THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF INDICATORS OF SOCIAL GOODS AND SERVICES ACCESSIBILITY IN A COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The article presents the author's approach to defining regional inequality. Regional inequality is considered as multiplicity and repeatability of unrealized life strategies of inhabitants of regions. In this regard, monitoring of regional development needs to be complemented by indicators of access to goods and services that people need to perform their life strategies. The main geographical, economic and sociological theoretical approaches to assessing regional inequality are considered. The main indicators and methods of assessing the development of regions are analyzed. The author comes to the conclusion that indicators of monitoring of regions allow to estimate economic inequality, but from all indicators of social inequality only wealth (regions and people) is taken into account. At the same time, it is not wealth itself that matters, but the accessibility of goods and services needed to realize the life strategies of people in regions. The author justifies the need to use such indicators. The main indicators and methods for assessing the development of regions are analyzed. The multiplicity of unidirectional impulses of economic development, which arise in different parts of the region, have a cumulative effect for the development of the regional society. The author comes to the conclusion that the indicators for monitoring regions allow one to assess economic inequality, but of all indicators of social inequality, only wealth (of regions and people) is taken into account. At the same time, it is not wealth in itself that is acquiring key importance, but the availability of goods and services necessary to implement the life strategies of people in the regions. As a result, the necessity of introducing such indicators is substantiated. This article is not only a statement of the problem and an attempt to substantiate the author's idea methodologically. This article is an invitation to joint research of scientists and practitioners to develop a set of indicators that allow assessing the development of regions through the category of accessibility of basic goods and services.