Economic and social development of cities of Tatarstan, Russian Federation

Abstract

Urbanization not only comprises population growth. It is a certain form of social life. Urban life revolves around a city with a developed economy, infrastructure, communications, and social security and should be distinct from other kinds of localities. Cities should function as centres of economic growth, policy-making and cultural life. Understanding urban systems demands multidisciplinary approaches that account for physical processes, economic and social factors, and non-linear feedback across a broad range of scales and phenomena. The aim of this paper is to investigate 1) the specifics of economic development of cities in the transition period, 2) the social networks formed between economic actors of modern Russian economic life, showing how and why these networks are established between the main cities of one case study region, that of the Republic of Tatarstan. Moreover, an in-depth coverage of the industrial structure of four key Tatar cities is given, and an analysis of the prospects for the development of these cities into growth poles. Let us first look in more detail at the methodology used to answer these questions.