Fundamentals of Economic Genetics in Models of Evolution and Revitalization of Old Industrial Regions

The review article is devoted to a search for unconventional solutions to established problems of old industrial regions. The economy of historically industrial territories is under the influence of long-term and complex factors of industrial specialization, socio-demographic processes, cultural and moral norms of the population, as well as political fronts. These factors are involved in modeling the system of "hereditary memory" of regions, which is responsible for regional predisposition to a certain type of innovative, social, industrial, political and other processes. The aim of the study is to identify genetic codes that determine the specific features of socio-economic transformations in old industrial regions. The hypothesis of the research is that the socio-economic development of an old industrial region is to a certain extent determined by a system of its interrelated genetic codes that determine the established specialization and predisposition of the territory to various endogenous processes. The methodology of the survey study is made up of the methods of system-functional and system-historical analysis of scientific publications, reflecting solutions to the problems of socio-economic development of old industrial regions. It is substantiated that each old industrial region has “defining” genetic codes: production, social and institutional ones. Together, these codes represent the fundamental hereditary program of the economic evolution of the territory and contain a set of endogenous factors of the development of the territory, formed and transmitted from generation to generation in the process of the life of society. It is shown that each region also has “dynamic” genetic codes that can be identified as innovative, infrastructural and sociocultural. All these codes are generated at the level of the connections of "defining" codes; they are able to cause revitalization of territories and ensure further stages of the evolutionary development of the territories under consideration, provided that these compounds are not defective. The scientific novelty of the results lies in the development of theoretical and methodological provisions of economic genetics as a modern interdisciplinary science, allowing one to understand in a new way the determinants and patterns of development of industrial regions, based on the experience of old industrial territories. The practical significance of the results obtained lies in the possibility of their use by the authorities as an additional tool for the development of tactical and strategic solutions to stable problems of historically industrial territories, increasing the effectiveness of their implementation.