Considering the deficiencies of social services for the elderly in governmental institutions and growing demand of ensuring services in rural areas, the paper aims to assess the needs of elderly people for social services in the selected rural areas and to propose the social services’ development opportunities in terms of domestic help for the elderly. The social services facilitate support to elderly dependents in their homes, without interrupting their relationships with the family and the community, and improving their quality of life. The survey has shown that the municipality usually satisfies only basic biological needs of old people in rural areas. In order to ensure the well-being of elderly people, a complete cooperation among governmental and non-governmental institutions is required. Development of the services should be focused on the provision of the domestic help services for elderly people who do not receive them, and the diversity of the services for those residents who receive services from the municipality. The implementation of the development project of the domestic help services would enable the elderly residents of the rural municipality to have access to the most necessary services at the required frequency and intensity, considering the recipients’ needs, thus improving the quality of life of the elderly people of local community and ensuring their dignified ageing.

Tourism industry is becoming one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Considering its significance in the economy of many countries, the research in tourism is growing, as well. Achieving to develop tourism industry, tourist satisfaction becomes a considerable goal for many countries. In this article, rural tourism is taken into consideration. However, scientific research in the field of Lithuanian rural tourist satisfaction is still scarce. Therefore, the level of Lithuanian rural tourist satisfaction and the factors determining their satisfaction are being determined in current research aiming to elaborate Rural Tourist Satisfaction Index in Lithuanian framework. Research results highlighted that the determinants of Lithuanian rural tourist satisfaction are: ‘accommodation and catering’, ‘destination aesthetics’, ‘environmental preservation’, ‘destination marketing’ and ‘perceived value’. Rural tourists in Lithuania value the benefits of ‘green marketing’, amenities and the efforts of expanding the variety of activities; the emphasis of all these aspects is perceived as ‘destination marketing’. On the other hand, levels of activities in rural destinations, quality of accommodation and catering, and aesthetics in Lithuanian rural destinations are insufficient. Enhancing these aspects could result in higher satisfaction and loyalty levels of rural tourists, and that would contribute to the rural tourism development in Lithuania.

The paper provides the study of specific spatial conditions of rural development of Arctic zone regions in Russia during 2000 – 2015. The aim of the paper is to propose the methodology for rural development disparities study in the Russian Arctic. Spatial development of the Arctic is described by a system of indicators, reflecting the system of the resettlement, the level and quality of life: total population size, life expectancy at birth, housing stock etc. The extent and nature of disparities, particularly, social and economic disparities within the rural territories of the Arсtic are explained. The assessment has been based on min-max ratio, coefficient of variation as well as Gini index. Eliminating excessive spatial differences in the social development of urban and rural territories of Arctic regions, improving the demographic situation, raising the level and quality of life of the population should be seen as a priority of the state policy in the Arctic in order to make it attractive for living.

This paper summarizes the results of a theoretical study as well as practically oriented research about the concept of managing the social sphere of the village and considers the problem-perspective field of development the social infrastructure management in the villages of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The chosen topic is relevant as an insufficiently studied scientific problem, and also has practical significance for the well-being and stable development of rural areas. The study describes the scheme of management of the rural social infrastructure in the Republic of Kazakhstan from the standpoint of object-subject, methods and results. Interviews of the rural population were conducted about the satisfaction with the rural social infrastructure and attitude towards the work of local governance. Rural settlements of Mangystau oblast currently have an average not significant level of social infrastructure development and the level of satisfaction of residents in different areas with its condition varies from very low to sufficient. The most important principles for the development of definition of rural social infrastructure management and its functions have been highlighted with the help of a comparative analysis of various approaches. According to the results of the study, it was concluded that the development of promising directions of management the rural social infrastructure requires a comprehensive study and evaluation of the facilities, mechanism and principles of this management and the identification of its current problems with regional development tasks.

The scientific article is prepared using monographic research method. The most important works by several scientists are examined. The author analyses guidelines for strengthening of civil society within Decree of 2005 by the Cabinet of Latvia; previous research on social capital in scientists' works is considered and indicators regarding economics of Latvia are characterized; formal and informal social networks and their norms are cleared. Importance of civil society is suggested by the Cabinet Decree No. 98 Guidelines of Strengthening Policy for Civil Society in 2005. The guidelines and directions for strengthening of civil society for the ten years describe actuality of this program. This theme is less researched in Latvia. Civil society promotes democracy, increases and mobilizes social capital, coordinating collaboration of citizens for common benefit. Civil society in Latvia is in its initial position. The concept of social capital by different foreign scientists and Latvian specialists is analysed in this article. American scientist R. Putnam (1995) has written about social capital that human capital regards individuals but social capital regards relationships among individuals as well as social networks and exchange norms. Another researcher F. Fukuyama (1995) analyses social capital by comparison of economical development of different peoples and nations. Research by several scientists on indicators of social capital and their use in economics of Latvia are analysed in the work. The author concludes that social capital of Latvia has tendency to develop, and social networks and their expansion is little explored in Latvia.