Consolidation of the Regional Community: A Political Manifesto, a Real Project or an Imitation? (Experience of the Belgorod Region)

Abstract

The article analyzes the experience of implementing the Strategy for the formation of a regional solidary society in the Belgorod region. The problems that have arisen in the course of this are systematized, which include: substantiating the need and possibility of regional consolidation projects, determining the content of the phenomenon of solidarity in relation to modern society, constructing a “consolidation route”, identifying the specifics of consolidation in a new reality, determined by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, sanctions pressure and international conflicts that accompany an attempt to transform a unipolar world into a multipolar one. It is emphasized that the growth of dangers and threats stimulate consolidation. But the integration of regional communities under the influence of an external factor can hardly be long-term and durable.

Acknowledgments: The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 21-18-00150, https://rscf.ru/project/21-18-00150/