Human Capital As the Driver of Rural Territories Self-Development through the Analysis of on Line Social Networks (Republic of Karelia Case Study)

Abstract

The paper is dedicated the research of the on line social network Vkontake (as a representative example of social media, the most popular among Russian population). The use of social media is seen as the new innovative tool to help rural people cooperate and and counteract economic, political and social problems of the territory. The hypothesis of the research is that on line social media makes the process among locals, business and authorities possible and easier. One village of the Republic of Karelia was taken as a representative example and akk its group Vkontakte were anylised. The analisis of the group included the content analysis to understand the the theme the most discussed in those groups. The second step of the analysis was to chose the most popular and active groups and then to determine their attitudes towards realizing regional projects. According to the analisys of the most popular posts of the most popular group, we can ascertain, that locals care about the ecological education, better quality environment and cultural education for their territory.