Strange examines the post-industrial transformation and transnational legacy of planned single-industry towns that emerged as a distinctive sociopolitical project of urbanization in the Soviet Union during the 1920s.

In Putin's Labor Dilemma, Stephen Crowley investigates how the fear of labor protest has inhibited substantial economic transformation in Russia. Putin boasts he has the backing of workers in the country's industrial heartland, but as economic growth slows in Russia, reviving the economy will require restructuring the country's industrial landscape. At the same time, doing so threatens to generate protest and instability from a key regime constituency. However, continuing to prop up Russia's Soviet-era workplaces, writes Crowley, could lead to declining wages and economic stagnation, threatening protest and instability. Crowley explores the dynamics of a Russian labor market that generally avoids mass unemployment, the potentially explosive role of Russia's monotowns, conflicts generated by massive downsizing in "Russia's Detroit" (Tol'yatti), and the rapid politicization of the truck drivers movement. Labor protests currently show little sign of threatening Putin's hold on power, but the manner in which they are being conducted point to substantial chronic problems that will be difficult to resolve. Putin's Labor Dilemma demonstrates that the Russian economy must either find new sources of economic growth or face stagnation. Either scenario—market reforms or economic stagnation—raises the possibility, even probability, of destabilizing social unrest.

This two-volume set constitutes the proceedings of the Third Conference on Creativity in Intellectual Technologies and Data Science, CIT&DS 2019, held in Volgograd, Russia, in September 2019. The 67 full papers, 1 short paper and 3 keynote papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 231 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections in the two volumes. Part I: cyber-physical systems and Big Data-driven world. Part II: artificial intelligence and deep learning technologies for creative tasks; intelligent technologies in social engineering.

This book discusses Kazakhstan’s transitioning trajectory to a market economy since it declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.. It analyses the evolution of key policy areas and sectors through the lens of policy development and implementation, and evaluates their suitability in pursuing the country’s strategic objectives. Topics include policy initiatives for economic development, new policy paradigms in public service delivery and infrastructure improvement, and water-energy-food (WEF) nexus thinking in governing the WEF sectors. The book argues that policies developed in the 1990s and 2000s have so far served the nation’s needs. Nevertheless, as Kazakhstan seeks to achieve a competitive edge worldwide, many of these policies would require adjustment, or a paradigm shift. Providing a unique outlook on policy and governance, this book will appeal to scholars, students, and practitioners involved with Kazakhstan and Central Asia and interested in the transformation of ex-Soviet nations, their policy, and sustainable development.

The book explores the uneven spatial distribution of territory resources and its implication for the sustainable development of regions and cities. The authors analyze the features of the localization of assets, paying attention to both the manifested factors and the conditions that determine the specificity of the current spatial organization. On the basis of multivariate analysis, gravity models, clustering method, as well as the evaluation of concentration parameters, the authors propose various approaches to systematize territorial units, paying special attention to the peculiarities of their economic structure, resource diffusion barriers, and quality of life parameters. The obtained results indicate the need for a differentiated approach in the choice of guidelines for the transformation of the socio-economic space, allowing the researchers to propose various transformation models for differing regions. Thus, this book presents spatial organization models for different regional economies, highlighting various approaches to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and reducing inequality. The book seeks to balance the benefits of polarized development with the need to avoid significant interregional disparities. At the same time, the book offers various solutions for differentiating territories, distinguishing different spatial elements, and determining the most appropriate transformation options. The results obtained may be of interest to scholars in regional and spatial science as well as to professionals in the field of territorial development management.

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of Kazakhstan’s urban policies in terms of economic, social and environmental impact.