Rural Territories in Spatial Development of a Region

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to determine the essential differences and interconnection between the categories of spatial development and spatial inequality, their measuring, and means of overcoming in the conditions of growth of territorial competition in the markets of investments, labor, and capital (R11, R12).

Determining the opportunities for development of rural territories is based on the idea that each territorial entity is a subject of competition and could create competitive advantages by means of combination of external and internal sources of development. Overcoming the inequality of development of territories is considered within the search for own “windows of opportunities” (R11, R12).

Rural territories are considered as elements of a region’s spatial system, interconnected with adjacent territories based on exchange of the results of economic activities. Forming local economic spaces, they create intra-regional economic areas (R11, R12). The authors study the factors that influence the differences in the level of socio-economic development of rural territories (R13) and determine the trends that are peculiar for economic and social development of rural territories in a region’s space. The authors show the growing significance of the factors of the “second nature” from the point of view of opportunities of future development (R13). The authors also determine the necessity for changing the approaches from tough leveling by means of external sources to formation of a “window of opportunities” for development by means of internal sources (R28). Local growth poles are determined, and the cores of the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd order as to the level of influence on the surrounding territories are determined (R12). The necessity for formation of institutes of joint management of socio-economic development of rural territories is substantiated (R58). The research object is rural territories of Krasnodar Krai.