Категория места в современной теории экономического пространства

Abstract

Various aspects of spatial economics have taken a meaningful place among actively evolving directions and issues of current economic theory, in the context of aggravated global competition driven by searching out new opportunities for building up the competitive performance of national economies. It is now becoming apparent that the theory of economic space has a great potential key for understanding and elucidation of processes and effects of ongoing socio-economic transformations. A particular manifestation of such a potential to be better explored is the category of place representing quite a dense matrix where various features of economic space meet and intersect. Therefore the elucidation of the place category is closely tied with extending scientific inquiry and shaping an interdisciplinary discourse. The authors focus on assessing the state of spatial economics in the context of current socio-economic transformations; defining place as a fundamental category of this theory; opening up new possibilities for location in actual spatial economy; setting new trends in spatial economics through implementation of the above capabilities; and applications arising from place category findings in the economic space theory. From the perspective of place category the authors explore the bottlenecks and inconsistency of modern socio-economic transformation processes, evaluate their effects at different levels, and assess available tools for the corresponding applications. The article offers recommendations for upgrading spatial aspects of the state economic policy and public management. The obtained results refer to a new and promising direction of the interdisciplinary scientific inquiry warranting the essential novelty and polemical character of the provisions, conclusions and recommendations presented in the article. The study employs the educational resources of the systemic approach, the dialectical method and some contemporary scientific theories such as cognitive economics, socio-economic transformations, human capital, evolutionary and institutional theories, etc.