Bozhkov O.B. Same addresses 10 years later (first impressions of the expedition-2018 to Boksitogorsky and Babaevsky districts) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2018. V.3. №3. P. 115-127.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2018-3-3-115-127
Annotation
In 2006–2008, the author took part in the expeditions to seven districts of four subjects of the Russian Federation, which were supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities. The research project included (according to the sequence of field trips): in the Tver Region — Maksatikhinsky and Lesnoy districts; in the Novgorod Region — Pestovsky district; in the Vologda Region — Ustyuzhensky, Kaduysky and Babayevsky districts; in the Leningrad Region — Boksitogorsky district. At that time, the Federal Law No. 131 “On Local Self-Government” was adopted, and we conducted a survey of all heads of municipalities (rural settlements) and heads of operating agricultural enterprises including peasant farms. The results of expeditions were presented at a number of Russian and international conferences, and in numerous publications. The current research aims at studying those mechanisms of interaction of rural business with local authorities that reproduce the rural entrepreneurial stratum. To achieve this goal, we focus on the interaction of agricultural business with local (district and municipal) authorities and on its changes over the past fifteen years; and consider configurations of different interaction factors, which ensure the most effective reproduction of the entrepreneurial stratum in the village, in order to reconstruct models of interaction based on such configurations. Thus, the research focus on regional differences in the policies of local authorities for agricultural production and on their changes determined by the changes of the heads of district and municipal administrations.
Keywords
Local self-government, agricultural production, municipal government, rural entrepreneurship, Internet.
About the author
Bozhkov Oleg B., Senior Researcher, Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Head of the Research Center “Biographical Foundation”. 190005, Saint Petersburg, 7th Krasnoarmeiskaya St., 25/14.
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Merl S. Agrarian transformations in the former GDR in 1989–2017: A success story? // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2017. V.2. №4. P. 130-147.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2017-2-4-130-147
Annotation
The transformations of agriculture in the direction of privatization and adaptation to the market started in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Looking back from today, this was a difficult process for the economic transition was strongly influenced by changing prices and demand for agricultural goods. Today in most countries, agricultural productivity is higher though problems and uncertainties are still evident especially considering the structural changes of agricultural enterprises and their consequences for rural life. The article focuses on the country in which agrarian transformations seem to be a success story: in the GDR, the agricultural productivity grew significantly, and the new structures of the agricultural enterprises allowed competing at the world market. The author does not directly compare the former GDR and Russia though the article contributes to understanding the reasons of the problematic outcomes of the transition in Russia. The article highlights general problems of agrarian transformations such as the uncertainty of their structural aims, and puts forward the following questions: can the GDR be considered a success story transferable to other countries as the political approach in Germany was more sophisticated or is there another explanation of its success? Was the success a result of the political course, or was it, on the contrary, an unexpected result of the lack of control? Another question is the criteria for considering the transition in the GDR a success in the economic sense (increase in productivity), social (keeping up the rural community), ecological or agricultural (increase in sustainability of production). To answer these questions the author relies on the statistical data for more than two decades, monitoring data on the still ongoing transition and partly privatization and registration of new enterprises, his own studies of agricultural enterprises in different new countries together with the Russian colleagues (1992, 1997, 2002 and 2016), which allowed to understand the estimates and reactions of people to different challenges of the transition.
Keywords
agrarian transformations, the former GDR (German New Countries), economic transition, agricultural production, rural communities
About the author
Merl Stephan, DSc (History), Professor, Bielefeld University; 25 Universitätsstr., 33615, Bielefeld, Germany.
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Regional practices of business and the authorities interaction (the Russian North-West case)
Mar 30 2017Bozhkov O.B., Ignatova S.N. Regional practices of business and the authorities interaction (the Russian North-West case) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2017. V.2. №1. pp. 115-130.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2017-2-1-115-130
Annotation
The coordination of interests, cooperation and confrontation between the local authorities and business within the rural society play an important role in the development of rural Russia. The authors believe that the function of creating the rural business climate belongs to the regional authorities, while the local self-government lacks the levers of interaction with entrepreneurs. The success of entrepreneurial activities in agriculture is determined both by the strategy of local (and regional) leaders in the industry, and by human and social capital of rural enterprises’ managers. There is an obvious “patrimonial” model of management, in which the head of the district develops an internal policy based on one’s own goals and objectives with an eye on the regional requirements. This policy either encourages the development of agriculture at the local level, or only supports its preservation without any prospects for growth. Such conclusions are based on the results of long-term studies in the peripheral agricultural areas of non-Black-Earth regions of the Russian Federation. Despite the territorial proximity and similarity of geography and climate, each area under study has its own strategy for the development of agricultural business. Thus, the most interesting and various practices can be observed at the district level due to the specific conditions for the local agricultural enterprises. The authors confirmed their initial assumption that it is necessary to conduct a typological analysis of territories and to form clusters of similar (in many ways) areas to develop a single model of rural development for the Russian Federation.
Keywords
ocal authorities, business environment, agricultural production, practices of interaction
About the authors
Bozhkov Oleg B., Senior Researcher, Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Head of the Research Center “Biographical Foundation”. 190005, Saint Petersburg, 7 Krasnoarmeiskay St., 25/14.
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Ignatova Svetlana N., Researcher, Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 190005, St. Petersburg, 7 Krasnoarmeiskay st., 25/14.
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Russian Peasant Studies. Scientific journal
Center for Agrarian studies of the Russian Presidental Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)
- Publisher: Delo Publishing, RANEPA
- Editor-in-Chief: Nikulin Alexander
- ISSN 2500-1809 (Print), ISSN 2949-2564 (Online)
- Founded in 2016
- Frequency: four issues per year (March, Jun, September, December)
- Open Access: All volumes and articles can be downloaded for free in the PDF format.
- Author fees: free of chagre
- Indexation: Russian Science Citation Index, Russian Science Citation Index Core, List of Journals approved by Russian Hihger Attestation committee (Ministry for Sciende and Education), Scopus, UlrichWeb Global Serials Directory, European reference index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIHPLUS), CNKI scholar
- Russian registration number: PI FS77-65824 27-May-2016
Hard copies of the journal can be purchased at the Delo e-store or by subscription in the "Press of Russia" Agency (subscription index - Т81017).
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