Transformation of the regional socio-economic system in the context of the evolutionary paradigm: a conceptual model

The paper presents methodological approaches to the study of the transformation of the socio-economic system of regional and national levels. The views of researchers converge in the understanding of transformation as a quantitative and qualitative changes in the system which lead to a qualitatively new system, or to its disintegration, recognizing the irreversibility of the processes: a return to the original state is impossible because of the changes that have already happened in the system. However, researchers define that the content, steps and process of transformational changes have a number of significant differences, emphasizing a different genesis and nature of the changes which take place in the regional or national systems. The paper demonstrates the influence of external and internal factors on the transformation of socio-economic systems. The dominant influence of external factors on the internal logic of transformational changes of cross-border regional socio-economic systems is justified, specifics of which are largely determined by the functions of the state border. The system tries to stabilize the functional state under the influence of various factors in the external and internal environment, to streamline the self-organizing forces of the socio-economic system to overcome them, which leads to the transformation of the system. At the same time, the continuous nature of the perturbation should be emphasized when at any given time the system is bombarded by external and internal forces, not waiting for the end of the degeneration of the system to start a new action. Thus, the system is always in a state of continuous transformation under the influence of external and internal factors. The paper provides a conceptual model of the transformation of the socio-economic system at the regional level in the context of the evolutionary theory. The proposed phases of "structural transformation" and "spatial transformation" involve two stages. Switching to a different level of the socio-economic system which changes the quality of the space is influenced by external factors as changes in the environment require changes in the functions of the system, which entails a restructuring of the economic system (including the technological and social aspects). Due to changes in the subsystems there appear new features, the character of interaction between the system elements (institutions, residents, non-residents, etc.), which leads to the formation of a new socio-economic system. Transition from structural transformation to space transformation takes place using infrastructure development, including the implementation of infrastructure projects, network and innovation projects.

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