Landmarks for Spatial Development

This chapter presents the motivation for the research demonstrated in this book and provides an overview of the contributions of each chapter.

Discourses over interregional migration at the time of the Soviet era have shown that, in the late Soviet era, the effects of incentive mechanisms including national investment became limited. However, the population influx was continuously seen in Far East or Extreme North regions even at the very end of the Soviet period, suggesting the possibility of effective governmental management on geographical redistribution of population. This chapter confirmed the effectiveness of the governmental control on population migration in the late Soviet era, using newly available data of migration matrix which identifies origin and destination of population flows. Region-based panel data analyses revealed that the analytical unit utilized in previous studies may involve problems so that the effect of various factors could not be accurately grasped. This shows the necessity of further verification of the results that have been obtained during the Soviet era. Additionally, the limitations and possibilities of governmental control on population re-distribution in a country are suggested.

Small and medium-sized cities of Russia are one of the most sensitive topics in spatial research. Such cities are resilient to changing economic conditions, but are quite unaffordable in moving towards a higher level of development. In this paper, we set a goal to identify existing barriers of knowledge spillovers in small and medium-sized cities and their subsequent localization. We thus indicated the urban environment quality, the financial capital availability, the level of social capital, and transaction costs as potential barriers in localizing knowledge spillovers. On the basis of the k-means clustering method and data for the cities of the Sverdlovsk region, Oryol region and the Republic of Crimea, five clusters of cities were formed. The first cluster includes small cities with high barriers. The second cluster consists of a medium-sized city with low barriers. Small and medium-sized cities with moderate barriers of tacit knowledge spillovers form the third cluster. The fourth cluster includes mainly small cities with low barriers of tacit knowledge spillovers. And the fifth cluster is based on small and medium-sized cities with moderate agglomeration influence, lack of social capital and low financial barriers. The results obtained are useful for identifying reserves for reducing knowledge spillover barriers.

The article is devoted to the territorial distribution of single-industry towns, which, on the one hand, are large centers for the placement of industry, on the other, concentrations of socioeconomic problems. The purpose of the study is to identify the spatial features of the distribution of single-industry towns, taking into account the “hidden” single-industry towns. The authors propose to consider “hidden” single-industry towns, those whose share of the single-industry is not visible in statistics, or whose city-forming enterprise is in bankruptcy. Based on the involvement of microdata in 2013–2017, the authors propose six groups of single-industry towns. We consider the Kemerovo region case study and conclude the key features of the development of Russian single-industry towns in comparison to international experience: the participation of Internet technologies in the formation of interaction networks, the prevalence of competition for federal funding over the construction of networks of intercity interaction, geographical factor, and the strong influence of the path dependence.

The study of urbanization processes is a topical issue as it represents a global trend, and the concentration of economic, innovative, scientific, public activity is able to increase significantly the economic efficiency. At the same time, the urbanization process development enhances the necessity to determine the optimal urbanization level to support the balanced development of the country. This investigation is aimed at estimating the urbanization level in Kazakhstan regions, revealing the difference among the regions, and reasons for the difference for more balanced policy in the field of urbanization. The investigation assumes the application of the index method for urbanization level estimation. By inclusion of the cities’ number and its sizes to the index, we managed to rank Kazakhstan cities by the following urbanization levels: very high; high; middle; low, and very low. These results can be used at elaborating the governmental policy on the urbanization process management in Kazakhstan.

Pursuant to the existing law of Russia, Priority Socio-Economic Development Territories in mono-profile municipal entities (PSEDT) shall be created per one model in which systemic factors shall be the conditions for receipt of the status of a resident (number of workplaces, amount of investments, and line of business). When building up the model of PSEDT, special features of each territory are not investigated thoroughly enough or taken into consideration. It is alleged that by creating a “paradise” for investor via tax benefits and state preferences, those automatically trigger a trend for priority development. The article presents differentiated models of PSEDT, built on the basis of an institutional-synergetic approach, in which phase, structural transformations in the PSEDT system and the degree of uncertainty of the external environment are taken into account, which made it possible to represent the evolution of special territories from the level of governance, which deals with issues of survival and ending up with levels of innovative development. In addition to that, a lower level of PSEDT development is the basis for constructing the model of a higher level. The elaborated technology of modeling is designed to take into account differences in the existing potential for priority development of monocities and is aimed at assessing, on a par with quantitative indicators, also the qualitative parameters which impact attainment of government-identified objectives set in the PSEDT sphere. In this case, management of a PSEDT will be aimed at creating, accumulating resources necessary to transition to the next level of the territory’s technological development.

The socio-economic development of regions is closely connected with their spatial organization, which explains scholarly interest in this topic, especially the selection of parameters that should be targeted for spatial optimization. This study models the spatial organization of regional economies. Methodologically, it is based on the methods of analysis and synthesis, abstraction, generalization, and classification. The study describes the universal parameters of an optimally organized economic space such as integrity, cohesion, heterogeneity, and polycentricity as well as the parameters that may have different significance for regions of different types such as openness and changeability. Heterogeneity and cohesion may also have different significance for different regions. Special attention is given to patterns of economic activity in regions of different types and the corresponding models of spatial organization—zonal, functional, hierarchical, and network models. The models are also aligned with the key strategic areas of spatial development. The study shows the need for a more differentiated approach to the choice of goals and priorities of regional spatial development and its findings may be used for strategic policymaking on the regional and national levels.

This paper examines the state and analyzes the possible directions of development and functioning of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) of Russia and, in particular, Asian Russia (territories located to the East of the Urals) from the perspective of being integrated into the globally promoted “agenda” of energy transition. It is shown that the lag in solving such issues as forming the sector of scientific and production services in the East of Russia, as well as specialized machine building and deeper integrated processing of fuel and energy resources, significantly reduces the chances of achieving both the stability of socio-economic development and the solution to the problems of reducing carbon intensity in this territory. Solving the above-mentioned problems requires procedures and approaches to the institutional adjustment of the system of state regulation as well as managing the processes of development and use of the huge energy potential of the East of the country. A special role in this is assigned to forming a feedback of export-oriented supply of energy resources along with the implementation of projects aimed at changing the structure of the economy of Asian Russia. The authors believe that the currently observed growth of demand for domestic primary energy resources in the markets of China and the Asia–Pacific region as a whole should not be considered as a sustainable long-term trend. Improving the stability of fuel and energy complex of Asian Russia and its economy as a whole makes it necessary to consider and develop projects that rely on the connectivity and interaction of different sectors and regions.

Interest in the issues of cluster development, and their impact on the socio-economic development of territories leads to numerous studies in this area. Moreover, despite the fact that the cluster rhetoric has strengthened in the scientific and political lexicon, a number of fundamental problems remain unresolved, which constrains the dissemination of this approach in practice. It is necessary to determine the rational basis of cluster policy, as well as the areas and conditions in which the application of this tool is justified. Without serious understanding, the cluster approach risks to be superficial, rather retouching the problems, and quickly replaced by other “fashionable” concepts, without having a significant impact on solving the problems of innovative development of the industrial region. The purpose of the study is to review conceptual approaches to the development of industrial clusters, extending their period from the early Italian experience to modern Eurasian studies. The study is based on scientific works of scientists devoted to the issues of defining the essence of clusters and cluster policy, assessment of its impact on the development of the economy of the region. The study uses methods of system and comparative analysis. The novelty of the author's approach consists in expanding the temporal boundaries and highlighting various aspects of early and modern cluster approaches. The study identified historical, structural, and evolutionary features of cluster development, which allows developing practical tools for the implementation of cluster policy in the region. The results obtained indicate the diversity and multidimensionality of existing approaches to the development of industrial clusters and the need for their further development.