Atlas modernizatsii Rossii i ee regionov: Sotsioekonomicheskie i sotsiokul'turnye tendentsii i problemy ed. by N. I. Lapin (review)

Abstract

The work reviewed here represents an attempt to gain an understanding of new tendencies in the modernization of contemporary Russia and its regions. The authors’ main focus is on the processes of the primary industrial stage of development in Russia and the transition to the secondary information stage. The authors aim to show the hierarchical differentiation of Russian federal subjects and federal districts in terms of modernization and to elicit contradictory tendencies in the regions’ evolution. The significance of this research lies in its implications for the modernization program outlined by Dmitrii Medvedev in 2009. According to the authors’ analysis, this program never resulted in the scientific development of a modernization strategy in Russia, let alone its practical implementation and regulation. The introductory section demonstrates the theoretical and methodological basis of their research, namely the concept of modernization as a civilizational process, and outlines the sociocultural challenges that Russian modernization has to tackle. In the following seven chapters, the authors consider processes, tendencies, and issues of modernization implemented between 2000 and 2012 in seven Russian federal districts. The authors connect Russian modernization processes with global development patterns. According to their data, approximately 90 developing countries are in the industrial stage of modernization and approximately 40 developed countries are in the informational stage, which points to the existence of multiple modernization processes. In a number of countries, including Russia, both stages of modernization are being implemented at the same time, with one type prevailing over the other in different parts of the country, thus indicating uneven modernization patterns in different regions. The novelty of the book is to be found in the authors’ analysis of these uneven modernization processes in different parts of Russia. As this area of research is undeveloped, the Russian academy, the authors of this volume, follow the approach developed by the Center for Modernization Studies of the Academy of Sciences of China.1 Doing so enables the use of annual modernization indices in 130 countries with populations over one million (including the Russian Federation). Analyzing these indices reveals a great imbalance between Russian regions in the primary industrial and secondary information