Svoeobrazie Rossii kak strany territorial'nykh kontrastov proyavlyaetsya v nalichii promezhutochnoy formy naselennykh punktov - poselkov gorodskogo tipa. V sovetskoe vremya poselki gorodskogo tipa yavlyalis' tipichnymi monofunk-tsional'nymi poseleniyami s promyshlennoy spe-tsializatsiey. V svyazi s nachalom ekonomicheskikh reform v seredine 1980-kh gg. i posledovavshim v nachale 1990-kh gg. moshchnym sistemnym sotsial'no-ekonomicheskim krizisom, v razvitii poselkov gorodskogo tipa stali nakaplivat'sya protivorechiya mezhdu ikh funktsio-nal'noy spetsializatsiey i tekushchey sotsial'no-ekonomicheskoy situatsiey. Eto proizoshlo v silu togo, chto krizis kosnulsya vsey territorial'noy organizatsii obshchestva, vo mnogom utra-tivshey prezhnie printsipy sushchestvovaniya, no ne uspevshey vyrabotat' novye, kotorye by so-otvetstvovali realiyam zarozhdayushcheysya rynochnoy ekonomiki. V dannoy monografii sdelana popytka rassmotret' poselki ne kak promyshlennye tsentry, a kak sredu obitaniya naseleniya. Odnovremenno vydeleny vozmozhnye tendentsii ikh razvitiya.
