Author:

Evgeny P. Dyatel, Institute of Economics (Ural Branch of the RAS), Ekaterinburg, Russia

Abstract:

Implementing time and space into the conceptual framework of economic theory and regional economics is a relevant direction of research. The article particularly focuses on the issue of how the space-time continuum of economic systems is formed. Methodologically, the study rests on the dialectical-materialistic and formal systems approaches, both having its advantages and limitations, which are revealed in the process of verification and falsification. In the article, these methods of verifying scientific theory, along with the reinterpretation of fundamental concepts, are used to examine the works of the classics of Marxism and Russian Marxists (Georgi Plekhanov and Vladimir Lenin), the creator of tektology Alexander Bogdanov and his philosophical predecessor Ernst Mach as well as our contemporaries who are making a significant contribution to the application of general systems analysis to investigate economic phenomena (Gennady Kleiner, etc.). In our opinion, the gap in these studies is the underestimation of the a priori nature of human ideas about time and space as a result of “pure contemplation (reine Anschauung)” (Immanuel Kant). The understanding of social practice as a dialectical unity of the objective and the subjective helps to overcome the solely empirical perception of these phenomena. Then, of particular importance is an information carrier materialised in the space-time continuum, that is, infrastructure as a supporting framework of an economic system. Analysing the patterns of its formation and functioning is on the agenda of the economic science. We believe that a significant aspect in such research is the localisation of the boundaries of the economic system as a result of an optimal combination of environmental, production, and other elements of the supporting framework. The starting point of such studies can be the proposed hypothesis about an infrastructural cell of the initial spacetime environment of human activities.

Keywords: systems approach; space-time continuum; economic system; supporting framework; infrastructure; cell form.

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For citation: Dyatel E. P. (2026). The spacetime of regional economic systems: Methodology, history, potential. Journal of New Economy, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 48–63. DOI: 10.29141/2658-5081-2026-27-1-3. EDN: ISMVHP.