Том 8, № 3 (2018)

The article establishes the expediency of the formation of Arctic regional science as a new interdisciplinary scientific field. The existing realities of the economic development of Arctic territories cannot always be explained by mainstream economic theories developed for high-density areas of the temperate zone. Rare anomalies that may occur in the temperate zone tend to drive back to the research periphery, whereas such things are commonplace in the Arctic zone, which can no longer be ignored. The key element of the phenomenon of Arctic regional science is that, instead of competitive forces, it deals with an extremely dynamic, ultimately nonstationary, and economically isolated research subject that pulsates with a giant spatiotemporal amplitude, remote from the main developed centers, with dominant monopolies of different types and sizes. The transformation of the initial conceptual blocs of “parental” Arctic regional science is so great and leads far away from the initial theoretical notions, that it is reasonable to talk about the validity of a radical paradigm shift, rather than of a gradual refinement of previous ideas to fit Arctic conditions. In the authors' opinion, this is the primary method to provide the maximum explanatory power to the developed hypotheses and concepts and their successful integration with specific Arctic realities.

The specifics of and spatial trends in the development of rural areas in post-Soviet Moscow oblast, especially after the linear expansion of Moscow’s territory, are considered. A combination of centripetal and centrifugal vectors of population mobility is shown, representing oppositely directed migrations: on the one hand, people are attracted to permanent residence and labor migrants stream into the capital and its suburbs from other regions of Russia and CIS countries; on the other, there is the drain of Muscovites to their dachas. The diversity of the suburban territory is shown with various degrees of remoteness from the capital. Highrise housing development beyond the city limits is characteristic of oblast municipalities closest to the Moscow Ring Road; therefore, the development around the capital continues in all directions like an oil spot. Nevertheless, housing construction activity in the southern and southwestern municipalities near Moscow, adjacent to New Moscow, has been higher in recent years, resulting in numerous insular bedroom suburbs whose residents work in Moscow. With a high density of the rural population and dacha dwellers, the emergence of areas of high-rise housing development creates many problems. The active expansion of housing development has led to a sharp reduction in agricultural land. Meanwhile, Moscow oblast, witnessing a severe decay of agriculture in many regions of the Non-Chernozem Zone, remains a powerful food producer, supplying not only the capital and its suburbs but also other Russian regions. All this makes Moscow oblast Russia’s most successful region, as well as one of the most problematic.

It is shown that the global spatial organization of the oil and gas field services sector depends largely on the characteristics of assets available in the mineral resources sector and that Russian service companies still remain players in the regional league. Our analysis reveals the key role of oilfield service companies in the innovative processes in the oil and gas industry. Science-intensive services can significantly reduce the unit costs of reserves increment and production costs. Endogenous, network, and exogenous models are used to summarize the formation and development processes for the oil and gas component of regional innovation systems. It is shown that resource regions cannot follow a single model of innovative development targeting the needs of the oil and gas industry. These models should take into account a wide range of regional features. The results demonstrate the need to strengthen the role of resource regions in regulating the oil and gas field services sector and innovative processes in the oil and gas industry. The focus is on developing a methodology for studying innovative processes within regional socioeconomic systems and on providing practical recommendations for the development of the oil and gas field services sector in Russia’s resource regions.

The article considers the settings, features, and possibilities of reindustrialization (new industrialization) of the rural economy in Zabaikalskii krai. It analyzes the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet agrarian development model in remote regions of Russia, resulting, in particular, in a decline of its agroindustrial complex and chronic losses for local agricultural producers. The paper further describes the pitfalls on the way to a sustainable rural development due to the absence of effective mechanisms necessary to overcome regularly occurring environmental and climatic phenomena, stimulate investment activity, and create competitive advantage. Based on sociological survey data, a range of agribusiness community opinions is presented with respect to the existing problems in the agricultural sector, vital trends and ways of its modernization, and a redesign of its institutional and financial environment, which can boost the development of agribusiness in Zabaikalskii krai. Two approaches are reviewed in the context of reindustrialization of the agroindustrial complex in Zabaikalskii krai. The first presupposes emphasis on attracting large producers capable, at their own expense and with government support, of carrying out industrialization-type investment projects, which will make it possible to reduce dependence on unfavorable weather conditions. The second approach relies on the advantages of a mixed economy, which necessitates the creation of mechanisms for integrating agroindustrial complex enterprises of various levels (small, medium, and large) into the economic external and internal space.

An analysis is performed for the impact of climate change on life satisfaction among households. The dependence of individual well-being on regional climatic parameters is quantitatively assessed. It is hypothesized that the self-reported life satisfaction among participants of panel surveys generally reflects individuals’ rational views, which can be interpreted as values of an individual utility function, whose parameters can, in turn, be estimated using a regression model. Econometric estimates of the parameters of the individual “happiness function” are made using ordered probit regression, from Rosstat data and the primary results of a nongovernmental monitoring survey of economic welfare and health of individuals and households in the Russian Federation (the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey-Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE)). It is shown that the climate factor has a significant impact on the subjective well-being of respondents, which puts climate on par with other, more conventional factors of analysis, such as income, employment, health, quality of potable water and air, etc. The results of this study can be used in economic assessments of the implications of climate change and to develop of programs aimed at preventing such change.

After the demise of the Soviet Union, many drained reclaimed lands were abandoned, which resulted a new postreclamation type of landscapes. Identification of new trends in their dynamics and evolution makes it possible to create a database for assessing the loss of socioeconomic functions earlier fulfilled by these landscapes. A landscape in Central Meshchera drained in 1966 was used as a model area. The dynamics and functioning of the landscape in the zone affected by the reclamation system and outside it have been monitored at experimental stations since 1977. Changes in landscape functions as a result of intensive use of drainage systems from 1966 to 1991 and its abandonment in 1993–2015 have been qualitatively assessed on the basis of 18 ecological and socioeconomic indicators. A relative scaling method is substantiated and used to analyze four landscape functions: biological production, regulation of surface water quality, soil fertility, and cultural (aesthetic) function. Etalons of regional level have been chosen for the assessment of landscape functions from the point of view of local society. The use of weighted coefficients for the given functions permit to conclude that at the present time, this area is of the greatest value for agricultural activity and is useless for the solution of nature protection problems, though the differences in the integral value are small.