Studies of Social and Economic Development of the Russian Arctic at the Regional and Local Levels: Review of Some Relevant Works by Russian Researchers

This review is an analytical presentation of the content of scientific articles and monographs published in the last few years and devoted to the problems of socio-economic development of the territories of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF). Since the legal recognition of the AZRF, many empirical studies have been devoted to the issues of its socio-economic development. However, the literature review in them is limited to the selected narrow subject of research. This circumstance creates an urgent need for a comprehensive analysis of currently relevant directions in the study of socio-economic processes in the AZRF. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the diversity of vectors of scientific search in contemporary Russian studies of social and economic processes in the Arctic. The limitation of the study is the significant growth of publications on the topics of interest to us, caused by the variety of specific issues covered in the latest Arctic research. Therefore, we have selected only a few representative works that reflect the multi-vector nature of Arctic research in contemporary Russia. As a result of analyzing the works, we have found that Arctic research is characterized by both thematic and geographical diversity. The authors conditionally divide contemporary Arctic studies in Russia into three directions: interregional comparative studies within the boundaries of the entire AZRF, regional case studies, and local studies (at the level of municipalities). It is important to note that within the framework of the last two directions of research the key contribution to the multiplication of empirical material and its conceptual understanding is primarily made by scientists from regional scientific and university centers. Another peculiarity of Russian Arctic research is the shift of interest towards the study of the urban environment, industrial centers, and urbanism, while economists and sociologists pay insufficient attention to the study of the rural periphery. The observed deficit of local studies of social and economic processes in the rural Arctic in the future may lead to the rapid development of this direction in contemporary Russian science.