The Crisis of Small Towns in Armenia: Territorial Peculiarities and Transformations of the Regional Settlement System
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/JOPS/2025.4.10.167Keywords:
deindustrialization, small town, urbanization, rurality, crisis, community enlargement, infrastructureAbstract
The article summarizes the results of a sociological survey conducted in 2024, as well as official statistical data on the manifestations of the crisis in the regional cities of the Republic of Armenia. The quantitative study was conducted to identify public perceptions of the situation in the enlarged communities of the Republic of Armenia. Based on the analysis, the authors note that the partial deindustrialization of small towns of the Republic of Armenia, which occurred as a result of ineffective public policy, led not only to an economic crisis, but also to a certain spread of ruralism in them. The public policy of enlarging communities of the Republic of Armenia has created new risks in this regard, continuing to reproduce social and spatial inequality between them and the capital and increasing the vulnerability of small urban settlements.
References
ANIARC. 2024. “Population of Armenian cities as of April 1, 2023 (in Armenian).” Accessed March 30, 2025. https://www.aniarc.am/2024/04/01/armenia-cities-population-2023-ani/.
ARMSTAT. 2019. “Housing resources and public utility of the Republic of Armenia for 2018 (in Armenian).” Accessed March 30, 2025. https://armstat.am/en/?nid=82&id=2201.
ARMSTAT. 2020. “Housing resources and public utility of the Republic of Armenia for 2019 (in Armenian).” Accessed March 30, 2025. https://armstat.am/en/?nid=82&id=2296.
ARMSTAT. 2021. “Housing Stock and Communal Economy in the Republic of Armenia For 2020.” Accessed March 30, 2025. https://armstat.am/en/?nid=82&id=2415.
ARMSTAT. 2022. “Housing Stock and Communal Economy in the Republic of Armenia For 2021.” Accessed March 30, 2025. https://armstat.am/en/?nid=82&id=2514.
ARMSTAT. 2023. “Housing Stock and Communal Economy in the Republic of Armenia for 2022.” Accessed March 30, 2025. https://armstat.am/en/?nid=82&id=2600.
ARMSTAT. 2024a. “Regional Statistics.” Accessed March 30, 2025. https://armstat.am/en/?nid=130.
ARMSTAT. 2024b. “Main statistical indicators of the Syunik marz, 2019-2023.” Accessed March 30, 2025. https://armstat.am/file/Map/Syunik.pdf.
Bański, Jerzy, Wioletta Kamińska, and Mirosław Mularczyk. 2023. “Small Towns Ageing—Searching for Linkages Between Population Processes.” In: The City in an Era of Cascading Risks. City Development: Issues and Best Practices, edited by Liqin Zhang et al., 149-166. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2050-1_9.
Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene. 2013. “Rurality as a choice: Towards ruralising rural areas in sub-Saharan African countries.” Development Southern Africa 30 (6): 812-825. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2013.859067.
Curtis, Andrew et al. 2025. “Using Spatial Mixed Methods to Reveal the Geographic Nuances of Opioid Overdose Patterns in Small and Rural Towns.” In: New Research in Crime Modeling and Mapping Using Geospatial Technologies. Geotechnologies and the Environment, vol 27. Springer, edited by Michael Leitner, 211-230. Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-81580-5_10.
Kelsey, Tom, and Michael Kenny. 2021. Townscapes 7. The Value of Social Infrastructure. Policy Report Series. Cambridge University: Bennett Institute for Public Policy. Accessed March 30, 2025. https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Townscapes_The_value_of_infrastructure.pdf.
Mkrtichyan, Artur. 2008. Chaos as a system-forming mechanism of self-organization of social systems. Yerevan: YSU Publishing House (in Russian).
Okamoto, Masakatsu. 2024. Crisis Management. In: Public Administration in Japan. Governance and Public Management, edited by Koichiro Agata, Hiroaki Inatsugu, and Hideaki Shiroyama, 333-350. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58610-1_19.
Olczak, Bartłomiej, and Małgorzata Hanzl. 2025. “Adaptation to Climate Change—A Challenge for Small Towns.” In: Urban Morphology versus Urban Redevelopment and Revitalisation. ISUF 2022. The Urban Book Series, edited by Małgorzata Hanzl et al., 497-520. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-77752-3_25.
Turgel, Irina, Aksanat Panzabekova, and Irina Antonova. 2023. Hidden Single-Industry Towns in Transition. In: Landmarks for Spatial Development. Contributions to Regional Science, edited by Stanislav Martinat et al., 53-72. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37349-7_4.
Vermishyan, Harutyun et al. 2022. Rurality crisis in Armenia. Yerevan: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (in Armenian). Accessed March 30, 2025. https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/georgien/19277.pdf.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Artur Mkrtichyan, Vahan Yengidunyan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
