2020 Vol. 12 №1

Research into the socio-spatial dynamics in Central-Eastern European cities is an im-portant area of contemporary transition studies. Open issues in this domain range from defining a theoretical framework to data availability and methodological approaches. As to the former aspect, recent literature focuses on the hybrid nature of the post-socialist urban space, which underwent transformation in the conditions of globalization and eco-nomic liberalization; the earlier model of spatial development changed dramatically as a result. The multi-scalar and comparative approaches may shed new light on the complex patterns of urban socio-spatial differentiation and its post-Soviet dynamics. Growing regional socio-economic imbalances observed in the former socialist states are lending new urgency to this area of research. This study employs a comparative approach to investigate post-1991 socio-spatial trans-formations in St Petersburg and Riga — the two largest post-Soviet urban centres in the Baltic Sea region. An important result of the research is a methodology for multi-lev-a el analysis of changes in the urban environment of post-socialist cities. Data from post-1991 national censuses and population registers are used to calculate measures of social well-being in urban districts as well as to identify territorial imbalances. Compar-ative analysis makes it possible to trace the spatial patterns of post-Soviet differentiation and set out guidelines for further research in the area.

The importance of this research relates to the need for increasing the human capital of Russian science and for assisting the spatial development of the country, particularly, its border areas. This study tests several hypotheses. The first one holds that the outflow of researchers will reduce over the next few years. Others concern factors affecting the number of researchers in the Russian Federation in general and its Baltic part in particular. These factors include salaries and workplace environment. Methodologically, the study draws on Russian and international sources on the migration of researchers and builds models of two types to trace connections and to produce forecasts, while calculating the emigration rate. The models of the first type describe how the amount of salary and workplace conditions affect the number of researchers. These are vector autoregression models built in the R software environment, using statistical time series. The models of the second type use Excel forecast function to carry out prospective evaluations of the number of researchers and migration rates. The study did not confirm the hypothesis that the reduction in the number of researchers was slowing down in Russia and St Petersburg in particular. Thus, the state measures aimed to preserve the human capital of national science will be insufficient to prevent either a decline in the number of researchers or their emigration in the near future. The article provides concrete recommendations for reforming the system of remuneration in research to reverse the negative trend.

A key competitive advantage of a contemporary economy, knowledge, is distributed unevenly, tending to concentrate in cities and urban agglomerations. A border position translates into distinctive features of regional innovative development. In a favourable institutional context, proximity to a border strengthens transboundary cooperation and interaction between neighbouring regions. Although frequent social contacts across borders are well documented in the literature, the effect that the border has on intensive knowledge transfer is yet to be investigated. This article analyses models of knowledge integration taking place between Russia’s northwestern regions and the countries that their border. The study covers six territories of the Northwestern federal district (the Republic of Karelia, St Petersburg, and the Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Murmansk, and Pskov regions); five regions of the Central federal district (Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk, and Smolensk); and one region of the Southern federal district (Rostov). The methodology of the study consists of using information from the Scopus abstract and citation database to assess the intensity of research cooperation. The findings suggest that the degree of involvement in transboundary research cooperation varies widely across Russia’s border regions.