Thalassocentricity of Russian Coastal Territories: Residential and Economic Dimensions

• Published in: Regional research of Russia Vol. 14; no. 2; pp. 272 - 279
• Main Author: Druzhinin, A. G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Coastal zone; Economic statistics; Economics; Economics and Finance; Geography; Regional Development; Regional/Spatial Science; Socioeconomics; Russia; coastal municipalities; settlement pattern; localization of the economy; coastal regions; thalassocentricity; Russia
• ISSN: 2079-9705; 2079-9713
• DOI: 10.1134/S2079970524600069

In the 21st century, the development of the resource potential of the World Ocean is a basic condition for socioeconomic development. This issue has also been made relevant for modern Russia, focusing humangeographical research, including directly on coastal territories. The article is devoted to the conceptualization, parameterization, and typologization of the phenomenon of a “bias towards the sea” of components of the spatial structure (residential and economic) of coastal regions, defined as thalassocentricity. The causes, manifestations, and consequences of the thalassocentricity of multiscale territorial socioeconomic systems are revealed, the place of this category in the conceptual and categorical apparatus of the marine branch of social geography is shown. Based on demographic and economic statistics for 155 Russian municipalities with direct access to the sea, a multicriteria assessment of the degree and dynamics (for 2010–2021) of thalassocentricity of the coastal regions of the Russian Federation is proposed. Among the coastal regions of the country, only in a few the effects of thalassocentricity manifest themselves exclusively at the local level (locking themselves in the contours of coastal municipalities) or, as maritime economic activity grows, they spread to the vast Arctic periphery. Most are classified as thalassocentric.