Vol 6, No 1 (2016)

Nutrition is an important indicator of quality of life, an element of national security. The article reviews the formation of the food consumption geography. The differences in food consumption among Russia’s regions are shown in the dynamics from 1990 to 2013. They are caused by the influence on food patterns of such factors as natural conditions, level of regional socioeconomic development, local traditions associated with the agricultural profile of an area, living standards, ethnic nutrition traditions, etc. The well-being of regions with higher food consumption levels depends mainly on economic conditions or on favorable natural living conditions. The following trends have been identified: an increase in consumption of vegetables in most regions; a decrease in consumption of dairy products in Russia in general, and especially in regions with traditional dairy farming; and a significant increase in consumption of potatoes and bread in the North Caucasian republics. The paper represents the results of a food pattern cluster analysis of Russia’s regions in 1990 and 2013.

This paper analyzes the domestic and foreign experience in accounting of dacha and work commuting as well as methodological approaches to their use to assess the number of dacha residents and commuters in the Moscow agglomeration. The pulsation of the Moscow and Moscow oblast populations in different seasons is considered, and changes in the forms of population mobility during dacha and work commuting are revealed. Due to the lack of information for assessing the mobility of the dacha and working population, it is important to use all possible approaches, and the research technique is a mixed method within which a set of different techniques complement and enhance each other. As before, seasonal dacha migration determines the specifics of suburbanization in the Moscow agglomeration: more than 3 mln Muscovites have dachas, and over half a million own all-season suburban homes. The scales of living in the sub urbs on a regular basis are still significantly smaller, which confirms the retention of the traditional model of living at dachas on the weekends, regardless of season. Meanwhile, rapid motorization of the population, together with the development of alternative forms of employment (distance work, freelancing, flexible working hours, etc.) and the availability of winter dacha houses has led to an increase in living at two residences, leading to the transformation of the old forms of dacha-resident and commuter mobility. There is a growing number of Muscovites who use dachas as secondary permanent homes, which increases the flow of commuters from suburban homes to Moscow by almost 1 mln people in summer, reduces it to half a million in the off-season, and to 300000 people in the winter season. Living at two residences changes the traditional practice of the dacha-commuting mobility of Muscovites, blurs the concept of residence itself, and leads to pulsation of the settlement system in the Moscow agglomeration, in whose suburban zone the population during summer weekends exceeds more than 11 mln people and decreases to 6 mln people during winter weekdays.

The article analyzes rural labor markets and the present-day practices whereby those who cannot find jobs within their settlements seek sources of subsistence. Various ways of estimating the size of unemployed population are considered in detail using federal and municipal statistics, as well as the microdata of Russia’s 2010 Census. Comparison of statistics, census data, and interviews that the author collected during field studies has yielded the structure of local labor markets and all possible sources of subsistence for rural inhabitants of working age in a case study of 18 key rural settlements in Ivanovo and Kostroma oblasts. The studies show that only about 30–35% of working-age rural inhabitants are employed in traditional labor spheres (agriculture, forestry, industrial production, and the service sector) in their home settlements; more than 35% work outside their settlements, commuting daily or on a rotating scheme; about 20% live on pensions and various allowances or depend on their relatives and other persons; the remaining 10% are self-employed (i.e., they work on their commercialized subsidiary farms or have odd jobs). The proportion of identified groups in each settlement depends on many factors, including the condition of the local economy, geographic position, the density of transportation infrastructures, and so on.

Based on a case study of the problem of transport support for resource extraction on Russia’s Arctic shelf, an approach is described and implemented to select an expedient strategy for solving weak structurization problems under the conditions of an uncertain scenario. To structurize the problem, a goal tree is constructed and scenarios and strategies are described. The scenarios indicate possible conditions of the external environment in which the problem is solved. The strategies differ in the ways cargoes are shipped: primarily by sea (Northern Sea Route) or by Siberian rivers. It is shown that the Transpolar Railway is necessary for any strategy. The authors have developed a technique and software for collecting and processing expert information, which is used to construct numerical estimates of the significance of goals. This method also allows us to estimate the degrees of achievement of a general goal as a result of using each strategy under the conditions of each scenario; these estimates are entered into the evaluation matrix. An expedient strategy is chosen according to the evaluation matrix with the help of strategic criteria (Laplace, Wald, Hurwitz, and Savage).

This paper defines the economic category of “state regional innovative development policy.” An integrated approach to policy design and implementation promoting regional innovation-based growth corresponds to the strategic objective of improving overall quality of life and makes it possible to solve a broad range of issues, including stimulation of innovation, deployment of new production facilities, and mitigation of the negative impact of human activity on the environment. The territories of the Russian Federation are classified according to two criteria: the importance assigned to the national innovation system and the innovative capacity to solve problems of socioeconomic development (megacities, science cities, and territories with low scientific and technological potential). The original concept of the innovative development of territories is introduced. The mechanisms underpinning the development of local innovation systems, including various approaches to innovative development of territories with low innovation potential are investigated. Examples of territories where the concept of their innovative development was realized in practice are discussed (Tomsk oblast, science cities, and special economic zone).

Comparative analysis of acting regulatory legal acts has made it possible to highlight the problems, mechanisms, and tools of innovation policy used at the regional administrative level. Based on this analysis, the most complete list of managerial tasks at the subfederal level has been formulated. It includes improvement in legislation, the creation of state orders, and the introduction of technical regulations and quality standards. Comparison of this list with the space in which innovation policy is implemented at various stages of the innovation cycle has made it possible to reveal bottlenecks and missed opportunities in stimulating demand for innovation at the regional level. There are no current information bases on producible innovative products, and there are no fixed requirements on applying innovative products with the best characteristics of energy efficiency, ecological safety, etc., under the aegis of state orders, private sector–state partnership, and the implementation of state programs. The developed systematic approach to revealing bottlenecks in regional policy that hinder demand for innovative products was tested on a case study of Novosibirsk oblast. As a result, proposals were formulated to correct the formulation of managerial tasks and improve the mechanisms and tools for implementing regional policy targeted at stimulating demand for innovation.

The paper considers the results and territorial features of the transformation of agricultural land use in Russia’s federal subjects for the period of land reforms from 1991 through 2012. The most important stages of reform were the privatization of a significant portion of agricultural land and the creation on this basis of a multiform agriculture. In addition to large enterprises and organizations, significant land areas began to belong to farms, personal subsidiary plots, collective orchards, and individual horticulture plots, which helped to establish and develop the agricultural land market. The result of the transformations was a widespread reduction in the area of agricultural land, arable land, and sowing areas with an increase in fallow areas, natural hayfields, and pastures. Such a large-scale decrease in cultivated land occurred for the first time in Russia’s multicentury agrarian history. Territorial analysis of the transformation showed that what occurred was a reduction in the area of irrigated and drained land, as well as cropland with the richest Chernozem, Kastanozem (chestnut), and Phaeozem and Luvisol (gray forest) soils within the entire agriculturally developed territory of the country. The largest areas fell out of agricultural use as a result of their development as residential areas and infrastructure objects, as well as due to a decrease in land quality. An important reason for the reduction in agricultural land is its continuing degradation. The most actively transformative processes took place in the agriculturally developed regions of Central Russia within the southern-taiga–forest, forest–steppe, and steppe landscapes of European Russia, in southern Siberia, and the southern Far East.