SINGLE-INDUSTRY TOWNS WITHIN THE INDUSTRIAL REGIONSOF THE URALS FEDERAL DISTRICT AND THE FEATURESOF THEIR LOCAL IDENTITY

There are 37 single-industry towns in the Urals Federal District (15 % of the total number of single-industry towns in the Russian Federation), of which 17 are in the Sverdlovsk region, 16 in the Chelyabinsk region, and 4 in the Kurgan region. They are home to more than 3.3 million people (26 % of the total population of single-industry towns in the Russian Federation). For the study, two subjects of the Urals Federal District (Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions) were selected, related to industrial regions, which include the overwhelming majority of single-industry towns of the Urals Federal District. Single-industry towns, being economic actors in the industrial regions of the Urals Federal District, on the one hand, make a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of the territories; on the other hand, being micro-societies, they largely determine the local identity of their territory. It was shown that the industrial potential, scale and results of production activities of single-industry towns are not fully synchronized with their social security; single-industry towns are not able to fully satisfy the range of social needs of the population. The need to use the production potential of single-industry towns and their capabilities as a unique micro-society for the development of these territories was substantiated. Interest in this formulation of the question determined the purpose of the study: to show the role and place of single-industry towns in the regional space, taking into account their local identity. The study used structural-functional and spatio-temporal approaches to the analysis of the role and place of single-industry towns in the regional space and their local identity. The novelty of the authors’ approaches consisted in expanding the context and boundaries of the study of single-industry towns as subjects of economic activity in the regional space, as well as micro-societies with their own specificity and local identity.