Strategic Priorities for the Development of Small Towns as Supporting Nodes of the Country’s Spatial Framework

The article is devoted to issues related to the study of problems and substantiation of priorities for the development of small towns from the standpoint of the structural and functional model of organizing the socio-economic space.

The purpose of the article is to substantiate regional and sectoral priorities for the development of various types of small towns as supporting nodes of the country’s spatial framework. The study is based on general scientific and special research methods (structural and functional, analysis of the regulatory framework, OTSW analysis, economic and mathematical methods, etc.). The methodological basis of the study were the concepts and theories of regional, spatial economics, the theory and methodology of strategizing by V.L. Kvint. The information base of the study was the data of Rosstat, strategic documents of spatial development of the federal and regional levels, regulatory legal acts, data from the service for analyzing the financial and economic activities of enterprises Kontur.Fokus, etc. The article substantiates that the key task of turning small towns into the country’s core settlements is to strengthen their “centrality” by activating socioeconomic ties with large cities (agglomerations) and rural areas. At the same time, for each type of small town, taking into account their specialization and peripherality, it seems important to justify strategic development priorities based on existing and projected competitive advantages. Taking this into account, the work proposes a matrix of regional and industry priorities for the development of small towns as core hubs, taking into account the achievement of the country’s national goals. It is substantiated that an important role in the implementation of these priorities is given to the development of the institution of inter-municipal cooperation. A conceptual scheme for organizing inter-municipal cooperation from the standpoint of a stakeholder approach is proposed, which will improve the efficiency of using the potential of this institution for ensuring inter-territorial integration through the active involvement of business structures in this process. Using the example of the Arkhangelsk agglomeration, which includes a large, large, small city, as well as rural areas, inter-municipal projects are substantiated, the implementation of which will improve the efficiency of using the potential of these territories. 

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