Home – Home – Jornals – Region: Economics and Sociology 2021 number 4

A group of experts has studied and codified 160 scientific articles published in Russian from 2015 till 2020 that mention the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation (SDS). Each is defined and assigned to one of four groups: 1) with suggestions for the SDS (23% of the articles); 2) critical of the SDS with suggestions for it (19%); 3) purely critical of the SDS (18%); and 4) neutral or laudatory (40%). This study points out 22 thematic motifs, or themes, found in articles and related to the SDS semantic core. For each article, we have compiled a digital code vector that marks the theme’s presence (code 0) and the author’s critical demeanor toward its interpretation in the SDS: from code 1 (meaning “full support") to 5 (meaning “strong resentment"). The following themes have been addressed most often: 1) the need for the SDS as a state planning document. Its design requirements in terms of form, content, and the period of validity (90 articles); 2) goals, timetables, and resources for implementation (45); 3) macro-regions and their allocation principles (44); 4) agglomerations and their identification adequacy (43); 5) prospective effective specialization of regions (43); 6) tools and methods to implement the strategy (35). For all the themes, the number of critical statements is significantly larger than that of neutral or favorable references. The greatest resentment is shown toward the following: the principles of determining priorities; quantitative indicators of implementation; institutional conditions for implementation; geostrategic territories; peripheral and degrading territories; regional imbalances