Regional Formation and Development Studies

The development of information technology (IT) in the process of modern primary education poses new challenges for participants in this process. Despite the fact that the development of IT enhances teaching/learning, and makes it modern and attractive, the unrestricted and irresponsible use of IT can have negative consequences for both the physical and the mental health of younger school-age children. The article analyses problems related to features of creating a healthy child-friendly teaching/learning environment in the context of the development of IT in primary education. A total of 237 primary school teachers in western Lithuania were interviewed by means of a written (questionnaire) survey research method.The research results show that a computer is the main IT tool in the primary education environment. Almost all the interviewed teachers had them in their classrooms. Teachers lack in particular interactive boards and tablets. Only a very small number of teachers had them in their classrooms. The teachers interviewed lack more diverse means of IT in their classrooms, which limits the possibilities for using IT in the education process. The results of the research reveal that although primary school students know about safe use and health-care when working with IT, they are not able to apply the available knowledge in practice. Children lack the acquisition of practical actions and skills in applying them in life situations. Only a third, and even fewer teachers, agreed that while using IT children are able to sit correctly at a desk, protect their eyesight, do eye exercises, coordinate eye and hand movements, etc. Therefore, not only are modern means of IT and their safe installation important for the creation of a healthy child-friendly primary teaching/learning environment in the context of IT, but so is the development of safe and healthy child-friendly behaviour with IT: the regulation and distribution of work time with IT at school and at home, the responsible use of IT; not only the provision of knowledge about the use of IT to students, but also the formation of practical skills and their application in life situations.

The world wide experience of communication and cooperation of diasporas and origin countries shows various ways and forms how diasporas can contribute towards sustainable development of origin country. Lithuania also has relatively huge diaspora and faces increasing emigration every year. However, it still neglects the potential of it’s diaspora involvement in contributing to well-being of the country. In order to reveal the potential of Lithuanian diaspora the qualitative research was conducted. It used expert interview method with 12 leaders of foreign Lithuanian communities and organizations. The research revealed that Lithuanian diaspora is willing and could contribute significantly to the country’s sustainable development in various areas: scientific, business, cultural and social ones. In order to facilitate this cooperation, Lithuanian government should decrease barriers for cooperation and implement measures that would take into account the diversity of diaspora groups interests and possibilities, provide relevant information about means of engagement and support already existing and new diaspora networks and their initiatives.

Importance of sustainable coastal governance also in the Baltic sea region has been widely recognised and since such governance has to have integrative nature that requires horizontal cross-sectorial integration as well as involvement of all governance levels and subsequently organisation of vertical integration among the levels. Besides some succesfull local cases around Europe, mainly special outside projects based, there is to be recognized that the municipal integrated sustainable coastal governance has not been yet neither well and widely locally developed in practice nor sufficiently researched field in order to permit necessary design of adequate policy innovations. Practical development and local realisation of the municipal integrated coastal governance often encounters obstacles of the basic nature, e.g. because there are not sufficiently understood and applied cross- and trans-disciplinary approaches – studies and governance of the coastal territories as the complex social-ecological systems (SES). For understanding the process and structure of coastal governance, application of system thinking and system dynamics methods are to be emphasized as well. The paper demonstrates adaptation of coastal nature studies based System Analysis Framework (SAF) methodology for its application to coastal governance studies and general municipal governance system adjusting and upgrading towards coastal issues, what could be seen as the new step for SAF further planned developments. As the part of the EU BONUS programme BaltCoast project, the authors performed, including main stakeholders participation elements, the issue identification step, system definition and also a conceptual model building steps of the SAF methodology application in the particular, local governance innovations rich, case study territory – Salacgriva municipality in Latvia. Coastal governance problems in Latvia are especially relevant for rural coastal municipalities with limited administrative capacities and long and low populated coastline territories. The next SAF application steps will include development of coastal governance system scenarios using a systems modelling tool and the design and testing of complementary set of governance instruments as science-policy interface, that shall support sustainable use of coastal resources in the interests of coastal nature and culture protection, and local socio-economic development.

In the article results of the comparative analysis of world experience of stimulation of innovative-investment process through the formation of a favorable tax climate are generalized. Development of tax stimulation of innovation activity is considered as a crucial factor in building a new model of economic growth. It is concluded that within the subject principle there are three elements of the stimulation instrument: amortization privileges, preferences concerning the profits tax, indirect measures of tax stimulation. Conclusions on potential use of foreign tax instruments of stimulation of innovation activity in the Russian conditions are presented.

The author discusses current issues of sustainability rural landscape from the perspective of optimal use of economical, ecological and natural resources management in Poland. Agriculture in Poland is one of the most important sectors from an economic perspective and its importance is greater than in other countries in the EU. Rural landscape is not only a place of agricultural production and farming, but also because of favourable environmental conditions, more common place of living, which would be impossible without an efficient modern infrastructure. Rural landscape in Poland is more and more often treated as ‘carbon parks’ assimilating the carbon dioxide emitted by fuel burning. Farmers are changing their role from food producers into environmental guardians.

Bibliotherapy is used in children’s day centers in order to provide assistance to children and adolescents from social risk families. There is evidence found in scientific literature that the application of bibliotherapy at day centers is useful for strengthening self-sufficiency, and if applied purposefully, it enables to cope with psychological problems, promotes spiritual growth and qualitative development, raises self-esteem, self-knowledge, understanding, and frees from perceptions that prevents from recognizing personal unpleasant feelings. The professional application of bibliotherapy at day centers, by working with children and adolescents, creates assumptions to strengthen the motivation regarding self-cognition, self-development and learning. The aim of this research is to answer to the question of how bibliotherapy can be applied in social pedagogical activities at children’s day centers (CDC). After a qualitative research had been accomplished (of social educators, parents whose children attend CDC), it was found that the application of bibliotherapy is justified in solving various social-pedagogical problems of children and youth (especially those associated with dealing with motivation problems of adolescent learning).

The development of societies today is inequal, and the modern approach to deal with this situation is through the idea of inclusive

Nuo 2017 metų įsigaliojus ES Direktyvai 2014/95/EU, kai kurioms ES įmonėms socialinės atsakomybės atskleidimas tapo privalomas, tad aktualu ištirti, kaip įmonės, taip pat ir bankai, laikosi šio reguliavimo ir nuo ko jis priklauso. Straipsnio tikslas – ištirti privalomo Lietuvos bankų socialinės atsakomybės atskleidimo 2015–2019 metais lygį ir veiksnius. Taikyta atliktų empirinių tyrimų apžvalga, palyginamoji analizė, tyrimui atlikti – statistinė analizė, koreliacija, regresija. Sukūrus socialinės atskaitomybės atskleidimo indeksą, atlikta penkių didžiausių Lietuvos bankų socialinės atsakomybės ataskaitų turinio analizė. Bankai 2015–2016 metais savanoriškai atskleidė socialinę atsakomybę, tačiau nuo 2017 metų kai kuriuose bankuose atskleidimas buvo nepakankamas. Bankai pateikė daugiau informacijos bendromis, o ne konkretaus bankų sektoriaus temomis. Hipotezės dėl banko turto ir ataskaitų puslapių skaičiaus poveikio socialinės atsakomybės atskleidimui pasitvirtino, tuo tarpu hipotezės dėl banko pelningumo ir kapitalo pakankamumo santykio poveikio socialinės atsakomybės atskleidimui nepasitvirtino.

The article aims to define how the main principles of the Swedish welfare state, i.e., the “multi-stakeholder principle” and the principle of trustfulness and collaboration, affect activity of the anti-corruption civil society. For the study, the following empirical methods have been used: the analysis of documents and in-depth-interviews with experts. The author demonstrates that the anti-corruption activity of civil society in Sweden can be considered as part of wider social movements for human rights, democracy and integrity, especially at international level. There are a lot of associations and unions in Sweden that, among other joint activities, promote anti-corruption practices and rules in state organisations and commercial enterprises. The state and government need to be oriented to social challenges and keep pace with civic movements. A partnership with different stakeholders is the main type of the Swedish ACS’s activities that help to reach their goals in preventing corruption behaviour, e.g., “Anti-corruption policy networks”, and it is the result of two types of collaboration: anti-corruption participation and anti-corruption services. The research has shown that the civil society’s ability to create networks with the state, business and other agents is the main condition for the so-called horizontal accountability and sustainability and for preventing corruption in Swedish society that, in its turn, has been established over a long period of time building the culture of integrity and civic institutions.

Intellectual capital as a discipline appeared a decade ago as a result of practitioners’ observations proving the need to raise the issue up to the scientific level and management discipline. The history of the new science is very short compared to other fundamentals and what is important it is developing at rocket speed that attracts extensive attention to the field. Intangible assets are major creators of business value and a source of competitive advantage. This statement can be proved by the fact that intangibles represented 87% of the market capitalization of listed companies forming part of the S&P 500 stock-market index in 2015. Moreover, investments in R&D in many cases exceed the profit of the company to ensure long-term progress and business success in the future pioneering in the market. Therefore, innovation leads to investment in the creation of intellectual capital for businesses and provides opportunities for researchers and practitioners. The aim of research is to revise the findings of scientific papers, analysing the evolution of the phenomenon throughout the time span. The findings of the paper present the structure of modern research and the block chain of the research evolution on intellectual capital as well as identify gaps and open questions to analyse.