From Decay to Rebirth: Social Entrepreneurship Practices in Russian Villages (On the Example of the Urals and Siberia)
This article discusses the problems of functioning and developing rural territories in Russia. The authors show the devastating consequences of urbanization throughout the previous century, and emphasise the need to find alternative options for the revival of rural locality. This article aims to study successful practices of social entrepreneurship in the Russian villages. Given the diversity of the regions within the Russian Federation, the focus of the analysis is on the remote regions - the Urals and Siberia, which have a low population density, and which consist of large administrative and territorial units. The methodology of the study includes analysis of statistical data, state programs for support, and development of the village, as well as the cases of successful social entrepreneurship practices in the Ural and Siberian villages. Regions of Russia specialise in social entrepreneurship due to the peculiarities of resettlement and socio-economic development. In the Urals, it is a small ecological agribusiness, while in Siberia - rural tourism. The authors conclude that the development of rural territories in Russia possesses a great innovative potential of social entrepreneurship. By initiating their “bottom-up” ideas, social entrepreneurs offer bright, non-standard mechanisms for solving the problems of remote rural territories in Russia, which can be successfully replicated. This article shows how the private practice of rural tourism in Siberian villages has developed into a separate direction of the social policy of sustainable development of rural territories. Based on the case analyses of small social agribusiness in the countryside, the authors propose its most promising directions.