The role and place of borderlands in modern research: a look through the prism of doctoral dissertations

The article studies the borderlands through a review of doctoral dissertations defended in Russia from the early 2000s to our time. We revealed that over almost a quarter of a century only 40 theses were prepared, 16 of them for doctoral degree in economic sciences. The dynamics of the number of defended dissertations demonstrates a fading interest in the problem of borderlands. Based on the scope of research of doctoral dissertations, we have come to the conclusion about the diversity of aspects of the borderland from the economic perspective. Taking into account the change in the number of Russia’s federal subjects and the emergence of new border regions there is a need for new research in this field.