Marginal regions in discursive space: an examination of socio-economic conditions, development paths and spatial differentiation in the economic systems of the Canadian and Russian North Andrey N Petrov Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography University of Toronto 2008 This dissertation is an effort to provide a new insight into the problem of regional development in remote areas under changing global and national political and economic conditions. It undertakes an assessment of shared economic histories, recent changes and future possibilities of socioeconomic prosperity and sustainability in marginal regions of Canada and Russia. The first chapter re-examines the structure of Canada’s and Russia’s space-economies by evoking the concept of regional multichotomies and economic marginality. I consider whether outcomes, geographic patterns and spatial logics of regional differentiation in the two countries are similar and explore the evidence of similarity between the North(s). Finding development outcomes in the Russian and Canadian North strikingly similar, the second chapter uses a combination of discursive analysis and regulation theory to re-interpret the origins of present-day problems and examine the genealogy of northern development. It argues that the Canadian and Russian northern development regimes shared profound commonalities. From these positions, the chapter compares and critiques past and present policies of regional development in the two Norths, and discusses their viability. The third chapter dwells upon a concept of ‘development regimes’ to analyze and compare contemporary regional development policies. It further investigates how recent economic development policies in the two Norths are adapting to changing economic and political realities, and if they were able to deliver desirable results to northern communities. The chapter compares and critiques contemporary policies and discusses possible alternative perspectives that reconcile an emerging postcolonial paradigm of development and realities of post-Fordism. It introduces the notion of the neo-staple development regime and describes its manifestations (Impact and Benefit Agreements). The fourth chapter presents a case for fostering knowledge based development and creative capital in the North. It builds on the innovation systems and institutional geography literatures to argue that the creative capital in the periphery is a pivotal factor of regional development. The chapter provides a conceptualization and empirical analysis of the creative class in remote regions. Contrary to the metropolitan bias, I argue that creative ‘hot spots’ beyond metropolis exist, and could become the centres of regional reinvention, if appropriate policies are introduced in support.

The aim of this study was to examine how Russian press represents people with disabilities. The study was conducted using the method of qualitative content analysis. The material for the analysis consisted of sixty articles selected from Russian's four national newspapers. The study covered a period of the year 2011. Labeling theory and stigma were used for the analysis of the results. The results showed that Russian press described discrimination of people with disabilities, social support provided to them by the Government and their active way of life. The newspaper articles mentioned that the Russian Government tries to integrate disabled people into society. The study did not find any significant differences in the representation of people with disabilities in various newspapers. It was found that the articles covered physical disabilities, such as mobility, hearing and visual impairments.

Marginal regions in discursive space: an examination of socio-economic conditions, development paths and spatial differentiation in the economic systems of the Canadian and Russian North Andrey N Petrov Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography University of Toronto 2008 This dissertation is an effort to provide a new insight into the problem of regional development in remote areas under changing global and national political and economic conditions. It undertakes an assessment of shared economic histories, recent changes and future possibilities of socioeconomic prosperity and sustainability in marginal regions of Canada and Russia. The first chapter re-examines the structure of Canada’s and Russia’s space-economies by evoking the concept of regional multichotomies and economic marginality. I consider whether outcomes, geographic patterns and spatial logics of regional differentiation in the two countries are similar and explore the evidence of similarity between the North(s). Finding development outcomes in the Russian and Canadian North strikingly similar, the second chapter uses a combination of discursive analysis and regulation theory to re-interpret the origins of present-day problems and examine the genealogy of northern development. It argues that the Canadian and Russian northern development regimes shared profound commonalities. From these positions, the chapter compares and critiques past and present policies of regional development in the two Norths, and discusses their viability. The third chapter dwells upon a concept of ‘development regimes’ to analyze and compare contemporary regional development policies. It further investigates how recent economic development policies in the two Norths are adapting to changing economic and political realities, and if they were able to deliver desirable results to northern communities. The chapter compares and critiques contemporary policies and discusses possible alternative perspectives that reconcile an emerging postcolonial paradigm of development and realities of post-Fordism. It introduces the notion of the neo-staple development regime and describes its manifestations (Impact and Benefit Agreements). The fourth chapter presents a case for fostering knowledge based development and creative capital in the North. It builds on the innovation systems and institutional geography literatures to argue that the creative capital in the periphery is a pivotal factor of regional development. The chapter provides a conceptualization and empirical analysis of the creative class in remote regions. Contrary to the metropolitan bias, I argue that creative ‘hot spots’ beyond metropolis exist, and could become the centres of regional reinvention, if appropriate policies are introduced in support.

After dissolving of USSR in 1991 and establishing of capitalistic economic model trade volume between Taiwan and post-Soviet countries has been continuously growing throughout recent 20 years. Economy between Taiwan and Russia and others former Soviet countries stimulates close cooperation, including establishing of joint ventures, procurement, negotiations, which means mutual visiting. Businessmen come to Taiwan into two different ways: groups and individual businessmen (according to my experience, 2 people). First type: some tour agencies, which provide tours for tourists groups and organizing trips for different kinds of delegations. Second type: individual businessmen who comes to Taiwan for 3-5 days. Their plan includes: visiting exhibitions/companies/ factories and after that (or during that time) explore Taiwan: get basic consultations about implementing business, visiting night market, shopping etc. Such individual businessmen hire Russian-speaking translator, who lives in Taiwan and accompany them during visit. They have limited budget (because it is only 2 people), prefer not connect with agencies (language barriers, budget and trust), but find translators through recommendation from TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council - Russian branch), other businessmen, web-sites (Facebook, Twitter). Unfortunately, often they can find only students, who provide low-level service. Collaborations are spontaneous, not well-organized and not systematic. My target audience is the second type. A niche market opportunity exists in organizing systematic tours for individual businessmen. The uniqueness of the project is organizing tours focusing on business prospective, clients’ oriented service.

This dissertation is devoted to the stage history of Goethe’s Faust I in Imperial Russia with the goal of initiating academic discussion of this previously ignored topic. The significance of this study lies not only in the fact that it enlarges our comprehension of the play’s treatment in the Russian context, but more importantly in its direct implications for earlier studies of Russian literature in relation to Goethe’s Faust. The dissertation records analytically dramatic productions of the play before 1917 and provides a bibliography of their production, performance and reception processes. The central premise of the dissertation is that theatre is a social phenomenon, informed by the contemporary setting in which it is produced and received. With this in mind, five distinctive adaptations are investigated with the goal of identifying the peculiarities of the play’s treatment and highlighting the influences of the socio-historical factors surrounding it. In particular, this study considers the dependence of the adaptation on contemporary theatrical conventions and explores the relationship between theatre, culture and the state in Imperial Russia. It argues that a successful adaptation of Goethe’s Faust I in Imperial Russia was delayed until the flourishing of ‘directorial theatre’, which in turn opened new possibilities for future theatrical explorations of the play. The analysis describes strategies of cultural appropriation and affirms the conformity and sensitivity of theatre to the state.

In China¡¦s view, it is necessary to get crude oil and oil pipeline. Under Russia and China strategic partnership, China tries to obtain ¡§long term promises¡¨ and ¡§Pipeline Corporation¡¨ from Russia in oil diplomacy. There are several findings in this article: 1. International oil prices are important to China¡¦s oil diplomacy with Russia. 2.China¡¦s oil diplomacy with Russia includes geop olitcs and diversification. 3. Due to economic development, China needs long term oil supply contract. Putin did not prove this contract. 4. Because of navel and air forces are not strong enough, China develops oil pipeline to protect oil security.

Thesis (M.A.)--Lehigh University, 2009. / Advisers: Roger D. Simon; John Pettegrew.

Originally presented as the author's thesis--Universität Tübingen, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation examines the life and work of the Jewish writer Uri-Nisn Gnesin (1879-1913). Living in Russia, using Yiddish in his daily life, and writing prose in Hebrew, Gnesin was part of a multicultural and multilingual generation, which was too assimilated to live the traditional life of its fathers, and yet, not able to break with it completely. For many Russian Jews, this dual identity, rarely recognized in modern scholarly discourse on Hebrew literature, resulted in psychological discomfort, feelings of guilt, and other traumas. Addressing this identity crisis, I show how the worldview of an assimilated Russian Jew is reflected in Gnesin’s Hebrew fiction. I offer an alternative view of Gnesin as a Jewish-Russian writer whose dual identity played a more complex role in his literary work and whose influence transcended a simple knowledge of languages or classic texts. It was not merely a language or a book, but the unique Jewish-Slavic atmosphere of small Eastern European towns that provided Gnesin with all the models necessary for thinking, feeling, and writing. In my study, I consider theories of canonization to demonstrate the reason why Gnesin has first and foremost been categorized as a Hebrew writer. Contemporary scholars of modern Hebrew fiction generally agree that Gnesin’s fiction is secular due to the non-Jewish associative infrastructure of his work. By exploring the historical and spiritual conditions of Gnesin’s generation, I attempt to overcome the limitations of such a view, which overemphasizes the role of language in his development as a writer. A functional analysis of Gnesin’s literary language maintains that although he found his best form of expression in literary Hebrew, it appeared mostly in the final stages of his writing. I propose that Gnesin and that whole generation of modern Hebrew writers used a special “hyper-language” consisting of three integral parts: a natively spoken language, a commonly spoken non-Jewish national language, and a written literary language. Ultimately, Gnesin appears to be a fin de siècle writer who used Hebrew language as a sophisticated tool to propagate his troubled Jewish-Russian experience. / text

The early twentieth century was the apogee of what historians have come to call a `white slavery' panic, a period in which long term anxieties about the social dangers and moral ambiguities of sex work metamorphosed into an intense philanthropic, public and state focus on forced migration for the purposes of prostitution. This dissertation investigates the origins of `the traffic in women' as a social problem in imperial Russian and Soviet law and society, connecting it to emergent regimes of transnational biopolitics at the fin-de-siècle and through the interwar years. This period was one in which state and social understandings of the subject's freedom, to move across borders or to consent to sex, were being reconceptualized. I argue that the traffic in women, as a legal category and cultural discourse, was key to this process of reconceptualization, as it became a heuristic for making sense of the entanglement of legality, clandestinity, consent and coercion operational in cross border migration, particularly that which involved sex work, in an age of rapid globalization. Consequently, this dissertation helps us to understand how certain conceptions of gendered and sexualized bodies have become central to questions of state security and sovereignty. / History