Prerequisites for ecosystem approach in civic activity’s organization in modern Russia (part 1)

Abstract

The paper is devoted to identify the features of the development of civil and protest activity in modern Russia in the context of the development of digital services and platforms that serve as a prerequisite for the creation of ecosystems in politics. The article presents the results of a monitoring study conducted by a survey of experts in the regions of the Russian Federation from 2014 to 2021. The study also used the results of the analysis of a number of protest campaigns. The theoretical part is devoted to the review of concepts for understanding ecosystems and their specific characteristics, as well as the development of ecosystems in the socio-political sphere. As a result, a number of features of civic activity ecosystems were formulated: the development of digital forms of civic and protest activity, the use of digital services and platforms, multi–channel communication, multiple collaborations, cooperation and horizontal interaction of participants. The ecosystem of civic activity is defined as a set of digital services that form a single interaction infrastructure, as well as the creation of coalitions and cooperating partnerships acting in the interests of their creators. The empirical research’s base contains the results of a survey of experts and an analysis of protest campaigns. In the Russian regions, there is a development of offline and online civil and protest activity, while digital forms of civil action are developing at an accelerated pace. These processes are accompanied by the complication of the structure of internal and external interaction of activists through services and platforms, the totality of which forms the digital infrastructure. Coordination and cooperation of public associations with partners and activists is carried out on the basis of network principles of interaction, which allow to combine the efforts of partners, creating a common digital space for interaction with users. There is a tendency of consolidation of offline and online cooperation of public associations. The results of the study demonstrate the presence of individual elements of ecosystems in the structures of civil society.