better than humans do. To evaluate the performance of these algorithms, the common practice is to compare them with human-labeled ground truth. This article covers monitoring of the advancements in automatic emotion recognition solutions, and here we suggest an additional criteria for their evaluation, that is the agreement between algorithms’ predictions. In this work, we compare the performance of four commercial algorithms: Affectiva Affdex, Microsoft Cognitive Services Face module Emotion Recognition, Amazon Rekognition Face Analysis, and Neurodata Lab Emotion Recognition on three datasets AFEW, RAVDESS, and SAVEE, that differ in terms of control over conditions of data acquisition. We assume that the consistency among algorithms’ predictions indicates the reliability of the predicted emotion. Overall results show that the algorithms with higher accuracy and f1-scores that were obtained for human-labeled ground truth (Microsoft’s, Neurodata Lab’s, and Amazon’s), showed higher agreement between their predictions. Agreement among algorithms’ predictions is a promising criteria in terms of further exploring the option to replace human data labeling with automatic annotation.

China’s initiative about “One Belt, One Road” could be treated ambiguously. On the one hand, it is intended to transform the newly acquired economic potential of that country into her higher status in the world. China invites a lot of nations to build up gigantic transit corridors by joint efforts, and doing so she applies productively her capital and technologies. International transactions in RMB are also being expanded. But, on the other hand, “One Belt, One Road” is also a necessity for China to cope with some evident problems of her current stage of development, such as industrial overcapacity, overdependence on imports of raw materials from a narrow circle of countries, and a subordinate status in global value chains. For Russia a participation in “One Belt, One Road” may be fruitful, since the very character of that project provides us with a space to manoeuvre. By now, Russian exports to China consist primarily of fuels and other commodities. More active industrial policy is needed to correct this situation. A flexible framework of “One Belt, One Road” is more suitable for this objective to be achieved, rather than traditional forms of regional integration, such as a free trade area.

The paper examines collective memory of British and Russian youth. The authors use the results of surveys conducted among Russian and British students. They focus primarily on the structure of pride in the collective memory of young people. They propose to analyze the category of pride among young people across several dimensions. First, they look at the qualitative content of national pride: pride in the realization of tasks relating to “soft power” (for example, culture, education, sports), and pride in manifestations of “hard power” (for example, pride in military victories or power politics). Second, they analyze the temporal localization of national pride: were are the main events, personalities, and phenomena study participants take pride in, both in the past and in the present. Third, an important element of understanding pride in a country is the relationship of pride to shame. In this paper, two types of national cultures are identified: a culture where pride prevails over shape (we call this “culture of pride”), and cultures where shame prevails (“culture of shame”).

The 1980 Olympiad in Moscow (the first Olympiad in Eastern Europe and the socialist  state) is viewed through the prism of the successes and failures of the cultural and sports diplomacy of the Soviet state. Olympics-80 as a kind of mega-project "developed socialism" promoted (albeit temporarily) not only to strengthening the position of the Soviet Union in the international arena (especially in the background of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan), but also unity of Soviet citizens in the face of "Western threat". The situation was somewhat more complicated with attempts to use the Olympic project to strengthen the socialist camp.  The source base of the research was the materials of the State archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian state archive of socio-political history and the Central archive of Moscow, as well as the published documents of the Russian state archive of modern history.  It is shown that, despite the boycott of the Olympics, its consequences did not have a particularly strong impact on the development of sports ties and international tourism in the USSR. For example, in 1980, at the suggestion of the delegation of the USSR, the participants of the world conference on tourism, when adopting the Manila Declaration on world tourism, included in the Declaration all the initiatives of the Soviet delegation. And since 1982, the process of restoring international sports contacts began. 

The article analyzes how Russian students interpret and practice digital technologies of self-tracking (fitness trackers, apps and wearables), that allow to collect biometric and activity data. It is based on the results of reflective thematic analysis of students’ essays on this topic. How do students describe their experience in using self-tracking technologies? What discourses of self-tracking are represented in their essays? How do they imagine the digital future and further development of the systems of self-surveillance? The research demonstrated that many students have certain experience with quantified self-tracking, whereas some tend to limit it or refused from it for some reasons. Based on the students’ stories (former and active users), the author offers to distinguish three styles of self-tracking: ‘gamer’, ‘manager’ and ‘transformer’. A ‘gamer’ is looking for the feelings of thrill, pleasure and novelty; a ‘manager’ aims at putting one’s head and life in order; a ‘transformer’ wants to change one’s life and mind radically. In reality any self-tracker combines all three roles, though one of them might dominate. According to the students, the existing technologies of self-measuring cannot give strong enough motivation for self-optimization, but in the future their effectiveness may increase. This study also resulted in defining four types of discourse on self-tracking: ‘progressivist’, ‘pragmatic’, ‘critical’ and ‘anti-utopian’. They represent the differences in conceptualization of self-tracking as a cultural phenomenon. Some students are prone to optimistic or balanced evaluation of the potential of self-tracking technologies; others focus on risks and hazards of ‘datafication’ of people and social life. The outcomes of the study develop the previous research on styles of quantified self-tracking, providing additional analysis of the reflections of (non-)users, concerning self-tracking as a cultural phenomenon.

The article discusses the relationship between dividend policy and the quality of corporate governance. On the one hand, decisions on payout policy can be viewed as a mechanism for resolving agency conflict or substitutes for best corporate governance practices, on the other hand, the quality of corporate governance itself is a determining factor in corporate financial decisions. Empirical literature fids proof for both types of the relationship. This paper aims to analyze different explanations of mixed results. We find a set of factors that can affect the link between corporate governance quality and dividend payouts. We show that in some cases substitution effect can dominate the payout policy, but the more often indicators tend to increase Outcome effect with the increase in their values. Positive addition of operational margin and beta as well as negative effects of ROA and firm size do not contradict to the shareholder’s interests and support the idea that dividends work in combination with corporate governance practices to meet the needs. 

Geographical distance has become less relevant in co-authorship for monodisciplinary research fields such as economics, mathematics, physics. Multidisciplinary fields are influenced by the norms and traditions of other fields. Higher education is a multidisciplinary field of research in which multiple communities operate under different norms and paradigms. We study collaboration patterns in higher education research across different world regions using the Scopus database with the application of the gravity model. Our results show that international collaboration has intensified and increased rapidly in the last two decades. We confirm that the intensity of collaboration is dependent on geographical distance and linguistic commonality. The importance of geographical proximity differs significantly between various world regions. EU scholars appear to give preference to linguistic proximate partners over geographical neighbors. Despite the fact that English is the lingua franca in science, language is not a significant factor for the formation of collaboration for North American researchers. This study contributes to the current discussion on the importance of international collaboration in science, paying special attention to the growing public interest in multidisciplinary research.

  PublicationReportTitleThe Tip of the Iceberg : Prop. 1975:26 and its Freedom of Choice Goal in Sweden’s Multiculturalism PolicyAuthorTawat, MahamaEditorHellström, AndersDate2019English abstractIn the expansive literature on Swedish multiculturalism policy, the Freedom of Choice Goal (FCG) of the Bill, Prop. 1975:26, Guidelines for an Immigrant and Minority Policy is often presented as its founding document. But this belies the fact that the Goal was beset by a controversy about its multicultural scope in the years that followed its adoption in 1975 that was never really settled. This article revisits the question and shows that the Goal indeed represented a multicultural vision. However, it was just the tip of an iceberg formed by socioeconomic integration policies. Earlier and more consistent multicultural policy provisions were present most notably in the state cultural policy. The article draws evidence from multiple sources including comparison with Norway.

Manufacturing today is undergoing fast and fundamental changes due to the introduction of Industry 4.0 technologies. Still, the effects of their applications on the global economic and social structure (in terms of risks and benefits) are highly uncertain. This paper is aimed to suggest a special methodology for conducting industry foresight based on timelines construction, which reflects future vision of technological development, and wild cards detection, which represents an advanced technique for technological trends risk management. In this way, we analyze the existing practices of timelines building and wild cards analysis for industry purposes in the academic literature, and suggest own methodology for conducting industry foresight by using these tools. To demonstrate its application, we choose a particular industry with great potential for technological innovation and high degree of uncertainty – the textile and apparel industry. Finally, we discuss future development of this industry at a national level in the context of global technological trends.

The article presents the results of the selection of relevant to the Russian context emotions perceived as primary (which humans share with animals) or secondary (experienced only by humans). Three stages of the selection and evaluation of emotions made it possible to distinguish 12 emotions: primary positive emotions (Joy, Pleasure, and Interest), primary negative emotions (Anger, Irritation, and Rage), secondary positive emotions (Inspiration, Afflatus, and Enthusiasm), and secondary negative emotions (Disappointment, Regret, and Devastation). The results of confirmatory and multigroup confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that these emotions are well grouped into primary-secondary subgroups and that their valence is important to grouping. The highlighted emotions can be used to study implicit prejudices towards various social groups

The issue of actualization of labor interests as a motivational driver and one of the 9  sources of labor productivity is little-studied in applied and organizational psychology. The study 10  given in the paper fills some “blanks” of this problem. The leading approach to research is the 11  motivational system proposed on the basis of theoretical analysis and the developed psychological 12  model of labor interests. Using the methods of a special survey, questioning and interview guides, 13  the analysis and comparative assessment of the labor interests of 50 candidates for the  service 14  manager position  (entertainment and restaurant industry field)  was conducted; as well as of 45 15  employees of this industry aged 18 to 25. The main results of the paper show the connection of labor 16  interests with the company's personnel management system, namely with the processes of selection, 17  adaptation and training. It was revealed that the candidates who had been selected for the service 18  manager position were of primary group interest, and financial incentive was only in the second 19  place. At the same time, financial incentive contributed to the successful passage of the adaptation 20  period. Occupational interests of employees depended on their education and job specifics; career 21  interests were influenced by the time planned with the company. The recommendations necessary 22  for the employer to create the conditions corresponding to the leading labor interests of the 23  employees were substantiated. single paragraph of about 200 words maximum. For research articles, 24  abstracts should give a pertinent overview of the work. We strongly encourage authors to use the 25  following style of structured abstracts, but without headings: 1) Background: Place the question 26  addressed in a broad context and highlight the purpose of the study; 2) Methods: Describe briefly 27  the main methods or treatments applied; 3) Results: Summarize the article's main findings; and 4) 28  Conclusions: Indicate the main conclusions or interpretations. The abstract should be an objective 29  representation of the article, it must not contain results which are not presented and substantiated in 30  the main text and should not exaggerate the main conclusions.