SPATIAL AND SOCIOCULTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF RUSSIA: A VIEW FROM THE REGION

Abstract

With the intensification of the existing geopolitical contradicitions the task of increasing the efficiency of public administration based on internal development factors of the country and the regions takes on new urgency. For this, it is essetnial, first of all, to comprehend the intermediate results of national development in the context of the 1992-2022 liberal model, the results and consequences of the spatial and sociocultural transformation of the regions, also, to substantiate the priorities and tools for improving state policy, considering the current challenges. These circumstances provided the relevance of the given paper.
The purpose of the research: to study the features, consequences of the spatial and sociocultural transformation of the Russian regions in the post-Soviet period and to offer public administration efficiency improvement tools to ensure their integrated development.
Methodology. The monographic, comparative, historical, sociological, economic and statistical methods were used in the research.
Outcoms and findings. The result of Russia's development in the context of liberal model was identified as a significant destruction of the country's industrial potential and its technological sovereignty due to the growing depression in the manufacturing industry; accelerated rates of depopulation in the North, the Far East and the rural areas; exacerbation of social inequality problems, etc. In addtition, these negative trends were revealed to be especially acute in the northern regions, which make up 2/3 of the country's area. The article makes a case for the spatial development of these territories which is characterized by the forced locational compression, i.e., the concentration of economic activity in a limited number of economic growth centers against the destructive background of the human, economic, infrastructural potential of medium/small towns and peripheral municipalities. It is shown that these negative processes had a significant impact on the socio-cultural transformation of the regions of the North (increased numbers of people who are not sure about their future; low level of interpersonal trust; certain destruction of traditional moral values, etc.). Grounds are given for priorities and instruments of state policy for the regional integrated development based on their potential. At the federal level, they are connected, first of all, with the new social contract and the image of the national future development. The policy priorities at regional level may be a polycentric spatial structure based on the 'second order' agglomerations development; economy modernization of small/medium-sized towns, their development as supporting settlements; restoration, including on an innovative basis, of socio-economic connections along the 'urban-rural' line.
Application area. The scientific significance of the research lies in the identification of fairly strong relationships between the economic, spatial and socio-cultural transformation of the Russian society. The practical importance of the work is that these findings can be used for the federal and regional socioeconomic policy improvement.