Geography of Post-Industrial World: Alexander Pavlovich Gorkin’s Scientific Legacy

Since 2022 the journal Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya geograficheskaya is publishing thematic issues and special sections devoted to actual geographical topics and problems. Post-Industrial World: Trends, Shifts and Pulsations is the eighth special issue of the journal and the third thematic corpus of articles on social geography (with a special section in no. 3 for 2022, prepared for the anniversary International Geographical Congress in Paris in 2022). The special issue contains eight articles prepared based on the results of the First All-Russian scientific conference with international participation dedicated to the scientific legacy of A.P. Gorkin, held in October 2023 by the Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The articles contain the results of original scientific research and materials specially prepared in memory of the scientific legacy of the Alexander Pavlovich Gorkin, outstanding Soviet and Russian economic geographer. The authors of the special section’s articles touch upon a wide range of topics related to the peculiarities of world development in the post-industrial era. The topics considered illustrate the significant theoretical and philosophical-methodological potential of A.P. Gorkin’s ideas for modern socio-geographical research. The articles emphasize the advantages of the system and structural approach, the need to use relativism and to consider inertia and mobility in the analysis of the location of post-industrial industry, the influence of the agglomeration effect, innovative, creative and institutional factors on changes in industry location, as well as the role of tacit knowledge and unlimited resources in the geography of modern industry. The authors also consider the paradoxes of post-industrial development from the standpoint of polyscale approach and insufficient attention to the meso level in the A.P. Gorkin’s version of the structural and systemic approach. 

1. Gorkin A.P. Geografiya postindustrial’noi promyshlennosti (metodologiya i rezul’taty issledovanii, 1973–2012 gody) [Geography of the Post-Industrial Industry (Methodology and Research Results, 1973–2012)]. Smolensk: Oikumena Publ., 2012. 348 p.

2. Gorkin A.P., Smirnyagin L.V. On the factors and conditions of the placement of capitalist industry. Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Geogr., 1973, no. 3, pp. 68– 75. (In Russ.).

3. Gorkin A.P., Gokhman V.M., Polezhaev A.P. Voennaya promyshlennost’ SShA, ee otraslevaya i territorial’naya struktura [The US Military Industry, Its Sectoral and Territorial Structure]. Moscow: Inst. Geogr., Akad. Nauk SSSR, 1970. 23 p.

4. Gorkin A.P., Gokhman V.M., Polezhaev A.P. Sistema voenno-promyshlennoi kontraktatsii v SShA. Ekonomicheskie i territorial’nye aspekty [The System of Military-Industrial Contracts in the United States. Economic and Territorial Aspects]. Moscow: Inst. Geogr., Akad. Nauk SSSR, 1971. 103 p.

5. Gorkin A.P., Gokhman V.M., Smirnyagin L.V. The territorial and production structure of the country’s industry (a case study of the industry of a capitalist country system). Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Geogr., 1976, no. 6, pp. 107–114. (In Russ.).

6. Gromov A.I. The new geography of Russian oil exports under embargo and price cap. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2025, no. 1, pp. 61–75. (In Russ.).

7. Kalutskov V.N. Landscape and landscape approach in geography. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2025, no. 1, pp. 90–97. (In Russ.).

8. Klimanova О.A. Integrated country studies in the postindustrial world: The view of a physical geographer. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2025, no. 1, pp. 76–89. (In Russ.).

9. Kondakova T.Yu. Transformation of sectoral structure of industry on the territory of Yaroslavl oblast in the middle of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century: Historical and geographical analysis. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2025, no. 1, pp. 98–121. (In Russ.).

10. Kotovich A.N. History of the word fishery. Russ. Yazik Shkole, 1940, no. 4, pp. 24–27. (In Russ.).

11. Kurichev N.K., Klimanov V.V. The intellectual heritage of A.P. Gorkin: A systematic approach to the territorial organization of the economy in the context of modern concepts. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2025, no. 1, pp. 11–29. (In Russ.).

12. Mazein N.V. Decision-making on the placement of new enterprises of the ferrous metallurgy of the world: Methodology of analysis. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2009, no. 1, pp. 36–47. (In Russ.).

13. Pilyasov A.N. Creative energy: Portfolio principle of Alexander Gorkin. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2025, no. 1, pp. 30–48. (In Russ.).

14. Proskuryakov V.I. Spatial aspects of the manufacturing industry postindustrialization. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2007, no. 6, pp. 43–52. (In Russ.).

15. Proskuryakov V.I. The concept of territorial organization of industry in the national socioeconomic geography. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2005, no. 6, pp. 50–57. (In Russ.).

16. Treivish A.I. Some geographical paradoxes of the postindustrial world. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2025, no. 1, pp. 49–60. (In Russ.).

17. Shuvalova O.V. Changes in the spatial structure of the North Rhine — Westphalia economy since the middle of the 20th century. Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2025, no. 1, pp. 49–60. (In Russ.).