Managing Environmental Protection with Regard for the Socio-Cultural Factor (2000), Environmental Institutions in Today’s Russia (2010), Institutional Restrictions and Regulations in Environmental Management (2012), Institutional Specifics of Environmental Management in Russia (2013), The Socio Cultural Dimension in Development of Environmental Institutions (2014), Economic Transition and Environmental Protection: Socio-Cultural Aspects (G.A. Fomenko, M.A. Fomenko, 2016), and others.
New economic theories that appeared in the late 80s and early 90 confirmed the idea that the real driving force of economic progress is people.
These theories, developed by economists such as Paul Romer and Robert Lucas, studied the impact of human capital on the rate of growth of countries in the long term [73].
What we today call “sustainable development” is just such a comprehensive approach.
The parable is cited in the Chinese philosophical literature of the Song kingdom [163, p. 155-160].
Convergence (form Latin convergere – approach, come together) means progress towards mergier, sustainable balance and development [26].
The Latin term “culture” is derived from the word “cultus” meaning both “esteem”, “worship” and “growing”, “tillage”. The semantics of the word emphasize the religious origins of culture and its educational role in human life.
The definition of socio-cultural capital requires further investigation. In the author’s opinion, the most efficient way forward would be to elaborate a methodology of social capital that includes cultural indicators.
According to R. Bloom, each social science has its own “homo logicus” [291].
Rather, it corresponds to the ideas currently held by a large section of Russian society, which understands freedom as disregard for any restrictions. In many respects it is close the traditional notion of life “outside the law”
Economies of scale refer to the effect of minimizing average (or specific) costs in the long run as the output of the entity increases (with all the factors of production being variable). This can happen at the level of enterprises, firms, industries, where average or unit costs are reduced as output increases [216].
The theory of goods, welfare economics, particularly with reference to social environmental goods and market failures, are now being developed in environmental economics and environmental management [138; 177].
The notion of import of institutions only entered institutional analysis recently (the author has never seen it used with reference to environmental work). It is explicitly mentioned in only a few works, mainly foreign (Badie, 1992). Closely similar in meaning is the term “revolutionary institutional change”, which is used more often in the economic literature, though usually as an antonym of evolutionary change. The works dealing with these topics include studies by D. North, T. Eggertsson, G. Myrdal, K.G.Arrow, G. Buchanan and G. Tullock, and Russian economists who have given them consideration include A. Mau, R. Nureyev, Ya. Kuzminov, A. Shastitiko, A. Oleinik, V. Volchik and R. Kapelushnikov.
The term is widely used in neo-institutional economics [166].
The ontological space of history implies the broadest generalization of potential parametric spatial changes of social unities over time [211].
A socio-economic formation is regarded as a certain type of society representing a specific stage in its development: “…society at a definite stage of historical development, society with its specific distinguishable character” (K. Marx, F. Engels, Collected Works, 2nd edition, vol. 6, p.442).
Externalities are the effects of action by one agent on another agent. The existence of externalities is what necessitates state interference in the market economy. Their internalization with respect to the environmental sphere means their transformation into internal factors of the economic entity, which pollutes (or depletes) natural resources.
This refers to practically all issues treated by neo-institutional theory, due to the lack of clarity over the category of transaction costs [166].
Much of this has been clarified by game theory which has become the most popular tool of neo-institutional studies.
Financed by the administration of Yaroslavl Region and Danilov municipality. Funding also included private assistance from the German landscape architect, H.J. Taurit. No foreign fund took part in the program.
Also in the framework of annual symposia “Where Does Russia Go?” held by Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences (1994-2003), conferences of International Academy of Regional Development and Cooperation (section of economics and geography), etc.
Ideology, according to D. North, consists of subjective models (“Umweltbild”), forming a prism, through which people interpret and evaluate the surrounding world.
The term “resource managers” was suggested by G. White [246].
A “demonstration effect” is the impact of the living standards of a social group on the demand and supply structure and economic behavior of another social group. It is manifested in the creation of new needs, particularly those referring to extravagant consumption (cars, dachas, fur coats, etc.). It is one of the most powerful drivers of mass consumption, since some social groups strive to make their life style, at least externally, closer to that of more affluent groups (Voevodin’s Library. http://enbv.narod.ru/text/Econom/ses/str/0103.html).
The term “consumer culture” is more precise in its meaning than “consumption culture. It emphasizes the idea that a “consumer” is an individual having his own inter-ethnic culture and self-identification.
In general, there was a tendency to delegate responsibility to subordinates without transfer of any rights to participate in the “contribute-distribute” economy.
“Report on Socio-Cultural Identification” at the conference “Ways to Liquidate Threats and Respond to Challenges” at the Center for Strategic Research (http://www.csr.ru/conferences/dragun.html).
The phrases “informal relations”, “shadow practices”, etc. are used here and hereafter as neutral terms without any value connotation.
After stock-taking of the sources of emissions, pollution discharge and waste, the enterprise obtains figures for maximum amounts of gross pollution and prepares estimates of the respective limits. Gradual (year by year) reduction of the actual level of negative environmental impact is required until the target levels are reached. After the estimates of emissions, discharge and waste limits are approved by environmental agencies, the interim gross emission and pollution discharges for the given year are provisionally approved. Obtaining these approved estimates is the main condition for obtaining an emission and discharge permit, which allows the company to make environment payments at the ordinary (rather than the higher) rate.
This was possible due to very loose formalization of environmental requirements under existing legislation.
Positive preliminary assessment cannot guarantee the success of the import because it is impossible to take account of all features of the territory, especially socio-cultural features.
The work of R. Hardin [386] is particularly interesting. Hardin suggested solutions that are theoretically possible (though not without drawbacks). He formulated two criteria that could be used to decide which institution is to be preferred: mutual advantage and melioration.
A system of values is a set of interconnected values which form a single system and reinforce each other. They are fixed in religions or humanist traditions.
Natural capital includes the functions of absorption (of pollution) and of source (natural resources). It is calculated in monetary terms (according to the UN methodology for environmental economics) based on capitalization of the proceeds of using main natural resources for development.
Its use is particularly important when applied to items having major cultural, social and ecological significance (environmental and cultural heritage sites, specially protected areas, etc).
Base definition of games theory, widely used in institutional economics [40,166].
This phenomenon was analyzed by Garrett Hardin in 1968 [385].
The isolation paradox states that a person in isolation and feeling uncertain as to the behavior of other people, even if ready to comply with the general rules, will not observe them for fear of being disadvantaged [440, p. 112].
A proposition based on a premise that itself requires proof.
Theories of development and economic theories often regard the environment as a form of natural capital, which along with man-made and human capital, constitutes the sustainable capital of any territory. In this sense, the environment is similar to tangible or financial assets. So damaging the environment decreases the amount of capital, which will sooner or later reduce the amount of income earned by it. This accounts for the fundamental role of economic estimates of environmental goods and eco-system services as a basis for calculating the natural capital of a territory in the broadest sense of this term. The natural capital, in turn, is divided into critical natural capital (the environmental goods essential for life, which cannot be substituted by any other forms of capital, such as the ozone layer, global climate, virgin lands, etc.) and other natural capital (renewable natural resources and some finite mineral resources which can be fully or partially replenished or substituted by other forms of capital).
The Cadaster R&D Institute carried out both field studies and analysis of the results in over 20 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The resulting comprehensive territorial cadastral surveys of natural resources integrated data on resources, comprehensive environmental-economic evaluation of territories and natural recreational, cultural and historical sites and other territory-specific information. It is clear in retrospect that attention was focused on the estimated values of the resource stocks and prospects for their use in physical terms and that insufficient attention was given to the analysis of rent flows in the environmental sector and the monetary value of environmental goods and eco-system services. Although GIS (geographical information systems) were extensively used, the static character of the research and insufficient attention to public preferences in the use of natural resources made it difficult to use the findings for purposes of territorial planning and environmental management.
In developed economies this figure is around 3-5% of GDP.
Yaroslavl, Tomsk, Kaluga, Saratov, Ryazan, Kostroma, Leningrad, Kaliningrad Regions and Republics of Karelia and Buryatia.
We often hear calls to raise the efficiency of environmental management and apply new and advanced ideas in practice without full assessment of existing territorial markets of environmental goods and eco-system services, and without taking account of regional and local socio-cultural specifics of demand and supply.
According to new theories developed by such economists as Paul Romer and Robert Lucas, growth of productivity is due to “endogenous” (rather than “exogenous”) factors, related to the behavior of people, who are the driving force for the accumulation of productive forces and knowledge. People’s behavior can be influenced by political means. It should be stressed that in the contemporary models of economic growth the development of human potential is considered to be the main and leading factor. Views on the interconnection of growth and equity are changing. If previously it was believed that there was a contradiction between growth and equity, that equal distribution of income would undermine incentives and thereby reduce overall income, recent experience proves that this opinion is wrong. For instance, many Asian countries (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand) are enjoying economic growth with a relatively low level of inequality. Also in Japan, high growth rates were not accompanied by growth of income differentiation. [73].
Over the period 1985 - 1995 annual budget funding for biodiversity conservation alone fell by 50% (Dublin, Milliken, 1995); annual financing for this sphere in Russia is $45 -50 million, while the minimum that is needed is $100 million.
It is a good practice to consider the widest possible range of preferences, from direct economic profit to political benefits, personal ambitions, etc.
Different research disciplines focus on different aspects of conflict. For example, sociology considers conflicts through the prism of mis-match between the interests and value orientations of the parties (social groups, communities, etc.). The same categories dominate in philosophy and political science. Psychology, however, studies conflicts in the framework of motivation or cognitive concepts.
The fact that a number of environmental ethical imperatives are present in most religions offers hope for possible settlement of value-based conflicts. However, this problem has not been properly studied from the institutional point of view.
Such typology was suggested in a general form by P. Sorokin [223].
The Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference in Lucerne stated, “Setting the priorities basically means ensuring that the policies followed first will achieve the greatest gain relative to given objectives and available resources as well as receiving the most political attention” (1993). A similar conference in Sofia in 1995 also stressed that “setting the priorities is the key element in the development of Action Plans for rational resource use and environmental protection.” [360].
A resource manager may be an organization, community or even an individual. With respect to natural resources, such a manager may be: a farmer who has full ownership of land or a tenant farmer entitled to use land at his own discretion but without ownership; a collective farm or business; a company or group; or a private or public organization that makes use of natural resources. The size of the respective entity is immaterial.
Territorial marketing is carried out for the benefit of a territory, its constituent entities and also for external parties whose attention it is designed to attract. There are different kinds of marketing: marketing of a territory as a whole, organized both inside and outside the territory; and marketing of a territory, focused on relations in respect of specific goods, services, etc., which is conducted inside the territory.
We carried out this project in 1994-1998 in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl Regions [198; 209; 287].
There are many definitions of ethnic conflict, it being regarded as a component of conflict in general. An ethnic conflict is the culmination of inter-ethnic contradictions, which have assumed the form of an open confrontation. A dictionary of psychology gives the following definition: “An ethnic conflict is a form of inter-group conflict when groups with contradicting interests are polarized according to their ethnic affiliation.” Ethnic conflicts as a variety of conflict in general are not a modern precedent. They have featured in the history of mankind since earliest times, often involving violence, destruction, wars and catastrophes.
P. Bourdieu defines a “habitus” as a “system of durable, transposable dispositions with a structuring function, that is, as principles of generation and structuring of practices and representations, which can be objectively “regulated” and “regular” without presupposing a conscious intention to attain ends or express mastery of the operations necessary to attain them and, at the same time, collectively orchestrated without being the product of orchestrating action or of an orchestrator.” [327, p 53].
Theoretically possible sources of household water supply were studied within a radius of 500 meters from the villages, because villagers would not fetch water from sources further away. All possible sources were recorded except for rooftops, as this source is seasonal, available to everybody and used everywhere as an auxiliary source. Where several wells or holes were located close together, have the same purpose and are used by one household, they were recorded as a single source.
This method was also successfully applied in other contexts, e.g., in rural settlements in the US. [424].
The Russian Constitution, Federal Laws (on General Principles of Organization of Local Government, on Public Associations and on Homeowners Associations), the Presidential Decree on Measures of State Support for Local Government, and regional charters state the independence of local government and the right of citizens to exercise self-government in various forms.
The experience of Yaroslavl and, particularly, Tomsk Regions shows that discussions at community meetings can be facilitated by up-to-date methods for the drafting of collective decisions (e.g., interactive methods, etc.).
The share of resource charges in local budget revenues in most countries varies between 20% and 30%. The last time when the share of resource charges in budget revenues of Yaroslavl Regions was at that level was at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries (when Yaroslavl was a province of the Russian Empire).
Such an approach is inherited from the experience of recent decades, when Russia applied methods, which have long been rejected by the majority of countries (all-embracing, “rational” planning). This topic is dealt with in detail in the “Methodical Recommendations for Ecological Programs of Non-urban Areas”, which were prepared by the author for the Russian Environmental Agency, and were approved and distributed to all regional divisions of the Agency as early as 1996.
The development and implementation of a new strategy for rural territories in Russia is particularly urgent in view of the prospects of accession to the WTO.
Particularly “dirty” territories, whose transition to sustainable development is only possible with considerable external investments, would need appropriate regional or federal special-purpose programs.