Mechanisms and successful practices of citizen participation in urban development
On 19-20 March The Centre for Comparative History and Political Studies (CCHPS) at Perm State University organized a two-day seminar on the topic of successful mechanisms and practices of citizen participation in contemporary Russian urban development. Researchers from different fields – including political science, sociology, geography and planning – discussed issues of civil participation, civil activism and urban conflicts with politicians, civil activists and practitioners.
The first day there were lectures and discussions on urban activism and the interaction of different stakeholders in urban development. Maria Gunko (IGRAS, Moscow), for example, discussed the role of civil society in the development of Russian monotowns. Irina Shevtsova, director of CCHPS, analysed successful and non-successful practices of state-civil society interactions in the city of Perm. She stressed different factors and outcomes and concluded that there is no recipe for successful interaction yet. Daniela Zupan, postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Regional Studies and Urban Planning of the HSE Faculty of Urban and Regional Development, drew attention to the role of temporary alliances between different stakeholders for successful resistance within urban planning conflicts. Other participants involved, among others, Vsevolod Bederson (CCHPS), Konstantin Sulimov (PSU), Vitalij Kovin (PSHPU) and Eleonora Minaeva (Saint-Petersburg).
The second day was devoted to the keynote lectures. Oleg Zhuravlev (researcher at the Public Sociology Laboratory, professor at the School of advanced studies, University of Tyumen) presented his research on local activism in Russia, arguing that Russian protests led to a politicization of urban activism in Moscow and Petersburg in the recent decade. Carola Neugebauer (Associate Professor, RWTH Aachen) demonstrated the results of the interdisciplinary international research project TRIPAR, shedding light on participatory urban planning in Russia, Ukraine and Germany. Finally, different forms of urban activism and engagement were presented. Dmitri Moskvin from Ekaterinburg, for example, spoke about civil society activation through excursions; Jurij Chochlov talked on the protection of small rivers in Perm; Maria Romashova and Maria Ljamina presented cultural initiatives in Perm, and Nadezhda Snigireva, Project Group 8, Kazan, discussed contemporary forms of civil participation in urban planning.