Approaches to HRD in Russian IT-companies in the period of economic crisis

Economic crisis differently impacts on the decisions of companies how to manage human resource development (HRD) initiatives. For the IT sector, intellectual capital becomes a core source of sustainable competitive advantages where HRD is seen like a tool to develop the internal stock of human capital. This article explores the approaches to HRD used by Russian IT-companies during the crisis. On the basis of the conceptual debates regarding the necessity to invest more in HRD programs even in the crisis conditions and our own empirical research, we tried to find out what happened with HRD costs during the crisis and what was the relationship between HRD costs and company’s performance during the crisis in Russian IT-companies. We conclude that Russian IT-companies perceive the value of HRD programs; hence, the most innovative-active and fast developing IT-companies prefer to constantly invest more in HRD initiatives. In crisis conditions, we recommend them to develop and implement more internal training programs.     

Reading self‐help literature in Russia: governmentality,psychology and subjectivity

Self‐help has become a booming business over the past decades and an increasingly visible part of popular media culture worldwide. The paper analyzes the arrival and effects of this cultural technology in post‐Soviet Russia after more than seventy years of socialism. It examines how Russians are engaging with popular psychology self‐help as a technology of the self and how they are making it meaningful in their lives. Drawing on a set of one‐to‐one and focus group interviews conducted with self‐help readers, it examines how these individuals negotiate the new ethics and the normative models of personhood put forward by the self‐help genre. It argues that popular psychology has offered a new language for making sense of the self and the social world, and highlights how the readers critically engage with the normalizing power of popular psychology by drawing on a number of local historically sedimented discourses.     

Ethnic and state sports in the context of the 2014 Sochi Olympics

Sports have long been an important point of expression in communal identity in the North Caucasus and recently came to serve as a forum for political dissent. This article examines the emergence and transformation of ethnic sport projects in the North Caucasus in connection with the 2014 Sochi Olympics. It charts the history and progress of two projects known as the Circassiada and the Caucasus Games and evaluates the debate of the sport-nation nexus in the North Caucasus. While the Circassiada and the Caucasus Games reflect the typical elite-driven narratives of border security and terrorism, they also highlight discussions over historical and cultural practices of nationhood and the boundaries of national identity.     

普及、公平与质量：俄罗斯学前教育政策与实践探析

2010年以来，学前教育一直是俄罗斯教育政策的优先发展领域。在快速普及、提升公平和提高质量价值取向的引导下，俄罗斯通过以下举措促进了学前教育的快速发展：大力加强学前教育的财政投入，设置多样化学前教育机构和班级类型，制定科学合理的课程内容，确保学前教育教师专业发展，构建学前教育质量监测体系。2035年前，俄罗斯学前教育发展的关键方向是：促进学前教育全面普及，进一步增加2个月至3岁儿童的覆盖率，加快私立学前教育的发展，将学前一年纳入义务教育， 缓解学前教育发展不均衡现象，缩小不同地区之间和城乡之间的学前教育发展差距等。俄罗斯学前教育政策与实践对我国学前教育的发展具有一定的启发价值。     

“Naughty,” “Nice,” or “Homo Sapiens:” Gendered Political Toolkits in a Housing Mobilization1

This article advances our understanding of how gender structures political interaction by examining the constraints and opportunities associated with gender in a housing mobilization. These constraints and opportunities are rooted in social and political hierarchies and shaped by the gendered political toolkits: the demarcation of social issues as male or female, gendered political language and gender-appropriate emotions, and the division of activist labor along the lines of gender. Gendered political toolkits cue people when and how it is appropriate to mobilize, which tasks and roles to take on in small, even all-female groups, how to perform and which emotions to express when interacting with outsiders. Activists can experience their gender as a limitation, especially when navigating a political field organized around traditionalist gender norms and expectations. Still, they can also strategically employ the traditionalist perceptions and behaviors. Focusing on the basic level of collective action, activist small groups and their strategies, the article shows how activists navigate the constraints and opportunities of their gender as they mobilize in response to a controversial urban renewal proposal in Moscow, the Renovation program.