ABSTRACT
The processes of decentralisation and regionalisation, which accelerated the collapse of the Soviet Union, are now dominant forces in Russia’s political economy. Regions, as represented by their executive and legislative bodies, are themselves increasingly seen as important political and economic actors. Thus, one of the key tasks for post-Soviet geography and economics is to try to explain regional patterns of economic change across the Russian Federation. To that end, this chapter offers an exploration of the relationship between economic restructuring and regional change in Russia at both the national and regional scales. The chapter is divided into two major sections: the first section examines the interrelationship between economic and regional change at the macro-scale, across the majority of Russia’s eightynine federal units; the second section examines the politics of economic change in one region: Novosibirsk in West Siberia. The different scales of analysis adopt different methodologies, and reflect different approaches towards theorising transition. At the macro-scale, statistical analysis is used to examine the relationship between a variety of economic indicators of decline and renewal, the aim being to relate macrostructural changes in the Russian economy to processes of regional economic change. However, we are well aware of the limitations of this approach and the place-specific analysis presented in the second part of the chapter serves to exemplify the need for local-level study, with its focus on local politics and culture as constituting elements in the process of regional economic change. Thus, this parallel approach to understanding regional change highlights the dangers of overgeneralisation at the macro-scale and of focusing upon purely economic aspects of transformation; however, this study also warns against the overextension of the findings of case study research. Ideally the two should go hand in hand, enabling an understanding of economic life as a set of social and cultural practices.
