Ontology of studying regional socio-economic systems

In the article some ontological issues of studying regional socio-economic systems are considered. The main idea is to show the process of research management and also possible components of a region’s socio-economic systems that reveal the essence of these systems under the conditions of transformational processes to the fullest extent possible. On the basis of the research conducted into the existing scientific ap-proaches of Russian and foreign scientists to comprehending the essence of the region, a refined concept of the “region” is offered. In the author's interpretation, a special emphasis is placed on the identification of the concepts "region" and "regional system" as both of them belong to the category of organic spontaneous sys-tems and pursue the same aim. The article offers an algorithm of studying regional socio-economic systems, as well as a typology of the existing views of Russian and foreign researchers within functional, structural, and casual concepts of research. Taking into account the typology proposed, the main functions, the domi-nating processes taking place in socio-economic systems, and the structure of these systems are presented. The dominating processes include metabolism, humanization, reproduction, evolution, harmonization, and replication. In this regard, the author has suggested a following hypothesis: the more efficiently each system is provided with resources, the higher the synergetic effect of the whole socio-economic system will be. Ac-cording to the author’s conclusions, studying regional socio-economic systems demands optimum research management at its various stages, as well as application of new fundamental methods allowing for consider-ing socio-economic systems as spontaneous systems that in the course of their development consecutively pass stages of functional complication, which should be taken into account by territorial authorities.