The Intellectual Heritage of A.P. Gorkin: A Systematic Approach to the Territorial Organization of the Economy in the Context of Modern Concepts

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Abstract

The article examines the intellectual legacy of the prominent economic geographer and Americanist Alexander Pavlovich Gorkin (1936–2022) and his regular co-authors (primarily his closest associate L.V. Smirnyagin) in the context of modern theories of economic geography and regional economics. A systematic comparison of the main theoretical provisions of Gorkin’s key publications of different years with domestic and international studies of similar periods is carried out, as well as a critical comparison of them with modern (as of the early 2020s) approaches to the relevant problems. Four key components of Gorkin’s intellectual legacy are identified. It is shown that the theoretical and empirical studies of A.P. Gorkin (including the Gorkin-Smirnyagin concept of factors and conditions for industrial location) reflect the realities of both the industrial and post-industrial eras. The system-structural approach to the study of the territorial organization of industry as interpreted by Gorkin, Smirnyagin, and Gokhman is considered in the context of discussions on the territorial structure of the economy in the 1970s and 1980s and modern trends—DeLanda’s concept of assemblage, the “spatial turn” in the social sciences, etc. Gorkin’s vision of the relationship between microgeographical (location of specific enterprises) and macrogeographical (spatial transformation of the industry on national level) aspects of territorial organization is revealed. It is shown that the mesogeographical level—research at the level of specific regions and groups of interconnected firms—is relatively weak in Gorkin’s intellectual legacy. The limitations of his theoretical approaches are revealed, especially associated with the specifics of the US industry at a certain stage of development as key subject of empirical research and of theoretical reflection. Innovative processes, which play a key role in modern concepts of spatial organization of the economy and regional development, occupy a secondary place in the theoretical provisions of Gorkin and his co-authors. The prospects of actualization of the intellectual heritage of Russian geographical thought and constructive application of classical economic and geographical concepts in modern conditions are discussed.

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About the authors

N. K. Kurichev

HSE University; Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: nkurichev@hse.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow; Moscow

V. V. Klimanov

Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration

Email: vvk@irof.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow

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