Spatial Economy and its Methodological Building Blocs

Abstract

To cope with growing exogenous threats to the economy and its ongoing transformation Russia needs a new understanding of its spatial economic development. In 2019 the Russian government adopted the Strategy for Spatial Economic Development until 2025, which should further be developed according to the Presidential Decree, announced in May, 2024.While refocusing the main economic goal on achieving and maintaining national technological sovereignty, Russia also needs to reconsider its spatial development strategy. This means that Russian regions must actively participate in the implementation of the main national strategic goal and develop their own technology policy, complementing each other and further strengthening the common economic and political space in Russia. The purpose of the article is to develop the basic methodological principles of Russian spatial development to achieve the main goals of national technological sovereignty. The research methodology includes: holistic, systemic approach, logistical analysis, the interaction between simple and complicated forms, deduction and induction. A critical analysis of modern methodological ideas on the issue is presented. The author proposes the following methodological principles, namely: the principle of full implementation of the peculiarities of each region, its special “regional advantage”; the principle of convergence, which means reducing gap in socio-economic development between regions, implying the implementation of regional technology policy; the principle of “common in different” - suggesting the introduction of a new model of interregional division of labor, stimulating centripetal movement between Russian regions; the principle of division of competence between central and regional government, especially in the field of technological and economic development. The author explains, that the diversity of the regional technological trajectories as the precondition for the national economic diversification represents a crucial condition for strengthening the interregional economic cooperation and strengthening of national economic system in general. The article concludes with a statement on the need to integrate the Strategy for Spatial Development and the Research&Development Strategy in the Russian Federation, which enables to understand the critical significance of the technological essence of the regional economic development from the one side and the critical significance of the spatial dimension of the national technological development from the other side.