Title: Actualisation of historic and cultural heritage as a resource for socio-cultural transformation of small and medium industrial towns

Authors: Tatiana Bystrova; Viola Larionova; Maria Pevnaya

Addresses: Ural Federal University, 19, Mira Str., Yekaterinburg, 620002, Russia ' Ural Federal University, 19, Mira Str., Yekaterinburg, 620002, Russia ' Ural Federal University, 19, Mira Str., Yekaterinburg, 620002, Russia

Abstract: In this paper, analysis of the social, economic, and non-economic factors affecting development of small and medium regional industrial towns was studied. The research goal was to assess internal resources for transforming the environment of the small and medium towns in Russia through the attitude study of town youth being among the key actors of necessary changes. The methodology included intellectual data analysis methods based on self-organising Kohonen maps for the preliminary clustering of the small and medium towns by the level of social and economic development, and sociological surveys assessing level of youth knowledge about history and culture of their native towns. It was found that young town inhabitants are ready for citizen participation initiatives, independently of socio-economic status of their hometowns. Conclusions were made that inclusion of the youth in citizenship practices, and various types of volunteering activities can assist in preserving human capital of the towns.

Keywords: agglomeration processes; small and medium industrial towns; socio-economic development; young generation; historical and cultural heritage; promoting territory; volunteering; citizen participation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEPEE.2022.126622

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, 2022 Vol.16 No.2/3/4, pp.212 - 235

Received: 23 Dec 2019
Accepted: 28 Oct 2020
Published online: 31 Oct 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article