Region as a “Double Periphery“ (on the Example of the Russian Far East)

The study of “double peripheries” is a new area of center-periphery research, the development of which is currently hampered by several methodological difficulties, including the problems of conceptualization and empirical interpretation of the “double periphery“ as a scientific concept. Citing Russian Far East as an example, the article attempts to provide methodologically founded identification of a specific double periphery. Drawing on the results of contemporary center-periphery studies, the paper advances a working definition of a double periphery. This allows for identifying statistical indicators that are necessary to assess whether a socio-geographical object belongs to the peripheries of the named type. After that the author conducts a comparative historical analysis of quantitative data on the societal potential of the Russian Far East in 1990–2020 and the dynamics of its trade, investment and migration ties. The analysis concludes that the macroregion represents a double periphery which has developed in the post-Soviet period in relation to the NEA-3 countries (China, Japan, the Republic of Korea) and Russia. Today it is most clearly manifested in the export of goods and outbound tourism. Finally, the article outlines possible ways to stimulate development of the Far Eastern macroregion under the objective constraints imposed by its peripheral position. The implication to be made is that it is necessary to move from the selective policy of local preferences, which has been carried out since the beginning of the 2010s, to the areal planned development of the Russian Far East based on the introduction of a special administrative regime on the its territory.

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