Geobranding of an abandoned small town: analysing problems and opportunities from the perspective of systems theory

The article investigates the problem of small towns in the Russian Federation that are already abandoned or being abandoned in the context of solving tasks of sustainable development of territories. The aims of the study are to identify and analyse problems and opportunities of geobranding of the abandoned city from the perspective of systems theory. Achieving the aims implied solving the following tasks: analysing peculiarities of functioning and development of a small city from the perspective of the systems theory; identifying and considering objective determinants of the city’s demise as a socio-economic geosystem; analysing possibilities of solving the problem of revival of the abandoned small city by means of geobranding. As a result of the study it is proved that from the point of view of the systems theory, degradation and death of a small town are based on both objective intrasystem regressive processes and objective processes of development of its supersystems, which are, first of all, socio-economic geosystems of a higher order; the main destabilising factors of the process of small town development as well as systemic violations corresponding to them have been identified and systematised; the mechanism of revival of the abandoned small town through geobranding tools is proposed, the use of which implies repositioning of the town as a geocultural object; different brand concepts of geobranding strategy of repositioning the abandoned small town are presented, the choice of which at the level of practical implementation depends on content features of the town, its cultural, historical, natural, architectural specifics.