Ideas and Ideals

Justice as a theme and a subject of research is, in fact, a cluster of concepts, which organize a specific multi-actant historical process. It deals with certain forms of human self-understanding and methods of turning less equitable social relations into more equitable ones. One of the basic problems here is to clarify and to explicate existing forms of understanding of Justice, and then to organize a communicative space for an ongoing process of discussions on the national and even transnational level. While doing so the social life might have been reorganized in the mode of strengthening respect to the competing ideas of Justice, which are revealed as the result of those discussions. On the other hand, Truth within social sciences could be understood as a matrix of openness of the world-as-a-whole, i.e. as a sort of collective optics which allows to identify things as things, facts as facts, events as events, and, therefore, generates collective forms of in-the-world orientation, common for a given nation, or a given historical moment, etc. But altogether this produces deep conflicts between scientific knowledge and “folk” estimates of social and historical reality because historical and social “facts” themselves are still not defined.

The existence of the fictitious and hidden competences in the structure of educational standards is the problem of the Higher Education Reform implementation. The object of research is reconstruction of a number of the competences which are absent in the regulating documents, but they are important for subjects in professional socialization and they are really incorporated into it. During methodological study of the project of reconstruction of the young specialist model we assumed that the existence of the hidden competences is not a secret for students; and also – that many competences, declared in educational programs, have a fictitious character for them. This assumption became a basic hypothesis for the empirical research "Professional Socialization in the Conditions of Competence-Based Reconstruction". Readiness to use official position for personal enrichment, ability to join false conventions, to manipulate interlocutors, to strike up useful acquaintances and to derive benefit from them (in P. Bourdieu's terminology – to create and use social capital), ability and readiness to use gaps and contradictions in the legislation are referred to the hidden competences. The research has revealed that these competences are real and pressing for all levels and social subjects comprising the system of higher education.

In the interview Prof. Shadrikov speaks about the recent educational reform in the Russian Federation. Its shortcomings are discussed, and the problem how it should be organized. The modern pre-school, school and higher education should be tailored to age and take into account the uncertainty of the cultural characteristics of different social groups and individuals. The difficulties of developing the contents of education and training are also under analysis, which is a very serious challenge in the new informational environment. The need is emphasized to get away from the fiscal targets and not setting the task to save, but rather to achieve high quality education. The situation with the standards is also touched, especially in the area of higher education, and the important conclusion is given that the standard is proposed in the terms of competencies yet the results are checked in terms of knowledge, and this situation determines the discrepancy between the opportunities provided by well-developed standards, and the real possibility to implement them. The situation in higher education connected with the realization of Bologna process, from which in recent time only two-level educational system is borrowed, yet everything else, basically the spirit of the Bologna process, is thrown away and forgotten, including the good financing and development of national education systems.

There is a whole area of demographic studies – the chronoecology. It is connected with the cyclical nature of virtually all processes in the evolution of the population. In addition to the vector process (a constant growth of the world's population), which has created a strong concern and this phenomenon has been included into the list of the global environmental problems of mankind; cyclic processes of the population change were also revealed.   The paper considers the cyclical birth-rate index in Fennoscandian countries during the long - term investigations. There is a steady negative trend of the birth-rate index, especially in Sweden. The spectra of periodic components, that form the long-term dynamics of the birth rate, are built. Specific to these countries, 170-, 50-60- and 15-17- year cycles are determined. The author speculates upon the internal causes and possible external pacemakers of these fluctuations. A comparison of the spectra of the periodic constituents of the birth-rate indices in Fennoskandia and Romania, as a more southern country, has been made. For the population cycles of fertility, the time external sensors can be manifested in individual fluctuations of the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) in Scandinavia, as well as the harmonic components of the spectrum of the Nordic index (SCAND), the primary focus of which is situated over Scandinavia. The first oscillation of this global climate index can maintain the stability of the 170-year cycle of birth-rate; and the second one is responsible for the 60- and 40-year rhythms that function in Scandinavian countries, but they are absent in southern Europe (Romania).

The article considers the problem of citizen participation in the political process associated with social communication difficulties. An individual is moving away from the social system, due to the obtained negative experiences after the confrontation with the latent component of political participation. The author analyzes the historical characteristics of the personal identity and public opinion ratio. He also highlights the relationship of political participation and family traditions. State pressure on the individual consciousness turns into a hidden form of social loneliness. The more radical a political doctrine is the more negative attitude to social loneliness it demonstrates. Enforcement of social lifestyle, active participation in mutual social activities form settled fear before the State, a group, possessing the right to coercion, the world view regulation, and to the invasion of privacy. Political changes transform the kinds of social participation, values and meanings of social activities. Social distance may be considered as a potential prerequisite of a conflict between an individual and a society. We can speak about a new phenomenon, hidden social loneliness, i.e. a gap between intrinsic beliefs and demonstrated behavior. The feeling of hidden social loneliness transforms a person into an ostentatious performer; it makes a person feel forced publicity. A political system in some cases can hinder the development of social communication.

The article examines the impact of the development of the Internet technologies on the ways of communication and social interaction in a society. The increasing of information flows and the speed of information exchange stimulate people to search for new forms of self-organization. Among these forms, there are some significant ones like virtual communities in social networks. This process intensifies different effects for all users of the network groups. Users in search of a circle of "friends" and personal identification resort to various methods of self-categorization experiencing the affect of different methods of influence and manipulation (both positive and negative). To maintain the balance of interests it is necessary to increase media literacy, mastering critical perception and analysis.

The article deals with the economic culture of the Old Believers, known as «chasovennye», who live in North and South America. The interviews and observations, collected during the expeditions to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Canada; as well as previously published works became the material for the generalizations. The first part outlines the nature of the activities and the economic culture of the Old Believers in America, and the second part deals with the Old Believers’ choice of the place of residence and their main activity; finally, the third part reveals the phenomenon of the dialectics of escape from the world and earthly success. A comparative overview of the economic life of a community of Old Believers named “chasovennye” shows the intensity of movements and the voluntariness in choosing the place of residence. In terms of theory, the article shows the dialectical logic of economic and religious choice. Economic success, followed by the loss of traditional ways of life and the language, provoked searching for the new places of residence. Like medieval monasteries and mendicant orders, the Old Believers, who had consciously chosen isolation and escapism, often found themselves in even more advantageous economic conditions, as it can be seen in Alaska and the Canadian Alberta.

In the article the reasons to develop metrics alternative to conventional scientometric and bibliometric indicators for assessing the scientific work of the scientist or whole organization are analyzed. Altmetrics is an young discipline (started in 2010), the subject of which is the creation and study of new metrics (alternative metrics) to assess the scientific product (articles, books, presentations, speeches and discussions on the topic of scientific research, computer software, etc.) within the virtual space (the number of discussions in social networks, downloads and views in the scientific repositories and bibliographic managers, and others.) The altmetrics tools are observed. And the positive aspects of the altmetrics and criticisms expressed toward them are considered.

The article assesses the discriminatory content posted on the website "The World of Statistics" that encroaches on Russian identity in the field of statistics. Being only an episode of the virtual negative information impact on professional Internet users, this action cannot but causes regret. "The World of Statistics" is not only a hyperbolized concept of characterizing a wide arsenal of tools and databases used in the process of cognition of the phenomena of the objective world, but also a geographical concept. International statistics should be out of politics. Attempts to exclude individual countries or groups of countries from international statistical space or context are counterproductive. Isolationist policy imposed against Russia in various fields by the international opponents, does not make the world safer and more sustainable, does not contribute to progress in achieving the Millennium development goals contained in the Millennium Declaration of the United Nations.

The Government of the Russian Federation in the "Strategy of innovative development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020" sets ambitious targets of long-term development. It plans to achieve a high level welfare of the population, strengthening the country's geopolitical role as one of the global leaders. The only possible way to achieve these goals is considered to be the transition of the Russian economy on an innovative socially-oriented model of development. The article is devoted to the statistical study of the innovation potential of Russian regions. Provide comparison of methods for the study of innovative activity and innovative potential of the territories. Developed methodological apparatus of statistical research of innovative potential of regions of the Russian Federation for a series of years. Held typology of the Russian regions in terms of innovation potential.