The Features of Population Reproduction in the Suburbanized Zone (the Case of the Irkutsk Agglomeration)
Grigorichev K.V.
Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Vice-Rector for Research and International Cooperation, Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia grigoritchev@yandex.ru
The research is supported by Russian Science Foundation project 22-28-00084.
Grigorichev K.V. The Features of Population Reproduction in the Suburbanized Zone (the Case of the Irkutsk Agglomeration). Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2023. No 1. P. 38-51
The article is devoted to the formation of a specific model of the population reproduction in the suburban area by the case of the Irkutsk agglomeration. In the last 15–20 years, the non-urban territory of the agglomeration has been a zone of intensive suburbanization growth based of intensive migration from regional capital. The article shows that the suburbs of Irkutsk have formed an expanded mode of population reproduction, which differs sharply from the trends dominating in the region. It is argued that the high birth rate in suburban municipalities is associated not only with the rejuvenation of the age structure of the population as a result of migration, but also with a real increase in the birth rate in certain age groups. Also It is shown that the age structure of mortality in the suburban area is more modernized than in other municipalities of the region. On the basis of a spatial analysis of the municipalities of the first level of the Irkutsk agglomeration, the the impact of suburbanization to the formation of an expanded population reproduction regime is argued. A hypothesis of an intensive processes of suburbanization, fixed for most regional capitals in the last decade, lead to the formation of an expanded mode of population reproduction even in conditions of depopulation in the region is proposed.