ON THE OBJECT-SUBJECT FIELD OF REGIONAL STUDIES AND ITS PLACE AMONG OTHER SCIENCES

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the most urgent problems of regional studies – the definition of the object-subject field of a new discipline. This article discusses the object and subject of research in regional studies, the relationship between regional studies and regional studies. Interest in this problem is due to the formation of theoretical regional studies and regional studies proper as a new direction of science. The author proposes to consider the region as a concept that reflects the most important properties of all types of phenomena – regions, territories, countries, associations of countries and the world as a whole - as geosocial systems. Despite the independence of countries as actors on the global stage, they are all integral parts of the world-system, being closely associated with it, as well as within themselves, by countless transactions that are collectively constituting the essence of the region, which in reality is а territorially determined (sub)system of division of labor. All local subsystems are hierarchically integrated into the world-the system of which they are genuine parts. The world-system is of maximum size of the object in regional studies, depending on which are subordinated all the problems of regional studies.

Keywords

• regional studies
• regionalism
• world-system
• geographical environment
• geosocial object