Russian Flagship Universities and the Structure of Regional Economy: The Subjective Foundations of Their Relations

The article provides a general description of a subjective foundation, which is definitive for relations between flagship universities and the regional economic infrastructure in Russia. Russian flagship universities are a new element in the development of regional innovative processes since they act as a link between higher engineering education, the government, society, and business. The aim of this work is to reveal the subjective foundation within the functional ties of a flagship university. This foundation determines the processes of social diversification, social integration, and social development in a given region. The subject of the study, thus, is highly relevant. At the same time, there have been few publications, which systematically addressed relations between flagship universities and society. The selected methodological basis for the investigation is the theory of post-industrial society. There are three independent thematic units in the article: (1) the description of the general problem of the development of the subjective foundation in the process of the flagship university's operation; (2) the role of scientific knowledge in creating and using current volumes of information; (3) the philosophical and worldview aspects of the development of subjective foundations in modern social practices. After a critical analysis of relevant publications on intersectoral integration, the authors have focused on situations which discuss the activities of small creative teams, consisting of university academics, students, young engineers, and sector specialists, who are capable of (in terms of solving a regional problem) selecting a research strategy independently. It is very important for the participants of such teams to be able to think from the position of advanced rational values of post-classical science. Thus, the complex interaction of multidisciplinary, general scientific, and socio-philosophical components in the relations between a university and its intersectoral environment is a most important functional characteristic of the subjective foundation of a flagship university. In this article, special attention is paid to the problem of balance between scientific knowledge and information, along with the influence of this correlation on the innovative changes in social practices. The methodological criterion of obtaining results is the accepted postulate that modern scientific knowledge is the basis for information production and consumption. The study of modern literature on this issue has allowed the authors to make the following conclusion. First, the most stable properties of the object under investigation at the previous stage of its existence are studied. Then, an innovative supplement is developed to informatively perfect the processes of the complex organization of the system. The three dimensions (the scientific ideas of organization, information and communication technologies, and development mechanisms) are brought together into one intellectual assessment of the result. Special attention is paid to the philosophical and methodological investigations of the subjective foundation of a flagship university in connection with its strengthening influence on the development of quantitative and qualitative parameters of social practices in a specific region. This aspect of the investigation of the functional development of a flagship university is primarily aimed at confirming new rationalistic scientific values. In relation to the process of functioning of the flagship university's subjective foundation, the authors have specified the problem of reaching a unity between inner scientific and sociocultural changes introduced by the postclassical scientific revolution into the region's development. In this part of the article, the authors have come to the conclusion that the development principle of a specific economic region must correspond to a specific philosophical thought, which is determined according to a methodological foundation. The choice of a philosophical and worldview model for the economic development of a specific region requires taking into consideration its historical and economic experience. Acquiring relevant meaning in one or another project in history, economic science is built either on a metaphysical (representative) system, or on a dialectic style of scientific knowledge. For the metaphysical style, the key principles are agnosticism, dualism, and anthropocentrism. Dialectics, on the contrary, understands knowledge acquisition as based on the principle of world unity, a universal connection between all phenomena, and the principle of reflection. Depending on the abilities and level of a university's scholarly team, either of the two philosophical ideas may be used to understand economic development.

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