Socio-geographical space of small towns in the Tver region
Abstract
The article deals with the study of the small cities space. Despite the increased popularity of the topic of small cities, Russian authors pay little attention to spatial changes within settlements of this category. An attempt to capture the post-Soviet transformation of urban space gives special relevance to the study. The sociogeographical space (SGS) is a specific section of the real 3D geographical space including the territory of a city, objects of the urban environment and the system of socio-spatial relations of residents realized in this environment. The SGS of several cities of the Tver region is described. Because of the lack of many necessary data, the authors focused mainly on the materials of their own field studies and the opinion of citizens. The analysis was carried out at three levels, i.e. structural, activity and mental. At the structural level, primary focus is on the relative positions of places of residence, places of work and places of receiving services. At the activity level, intra-city flows are considered. Higher spatial inconsistency of the centers of attraction (residential zones, industrial areas and public facilities) was found for small cities as compared to large ones. The trend is the most obvious in historic towns. At the mental level, the ideas of local residents about the division of urban territory into districts, their opinions about the properties of these districts and manifestations of local identity were studied. The changes during the post-Soviet period are revealed. In the final part of the article, we attempt to combine the concept of socio-geographical space and the idea of a third place to determine key features of the territorial organization of a modern small Russian city.
Supporting agencies: The study was financially supported by the grant of the President of the Russian Federation for young scientists – Ph.Ds. (no. MK-5512.2021.1.5).
About the Authors
P. S. Lebedev
Tver State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Faculty of Geography and Geoecology, Department of Socio-Economic Geography and Territorial Planning,
postgraduate Student
I. P. Smirnov
Tver State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Faculty of Geography and Geoecology, Department of Socio-Economic Geography and Territorial Planning,
Associate Professor, Ph.D. in Geography
A. A. Smirnova
Tver State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Faculty of Geography and Geoecology, Department of Socio-Economic Geography and Territorial Planning,
Associate Professor, Ph.D. in Geography
A. A. Tkachenko
Tver State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Faculty of Geography and Geoecology, Department of Socio-Economic Geography and Territorial Planning,
Professor, D.Sc. in Geography
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Review
For citations:
Lebedev P.S., Smirnov I.P., Smirnova A.A., Tkachenko A.A. Socio-geographical space of small towns in the Tver region. Lomonosov Geography Journal. 2022;(2):86-100. (In Russ.)
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