Interest in land-use changes (LUC) research has been growing rapidly in recent years. This topic has already become the subject of a separate scientific discipline – land use science (or land change science). In order to formulate relevant future policy and develop appropriate land-use management tools, it is crucial to know how the LUC шьзфсе the environment and society condition. For Ukraine, where the structure of land use and the system of land resources management have significantly changed during the years of post-socialist transformation of land relations, the study of the LUC on a modern methodological basis is especially actual. The paper, based on a critical analysis of publications in leading international journals over the last thirty years, identifies key directions of LUC studies and analyzes their methodological features. There is a significant increase of the number of works based on the results of meta-studies and the use of a wide range of methods for modeling the LUC processes, their causes and possible consequences. The great "synergistic potential" of integration of the selected directions is noted, which makes it possible to accelerate the development of the general theory of land use and increase its use efficiency in substantiation of management decisions in the sphere of land use and modernization of the mechanisms of state land, spatial and ecological policies with consideration of existing and potential globalizing challenges. In this context, the key role of the land use integrated planning methodology at regional and local levels is emphasized. This methodology would require close cooperation between government, business and the public in developing a common vision for the implementation of specific land use plans and projects based on the principles of subsidiarity, participativity and shared responsibility. 

land-use changes, socio-natural approach, cause and effect relations, meta-studies, modeling, land policy 

During the years of profound institutional transformations of the post-socialist period in Ukraine, the problems of socio-economic development of rural areas have become significantly aggravated. In these conditions, the most urgent need is the modernization of the rural development management system and the transition to a rural-preserving model for the development of agrarian business. The paper emphasizes that such modernization requires a substantial deepening and expansion of its theoretical and methodological basis. In this context, the role of socioeconomics as an interdisciplinary scientific direction, which contributes to a better understanding of the economic and social aspects of rural development and their interrelations, has been noted. The essence, genesis, conceptual foundations and peculiarities of the practical implementation of the socioeconomic approach to modernization of the rural development management system in the conditions of decentralization of authority and the reform of local self-government are considered. It is noted that the approval of the socioeconomic approach in the management of rural development is fully consistent with the general trends of post-nonclassical development of science, one of the decisive features of which is the rapid growth of interest in the study of the interaction of complex systems of different nature and the processes of their self-organization. The following key directions of modernization of the rural development management system are provided in the paper: modernization of the management system for economic component of rural development; formation of an effective system of management of social (socio-demographic) processes that would be aimed at increasing the well-being of rural residents; system optimization of the management institutes and structures for solving a complex of administrative tasks at the state (national), regional and municipal levels. There is a special emphasis on the need to intensify the processes of self-organization of local communities through wider use of social innovations. 

rural areas, modernization of the management system, new pragmatism, village-preserving model of development, socioeconomic approach, decentralization, local self-government, social innovations