Текущие проекты

The project led by distinguished professor of Science and Technology Studies at UC Davis (USA) Mario Biagioli is designed as a 28-month study of the population of Russian computer scientists (RCS henceforth) in Russia and abroad. From 2013 to 2015 extensive ethnographic fieldwork and/or oral history research was conducted in Moscow, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Tomsk, Vladivostok, Kazan, as well as England, Israel, France, and the USA (Boston/NYC and San Francisco areas). The main interest of the study is to understand how professionals communicate across national and professional boundaries in the dual context of an intrinsically portable form of knowledge – relatively not-sticky forms of innovations – and a politically tense status quo where emigrates are both praised for their entrepreneurship and blamed for bringing the competition within or for siphoning the brightest brains off the Russian Federation. 

  The center implemented the research project “Reassembling Res Publica: Reform of Infrastructure in Post-Soviet Russia” in 2004-2007 together with the University of Helsinki. The project participants are Oleg Kharkhordin, Olga Bychkova, Olga Kalacheva (EUSP), Risto Alapuro, Rosa Vihavainen (Helsinki University). The goal of the project is to study the development of self-governing organizations in the context of the Russian reform of municipal self-government.

 The research program consisted of three independent tasks - archaeological research (with the support of geological exploration), comparative historical analysis and examination of the results in terms of their importance for political theory (formulation of assumptions for municipal reform).

A report delivered by EUSP for the state corporation Russian Corporation of Nanotechnology (ROSNANO)

At present, the implementation of fiscal policy at the regional and municipal levels is the prerogative of the executive and, in part, of the legislature. The influence of citizens on the budgeting process is limited to public hearings of the budget, which often do not provide opportunities for interaction between government and society. This is mainly due to the lack of information available and understandable to all citizens about the budgeting process and the conviction of citizens that it is impossible to influence the budget policy. The lack of citizens' interest and adequate feedback between the government and the population is the main characteristic of the current situation. Participatory budgeting (hereinafter - PB) is intended to expand the scope of citizen participation in the budgeting process by involving them in the work of special commissions (consisting of citizens and representatives of the municipality) involved in the distribution of funds allocated to them. 

Project: Self-fashioning practices of successful technological entrepreneurs and their influence on the efficiency of high tech companies: the cases of Russia, Finland, South Korea and Taiwan. The project is run with the support of RUSNANO.

The project “The Current State of Municipal Government in Russia in the 2010s: Collection and Primary Analysis of Sociological Data” has been implemented since 2018. It involves the creation of a database of municipal socio-demographic and economic indicators of different levels, which will track the models of building up relationships between the public, business and local authorities. One of the further directions of the project development lies in the study of municipalities from the point of view of their implementation of elements of republican practices in their activities.

Up to now the work on the reform of the Russian science has not been finished; a wide public debate continues over the prospects of the reforms, the efficiency of the Russian Academy of Science, the possibilities to apply Western models to the Russian reality and the question about what modernization model to choose for our country. In this situation of exigencies and urgent need for expertise the traditional approaches to the study of the Russian science have suddenly turned out to be insufficient. 

In November-December 2018, the Res Publica center conducted a short-term training program on civic participation projects called "Civil Literacy Campaign: All About Participatory Processes in the Modern City in 7 Days" and led by Oleg Pachenkov. The program was focused on those who are interested in modern forms of civic participation and current trends in urban design.

The program “Reforms and Reformers in the Historical Fortunes of Russia” is a project launched in 2011 with the financial support of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Goznak”. The program pursues scientific objectives as well as socio-political ones.   The project addresses the following issues: