Abstract

The realities of the coronavirus crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in many cases, become decisive for adjusting the prospects for socio-economic development. The article presents the main results of studying the social aspect of the pandemic in the context of social heterogeneity and specific regional differences. The main points of the study are focused on analyzing the dynamics of the pandemic spreading in Russia’s regions, the specifics and effectiveness of social restrictions, and the transformation of social space. The analysis of the pandemic dynamics was carried out taking into account the information from four large industrial regions in the center of Russia and the Urals. As part of the analysis, a number of problematic issues of the social constraints effectiveness are considered, among which there are the following ones: specificity of the pandemic dynamics by regions in the context of various options for self-isolation, factors of «Path Dependence» of the social space, the consequences of redundant restrictions, social «fatigue» and «erosion» of requirements for isolation. From the viewpoint of updating the transformation priorities - spatial transformations during a pandemic, the following aspects are considered: background for moving from isolation restrictions to spatial transformations, regional employment specificity, socio-economic priorities of spatial transformation, problem-oriented zoning of a heterogeneous socio-economic space. The study is aimed at developing an adequate authorities’ and society’s response to the problems of coronacrisis, forming a regionally adapted set of measures and strategies of socio-economic transformations during the pandemic, creating a basis for solving interdisciplinary issues in the subsequent situation of «normality 2020».