Strategic priorities of small and medium towns' development

The current trends of population concentration in large cities and agglomerations lead to an imbalance in spatial development. These trends are among the main threats to the national security of the state. The problems of socio-economic development are particularly acute for small and medium towns, as local centers of adjacent territories. In this regard, the choice of ways and directions to improve the efficiency of the management of these localities becomes particularly relevant. The purpose of the research is to find and scientifically substantiate new priorities of strategic management of the development of small and medium towns taking into account the diversity of their types. The article presents the views of leading Russian researchers on the problem of managing small and medium towns. Based on the scientific literature analysis and survey results of heads of administrations of small and medium towns of the Vologda Oblast, the authors identify the main factors that hinder the construction of an effective management system. The paper proves the expediency of working out regional strategies for the development of small and medium towns, based on the settlements' typology according to the economic profile and position in the urbanized system. The work shows the approaches to the definition of the town's specialization: 1) based on the current economic structure; 2) based on the “smart specialization” concept. The information basis of the study is data of official statistics and scientific works of domestic and foreign researchers on the studied subject. In the paper, the authors use the methods of expert survey, monographic, economic and statistical, tabular and graphical methods of data visualization. The research results can be used in the activities of regional and municipal authorities in the working out strategic planning documents for managing the development of small and medium towns.