ИСТИНА

Geography always deals with the interaction of different agents within the place with the formation of local geosystems and complexes. Such an interaction goes through different ways: climatic, geochemical, biosystem and socio-economic. But socio-economic mechanisms of local system formations are far from clearness yet. The theory of proximity is a very powerful tool for the local socio-economic system analysis. A common feature of all modern phenomena in the sphere of location of productive forces (clusters, industrial districts, urban agglomerations and others) is that they are in a completely unprecedented degree actualize the proximity effects, both spatial and institutional (organizational, social, cognitive). This may seem a paradox, but never before the geographical and non-geographical proximity was of such fundamental importance and never it played such a crucial role in regional economic development, regional policy, in learning processes, as in the modern era of globalization, information technologies and telecommunications. Both for the Russian and the international school of socio-economic geography, this is good news. This interdisciplinary approach gives the intellectual leadership to our science within the multidisciplinary circle of Sciences studying the social spatial phenomena. The in-depth understanding of contemporary socio-economic processes in the Russian space is impossible without attracting apparatus of the theory of proximity developed by André Torre, Ron Bosma and others. The first work performed in Russia in this methodology confirmed this finding (Suvorova A. C., 2014). The summary of works of foreign authors and the first researches on the Russian material allows us to offer seven priority directions for further development of the approach in the theory of proximity. 1) Economic-geographical research of the "space of flows" (directions of migration, investment, international trade, information flows): institutional forms of proximity are the key factor determining the geographic division of labor, the configuration of networks "supplier – consumer", "subcontractor – base manufacturer”, the location decisions of foreign investors etc.; 2) Theoretical studies of spatial territorial structures: the concept of proximity allows to radically expand the field of study going to the multidimensional analysis of a series of anamorphic spaces; 3) Cultural and social geography: the concept of proximity allows to start studying of the relationship between cultures and cultural landscapes, to explain the phenomenon of multiple territorial identity etc.; 4) Regional policy: here the concept of proximity gives a new approach to the fundamental dilemma of choice between supporting of people and supporting of places, allows to find new mechanisms to ensure social justice and economic efficiency, in favor of place-based policy; 5) The regularities and peculiarities of formation of local socio-economic complexes of different nature (clusters, agglomerations, regional innovation systems): spatial and institutional proximity plays here a crucial role in the formation of effective economic interactions and complexification; 6) The development of peripheral and poorly equipped Russian spaces, especially in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation: the concept of temporal proximity allows us to develop new (and explain existing) mechanisms of compensation in the conditions of periphery such as sparse infrastructure facilities, the lack of regular economic contacts, sparse population density. 7) Innovative regional and local development, factors of learning and assimilation of innovations: a variety of forms and configurations of proximity determine the paths of innovation diffusion, and the existing blocks on the path of knowledge spilovers. The potential of each direction of the economic-geographical research of proximity will be demonstrated on the specific examples from the research and field experience of the authors in the last 20 years.