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On 23 January 2019, Juan Guaido's self-proclamation as the interim legitimate president of Venezuela had a global impact and fuelled hope for change in a country in the midst of an economic, humanitarian and social crisis. However, five months after this event, the political situation has not changed, unlike the daily lives of Venezuelans, which are getting worse. The emigration of this population is therefore a response to these imbalances, which is becoming an important phenomenon affecting several dozen countries around the world. While the first Venezuelan emigrants appeared in the 1990s, the evolution was constant but sporadic until the 2010s before really intensifying since 2015, the year in which the country's economic collapse began. Today, the 3 million emigrants mark has been reached in 90 different countries. Consequently, the question of the organization and structuring of these flows is legitimate. Can we currently talk about a Venezuelan diaspora ? ; El 23 de enero de 2019, la autoproclamación de Juan Guaido como presidente interino legítimo de Venezuela tuvo un impacto global y alimentó la esperanza de cambio en un país en medio de una crisis económica, humanitaria y social. Sin embargo, cinco meses después de este acontecimiento, la situación política no ha cambiado, a diferencia de la vida cotidiana de los venezolanos, que están empeorando. La emigración de esta población es, por tanto, una respuesta a estos desequilibrios, que se están convirtiendo en un fenómeno importante que afecta a varias docenas de países de todo el mundo. Si bien los primeros emigrantes venezolanos aparecieron en la década de 1990, la evolución fue constante pero esporádica hasta la década de 2010, antes de intensificarse realmente a partir de 2015, año en que comenzó el colapso económico del país. Hoy en día, la marca de los 3 millones de emigrantes se ha alcanzado en 90 países diferentes. En consecuencia, la cuestión de la organización y estructuración de estos flujos es legítima. ¿Podemos hablar de una diáspora venezolana ? ; Le 23 Janvier 2019, l'auto proclamation de Juan Guaido en tant que président légitime intérimaire du Vénézuéla a eu un retentissement mondial et a nourri un espoir de changement dans un pays en pleine crise économique, humanitaire et sociale. Pourtant, cinq mois après cet évènement, la situation politique n'a pas évolué contrairement au quotidien des Vénézuéliens qui ne cesse de s'aggraver. L'émigration de cette population est donc une réponse à ces déséquilibres, qui devient un phénomène important touchant plusieurs dizaines de pays du monde. Alors que les premiers émigrants vénézuéliens sont apparus dans les années 1990, l'évolution fut constante mais sporadique jusque dans les années 2010 avant de s'intensifier réellement depuis 2015, année de départ de l'effondrement économique du pays. Aujourd'hui, la barre des 3 millions d'émigrants a été franchie, répartis dans 90 pays différents. Par conséquent, la question de l'organisation et de la structuration de ces flux est légitime. Peut-on actuellement parler d'une diaspora vénézuélienne ?

Рассматривается проблема репрезентации образа Римской Британии в британских школьных учебниках 1990-2010-х гг. Структура и содержание учебников по истории проанализированы с точки зрения отображения участия древнеримской цивилизации в формирования британской идентичности. В результате отмечено избегание оценочных и сравнительных характеристик и, за единственным исключением, отсутствие рассмотрения римского влияния на современное общество. Римская Британия репрезентируется как не связанный с британской идентичностью эпизод истории. ; The purpose of this article is to identify the place of the Roman Britain image in the constructing of the British national identity at the stage of schooling. The results of the analysis also help to reveal the relation between national and European history in the British historical consciousness, which is important for studying the problems of Great Britain's participation in the European Union. The studies of the impact on national identity through education in general and the history books in particular appeared in the 2000s. This is owing to the deeper understanding of identity as a dynamic system which is influenced by political forces. The majority of these socio-anthropological studies consider the Asian, African or Eastern European precedents. They deal with intensification of nation-building during the postcolonial or post-socialist periods. Currently, however, educational policy in the field of national history of such leading West European countries like France and Germany attracts the interest of researchers. Hitherto British textbooks have not been considered, especially in the area of ancient history. This text fills this gap. British government involvement in determining the content of education is limited to a few frame recommendations. Most textbooks on history follow them. It can be concluded based on the features of the examined textbooks that in the 2000s-2010s most of British publishers did not represent the history of Britain as part of the pan-European history of Roman civilization. Moreover, the textbooks denied any continuity between Roman Britain and subsequent historical periods. British historical and cultural selfness is identified mostly with the Celtic tradition; the Roman conquest is presented as a kind of mishap, a fluctuation which did not have a significant impact and did not leave significant traces, except for roads and fortresses. A distance between Britain and the Mediterranean cultural community is created, each of them presented as an independent and equal cultural area. Also the texts in the textbooks are strictly reviewed to keep correctness of the description of the Romans and the Britons. Any judgments, negative or positive characteristics are absent, which correlates with the goals of the EU cultural policy. Hence, in turn, the tendency explicates to perceive the history of Roman Britain as academic, emotionally neutral. The period of Roman presence in Britain in school education is treated as a transitory historical episode, entertaining as itself, but not making a significant impact on the British national identity.

В статье на основе архивных и историографических данных рассматриваются проблемы формирования этнической идентичности, российско-черкесского взаимодействия в ХІХ начале ХХІ века, «черкесский вопрос» как часть дискуссий о Русско-Кавказской войне ХІХ века. Автор статьи приходит к выводам, что процесс этнической консолидации черкесов, ярко проявившийся в ХІХ веке, не завершен вплоть до настоящего времени, он имеет этнополитический характер. Сохранение этнической идентичности играет позитивную роль в стремлении сохранить национальную культуру, язык, традиции и целостность народа, в его консолидации. Итоги Русско-Кавказской войны и «черкесский вопрос» всегда будут на острие дискуссий, так как являются яркими вехами этнической истории. Поэтому они требуют крайне уважительного отношения к проблематике. Чтобы избежать опасности того, что национальные идеи отдельной этнической группы могут перерасти в национализм и межэтническую напряженность, необходимо проводить оценку направленности и содержания этнической идентичности в русле сохранения и укрепления бесконфликтного социального мира, в рамках которого отсутствуют обвинения по отношению как к титульным этносам, так и этническим меньшинствам. ; Problems of formation of ethnic identity and the ethnic identity preservation are interrelated. The desire to preserve ethnic identity is the guarantor of psychological security and stability. This strategy is called social creativity in sociological literature. At the same time, ethnic minorities may choose a different strategy and the right of self-identification with a negative assessment of the group. Feeling of inferiority of their ethnic group, a keen perception of discrimination, low personality self-esteem formed in this case. Therefore, certain social groups use ethnic identity as a tool of social engineering. Circassian issue, as a part of discussions on the Russian-Caucasian war (option Caucasian War) of the XIX century, is one of the most discussed political issues of the Caucasian information field of the late 1980s-2010s. Circassian question includes several components: the Russian-Circassian relations during the war, deportation and the Circassian people genocide recognition by the world community, the opportunity to receive compensation by the descendants of the victims, the independent state Great Cherkessia creation on the base of several Russian Federation subjects confluence, the possibility of the settlers descendants mass return from other countries to Russia with significant preferences obtain. The authors conclusions are the following. 1. The process of ethnic Circassians consolidation began in the 19th century and was not completed in the early 21st century. 2. The results of the Russian-Caucasian war of the 19th century and Circassian issue will always be at the forefront of discussions. They are bright milestones of the ethnic history. Therefore, the discussion issues require very respectful attitude. 3. The separate ethnic group national ideas can develop into nationalism and ethnic tensions. Therefore, the direction and content of ethnic identity should be assessed as part of the social, conflict-free world preservation and strengthening without recrimination titular ethnic groups and ethnic minorities.

В условиях интенсивного развития информационно-коммуникационных технологий и все возрастающего их влияния на взаимоотношения власти и общества увеличивается значимость социологических исследований социально-политических настроений интернет-аудитории. Представляется важным определить, в какой степени сфера информационно-коммуникационных технологий развита в стране и регионе, а также проследить динамику взглядов и настроений граждан, активно использовавших всемирную сеть в начале 2010-х годов. В статье рассматриваются результаты социологических опросов населения Вологодской области в 2010 2014 гг. Представлен социальный портрет«активных», или «заинтересованных», пользователей тех, кто получает информацию экономического и политического характера из интернета. Это преимущественно люди среднего достатка, среднего возраста, высокообразованные, жители областного центра. Рассматривается динамика их социально-политических настроений в сравнении двух периодов, наблюдаемых в современной России, роста и спада протестной активности (2011 2012 гг.) и подъема патриотических настроений (2013 2014 гг.). Отмечается, что данная категория населения имеет тенденцию к количественному росту и является более «подвижной» в своих социально-политических настроениях, чем остальная часть общества. Взгляды «активной» интернет-аудитории в регионе претерпели значительные изменения на достаточно коротком промежутке времени от «протестных» до «патриотических». Подчеркивается необходимость дальнейших социологических исследований данной категории населения и учета их социально-политических настроений в региональной политике, особенно в преддверии приближающихся парламентских выборов 2016 года. ; The importance of sociological studies of public opinion of Internet users is increasing in the conditions of intensive development of the information and communication technologies (ICT) and their growing influence on the relationship between the government and the society. It is obviously important to define, in what degree the sphere of ICT has been developed in the country and the region, and also to track the dynamics of public opinion of the Internet audience in the early 2010s. The article considers the results of the 2010 2014 sociological surveys of the Vologda Oblast population. Dynamics of growth of the Internet audience and the purpose of the use of global network is defined. The social portrait of the "active" or "interested" users those who receive economic and political information from the Internet -is presented. They are mainly people of middle-income, average age, highly educated, inhabitants of the regional center. Dynamics of their socio-political attitudes is compared in the two periods observed in modern Russia the period of increase and decline of protest activity (2011 -2012) and the period of growing patriotic sentiments (2013 2014). It is noted that this category of the population tends to increase and is more "mobile" in their socio-political mood than the other part of society. Their views underwent considerable changes during a rather short time from "opposing" to "patriotic". The article emphasizes the need of further sociological research into this category of people and the importance of taking into account their socio-political moods for regional policy, especially in the run-up to the parliamentary elections of 2016.

For years, German development cooperation (GDC) has been striving to become more results-oriented. In 2022, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) took an important step in this direction by introducing 43 standard indicators. The aim was to aggregate development results across themes and countries in order to present them to the public. The BMZ hopes for more effective communication with Parliament (Bundestag) and the general public, as well as more coherent reporting by Germany's two main implementing organisations, the GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit – the German agency for international cooperation) and the development bank of the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). From an international vantage point, Germany needs to catch up in respect to results orientation. Other major actors, especially the United Kingdom, the United States and multilateral development banks, introduced compre-hensive reporting systems back in the 2010s. These organisations report on 20 to 50 standard indicators to demonstrate how their activities contribute to measurable results. On this basis, they communicate more coherently with the public. BMZ aims to create a similar basis for improved communication. In a participatory process – and jointly with the GIZ and the KfW development bank – the BMZ has formulated indicators that are equally suited to implementing organisations' political priorities and their needs. The administrative burden of collecting the standard indicators is limited by leveraging existing data. In addition, the BMZ has set methodological standards whose obligatory use is intended to increase the quality of the data collected. However, the introduction of standard indicators also entails risks: They can set perverse incentives that encourage reporting on short-term results. Such reporting can lead to a neglect of long-term effects, which are more difficult to measure. Research also shows that indicators no longer fulfil their original purpose of providing neutral representations of change if they are used to exert political control. In addition, there are methodological challenges, such as double counting across different benchmarks, as well as concerns about unrealisable expectations. Overall, we assess the development and introduction of standard indicators in GDC positively. Yet, some important decisions are still pending. The level of detail at which the data will be shared among stakeholders and the public has yet to be determined. The quality of the data collected and the transparency of reporting will in turn determine what larger effects towards an improved results orientation of GDC can be achieved. In view of the decentralised and fragmented structure of GDC, especially regarding monitoring and evaluation systems, we hope that the new indicators can foster the harmonising of the reporting systems of the GIZ and the KfW development bank. The standard indicators can also help make GDC more transparent. We therefore recommend that all data collected be made publicly available. Finally, the integrative potential of standard indicators should be harnessed to improve the division of labour between the ministry and the two main implementing organisations towards becoming learning-oriented – both in the data collection process and during evaluation.

SUMMARY: The article discusses the two latest novels by the modern Russian classic writer Vladimir Sorokin: Legacy (2023) and especially Doctor Garin (2021). Based on his interpretation of Sorokin's aesthetical and philosophical program developed elsewhere, Ilya Gerasimov reads Doctor Garin as a literary work that did not go as planned. Dismayed by the unexpected result, Sorokin wrote Legacy as a follow-up meant to explicate Doctor Garin 's message and explain it to himself and his readers. Therefore, Legacy develops to the extreme only one aspect of the 2021 novel. According to Gerasimov, Doctor Garin was planned as a postmodernist satire on the Russian intelligentsia, modernist literature, and the very society of modernity that produced them. Doctor Garin and his miraculous method of hypermodernism is an obvious reference to Aleksey Tolstoy's The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (1926–1927) about an impostor and adventurist seeking world domination. Sorokin mocks the modernist belief in "certain schemes to improve the human condition" (to quote this belief's famous academic critic, James C. Scott) and Russian modernist literature, from Vladimir Mayakovsky to Vasily Aksenov, as well as modern governments' failed political leadership. For over half of the book, Sorokin sustains his original rational design, channeling all his trademark spontaneous prose into "subtexts" – more or less extensive citations of imagined books or diaries introduced in the main text every 20–30 pages of the book. However, at some point, these subtexts disappear, and the protagonist fully immerses himself in Sorokin's irrational narrative driven by the logic of language rather than ideological considerations. This change of narrative mode transforms everything – from the protagonist's personality to the novel's central message. Gerasimov argues that Sorokin chose time as a central argument of his antimodernist criticism, vindicating postmodernism as a condition of multiple isolated chronotopes, with each subculture or identity group living in a unique temporality of its own – contrary to modernism's belief in progress and the normative universality of time. However, the spontaneous narrative of the novel's second half produces a different effect. It models social reality as multidimensional and yet fundamentally interconnected. In any of the very distinctive chronotopes, social reality acquires its stable characteristics only situationally in the eyes of an active subject rather than by some preset, anonymous and objective factors, such as temporality or identity. This message is communicated by the narrative independently of its author, who attempted to produce a different conclusion in the follow-up novel Legacy . Inadvertently, instead of affirming a postmodernist worldview – relativist but static – and mocking the old modernism and some hypothetical "metamodernism" anticipated since the late 2010s, Sorokin outlined a program for a truly new, "post-postmodernist" modernism. It combines postmodernism's multifaceted, multidimensional view of reality with modernism's ability to produce a coherent narrative anchored in an unequivocal moral position. It embraces multiple temporalities, but also the idea of the future as a condition radically different from the past and present. Gerasimov uses the difference in conceptualizing temporality as the main criterion differentiating the modernist and postmodernist epistemes, in any of their aesthetic versions, as well as the hypothetical new modernism as spontaneously outlined in Sorokin's Doctor Garin .

 A 2021 article in The Lancet combines data from several sources to get estimates of the number of people killed by police from the 1980s onward.  It summarizes: "as our analysis shows, fatal police violence rates and the large racial disparities in fatal police violence have remained largely unchanged or have increased since 1990."  Here's a table giving their estimates of age-standardized mortality rates per 100,000 for (non-Hispanic) blacks, Hispanics, and (non-Hispanic) whites:                   Black     Hisp   White       All1980s           .81          .44      .15          .251990s           .66          .35      .18          .252000s           .60          .32      .19          .262010s           .71          .34      .28          .34So the overall rate has increased, but racial and ethnic disparities have declined--the black/white ratio was over 5 in the 1980s, then about 3.5, 3, and 2.5 in the following decades.  The Hispanic/white ratio was almost 3 in the 1980s and about 1.2 in the 2010s.  The numbers I give above aren't from a reanalysis of the data--they are taken straight from the paper.  And they were in a major table, not hidden away in a footnote or the supplemental materials.  So how did the authors make (and the reviewers miss) an obvious mistake in summarizing their results?  "Disparity" has a connotation of unfairness, so a reduction in disparity sounds like a good thing.  But in this case, things didn't get better--the rate for blacks and Hispanics stayed about the same, and the rate for whites got worse.  As a result, describing the changes as a "reduction in disparities" doesn't sound right, even though it is by the dictionary definition.  The term "disparities" seems to have become widely established in public health--I don't know when or how this happened--even when the data just involve differences (as is the case here).    Although they used four different data sets, only one (the National Vital Statistics System) went back before 2005.   Last August, I did an analysis of the NVSS data going back to 1960.    I mentioned that the NVSS data seemed to under-report the number of killings by police, and that the rate of under-reporting could change over time.  It seemed plausible that reporting would tend to become more complete, which would create the appearance of an increase even if there was no real change.  So has there really been an increase in the overall rate of police killings?  I'll look at that in my next post.

Background The burden of fatal police violence is an urgent public health crisis in the USA. Mounting evidence shows that deaths at the hands of the police disproportionately impact people of certain races and ethnicities, pointing to systemic racism in policing. Recent high-profile killings by police in the USA have prompted calls for more extensive and public data reporting on police violence. This study examines the presence and extent of under-reporting of police violence in US Government-run vital registration data, offers a method for correcting under-reporting in these datasets, and presents revised estimates of deaths due to police violence in the USA. Methods We compared data from the USA National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) to three non-governmental, open-source databases on police violence: Fatal Encounters, Mapping Police Violence, and The Counted. We extracted and standardised the age, sex, US state of death registration, year of death, and race and ethnicity (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic of other races, and Hispanic of any race) of each decedent for all data sources and used a network meta-regression to quantify the rate of under-reporting within the NVSS. Using these rates to inform correction factors, we provide adjusted estimates of deaths due to police violence for all states, ages, sexes, and racial and ethnic groups from 1980 to 2019 across the USA. Findings Across all races and states in the USA, we estimate 30 800 deaths (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 30 300–31 300) from police violence between 1980 and 2018; this represents 17 100 more deaths (16 600–17 600) than reported by the NVSS. Over this time period, the age-standardised mortality rate due to police violence was highest in non-Hispanic Black people (0·69 [95% UI 0·67–0·71] per 100 000), followed by Hispanic people of any race (0·35 [0·34–0·36]), non-Hispanic White people (0·20 [0·19–0·20]), and non-Hispanic people of other races (0·15 [0·14– 0·16]). This variation is further affected by the decedent's sex and shows large discrepancies between states. Between 1980 and 2018, the NVSS did not report 55·5% (54·8–56·2) of all deaths attributable to police violence. When aggregating all races, the age-standardised mortality rate due to police violence was 0·25 (0·24–0·26) per 100 000 in the 1980s and 0·34 (0·34–0·35) per 100 000 in the 2010s, an increase of 38·4% (32·4–45·1) over the period of study. Interpretation We found that more than half of all deaths due to police violence that we estimated in the USA from 1980 to 2018 were unreported in the NVSS. Compounding this, we found substantial differences in the age-standardised mortality rate due to police violence over time and by racial and ethnic groups within the USA. Proven public health intervention strategies are needed to address these systematic biases. State-level estimates allow for appropriate targeting of these strategies to address police violence and improve its reporting. ; publishedVersion

Objectives: The aim of the study was to update previous analyses of 'excess mortality' in Glasgow (Scotland) relative to the similar postindustrial cities of Liverpool and Manchester (England). The excess is defined as mortality after adjustment for socio-economic deprivation; thus, we sought to compare changes over time in both the deprivation profiles of the cities and the levels of deprivation-adjusted mortality in Glasgow relative to the other cities. This is important not only because the original analyses are now increasingly out of date but also because since publication, important (prepandemic) changes to mortality trends have been observed across all parts of the United Kingdom. Study design and methods: Replicating as far as possible the methods of the original study, we developed a three-city deprivation index based on the creation of spatial units in Glasgow that were of similar size to those in Liverpool and Manchester (average population sizes of approximately 1600, 1500 and 1700 respectively) and an area-based measure of 'employment deprivation'. Mortality and matching population data by age, sex and small area were obtained from national agencies for two periods: 2003–2007 (the period covered by the original study) and 2014–2018. The rates of employment deprivation for each city's small areas were calculated for both periods. Indirectly standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated for Glasgow relative to Liverpool and Manchester, standardised by age and three-city deprivation decile. For context, city-level trends in age-standardised mortality rates by year, sex and city were also calculated. Results: There was evidence of a stalling of improvement in mortality rates in all three cities from the early 2010s. After adjustment for area deprivation, all-cause mortality in Glasgow in 2014–2018 was c.12% higher than in Liverpool and Manchester for all ages (SMR 112.4, 95% CI 111.1–113.6) and c.17% higher for deaths under 65 years (SMR 117.1, 95% CI 114.5–119.7). The excess was higher for males (17% compared with 9% for deaths at all ages; 25% compared with 5% for 0–64 years) and for particular causes of death such as suicide and drug-related and alcohol-related causes. The results were broadly similar to those previously described for 2003–2007, although the excess for premature mortality was notably lower. In part, this was explained by changes in levels of employment deprivation, which had decreased to a greater degree in the English cities: this was particularly true of Manchester (a reduction of −43%, compared with −38% in Liverpool and −31% in Glasgow) where the overall population size had also increased to a much greater extent than in the other cities. Conclusions: High levels of excess mortality persist in Glasgow. With the political causes recently established – the excess is a 'political effect', not a 'Glasgow effect' – political solutions are required. Thus, previously published recommendations aimed at addressing poverty, inequality and vulnerability in the city are still highly relevant. However, given the evidence of more recent, UK-wide, political effects on mortality – widening mortality inequalities resulting from UK Government 'austerity' measures – additional policies at UK Government level to protect, and restore, the income of the poorest in society are also urgently needed.

Metal hydrides are known as a potential efficient, low-risk option for high-density hydrogen storage since the late 1970s. In this paper, the present status and the future perspectives of the use of metal hydrides for hydrogen storage are discussed. Since the early 1990s, interstitial metal hydrides are known as base materials for Ni – metal hydride rechargeable batteries. For hydrogen storage, metal hydride systems have been developed in the 2010s [1] for use in emergency or backup power units, i. e. for stationary applications. With the development and completion of the first submarines of the U212 A series by HDW (now Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems) in 2003 and its export class U214 in 2004, the use of metal hydrides for hydrogen storage in mobile applications has been established, with new application fields coming into focus. In the last decades, a huge number of new intermetallic and partially covalent hydrogen absorbing compounds has been identified and partly more, partly less extensively characterized. In addition, based on the thermodynamic properties of metal hydrides, this class of materials gives the opportunity to develop a new hydrogen compression technology. They allow the direct conversion from thermal energy into the compression of hydrogen gas without the need of any moving parts. Such compressors have been developed and are nowadays commercially available for pressures up to 200 bar. Metal hydride based compressors for higher pressures are under development. Moreover, storage systems consisting of the combination of metal hydrides and high-pressure vessels have been proposed as a realistic solution for on-board hydrogen storage on fuel cell vehicles. In the frame of the "Hydrogen Storage Systems for Mobile and Stationary Applications" Group in the International Energy Agency (IEA) Hydrogen Task 32 "Hydrogen-based energy storage" different compounds have been and will be scaled-up in the near future and tested in the range of 500 g to several hundred kg for use in hydrogen storage applications ; The research for the lab-scale compressor is part of the activities of SCCER HaE, which is financially supported by Innosuisse - Swiss Innovation Agency . The authors thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the frame of the post-doctoral fellowship of Dr. J. Puszkiel (No. 1187279 STP ) as well as the European Union for their funding of projects STORHY (contract Nr. SES6-CT-2004-502667 , FP6-2002-Energy-1, 6.1.3.2.2), NESSHY (contract Nr. 518271 , FP6-2004-Energy-3, 6.1.3.2.2) and the EU Horizon 2020 /RISE project HYDRIDE4MOBILITY. Financial support from the S02 and KP8 S05), the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme ( FP7/2007e2013 ) for the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative under grant agreement no. 256653 (SSH2S), from the European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking in the framework of BOR4STORE (Grant agreement no. 303428 ), from the Australian Research Council for grants LP120101848 , LP150100730 , and LE0989180 , The Innovation Fund Denmark (project HyFill-Fast), DST within Hydrogen South Africa/HySA programme (projects KP3 National Research Foundation/NRF of South Africa , incentive funding grant number 109092 and the Research Council of Norway (project 285147 ) is thankfully acknowledged

The article raises the issue of the social state, which is a key issue for the modern Russian society. The author refers to the results of sociological surveys which indicate that the Russian society does not quite satisfy the criteria of a prosperous society. On the one hand, the well-being of the Russian society has been steadily increasing throughout the 2000s and 2010s; on the other hand, social inequality has been growing simultaneously. As a result, the Russian society is characterised by an extremely high level of social stratification, despite the fact that the prosperity level has grown over the last 17 years. This circumstance, as well as a very low level of social welfare of Russian citizens, according to the author, makes it necessary to bring up the issue of the social state.The author proposes to use the comparative historical approach to analysing the formation of a social state. From his point of view, understanding the ways in which a social state can be formed in Russia involves the analysis of the ways of its formation in the West (Western Europe and USA). The article analyses the origins of the social state (the issue of pauperism), historical solutions to the social issue (different model of social insurance), and examines basic models of social policy (conservative, liberal, and social democratic).The main thesis is that a social state is an institution that embodies the practice of class compromise, the willingness of the ruling classes to renounce part of their interests for the sake of social stability. The conclusion is that Russia is closer to the social democratic model of social policy; however, not all conditions for its implementation are available. ; В статье поднята ключевая для современного российского общества тема социального государства. Автор обращается к данным социологических исследований, которые свидетельствуют о том, что российское общество не вполне отвечает критериям общества благополучного. С одной стороны, благосостояние российского общества неуклонно увеличивалось на всем протяжении 2000-х и 2010-х годов, однако, с другой стороны, одновременно с этим росли социальные неравенства. В результате российское общество, несмотря на выросший за последние 17 лет уровень зажиточности, характеризуется чрезвычайно высоким уровнем социального расслоения. Это обстоятельство, а также весьма невысокий уровень социальной защищенности российских граждан, по мнению автора статьи, заставляют обратиться к проблеме социального государства.Автор предлагает использовать сравнительно-исторический подход к анализу формирования социального государства. С его точки зрения, понимание того, какими путями может сформироваться социальное государство в России, предполагает анализ путей его формирования на Западе (Западная Европа и США). В статье анализируются истоки социального государства (проблема пауперизма), исторические способы решения социального вопроса (различные модели социального страхования), а также исследуются основные модели социальной политики (консервативная, либеральная и социал-демократическая).Основной тезис заключается в том, что социальное государство есть институт, который воплощает в себе практику классового компромисса, готовность господствующих групп поступиться частью своих интересов ради сохранения социальной стабильности. Делается вывод о том, что России ближе социал-демократическая модель социальной политики, однако не все условия для ее реализации имеются в наличии.

The article analyzes the causes of creation, dynamics of population and characteristics of settlement of the Ukrainian diaspora in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.The results of population census in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia at the beginning of 2010s are the informational base of research. The number of the Ukrainian diaspora is established according to ethnic criteria in programs of censuses. According to the results of population censuses it was established that from the end of 80th years of XX century the Ukrainian diaspora had significantly decreased. Thus, in the structure of the Ukrainian diaspora the share of region increased by more than half: from 0.95% (in 1989) to 0.41 (XXI cen.). The average annual number decrease of the Ukrainian diaspora is higher in comparison with the countries of the former Soviet Union. The Ukrainian diaspora in the region is highly urbanized, the Ukrainians mainly living in the capital. Such settlement of the Ukrainian diaspora causes reasons of its appearance; the Ukrainians and the Russians constituted the so-called "Technological elite" and concentrated in large industrial and research centers in these countries. At the present stage of urbanization the Ukrainian diaspora seek work in cities, study and so on.It is noted that the Ukrainian diaspora live in complicated ethnic, linguistic and religious environments, that lead to isolation of the Ukrainian diaspora. Thus, it can be argued that the Ukrainian diasporas in this region form the hub of the diaspora. However, on the basis of differences with ethnos title the Ukrainians integrate in the more numerous environment of the Russian diaspora. The collapse of the Soviet Union has led to significant geopolitical changes in the region, embodied in military conflicts, the decline of the economy and as a result re-emigration to Ukraine or other countries. ; Общественно–географические исследования украинской диаспоры есть актуальной задачей для современной украинской географии. Исследование украинских диаспор в Закавказском регионе есть менее популярным в сравнении с другими украинскими диаспорами, которые проживают в США, Канаде, Российской Федерации и Румынии. В статьи рассмотрены причины возникновения украинской диаспоры, осуществлен анализ численности и особенностей расселения украинской диаспоры в Азербайджане, Армении и Грузии. Информационной основой исследования есть этнокультурные критерии программ переписей населения у странах региона. В ходе исследования установлено, что украинские диаспоры в регионе есть високоурбанизированными, преимущественно украинцы проживают в столицах стран. Специфика стран проживания украинской диаспоры влияет на ее интеграцию в среду титульного этноса. На основании результатов переписей населения установлены основные причины уменьшения численности украинской диаспоры в регионе. ; Суспільно–географічні дослідження української діаспори є актуальним завданням для сучасної української географії. Дослідження українських діаспор в Закавказькому регіоні є менш популярним в порівнянні із іншими українськими діаспорами, які проживають у США, Канаді, Російській Федерації та Румунії. У статті розглянуто причини утворення української діаспори в цих країнах, здійснено аналіз чисельності та особливостей розселення української діаспори у Азербайджані, Вірменії та Грузії. Інформаційною основою дослідження стали етнокультурні критерії програм перепису населення у країнах регіону. У ході дослідження встановлено, що українські діаспори в регіоні є високоурбанізованими, головно українці проживають у столицях країн. Специфіка країн проживання української діаспори впливає на її інтеграцію в середовище титульного етносу. На підставі результатів переписів населення встановлено основні причини зменшення чисельності української діаспори в регіоні.

BACKGROUND: Several years in advance of the 2015 endpoint for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Malawi was already thought to be one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa likely to meet the MDG 4 target of reducing under-5 mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. Countdown to 2015 therefore selected the Malawi National Statistical Office to lead an in-depth country case study, aimed mainly at explaining the country's success in improving child survival. METHODS: We estimated child and neonatal mortality for the years 2000-14 using five district-representative household surveys. The study included recalculation of coverage indicators for that period, and used the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) to attribute the child lives saved in the years from 2000 to 2013 to various interventions. We documented the adoption and implementation of policies and programmes affecting the health of women and children, and developed estimates of financing. FINDINGS: The estimated mortality rate in children younger than 5 years declined substantially in the study period, from 247 deaths (90% CI 234-262) per 1000 livebirths in 1990 to 71 deaths (58-83) in 2013, with an annual rate of decline of 5·4%. The most rapid mortality decline occurred in the 1-59 months age group; neonatal mortality declined more slowly (from 50 to 23 deaths per 1000 livebirths), representing an annual rate of decline of 3·3%. Nearly half of the coverage indicators have increased by more than 20 percentage points between 2000 and 2014. Results from the LiST analysis show that about 280,000 children's lives were saved between 2000 and 2013, attributable to interventions including treatment for diarrhoea, pneumonia, and malaria (23%), insecticide-treated bednets (20%), vaccines (17%), reductions in wasting (11%) and stunting (9%), facility birth care (7%), and prevention and treatment of HIV (7%). The amount of funding allocated to the health sector has increased substantially, particularly to child health and HIV and from external sources, but remains below internationally agreed targets. Key policies to address the major causes of child mortality and deliver high-impact interventions at scale throughout Malawi began in the late 1990s and intensified in the latter half of the 2000s and into the 2010s, backed by health-sector-wide policies to improve women's and children's health. INTERPRETATION: This case study confirmed that Malawi had achieved MDG 4 for child survival by 2013. Our findings suggest that this was achieved mainly through the scale-up of interventions that are effective against the major causes of child deaths (malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhoea), programmes to reduce child undernutrition and mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and some improvements in the quality of care provided around birth. The Government of Malawi was among the first in sub-Saharan Africa to adopt evidence-based policies and implement programmes at scale to prevent unnecessary child deaths. Much remains to be done, building on this success and extending it to higher proportions of the population and targeting continued high neonatal mortality rates. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO, The World Bank, Government of Australia, Government of Canada, Government of Norway, Government of Sweden, Government of the UK, and UNICEF.

The article analyzes the causes of creation, dynamics of population and characteristics of settlement of the Ukrainian diaspora in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.The results of population census in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia at the beginning of 2010s are the informational base of research. The number of the Ukrainian diaspora is established according to ethnic criteria in programs of censuses. According to the results of population censuses it was established that from the end of 80th years of XX century the Ukrainian diaspora had significantly decreased. Thus, in the structure of the Ukrainian diaspora the share of region increased by more than half: from 0.95% (in 1989) to 0.41 (XXI cen.). The average annual number decrease of the Ukrainian diaspora is higher in comparison with the countries of the former Soviet Union. The Ukrainian diaspora in the region is highly urbanized, the Ukrainians mainly living in the capital. Such settlement of the Ukrainian diaspora causes reasons of its appearance; the Ukrainians and the Russians constituted the so-called "Technological elite" and concentrated in large industrial and research centers in these countries. At the present stage of urbanization the Ukrainian diaspora seek work in cities, study and so on.It is noted that the Ukrainian diaspora live in complicated ethnic, linguistic and religious environments, that lead to isolation of the Ukrainian diaspora. Thus, it can be argued that the Ukrainian diasporas in this region form the hub of the diaspora. However, on the basis of differences with ethnos title the Ukrainians integrate in the more numerous environment of the Russian diaspora. The collapse of the Soviet Union has led to significant geopolitical changes in the region, embodied in military conflicts, the decline of the economy and as a result re-emigration to Ukraine or other countries. ; Общественно–географические исследования украинской диаспоры есть актуальной задачей для современной украинской географии. Исследование украинских диаспор в Закавказском регионе есть менее популярным в сравнении с другими украинскими диаспорами, которые проживают в США, Канаде, Российской Федерации и Румынии. В статьи рассмотрены причины возникновения украинской диаспоры, осуществлен анализ численности и особенностей расселения украинской диаспоры в Азербайджане, Армении и Грузии. Информационной основой исследования есть этнокультурные критерии программ переписей населения у странах региона. В ходе исследования установлено, что украинские диаспоры в регионе есть високоурбанизированными, преимущественно украинцы проживают в столицах стран. Специфика стран проживания украинской диаспоры влияет на ее интеграцию в среду титульного этноса. На основании результатов переписей населения установлены основные причины уменьшения численности украинской диаспоры в регионе. ; Суспільно–географічні дослідження української діаспори є актуальним завданням для сучасної української географії. Дослідження українських діаспор в Закавказькому регіоні є менш популярним в порівнянні із іншими українськими діаспорами, які проживають у США, Канаді, Російській Федерації та Румунії. У статті розглянуто причини утворення української діаспори в цих країнах, здійснено аналіз чисельності та особливостей розселення української діаспори у Азербайджані, Вірменії та Грузії. Інформаційною основою дослідження стали етнокультурні критерії програм перепису населення у країнах регіону. У ході дослідження встановлено, що українські діаспори в регіоні є високоурбанізованими, головно українці проживають у столицях країн. Специфіка країн проживання української діаспори впливає на її інтеграцію в середовище титульного етносу. На підставі результатів переписів населення встановлено основні причини зменшення чисельності української діаспори в регіоні.

The article analyzes the causes of creation, dynamics of population and characteristics of settlement of the Ukrainian diaspora in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.The results of population census in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia at the beginning of 2010s are the informational base of research. The number of the Ukrainian diaspora is established according to ethnic criteria in programs of censuses. According to the results of population censuses it was established that from the end of 80th years of XX century the Ukrainian diaspora had significantly decreased. Thus, in the structure of the Ukrainian diaspora the share of region increased by more than half: from 0.95% (in 1989) to 0.41 (XXI cen.). The average annual number decrease of the Ukrainian diaspora is higher in comparison with the countries of the former Soviet Union. The Ukrainian diaspora in the region is highly urbanized, the Ukrainians mainly living in the capital. Such settlement of the Ukrainian diaspora causes reasons of its appearance; the Ukrainians and the Russians constituted the so-called "Technological elite" and concentrated in large industrial and research centers in these countries. At the present stage of urbanization the Ukrainian diaspora seek work in cities, study and so on.It is noted that the Ukrainian diaspora live in complicated ethnic, linguistic and religious environments, that lead to isolation of the Ukrainian diaspora. Thus, it can be argued that the Ukrainian diasporas in this region form the hub of the diaspora. However, on the basis of differences with ethnos title the Ukrainians integrate in the more numerous environment of the Russian diaspora. The collapse of the Soviet Union has led to significant geopolitical changes in the region, embodied in military conflicts, the decline of the economy and as a result re-emigration to Ukraine or other countries. ; Общественно–географические исследования украинской диаспоры есть актуальной задачей для современной украинской географии. Исследование украинских диаспор в Закавказском регионе есть менее популярным в сравнении с другими украинскими диаспорами, которые проживают в США, Канаде, Российской Федерации и Румынии. В статьи рассмотрены причины возникновения украинской диаспоры, осуществлен анализ численности и особенностей расселения украинской диаспоры в Азербайджане, Армении и Грузии. Информационной основой исследования есть этнокультурные критерии программ переписей населения у странах региона. В ходе исследования установлено, что украинские диаспоры в регионе есть високоурбанизированными, преимущественно украинцы проживают в столицах стран. Специфика стран проживания украинской диаспоры влияет на ее интеграцию в среду титульного этноса. На основании результатов переписей населения установлены основные причины уменьшения численности украинской диаспоры в регионе. ; Суспільно–географічні дослідження української діаспори є актуальним завданням для сучасної української географії. Дослідження українських діаспор в Закавказькому регіоні є менш популярним в порівнянні із іншими українськими діаспорами, які проживають у США, Канаді, Російській Федерації та Румунії. У статті розглянуто причини утворення української діаспори в цих країнах, здійснено аналіз чисельності та особливостей розселення української діаспори у Азербайджані, Вірменії та Грузії. Інформаційною основою дослідження стали етнокультурні критерії програм перепису населення у країнах регіону. У ході дослідження встановлено, що українські діаспори в регіоні є високоурбанізованими, головно українці проживають у столицях країн. Специфіка країн проживання української діаспори впливає на її інтеграцію в середовище титульного етносу. На підставі результатів переписів населення встановлено основні причини зменшення чисельності української діаспори в регіоні.