Assessment of territorial communities’ development based on the fuzzy-set theory

Research relevance. Amid significant influence of the new regional and global determinants, the assessment of united territorial communities` development is relevant, as it allows to identify the specific features and to determine future priorities. Problem statement. Nowadays considerable changes in various spheres of economic functioning that need appropriate actions take place. As a rule, the economy does not have time to adapt to today`s challenges in a short period of time. Typically united territorial communities (UTCs) through self-organization are able to respond quickly to changes and challenges, and do not expect decision-making at the top level of economic functioning. That is, communities are built-in stabilizers for the development of both regional and national economies. The mentioned above mainstreams the issue of territorial entities` development assessment in order to determine sustainability and adaptability of all levels of economic functioning. Analysis of recent studies and publications. A number of theoretical and practical studies has been devoted to the problems of united territorial communities` development, namely of V. Babayev, I. Drobot, Yu. Molodozhion, V. Nakonechnyi. Scientists are analyzing the problems of territorial entities` development management as subsystems with a high level of self-sufficiency. Identifying research gap. Despite the considerable amount of theoretical and methodological studies dedicated to united territorial communities` functioning and development, there is a need to find out effective analytical tools, such as fuzzy-set theory and its application for the development of territorial entities. Subject of study is scientific and practical basis of united territorial communities` development in the context of new regional and global determinants` impact. The purpose of the study is united territorial communities` development assessment applying the fuzzy-set theory. Study tasks: to distinguish from the existing statistical base the indicators that characterize functioning and development of territorial communities; to assess territorial entities development on the basis of the proposed method of fuzzy-set theory; to determine directions to increase the level of territorial communities` development based on the obtained results. Мethods: statistical and economic; systematic approach; abstract-logical. Findings: the method to assess united territorial communities` development using fuzzy-set theory has been proposed. It has been implemented on the basis of twenty territorial communities of Zaporizhzhia region. Field of findings application: the process of creating of the national concept of united territorial communities` development; community`s development strategy, territorial management. Conclusions: it has been determined that 70 % (16 communities) of total number (20 communities of Zaporizhzhia region) have high development level, 5 communities have intermediate development level (22 % of total amount), 2 communities with low development level form 8 %. It has been proved that there is a number of communities balancing between high and intermediate development level. They need a set of institutional arrangements and tools to occupy stable places in the general ranking.