A few methodological notes based on the field observations of rural human capital in the Russia's Non-Black Earth Region

Abstract

The article presents some methodological considerations on the possibilities and limitations of the qualitative approach (repeated case studies in the specific Rus sian region) for the sociological assessment of human capital. In the first part of the arti cle, the author considers the Russian tradition of rural studies as combining two analyti cal 'optics' - sociological/ethnographic observations of local realities based on various combinations of qualitative techniques and a strong anthropological/ peasant-stud ies emphasis with large-scale social surveys aimed at macro-descriptions of agrarian reforms, rural social/human capital and agro-industrial complex under the persistent trends of social-spatial differentiation. In the second part, the author mentions the key possibilities and limitations of case studies for assessing the state and prospects of rural human capital in the most depressed rural region of Russia, focusing on the role of en trepreneurs in formal and informal support of the local rural economy and communities in cooperation with municipal and regional authorities. In the final part, the author em phasizes typologies as the analytical result of rural case studies (especially the repeat ed ones) and provides examples - 'types' of the local agricultural producer relationships with the rural settlement's authorities and community (as the basis for preserving rural human capital) and 'types' of the rural entrepreneurs' biographical trajectories (as the basis for the generational continuity of this differentiated rural stratum).