Proceedings of the XV International Conference "Russian Regions in the Focus of Changes" (ICRRFC 2020)
This collected volume presents the contributions made by participants of the 15th International Conference 'Russian Regions in the Focus of Changes', held in Ekaterinburg (Russia) on 12-14 November 2020. The conference centred around the topic 'Digital State: Challenges and Threats. Strategies of Cities and Regions'. It was organized by the Graduate School of Economics and Management of the Ural Federal University and the analytical centre 'Expert'. The conference organisers aimed to bring together specialists in education, science, business and government to elaborate a conceptual framework that would underpin the research on digital transformation and inform all the stakeholders involved in state and municipal government.
Major shifts in conventions regarding the state's role in modern society make this volume particularly pertinent to ongoing discussions. A heated debate arose around the notion of service state. The latter marks the reconfiguration of the relation in which a citizen is a subject subordinate to the state's power into the relation between a citizen-'client' and government agencies at his service.
The very philosophy of the interaction between the public, business and state is being transformed nowadays. Service state is a state where the state-business interactions are taken to a totally new level, characterized by a high degree of trust, transparency and openness. Through digital transformation, government agencies and bodies of local self-government can build more efficient mechanisms for automation of governance processes and development of interagency information exchange tools.
Digital transformation is expected to result in the creation of a reliable ICT infrastructure of state and municipal government agencies, and to ensure uninterrupted operation of the most essential public services such as remote identification, data exchange, and storage of legally relevant information.
Despite the high practical significance of the aforementioned problems, the theoretical reflection on digital transformation is not yet adequate to meet the social demand to a sufficient degree. The Proceedings aim to fill this important gap in the research on digital transformations on national, regional and local levels.
Thematically, the collection focuses on the following areas of interest:
1. Digitalization of economy and its impact on social development and local communities;
2. Smart cities: digital technologies and transformation of the urban development management system;
3. Digitalization of economy as an instrument of expansion of international cooperation;
4. Technological development and regional innovation policies;
5. Digitalization of public administration systems in regions and cities Digital technologies open entirely new possibilities for transformations of public administration and underlie the vision of the future state with a compact and efficient apparatus and individualized approach to addressing citizens' problems. A new economy that is now evolving will be based on knowledge and digital technologies, contributing to further development of digital literacy and associated opportunities for the public, business and the government. It is, therefore, important that the academic and expert community should be able to promptly respond to these new challenges. This task is a top priority of the Graduate School of Economics and Management of the Ural Federal University, one of the national leaders in research on digital transformations. We would like to thank all those who contributed to the proceedings and participated in the conference and hope that the readers will find this volume interesting and useful. Editor-in-Chief
Prof. Irina Turgel
1. Digitalization of economy and its impact on social development and local communities;
2. Smart cities: digital technologies and transformation of the urban development management system;
3. Digitalization of economy as an instrument of expansion of international cooperation;
4. Technological development and regional innovation policies;
5. Digitalization of public administration systems in regions and cities Digital technologies open entirely new possibilities for transformations of public administration and underlie the vision of the future state with a compact and efficient apparatus and individualized approach to addressing citizens' problems. A new economy that is now evolving will be based on knowledge and digital technologies, contributing to further development of digital literacy and associated opportunities for the public, business and the government. It is, therefore, important that the academic and expert community should be able to promptly respond to these new challenges. This task is a top priority of the Graduate School of Economics and Management of the Ural Federal University, one of the national leaders in research on digital transformations. We would like to thank all those who contributed to the proceedings and participated in the conference and hope that the readers will find this volume interesting and useful. Editor-in-Chief
Prof. Irina Turgel