Uneven and Structurally Diverse Spatial Development of Economy as a Scientific Problem and Russian Reality

The author attempted to analyze unevenness and diversity in general and specifically for spatial economic development, based on global, Russian, and regional examples. Unevenness and diversity in spatial economics could represent not fully independent, but nonetheless different phenomena and definitions. The diversity could include unevenness as a special case but is mostly associated with the contrasts of relatively qualitative nature, including structural contrasts. Unevenness is born from diversity and, in turn, generates more diversity. Different combinations of the two phenomena can and do exist, including in Russia. Plainly speaking, unevenness is diverse, and diversity is uneven. The article emphasizes major structural types, the dynamics of which determined the direction of the shifts in the territorial-sectoral structure of the GRP (GVA) and employment in Russia. The most significant of them was the shift from basically industrial structures to basically service ones, which is not unusual but is complicated by crisis and other deviations from the trend. It wasn’t particularly logical: it affected the center, the periphery, was accompanied by simplification and complication of economic structures. The industrial sector is the great loser in sectoral diversity and complexity of regional structures, combined with the growing concentration of production, meaning its unevenness, among Russian regions and with the leveling in the context of large parts of the country thanks to the shift to the East. In general Russia isn’t excluded from the general trend of structural transformation of the economy, typical for large countries of the global semi-periphery; these trends endure in spite of all fluctuations and failures.