THE PARADIGM OF SOCIOECONOMICS IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONS

Abstract

The article discusses theoretical issues of studying socioeconomics and implementing its postulates inRussia during the period of the world community’s transformation: transition to the humanistic stage of development,assertion of the sustainable development principles, formation of a multipolar geopolitical situation, global regionalization. Particular attention is paid in the paper to the environmental focus of socioeconomics, which is aimed at harmonizing therelationships between nature and society. The study deals with the assessment of the economic, social, and environmentalefficiency of socioeconomics using modern tools of economic geography and regional economics. The importance of theanthropocentric approach in substantiating the goals underlying the development of socioeconomics at the regional andlocal levels is emphasized. The provisions of socioeconomics are implicitly present in the strategic planning documentsof the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and laid down in a number of national projects and concepts ofeconomic, socio-economic, and human geography. The advantages of the socioeconomic paradigm are fully realized inold industrial regions as there is a need for the modernization of the economic complex, new goal-setting, and the formation of an effective territorial management mechanism. The Perm Region, being a typical old industrial region, is goingthrough a difficult period of transformation of resource-exploiting sectors of the economy. The paper discusses the formation of Advanced Socio-Economic Development Areas in the context of the socioeconomic paradigm as a mechanismfor implementing the sustainable development principles. The priority direction in the development of an old industrialregion is its balanced progress, understood, firstly, as a well-proportioned combination of traditional and new industriesand, secondly, as a harmonious development of the economy and the social sphere.