Население региона о препятствиях на пути эффективной модернизации (на материалах социологических исследований в Красноярском крае)

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Journal of  Siberian Federal University.  Humanities & Social Sciences 8 (2013 6) 1142-1154 
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УДК 316.334.52

Population of the Region about Barriers  
to Effective Modernization  
(on the Materials of Social Research  
in Krasnoyarsk Krai)

Valentin G. Nemirovskiy*
Siberian Federal University  
79 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041 Russia

Received 18.07.2013, received in revised form 22.07.2013, accepted 30.07.2013

Basing on the content analysis of in-depth interviews, conducted with the residents of Krasnoyarsk Krai, 
the article studies the opinions of the respondents about the factors impeding effective modernization 
in the region. It is shown that the majority of the respondents, in general, understands the essence of 
modernization adequately and names a number of obstacles to its implementation. In the first place 
among these obstacles there are the factors connected with distortion of social institutions of power: 
inactivity of the authorities, corruption, incompetence of officials, their focus on their own interests. 
Many respondents mention insufficient funding and the impact of the “human factor”: negative moral – 
psychological and professional qualities of the population of the region. In the light of this approach 
the role of regional elite and its main characteristics in the mass consciousness of the respondents are 
studied. It has been found that the main criteria according to which the respondents define the elite in 
the region are money and power. Such characteristics of the elite as education, culture, contribution 
to the development of the society play a secondary role. The conclusion is made that the analyzed 
obstacles to effective modernization of the region are a complex symbiosis of institutional and sociocultural factors. 

Keywords: modernization, region, obstacles to modernization, elite, socio-cultural factors, the 
distortion of social institutions.

This work was conducted with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for the Humanities as part 
of the research project “The dynamics of socio-cultural processes in East Siberian region in the context 
of contemporary modernization of Russia (on materials of sociological research in Krasnoyarsk Krai)” 
project № 13-03-00379.

 
© Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved
* 
Corresponding author E-mail address: nemirovskijv160@gmail.com

Introduction

The majority of domestic and foreign authors 
have no doubts that effective modernization in 
Russia faces serious difficulties. In most general 
terms, there are two main types of obstacles to 
effective modernization in the region (krai): 

socio-cultural and institutional. Of course, they 
are closely connected and have considerable 
mutual influence. The regional authorities and 
their activity can be classified as institutional 
obstacles, although they exist in a certain 
socio-cultural context. Certainly, the following 

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Valentin G. Nemirovskiy. Population of the Region about Barriers to Effective Modernization…

opinion is quite correct:” …the impediment to 
modernization in Russia is the existing system 
of social relations and institutions. The principal 
impediment to modernization breakthrough, 
which reduces its probability, with the “top”- 
initiated nature of Russian modernization taken 
into account, is the State machinery, to be more 
exact, corruption of some part of this machinery” 
(Is Russian society ready.., 2010: p. 179). The 
process of implementation of modernization in the 
region and the country as a whole is reflected to 
a large extent by mass consciousness in the form 
of corresponding social notions. Among these 
notions are the following: about modernization 
and the reasons for its ineffective implementation, 
about the regional and municipal authorities, and 
also about the elite of the region and the country 
as a whole, about the qualities of people living 
in the region–all those who are among the direct 
actors of the process of modernization in the 
region. Of course, there is no clear distinction in 
the mass consciousness between institutional and 
socio-cultural obstacles.

2. Method of research

The present article is based on the results 
of the research conducted with our guidance by 
the sociologists of Siberian Federal University 
within the framework of the Program “Sociocultural evolution of Russia and its regions”, 
developed by the Centre for studying sociocultural changes of the Institute of Philosophy of 
the Russian Academy of Sciences (Head- Doctor 
of Philosophy, Professor, corresponding member 
of the Russian Academy of Sciences N.I. Lapin). 
We have formulated additional indicators as well 
as corresponding research tools for the study 
of socio-cultural and modernization processes 
in Krasnoyarsk Krai and the obstacles to their 
effective implementation. 
In 2012, 100 in-depth semi-structured 
interviews with the residents of the city of 

Krasnoyarsk were conducted; the sample frame 
is represented according to gender and age and 
educational structure of the population of the city. 
The data of the in-depth interview conducted 
among the population of the whole krai were 
also used for comparison. The sample frame of 
the research of the population was calculated 
on the basis of the gender and age, territorial 
structure of the region, as well as the level of 
education of the respondents, thus representing 
the population of Krasnoyarsk Krai. It amounted 
to 192 people living in 22 villages on the territory 
of Krasnoyarsk Krai.1 

3. The notions of the population  
of the region of modernization  
and opinions about efficiency  
of its implementation

In 2012, a content analysis of responses to 
the questions in-depth interview was carried 
out, during which the question was asked: “A 
lot is said and written about innovation and 
modernization nowadays. In your opinion, what 
do they mean? What are they for?”. The most 
common understanding of modernization and 
innovation among the people of the region is 
the understanding of it in the form of “empty, 
unimportant words”: “in our country it is 
nonsense, it does not exist, they are just words, 

even if something is done, it is done without 
much thought or planning, there is nothing to 
modernize in our country, because everything 
is destroyed”. Such answer was given by one 
respondent in five – 21 %. 16 % of the respondents 
understand modernization as improvement of the 
existing things and innovation as invention of 
new things. Also, 16 % of the respondents in the 
region explain these concepts quite correctly – as 
“new technology”. Almost as many respondents – 
15 % interpret these concepts as “improvement 
in manufacturing.” 6 % of the population of 
Krasnoyarsk Krai explained the proposed terms