THE ROLE OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS IN THE FORMATION OF METROPOLITAN REGIONS

Abstract

The role of foreign economic relations in the formation of metropolitan regions is disclosed. The author defines the main existing theoretical and methodological approaches to their study within the leading national geographical schools of different countries of the world and presents the definitions of the concepts “metropolis”, “metropolitan region”, “metropolization” existing in each of them. The theoretical and methodological specifics of the normative, functional, and morphological approaches in studying the metropolitanization process are determined and the national specificity of the German, Italian, Anglo-Saxon, Russian, Ukrainian national geourbanistics schools is revealed in revealing the features of this process in connection with foreign economic activity as the determining indicator for the allocation of metropolises. It is proved that, despite the differences in the theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the metropolization process in each of the mentioned national schools, foreign economic relations are predominant in the formation of the metropolis. The difference is only in different emphases on their different constituents. In some national scientific schools, attention is focused on the location of the headquarters of the world’s leading companies, in others – on the availability of special infrastructure for the implementation of foreign economic relations, in the third – on the exclusive role of congresses, forums, exhibitions in their development. This is largely due to the study within each of the national scientific schools of the cities of their country.