V knige avtorom provoditsya analiz situatsii slozhivsheysya v malykh gorodakh Rossii pri perekhode strany k rynochnoy ekonomike. V usloviyakh formirovaniya rynochnykh otnosheniy bol'shinstvo predpriyatiy malykh gorodov stolknulis' s poterey konkurentosposobnosti, sokrashcheniem proizvostva, vysokoy stepen'yu iznoshennosti osnovnykh fondov i t.d. Neustoychivost' finansovoy situatsii na predpriyatiyakh monoprofil'nykh gorodov vedet k rostu bezrabotitsy, snizheniyu urovnyu zhizni, migratsii naseleniya v oblastnye tsentry i postepennomu "vymiraniyu" goroda. Avtorom rassmotreny ekonomicheskie i sotsial'no-demograficheskie problemy malykh gorodov, faktory vliyayushchie na ikh razvitie, a takzhe strategii sokhraneniya i razvitiya gorodov v otdel'nykh regionakh Rossii. Predlagaetsya metodika otsenki promyshlenno-proizvodstvennogo potentsiala malykh gorodov, sistema pokazateley dlya vyyavleniya promyshlenno-razvivayushchikhsya gorodov i gorodov vkhodyashchikh v gruppu riska. V kachestve strategicheskikh meropriyatiy razvitiya regionov i malykh gorodov predlagaetsya: sozdanie klasternykh struktur, innovatsionno-tekhnologicheskikh tsentrov, tekhnoparkov, turisticheskikh tsentrov, proektov podderzhki malogo predprinimatel'stva.