SINGLE-INDUSTRY TOWNS: THE COURSE OF DIVERSIFICATION
The subject of the study is the course of development of the northern single industry towns in face of the necessity of diversification in economics. The aim of the study is to develop a structural model of changing the functional role of northern single industry towns according to the course of economic diversification of these territories. The objectives of the study are the following: to consider the main approaches, including legislative, to the content of “single industry towns”, and, to propose the author’s interpretation of the concept based on these approaches; to form the classification features of single industry towns depending on their current social and economic state; to study the strategic directions of economic diversification of northern regions of Russia in order to identify the main courses of their development; to present a structural model to change the functional role of northern single industry towns for diversification of their economics and implementation of purpose oriented objective to provide sustainable development via competitive advantages and subjective competitive position of the region. The choice of general scientific and economic methods for conducting the research (synthesis, method of scientific abstractions, historical analysis of economic phenomena, economic modeling, economic induction, construction of economic hypotheses, graphic method) is conditioned by its logic. The peculiarity of the author’s approach is the identification of structural trends that can create new competitive advantages of single industry towns in terms of social and economic development in face of the pandemic conditions. The novelty of the research consists in the graphic development and substantiation of the development trends for modern single industry towns, which can provide the transition to a diversified national economic system.