Demographic and Labour Atrophy: Factors and Features of Development in Conditions of Polycrisis

Under conditions of a polycrisis, demographic losses, the destruction of local labor markets, migration waves, and the deformation of motivational and behavioral patterns give rise to demographic and labour atrophy, which transcends conventional socio-demographic issues and emerges as a security risk to the resistance of socio-economic systems. The purpose of this study is to substantiate the nature, drivers, and specific features of the unfolding of demographic and labour atrophy in a polycrisis environment and to develop an integrated analytical framework for assessing its impact on territorial resistance. The study advances conceptual and methodological approaches by conceptualizing demographic and labour atrophy as a multidimensional atrophic syndrome of human potential depletion; identifying its key demographic, labour, behavioral-cognitive, institutional, spatial, and medico-genetic drivers; and establishing a cause-and-effect relationship between the depth of atrophic processes, the level of socio-economic system resistance, and spatial development constraints. An integrated analytical framework is proposed to assess vulnerability and resistance across macro-regional zones. The research applies interdisciplinary and spatial-structural approaches, including systems-structural, causal, conceptual-theoretical, spatial, and comparative analyses, as well as methods of generalization and interpretation. Demographic and labour atrophy is identified as a self-reinforcing and spatially diffusive process that generates degradation cycles, reduces adaptive capacity, and constrains spatial recovery. The role of learned helplessness syndrome and medico-genetic factors in shaping the intergenerational inertia of demographic and labuor losses is substantiated. The proposed analytical framework enables the identification of critical risks and the differentiation of policy and managerial responses to spatial recovery. The findings provide a methodological basis for strengthening human potential policies, enhancing socio-economic system resistance, and reducing spatial disparities in Ukraine.