Territory as a Representative of a Class of System Objects: The Problem of Decomposition in Socio-Economic Research

The systematic approach has long been the methodological “mainstream” of scientific research in almost all branches of scientific knowledge. Socio-economic studies of territories are no exception. However, in such studies, there is often a simple statement of the fact that the territory is a systemic object. At the same time, the issues of specifying the system properties and substantiating the structure of the studied object, as a rule, remain beyond the attention of scientists and specialists, which casts doubt on the correctness of both the study itself and the results obtained during it. The purpose of this study is to develop a compositional model of a territorial system applicable for conducting socio-economic studies of territories of any taxonomic level. Taking into account the fact that the problem under study is at the intersection of systems theory and economics, achieving this goal required solving a number of tasks. First, specifying the content of fundamental concepts because the views of modern scientists vary significantly depending on their approach to the territory and to the system as scientific categories. Second, clarification of the list of system-wide and private-system properties of territorial systems. Third, substantiation of the parameters of the decomposition of the territorial system. To solve them, general scientific theoretical methods were applied making it possible to formulate a universal definition of the territory (as the basis for the subsequent formalization of its model) and to specify the system-wide and private-system properties of the territorial system, as well as the methodological platform of the system paradigm. The author developed a compositional model of the territorial system as integral, structured according to two characteristics (component composition and typologies of life values) of a set of quadrants. The matrix nature of the model allows us to present the object of study as a set of subsystems (modules) that describe the territory as an integrity, but at the same time allow independent development and research of certain of its manifestations with their subsequent integration into the general system as components. The development of models aimed at solving individual problems of territorial management is the prospect of further research.