The phenomenon of self-organization of the rural population: Principles and prospects of research

Abstract

The phenomenon defined as self-organization implements its cognitive-analytical function in many disciplines - physics and chemistry, cybernetics and computer science, economics and sociology, psychology and cultural studies. Russian and foreign researchers study forms and practices of self-organization of the rural population and, as a rule, consider them through the factors that affect the pace, forms and quality of social-economic transformations, material appearance and event dynamics of the non-urban living space. The most effective factors that affect the reconstruction of the social space of rural areas and, in general, optimization of the rural world are managerial, social-economic, innovative, demographic and urbanistic, climatic and environmental, and also factors of complementary and intermediate character. The authors systematize the main principles in the study of self-organization practices of the rural population, which are empirically manifested in their regional and subject-activity features (local nature, cultural and ethnographic traditions, changing composition of the local population, their work habits, indicators of professional skills and diligence). All the above historically develops into a kind of genius loci (“spirit of place”, “genius locus”) as densely packed in customs and determining mechanisms for the development of initiatives by subjects of self-organization, who aim at building such institutional mechanisms and practices that cannot but contribute to the transition to a new development trajectory, first of individual segments (households, farmer associations, etc.), and then of all basic elements of rural society, which are embodied in the everyday life of rural ‘localities’.