Issue 2024 no3 contents:

In the circumstances of digital transformation of the state and society, the indicative approach to analyzing and governing digitalization finds active usage. However, the characteristics of relevant data cause methodological problems, including statistical duplication. The article considers various methods for constructing composite digitalization indices based on secondary aggregation of principal components in order to overcome duplication. It is hypothesized that there is no single best method for secondary aggregation, and that the preference of methods depends on the indicative evaluation tasks being addressed.  The lack of scientific consensus on the best aggregation method for calculating composite indices supports this proposition. Multiple widespread aggregation methods are also described. To consider the hypothesis, two potential secondary aggregation methods, alongside the option to eschew secondary aggregation, are studied. Their advantages are analyzed using common tasks of rating and analysing the strengths and weaknesses of facilities as an example. The data for analysis include principal components extracted from 21 digitalization indicators for years 2014 and 2016. Correlation analysis of their secondary aggregation’s results and country rating comparison show that different analysed methods are suitable for different tasks. This is due to the correspondence of the methods’ properties to the requirements imposed by the tasks being solved. The practical applicability of the discussed methodologies for analysing digitalization is demonstrated by the example of the Russian Federation. The study confirmed the need to consider the index construction methods’ characteristics to select the methods most appropriate to the tasks being solved. The obtained results can serve as the basis for developing a classification of requirements posed by indicative evaluation tasks, which will also contribute to systematization of aggregation methods, which has practical usefulness within the indicative approach.

The article examines the features of social activity of various groups of the rural population as well as the possibilities of its expansion. The study substantiates the value and semantic conditionality of civil participation, reveals the degree of readiness to unite with other people to achieve significant goals, and identifies the motives of their participation in various types of public activities. A separate area of the research was devoted to analysing perceptions of various groups of villagers about the state and prospects of interaction with local authorities, as well as their views on the incentives for the development of civic activity in the localities. The results of an applied sociological study conducted by the Institute of Agrarian Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2023 in rural areas of the Saratov region (N = 1210) served as the information basis for the current research. The results of the study indicate the differentiation of the potential for expanding social activity of different social groups of the rural population. The greatest activity is demonstrated by workers in budgetary sectors (teachers, doctors/paramedics, settlement administration workers); the potential of unemployed women involved in housework and raising children remains unrealized. The lowest rates are observed for agricultural workers, pensioners and rural residents who are not engaged in paid employment. The authors put forward proposals on further expansion of practices and mechanisms of interaction between local self-government bodies and the local community, stimulation of public private partnerships and active involvement of local residents in solving problems of rural livelihood.

The article examines the role of the catalogue of goods, works, and services for state and municipal needs in describing public procurement facilities in the process of transition to digital government contracts. The catalogue of goods, works, and services is considered both as an element of digital contracts and as a tool for ensuring the quality of purchased products, which, in turn, is a consequence of the existence of the problem of information asymmetry. Taking into account the review of Russian and foreign scientific literature on the value of product cataloguing in public procurement, the problems and challenges of digitalization in concluding government contracts, including those related to their regulation, the author hypothesizes about the insufficiency of product quality requirements contained in the catalogue, which is a significant obstacle to the execution of government contracts and the transition to digital government contracts. Based on the analysis of the survey results and an extended interview, these hypotheses are confirmed. As conclusions based on the results of the study, taking into account the obstacles to cataloguing goods, the author formulated the main reasons for the incomplete implementation of the potential of the catalogue of goods, works, and services in public procurement: an insufficient number of characteristics of goods in many positions of the catalogue, its insufficient visualization, as well as the unresolved problem of the complete transfer of government contracts to digital format.

The main ideas of the regional environmental policy are presented in the programmes «Environment Protection». These programs accumulate the tasks, which solution ensures the achievement of environmental targets in the outlines of the socio-economic development of a particular territory. The hypothesis of the current research states that the raw material specialization of the economic development of the Far Eastern Federal district has an impact on the solution of the targets identified in the environmental programs and reduces their effectiveness. The purpose of this paper, which is part of the authors’ large-scale research aimed at improving the structure of environmental programmes, is to reveal the specifics of the formation and content of environmental protection programmes in regions specializing in the extractive sectors of the economy. The study is based on the information of the state programmes «Environmental Protection» of five Far Eastern subjects adopted for the period 2020–2025: Magadan region, Sakhalin region, Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous District, Kamchatka Krai. These subjects are characterized by high potential of economic development and also predominance of resource industries in the territorial sectoral structure of the economy. The article analyses 205 indicators of ecological programmes of resource regions. It was found that only 17% of all indicators are aimed at improving the environmental situation, 13% ensure this process, 23% are not directly related to the environmental issues. It was concluded that the content of the programmes does not fully correspond to the priority areas of environmental policy, such as rational environmental management and reducing the negative impact on the environment, waste management, etc. The identified drawbacks of environmental programmes of resource-oriented regions should be taken into account in the formation of further environmental policy, while the new programmes should reflect the resource specialization of the regional economy in the form of special indicators.

This article examines the practices of supporting creative industries at the regional level. In the Russian Federation regions, different approaches to working with creative industries are emerging. The purpose of the study was to summarize the experience of supporting creative industries at the regional level and to identify promising areas for the implementation of measures aimed at stimulating creative entrepreneurship. The research implemented desk analysis of Russian and foreign scientific literature and regulations, as well as comparative analysis of the practices of creative industries development institutions, private and public initiatives based on data from open sources. The authors confirmed the hypothesis about the diversity of approaches to supporting creative industries which is due to the uncertainty of the creative specialization of the regions, as well as the lack of clear development goals of creative industries for the regional economy. The study showed that the most promising areas for the development of measures to support creative entrepreneurship, which are rarely used at present or not applied at all, are measures to stimulate exports, acceleration and incubation programs for creative projects, to support creative projects that have entrepreneurial potential, but have not yet entered the market. According to the authors, the practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of using its results to improve the work to support creative industries at the regional level.