Economic-geographical location: Generalization of conceptual frameworks and generation of new meanings

Abstract

The concept of economic-geographical location as formulated by N.N. Baranskii in 1929 is a distinguishing feature of the Russian regionalization school of social geography. Over the course of 85 years this concept has changed somewhat thus giving grounds to preliminarily examine and summarize the results obtained and to look into the future developments. In pursuing these aims, an analysis was made of the evolution of the views concerning the essence of economic-geographical location. Three evolution stages of the concept are identified, namely: classical (1929–1973), quantitative (1974–2003), and polyfunctional (since 2004). An outline is given of the main problems of assessing the economic-geographical location. Three main approaches to assessing the economic-geographical location are defined: the object-oriented approach (position relative to meaningful objects), the network approach (positional relationship of networks), and the stream-oriented approach (the degree of involvement in system-forming flows). By analyzing the possibilities for switchover from the currently dominant approach to the second and third approaches, it was possible to identify five new meanings of economic-geographical location. According to these meanings, economic-geographical location is treated as an integration potential, a vector, the location relative to the processes, and the location of main routes and drifting centers. An example of assessing the neighborly economic-geographical location of Eurasian states for November 2014 is given. It is found that the highest integration potential in Eurasia corresponds to Russia, China and Ukraine. Presented are the results from assessing the economic-geographical location of post roads of Siberia (as of December 1786), with consideration for their neighborly, transshipment and transit significance. An assessment is made of the process of opening auxiliary postal points at several railroad stations of Irkutsk Guberniya (Governorate). An alternative assessment of the economic-geographical location as a vector quantity is provided. A possibility of employing the values of economic-geographical location in determining the general direction of regional postal network reformatting is shown.