The Single-Industry Towns of Belarus: Differences in Demographic and Economic Development

Ekaterina A. ANTIPOVA*¹, A. N. TITOV¹
* Corresponding author
¹ Belarusian State University, Faculty of Geography, Economic Geography of Foreign Countries Department, Minsk, BELARUS
E-mail: antipovaekaterina@gmail.com, antitov@tut.by
Pages: 125-136. DOI: 10.19188/03JSSP022016

Cite: Antipova E. A., Titov A. N. (2016), The Single-Industry Towns of Belarus: Differences in Demographic and Economic Development. Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning, 7(2), 125-136. DOI: 10.19188/03JSSP022016

Abstract. In this article we carried out an economic geographical analysis of socio-demographic and economic factors for the development of single-industry towns in Belarus over the period of 2000-2013. We pinpointed the role of the single-industry towns of Belarus in the system of settlement, analysed some of their most significant features, namely: functional typology, structure by population size and type of economic activity. Therefore, we introduced new typologies of single-industry towns in accordance with the dominant type of economic activity and predominance of type of developed food industry. In the context of the current modern economic situation of the key single-industry towns in Belarus, we have detected the centre-periphery polarization and also independent single-industry urban agglomerations, whereas the peripheral single-industry towns were found dominant, which proves their issues in the context of modern development.

K e y w o r d s: single-industry town, functional type, economic activity, polarization, core-periphery character