Особенности и факторы развития креативных индустрий в малых и средних городах России

Since the dissolution of the USSR and advent of market relations, small and medium-sized Russian cities have experienced many economic and social problems due to their peripheral status. At the same time, they form the main framework for the settlement of the northern territories. The research aims to reveal the importance of small and medium-sized cities in the set- tlement system of 13 regions of the Russian North by studying their demographic dynamics. We examined the hypothesis that the demographic sustainability of these cities depends on the time of their formation. A proposed methodology for assessing the demographic sustainability of cities is based on five groups: demographically sustainable, relatively sustainable, unsustainable, critically unsustainable, instability. Four periods of the formation of small and medium-sized cities are defined: colonisation of the Russian North (1584–1917); industrialisation and urbanisation of the northern territories (1918–1959); from coercion to encouragement — northern romance (1960–1989); from settlement to abandonment — depopulation (1990–2020). For each period, the cities were assessed in terms of their demographic sustainability. The current sustainability of the cities was shown to be dependent on the period of their formation. Compared with the rest of Russia, the structure of settlements in the North revealed both similarities (concentration of the population in large cities) and differences (the proportion of the population living in small and medium-sized cities is higher, but lower in rural areas). Future research will focus on developing a methodology for assessing the «saturation» of small and medium-sized cities in the Russian North.

In 1895, the failure of Sino-Japanese prompted the trend of comprehensive and systematic study of western pattern in China. In urban planning and construction, urban reform movement sprang up slowly, which aimed at renovating and reconstructing the traditional cities into modern cities similar to the concessions. During the movement, Chinese traditional city initiated a process of modern urban planning for its modernization. Meanwhile, the traditional planning morphology and system started to disintegrate, on the contrary, western form and technology had become the paradigm. Therefore, the improvement of existing cities had become the prototype of urban planning of early modern China. Currently, researches of the movement mainly concentrate on large cities, concessions, railway hub cities and some special cities resembling those. However, the systematic research about the large number of traditional small and medium-sized cities is still blank, up to now. This paper takes the improvement constructions of small and medium-sized cities in Southern region of Jiangsu Province as the research object. First of all, the criteria of small and medium-sized cities are based on the administrative levels of general office and cities at the county level. Secondly, the suitability of taking the Southern Jiangsu as the research object. The southern area of Jiangsu province called Southern Jiangsu for short, was the most economically developed region in Jiangsu, and also one of the most economically developed and the highest urbanization regions in China. As the most developed agricultural areas in ancient China, Southern Jiangsu formed a large number of traditional small and medium-sized cities. In early modern times, with the help of the Shanghai economic radiation, geographical advantage and powerful economic foundation, Southern Jiangsu became an important birthplace of Chinese national industry. Furthermore, the strong business atmosphere promoted the widespread urban improvement practices, which were incomparable of other regions. Meanwhile, the demonstration of Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Suzhou and other port cities became the improvement pattern of small and medium-sized city in Southern Jiangsu. This paper analyzes the reform movement of the small and medium-sized cities in Southern Jiangsu (1895-1927), including the subjects, objects, laws, technologies and the influence factors of politic and society ,etc. At last, this paper reveals the formation mechanism and characteristics of urban improvement movement in early modern China. According to the paper, the improvement of small-medium city was a kind of gestation of the local city planning culture in early modern China，with a fusion of introduction and endophytism.

WITHDRAWN

Creative tourism is a novel segment of the tourism market that may turn into a great opportunity for small cities to attract visitors. Thus, it can be a possible economic and social driver for local development. Despite its potentiality, not much empirical research has been conducted to explore the specific strengths and weaknesses of developing creative tourism in small cities, probably due to the lack of reliable data. Our study aims to fill this gap by using the C3 Index, a composite indicator developed by the Joint Research Center-European Commission, as the data source, and the bootstrap method as a statistical tool to detect significant differences between small and large cities. Our findings reveal that the smallest cities show positive features to foster creative tourism (e.g., they have at least as good cultural infrastructures and cultural participation as the largest cities). However, in some other aspects, small cities still have room to improve (e.g., improvements in local and international connections or further development of the cultural and creative sector).

The Development of Entrepreneurship in Creative Industries with Reference to Bandung as a Creative City

China's ‘dual carbon’ strategy is of strategic importance in leading global climate governance and promoting China's high-quality and green economic development. Cities are the centres of human activities. However, these are also places where high energy consumption and high carbon emissions are concentrated. This study selected data from 192 small and medium-sized cities in mainland China for the period 2000–2020. It classified these into seven categories using the K-means clustering method, calculated the decoupling status of different types of small and medium-sized cities based on the Tapio decoupling index, and analysed the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth in various types of small and medium-sized cities based on the EKC curve theory. Finally, the backpropagation neural network (BPNN) model was used to classify and predict the time required to achieve carbon peaking for seven types of small and medium-sized cities. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) The development status of small and medium-sized cities shows a ‘geese echelon pattern’. New dynamic small and medium-sized urban areas may reach peak carbon emissions first, while resource-based small and medium-sized urban areas may be the last to do so. (2) The decoupling of carbon emissions from industrial development in small and medium-sized cities has not been completed. This manifests mainly through the states of declining decoupling, absolute decoupling, and strong negative decoupling. (3) A significant inverted U-shaped relationship exists between economic development and carbon emissions in these cities. (4) These cities may have the disadvantage of premature or excessive de-industrialisation. Additionally, these generally have an inefficient and expansionary economic development status. Therefore, this study contended for a more robust integration of a radical political economy and ecological economics to support the development of such cities in China. The paper proposes differentiated development paths and fundamental recommendations for small and medium-sized cities in the implementation of the ‘double carbon’ strategy. The intention is to provide theoretical guidance and implications for promoting green and low-carbon development in urban and rural areas and for the early achievement of the strategy in China.

Since 2006, China has significantly increased its construction of PPP projects, with research in this area mainly focused on large and medium-sized cities, with little attention given to PPP projects in small and medium-sized cities. Particularly lacking are studies on the risks encountered during the implementation of the PPP model in small and medium-sized cities in the southwestern region. This paper adopts literature research methods and case analysis to classify the risks that currently hinder the implementation of the PPP model in small and medium-sized cities in the western region from multiple dimensions such as lifecycle. Through case analysis, the paper provides a reasonable analysis of the risk factors, which serves as a useful reference for future studies on PPP model risks in the southwestern region.

It is crucial to the sustainable development of cities that we understand how urban form affects the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from a spatial–temporal perspective. This study explored the influence of urban form on PM2.5 concentration in 286 prefecture-level Chinese cities and compared them from national and regional perspectives. The analysis, which explored the influence of urban form on PM2.5 concentration, was based on two types of urban form indicators (socioeconomic urban index and urban landscape index). The results revealed that cities with high PM2.5 concentrations tended to be clustered. From the national perspective, urban built-up area (UA) and road density (RD) have a significant correlation with PM2.5 concentration for all cities. There was a significant negative correlation between the number of patches (NP) and the average concentration of PM2.5 in small and medium-sized cities. Moreover, urban fragmentation had a stronger impact on PM2.5 concentrations in small cities. From a sub-regional perspective, there was no significant correlation between urban form and PM2.5 concentration in the eastern and central regions. On the other hand, the influence of population density on PM2.5 concentration in northeastern China and northwestern China showed a significant positive correlation. In large- and medium-sized cities, the number of patches (NP), the largest patch index (LPI), and the contagion index (CONTAG) were also positively correlated with PM2.5 concentration, while the LPI in small cities was significantly negatively correlated with PM2.5 concentration. This shows that, for more developed areas, planning agencies should encourage moderately decentralized and polycentric urban development. For underdeveloped cities and shrinking cities, the development of a single center should be encouraged.

In modern world, also in Russia, tourism is dynamic, independent branch of the economy. The tourism expands the boundaries of commercial offers and deepens specialization. Landscape, environment and space are the foundation for the tourism development. The potential of Russia's tourism industry, as one of the most important factors of regional development, is still underestimated. Many of landscape and cultural features remain unnoticed and unused. The tourism development in small cities is very important, since they have a valuable historical and cultural heritage, they are an important source of improving the welfare of the country. This territory can be represented as a system that
 
 opens great opportunities for knowledge about the history, culture, customs, spiritual and religious values of small cities in Russia. The article is dedicated to the regional features of tourism development in small historical cities of Russia. Nowadays the government has a great deal of attention to the development of tourism in the Russian Federation, in particular, the article discusses the federal programs that are currently being implemented. Many small cities have historical status now. The modern development of tourism in small historical cities was promoted by an increase of people's interest in their historical heritage, their past. This type of tourism is especially important for the preservation of the individuality of the peoples of the Russian Federation, their involvement in the world civilization. Creation in 2007 of the Association of Small Tourist Cities confirms this. The peculiarity of each of the cities is the perfectly preserved appearance of their historical part with a lot of unique monuments of architecture, history and culture. Some monuments are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES – HOW TO DEFINE THEM. The concept of medium-sized city was first referred to in France at the end of the 1960s when the 6th Economic and Social Development Policy was under preparation (1971-76). Nonetheless, many of the principles and criteria associated with it had already been borne in the mind of the experts in this field and politicians as well as in the their resources and potential, emerged as an alternative to large cities then undergoing a crisis and reinforced their place in regional urban systems. The second half of the 1980s was also important for medium-sized cities. The growing internationalization of the economy and increasing competitiveness led to a new framework of relations in which medium-sized cities began to play a different role. The concept of intermediary city emerged, based on what defines «innovative milieu» or «network territory». In the 1990s, the idea of the sustainable city emerged to offer medium-sized cities a new framework of possibilities as well as demands faced with an increasingly competitive and globalize economy which has led to new forms of economic, social and cultural exclusion, especially noticeable in small cities in depressed areas. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the difficulty of reaching a definition of «medium-sized city» and the manner in which the concept has evolved as it responds to the transformations within the European productive and socio-territorial system.

Experience of Late–Middle-Aged Women who Reside in Small and Medium-Sized Cities in Becoming Psychologically Mature Women

In recent years, economic resilience has attracted much attention as an important concept in responding to external shocks. However, there are relatively few studies on the economic resilience of cities of different sizes, especially small and medium-sized cities and specific regions. This study analyzes the economic resilience of small and medium-sized cities and specific regions, explores the concept, influencing factors, and evaluation methods, and analyzed previous studies. Through the analysis of previous studies, this article discusses in detail the research results on the economic resilience of mega-cities, sub-provincial cities, and Northeast China, including data selection, method use, research results, and conclusions of related studies. This study provides a comprehensive evaluation and analysis of the economic resilience of small and medium-sized cities and specific regions and formulates corresponding improvement strategies. The research results on the economic resilience of megacities, sub-provincial cities, and the Northeast region provide important reference and guidance for policymakers in this field, and provide a basis for improving economic resilience and formulating urban development strategies.

Achievements of Chinese manufacturing industries are well known and thoroughly studied. Less analyzed are the achievements of China in advanced sectors of the post-industrial economy, namely in creative and cultural industries. Whereas the development of creative and cultural industries within the context of the modern knowledge-based and creative economy is well researched, the role and place of creative industrial parks is to great extent neglected, despite the fact that they are actively used in developed countries as tools to stimulate creative sectors of economies. The article investigates the role of creative industrial parks in the successful development of creative and cultural industries in China. The authors show that the development of the infrastructure for creative and cultural industries in China is accompanied by the establishment of many creative clusters. In many cases, in the center of a creative cluster there are one or several industrial creative parks, which attempt to combine the focus on high technologies and creative sectors. The authors found that governmental agencies in China stimulate decentralized, open to foreign influences and private initiatives approach to creative and cultural industries regulation. The most interesting trend, identified in the article, is that regional and municipal authorities stimulate technological advancements of creative parks, which leads to the transformation of creative parks to creative technological parks. These creative technoparks encourage integration of creative and cultural industries with telecommunications and information technologies and enhance the spillover effect of the innovative potential of creative technological parks in traditional sectors of the economy

Estimating the effect of urbanization on extreme climate events in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China

In the innovation and regional development literature, regional areas that lie between prosperous core regions and struggling peripheral areas have been largely neglected, both theoretically and empirically, in recent innovation and regional research. In this paper, we analyse the role that small cities play as agents in regional development in their hinterland. Are they catalysts for growth, or do they drain the surrounding cities and villages? One concept or analytical tool that deals with this issue more explicitly is ‘sponge cities’, which refers to small and medium-sized cities that appear to ‘soak up’ talent and resources from the surrounding hinterland. By adopting and expanding this largely unexplored concept, we analyse the role of regional cities in the Norwegian context. Building on the original concept, we believe that adding commuting to migration patterns provides a more nuanced and precise assessment of whether small cities and regional centres are a blessing or a curse for their hinterlands. Using regional data, we classify cities as ‘motors’ (those that positively affect the hinterland thanks to well-balanced commuting and migration patterns at various spatial scales) or ‘sponges’ (those that soak up people from surrounding areas through migration). Further expanding our analysis, we label a third group of municipalities as ‘local mobilizers’, as they seem to have the potential to influence positively the growth of adjacent areas, and a fourth group as ‘moderate attractors’, which show moderately positive external commuting and migration flows.