Ideas and Ideals

In the article the author differentiates the concepts of technique and technology. He identifies four stages of the technique’s development. The first stage is “experimental technique”, which is characterized by magical conceptualization, the second - engineering (rational conceptualization), the third - design, the fourth - technology. Technique is characterized by five features: 1) technique means artifacts, 2) it can be viewed as a “social body” of an individual or society; 3) technique is a method of using the forces of nature; 4) the form of awareness; and finally, 5) it is mediation in the form of tools, machines and material environment, which makes it possible to realize the plans of a man. The author states that conceptualization of technology is an essential characteristic of its concept. If, for example, scholars write about Neolithic technology or the era of construction of the Egyptian pyramids, then it is just a retrospective interpretation, from the point of view of modern understanding of technology. It has sense, for example, when it is necessary to clarify the prerequisites for the development of technology, but in terms of thinking creates problems and contradictions. The author claims that technology develops in the second half of the 18th century as a new reality that describes industrial activities in the language of operations and their conditions - the division of labor, management. Simultaneously, the technology is characterized by the quality, economy, and standardization directives; rational description of production processes, their optimization; and training of the new type specialists - technologists. The author considers three stages of technology development. He also points out the characteristic features and the main types of technology: production, engineering, large techno-social projects, and global technologies. In conclusion the author discusses the conditions for the development of new technologies and shares his opinion on the anthropogenic civilization crisis and the ways to overcome it.

The authors consider the hypothesis of attractiveness of the urban environment from the standpoint of the formation of comfortable living conditions of the population. As one of the versions of creation of comfortable living conditions in the city agglomeration the authors analyze the concept of consumer services development, including: the services of household character, public catering and retail trade noted by Novosibirsk population as necessary, generating a feeling of comfort. The growth of birthrates in synergy with social and economic projects of support of young families and mortgage lending in the Russian Federation have led to the development of construction industry, active building in the remote urban areas. The central parts of the city don’t have enough space for the construction of dwelling houses, that’s why they are built in the remote from the center of the city territories, where the demand of the population for consumer services is many times higher than the supply. Such disproportion provokes in the population, living far from the center of the city, the feeling of discomfort, forcing people to spend more time and money on searching and purchasing of necessary services. Businessmen don't want to invest into the cultural and community objects, situated in the remote territories. The reason for it is a loss of the expected profit. In different areas of the city, the economic conditions for doing business are approximately the same, but there is a significant difference in the income of the population and the traffic of customers. So, the authors come to the conclusion, that it is rather doubtful, that the project “Formation of the Comfortable Urban Environment” initiated by the Government of the Russian Federation, will be implemented to a full extent. The authors are convinced, that without the targeted support of businessmen there won’t be any growth of private service enterprises, which will allow the population to reach the level of the required comfort, when the comfort acts as a condition of attractiveness of the urban environment.

The author considers the problems of social and labor relations in modern Russia. Social and labor relations have been transforming for about 27 years in Russia. The paper presents the fundamentals of social partnership as a new system of the relationship between employees and employers, which gives an opportunity to stand for the interests of hired workers. The author points out the main reasons for labor conflicts, defines the forms of workers’ protests and their attitude to them, analyses the practice of labor protests. The level of salary and its delays are the main causes for conflicts in labor relations. At the same time, there are other problems: non-payment by employers to insurance funds (e.g. to the pension fund), "grey" salaries, “games” with a salary, the structure of which is not in favor of employees, increasing working time and the amount of work performed, excessive differentiation of salaries by categories and sectors, and still working people remain poor. Such a situation results in reducing the opportunities for reproduction of labor force, its qualifications, labor efficiency, there is also worsening of the position of an employee after the termination of employment activities. In the future, this can lead to problems for both workers and the state. The author considers possible ways of development of social and labor relations. Formation of adequate social and labor relations is social responsibility of social partnership. Employers are rather active in reaching their goals, pursuing their interests, even in a difficult economic situation in the country. Therefore workers should also get involved in social partnership more actively, defend their interests collectively and individually, use all opportunities, taking into account the latest changes in the Labor Code of the RF. In particular, the author stresses the fact, that the mechanism of control and responsibility of the employer for non-fulfillment of laws concerning labor relations has been strengthened. In conclusion, the author draws attention to the fact, that the issue of changes in social and economic policy has been actively discussed for a long time already, that should help to change the situation in the issues of social and labor relations and improve the living standards of wage workers, to make these relations fairer.

The paper presents a critical review of studies in which the real options method, combined with the fuzzy set method, is used to evaluate the effectiveness of innovation projects. In Russia, such studies have not yet become widespread, so the emphasis in this paper is on the analysis of foreign publications. These publications were analyzed by us on the following six criteria: the direction of research; fuzzy "input" parameters; type of fuzzy numbers; type of real option; option evaluation model; availability of approbation. The following areas of research in the selected field were identified: assessment of the effectiveness of strategic mega-investments having a high degree of uncertainty; evaluation of the effectiveness of R&D projects; the problem of choosing the optimal portfolio of R&D projects; evaluation of investment in real estate; an estimation of firm’s cost; evaluation of investment in software (IT sphere). In the analyzed studies, the following types of real options are used: European call option (standard); American call option; a compound European two-stage call option with constant volatility. Such models for real option evaluation are used as the Black-Scholes model in fuzzy form (in the majority of works), the Geske model in fuzzy form, binomial model (Cox-Ross-Rubinshtein model) in fuzzy form. The following shortcomings of the analyzed works were revealed: in very few papers approbation of the proposed approaches is carried out (an exception from the rule). If such approbation is carried out, then there is no meaningful economic interpretation of the obtained results. There are no articles on the direction of the research - the use of the real options method and the fuzzy sets analysis to assess the effectiveness of venture financing of innovation projects

The paper considers the debt structure of Russian regions, which plays an important role in the ability to manage regional budgets. The aim of the paper is to analyze opportunities and advantages of extended use of market borrowing forms. The authors suggest avoidance from non-market borrowings (budgetary loans) to market forms of borrowings. In many regions this requires changing the terms of borrowing money from credit organizations and using revolving credit lines, as well as creation of credit portfolio in order to use credit resources in the long-term perspective. It should also allow to save money on servicing debts of the Russian Federation regions. The authors also analyze the experience in the management of public debt of Russian regions, especially the debt of the Novosibirsk region. Basing on the data on debt levels of Russian regions, the problem of combination of debt levels growth and region's own incomes drop is studied in detail. The authors show the unequal distribution of debt levels among the regions, and it is concluded in the article that development of regional borrowings market in Russia faces difficulties. Finally, the authors present the ways of solving the revealed problems and give recommendations how to manage the public debt of the Russian Federation regions.

The paper analyzes the practical experience, features and problems of trustees in bankruptcy (TB) training in the Russian Federation. It is noted that from the perspective of the Ministry of Education officials, training and education programs of trustees in bankruptcy are programs of additional education and must meet the requirements for such programs. Thus, the integrated training program of trustees in bankruptcy should be viewed as a program of professional retraining with a "package" of a number of competences, passing a dozen of tests and examinations and giving out diplomas, issued by the university itself as an outcome of professional retraining. However, these actions completely violate the requirements of the Federal Legislation on the training of trustees in bankruptcy, which a university has to abide, having signed the corresponding Agreement with Rosreestr. And the actual implementation of these actions is very problematic, as there is no demand on such type of diploma on the market. Using the multiple-factor analysis, the authors revealed the fundamental laws of the market demand curve for the training service of TB on the example of a concrete University Center. They also made conclusions and recommendations for successful activities in the field of anti-crisis business education.

The Input-Output (IO) analysis is a powerful analytical tool. The problems of construction and use of the IO models are widely discussed by researchers. The national IO models have been developed in many ways to cover more aspects of economic, social, ecological and other fields. The use of the IO models at the regional level has become topical, as the IO analysis still has a good explanatory potential. Improving the methods of regionalization of national input-output tables (IOTs) continues to be a topic of debates. Different types of models are based on the IOTs. Regional dynamic input-output models can be a usefultool for economic growth analysis and forecasting. Single-region and multi-regional models are used for analysis of different intraregional economic effects as well as interrelationships between regions. The article discusses some problems related to construction and use of IOTs and IO models. The authors review some publications discussing the use of interindustry models for the regional analysis and forecasting. The regionalization methods of national IOTs and several different types of interindustry models including some commercial IO models are also reviewed in the article as well as national and foreign experience in developing and applying these models.

The author considers the problems of efficiency and quality of management in the socio-economic systems at all levels and also argues that the efficiency of management depends on the quality of management, which implies a compliance with established standards. The author substantiates the new paradigm of management of sustainable development of socio-economic systems.

The article discusses the features of intercultural communication process from the aspect of globalization of the modern society. Globalization creates special conditions for the interaction of different cultures. The authors highlight the idea that cultural foundations of the globalizing socie-ties are being transformed and it can even lead to certain changes in the state of mental structures of people. According to their opinion, multiple simulacra (illusory images that replace the reality and substitute traditional values) have a significant impact on the spiritual transformation of mental structures in the globalized society. In these circumstances, the global community faces the task of finding new forms of intercultural communication. The authors emphasize the fact that the most important foundation of intercultural communication is mentality (a special way of thinking and emotional reactions, allowing a person to form a complete image of the world). Then, the article analyzes two forms of intercultural communication – a monologue and a dialogue. It is noted that a monologue is based on the dominance of one of the communicating parties and leads to its cultural domination, which has a negative impact on the second participant of interaction. The most effec-tive form for the establishing cross-cultural understanding is an intercultural dialogue, which will enable the participants to maintain their mental specificities and adequately understand the partner.