Demographic Development Resources: On the Unification of Concepts in Demographic Research

The article attempts to distinguish a variety of related and consonant fundamental demographic terms, including: demographic development, demographic policy, demographic development (policy) tools, demographic development (policy) mechanism, demographic potential, demographic resilience. We also focus on the synthesis of a new concept - demographic development resources. To this end, we make an overview of current demographic research by Russian and foreign authors, consider their definitions of the above terms, and identify common and contradictory features of the concepts. We make an attempt to critically comprehend and generalize disparate approaches in order to systematize and unify the terminological framework of demographic research. During the analysis, we discover an entity that is invisibly present in the terminological framework of demographic development and demographic policy, but is not clearly defined. In order to introduce the appropriate term, we compare the interpretations ofthe terms “source”, “resource” and “potential”. As a result, we choose “demographic development resource” as the most accurate term for this phenomenon. Having systematized disparate approaches and clarified the meaning of individual components, we propose a definition for the term “demographic development resource” - it is a set of available tangible and intangible assets that can be used to manage demographic and migration processes. The identified concept, its term and the definition we propose should form the basis for research in a new scientific direction. In the future, it is necessary to typologize demographic development resources, identify and calculate their amount in Russia, assess their sufficiency, find the tools to influence individual resources, investigate the necessary and sufficient amounts of resources, as well as design a mechanism for achieving and maintaining their required amount, using the example of Russia.