scholarly journals Problematization of the development of non-capital cities in the works of Soviet and post-Soviet researchers

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 125-154
Author(s):  
Olga A. Bogatova ◽  
Guzel I. Makarova
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Spatial Inequality ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Capital Cities ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
General Dynamics ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The City

The article is dedicated to a critical analysis of the theoretical and methodological developments of Soviet and Russian scientists in the field of urbanism and sociology of the city. The relevance of this work is seen in the fact that today the desire of a significant part of Russian citizens (especially young people) to move to Moscow, St. Petersburg and a number of large cities - centres of the subjects of the Russian Federation leads to a weakening of the spatial framework of the country. This makes it important to study the topic in the context of urbanisation processes in general. The purpose of the article is to reveal the features of the approaches of domestic scientists to the problems of the city, and non-capital cities in particular, as well as their general dynamics in the late Soviet, post-Soviet and modern periods. In the 1970s–1980s urbanisation processes in the USSR were subordinated to production (the leading theme was “city and labor”); the settlement strategy continued, the advantages and contradictions of new cities were noted, the importance of including small towns in the agglomeration was emphasised. The foundations of urban social planning were developed, the ideology of "developed socialism" contributed to the formation of the problematics of the urban way of life and communities. During the Perestroika period, many of the principles of urban development were formulated in opposition to the Soviet ones. The city was understood as a self-developing system, the individual was declared the measure of urban processes. The settlement system, that determines the most acute problems of new cities, was critically assessed. Differentiation of the capital and non-capital cities of Russia, serious contradictions in the development of small towns, and the weakening of agglomerations were noted. The focus was made on maintaining the large and largest urban centres. In the 2000s, extreme criticism of Soviet urbanisation was overcome, strategic urban planning, the idea of preserving the network of small and medium-sized cities, and the development of agglomerations as the basis for the country's spatial development were promoted. The direction of research of intercity and intracity stratification in the context of problems of spatial inequality, urban activism and urban social environment was being developed. The authors come to the conclusion that Russia has accumulated a wealth of experience in studying urbanisation processes. This suggests that in the future it will be possible to successfully combine the use of cities as reference points for the country's integration with the planning ideas developed during the Soviet period and models for the formation of a comfortable urban space, based on the activities of local communities.

scholarly journals Сontent aspects of a modern St. Petersburg city tour

2021 ◽  
pp. 54-59
Author(s):  
Kirill A. Kozhanov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Generalized Characteristics ◽  
Modern City ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Cultural Processes ◽  
Content Specificity ◽  
The City ◽  
Observation Results

Excursion activities in large cities of Russia demonstrate the increasing popularity of city tours and are undergoing numerous transformations, expressed both in thematic diversity and in the change in the content of individual excursions. This has an impact not only on the perception of urban space by sightseers – citizens and visitors, but also on the socio-cultural processes of the city and society in a broader sense. The article presents the results of an empirical study (included observation) of the content specificity of a number of city excursions around St. Petersburg as a city with the most actively developing excursion sphere. The content is analyzed in terms of: route and display objects; narrative and communication of the guide with the audience; activity activity, reflecting the solution of communicative tasks; the competence of the guide. The observation results are correlated with the provisions of scientific and methodological literature (authors of the early Soviet period – I. M. Grevs, N. P. Antsiferov, B. E. Raikov, N. A. Geinick, the era of «developed socialism» – B. V. Emelyanova , modern researchers – O. N. Orlova, A. G. Smirnova, I. I. Lisaevich, G. A. Leskova, N. A. Dobrina) and are presented in the form of generalized characteristics of the transformation of excursion content based on the phenomenological characteristics of the typology and content of a modern city excursion.

scholarly journals Kreml ja Kreenholm, Talvepalee ja Toompea. Linnad stalinismiaja eesti luules / The Kremlin and Kreenholm, the Winter Palace and Toompea hill: Cities in Estonian Poetry of the Stalinist Era

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (24) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mart Velsker
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Socialist Realism ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The City

Artikkel käsitleb linnade kujutamist Nõukogude Eesti luules aastatel 1940–1955, analüüsimiseks on võetud sel ajal ilmunud luuleraamatud. Eestis kuulutati siis üldkehtivaks kirjanduslikuks meetodiks sotsialistlik realism. Esteetilised printsiibid kujunesid siiski kirjandusliku praktika käigus, sageli kirjutati luuletusi Moskvast ja Leningradist ning nende eeskujul õpiti kujutama ka kohalikke Eesti linnu eesotsas Tallinnaga. Linnaruum – nagu teisedki stalinistliku kultuuri komponendid – oli politiseeritud, mis tähendas esimeses järjekorras sakraliseeritud ruumimudeli ülekannet tekstidesse.   The article aims to give a survey of cities and urban spaces appearing in Soviet Estonian poetry of the Stalinist period. All in all, 93 Estonian-language collections of poetry were published in Soviet Estonia between 1940 and 1955, but not all of these contained urban topics.  Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 and this brought about an abrupt change in literary texts produced in the country because literature had to take into account the regulations imposed by the doctrine of Socialist Realism and the personality cult of Joseph Stalin. In connection with this, representations of urban space became ideologised in a novel manner. It is difficult to tease forth explicit aesthetic prescriptions from the doctrine of Socialist Realism, but a unified aesthetics was developed in the course of literary practice by authors who copied one another in order not to err unwittingly. The political surveillance of literature increased at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s; it is in this period that the most pronounced standardisation of modes of representation can be observed. Several cities are mentioned in Estonian poetry of the Stalinist era, but implicit rules governing the depiction of urban space become most readily evident in case of five cities. Among these were the largest cities in Russia (Moscow and Leningrad, today’s St. Petersburg) and in Estonia (Tallinn, Tartu and Narva). Depictions of Moscow and Tallinn are the most numerous. Representing Moscow is subject to rules in a particularly noticeable way: the capital of the Soviet Union had to contain the overarching spirit of Stalin and Lenin, and the city was represented as the static central point of a superpower or even of the whole world. In the city space of Moscow, Red Square with Lenin’s mausoleum and the Kremlin emerges as a sacralised space. In comparison with Moscow, the image of Leningrad is somewhat more dynamic for the city is often evoked as the starting point of the 1917 revolution, and Leningrad also appears as a city important in connection with World War II. Representing Tallinn proceeded from the understanding that the capital of the Estonian SSR had to be an unmediated reflection of the power emanating from Moscow. The representations of Tallinn are more varied, though, for the authors more often tended to have a personal relationship with the city. The most important landmark emerging in representations of Tallinn is the medieval tower of Tall Hermann on Toompea hill that serves as the most important flag tower in Estonia. Even in Stalin-era poetry Tallinn was often perceived as ‘ancient’, (the epithet ‘old’ is repreated in many poems), which is partly paradoxical as the pathos of Socialist Realism would prefer to speak of the birth of new cities. The paradox was resolved by introducing a dialectics of ‘old’ and ‘young’ cities; solutions were also offered in the so-called poetry of reconstruction that encouraged the removal of wartime ruins and the erection of new buldings. As concerns other Estonian cities, some poems focus on Narva as a significant industrial town. Tartu had been important in the earlier national history, but its significance waned now that Tallinn’s was rising. Tartu’s reputation as a university town survived into the Soviet period, however, and even the poetry of the Stalinist era contains some depictions of academic life. The urban centres of both Tartu and Narva suffered major damage in World War II, but the ruins receive only scant mention in verse. Still, they are not hidden and war is a recurring topic in the case of both cities. Depiction of large cities, huge spatial elements and city centres suited the poetry of Stalin’s era. Small towns seemed meaningless in this context and outskirts only obtained a meaning in case events of the past were described – thus, slums, represented as the living quarters of workers close to the city limits, would harbour a revolutionary spirit. In the case of contemporary Soviet cities, the outskirts played no particular role, as all the politically favoured meanings were located in the centre. A couple of publicatons specifically underscored the significance of cities, e.g the thematic anthology The Heart of the Homeland: Poetry Dedicated to Moscow by Estonian Authors (1947) and two books dedicated to Tallinn, Debora Vaarandi’s The Old Man from Lake Ülemiste and the Young City Builder (1952) and Paul Rummo’s A Letter from Tallinn (1955). The era’s most significant urban poets include Johannes Barbarus, Debora Vaarandi, Paul Rummo, Mart Raud, Ralf Parve and Vladimir Beekman. The modes of expression of these authors may vary, but their individual styles are less clearly expressed than is usual in poetry, because different authors’ styles became relatively uniform due to the canonised aesthetics of Socialist Realism.

Diversity As A Unique Constellation of Superimposing Network Logics

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-14
Author(s):  
Alain Thierstein ◽  
Anne Wiese
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Industrial Sites ◽  
Individual Site ◽  
Scale Levels ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The City ◽  
Underlying Processes

In the context of the European city, the regeneration of former industrial sites is a unique opportunity to actively steer urban development. These plots of land gain strategic importance in actively triggering development on the city scale. Ideally, these interventions radiate beyond the individual site and contribute to the strengthening of the location as a whole. International competition between locations is rising and prosperous development a precondition for wealth and wellbeing. This approach to the regeneration of inner city plots makes high demands on all those involved. Our framework suggests a stronger focus of the conceptualization and analysis of idiosyncratic resources, to enable innovative approaches in planning. On the one hand, we are discussing spatially restrained urban plots, which have the capacity and need to be reset. On the other hand, each plot is a knot in the web of relations on a multiplicity of scales. The material city is nested into a set of interrelated scale levels – the plot, the quarter, the city, the region, potentially even the polycentric megacity region. The immaterial relations however span a multicity of scale levels. The challenge is to combine these two perspectives for their mutual benefit. The underlying processes are constitutive to urban space diversity, as urban form shapes urban life and vice versa.

scholarly journals Practical urban: The urbanity and its relationship with the contemporary city.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Balestra ◽  
Amilton Arruda ◽  
Pablo Bezerra ◽  
Isabela Moroni
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Industrial Age ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The City

As the Industrial Revolution took place and steam driven machines emerged in the 18th century, the Industrial Age began and cities became the core of industrial and populational growth. That phenomena occurred as the job opportunities and quality of life increasingly developed away from the countryside, with the arrival of electricity and inventions such as the light bulb, thanks to important people like Sir Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison. The city, therefore, can be looked in two different ways: the urban space, occupied with tangible elements, and the social environment, filled with urban practices and cohabitation. An essential matter in many disciplines, the city is a recurrent topic for researchers who seek to understand this phenomenon of human activities. The history behind the rise of the cities show tell us about the creation of urban spaces and its manifestations, functions, transformations and the complexity inherent to the various typologies in cities all over the world. The city is a scenario full of overlapping messages that characterize the accessibility and urban communication. This is defined by Nojima (1999) as the result of the interaction between social representations and the scenario where they occur. It is through the interpretation of these messages that are manifested in the urban design accessible from cities (streets, buildings, gardens, squares, furnitures), that the individual defines the elements that identify their city. This paper discovery the concepts of city and their accessibility relationships with urban practices - design of urban activity - that directly influence the implementation of urban furniture and, above all, the importance given to them by the population, with regard to its true functions (adequacy, accessibility, ergonomics, identity and others) of their uses and appropriations. It is important for the study also understand the urban furniture relation with the project of cities - is to complement the public space or the way how interferes the urban landscape. It is need to understand how society is shown in front of herself and the world itself that surrounds and what are the affective devices that make city living when connected - through the use - therefore, this is the powerfull forces of individuals and community , space practices created by the tactics of the population to allow theirs ambiance, wellness, safety and comfort, sensations often perceived by the set of elements that constitute the urban furniture of cities.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/IFDP.2016.3291

scholarly journals THE CITY AND PUBLIC RELATIONS IN THE WORKS OF CLASSICS OF EUROPEAN SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 19-23
Author(s):  
I.V. Manyshev ◽  
◽  
A.A. Trunov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Methodological Foundation ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Sociological Thought ◽  
Mechanical Solidarity ◽  
The City

Urban studies has occupied and continues to occupy a special place in the system of sociological knowledge. G. Simmel, F. Tennis and E. Durkheim paid great attention to the problem of the genesis and evolution of large and small cities, the devel- opment of urbanization processes, various aspects of integration, mobilization and social activism within a single urban space. Classics of European sociological thought laid a powerful theoretical and methodological foundation for the scientific study of the institute of public relations in the social space of European cities of the late XIX – first half of the XX centuries. Their fun- damental differences between the countryside and the city, the specifics of private and public life in small and large cities, the antagonism between community and society, organic and mechanical solidarity, the progress of civilization and the parallel growth of social deviations allow a more adequate approach to the study of the institute of public relations, but in re- lation to modern realities, which are characterized by the processes of digitalization and globalization, the rapid develop- ment of high technologies, new opportunities for social interaction, which become available not only for the elite, but also for ordinary citizens. Without effective public relations, it is difficult to imagine the activities of city authorities and services, trade firms, corporations, police, educational and cultural institutions. We consider public relations as a universal socio-cultural mechanism that allows us to establish and maintain effective public communications between management entities and segments of the urban social environment that are important for their activities (individuals and social groups) in the mode of dialogue and search for joint solutions to current problems.

scholarly journals Using Nighttime Light Data and POI Big Data to Detect the Urban Centers of Hangzhou

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 1821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ge Lou ◽  
Qiuxiao Chen ◽  
Kang He ◽  
Yue Zhou ◽  
Zhou Shi
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Space Structure ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Evaluation Report ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Nighttime Light Data ◽  
Nighttime Light ◽  
The City

The worldwide development of multi-center structures in large cities is a prevailing development trend. In recent years, China’s large cities developed from a predominantly mono-centric to a multi-center urban space structure. However, the definition and identification city centers is complex. Both nighttime light data and point of interest (POI) data are important data sources for urban spatial structure research, but there are few integrated applications for these two kinds of data. In this study, visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (NPP-VIIRS) nighttime imagery and POI data were combined to identify the city centers in Hangzhou, China. First, the optimal parameters of multi-resolution segmentation were determined by experiments. The POI density was then calculated with the segmentation results as the statistical unit. High–high clustering units were then defined as the main centers by calculating the Anselin Local Moran’s I, and a geographically weighted regression model was used to identify the subcenters according to the square root of the POI density and the distances between the units and the city center. Finally, a comparison experiment was conducted between the proposed method and the relative cut-off_threshold method, and the experiment results were compared with the evaluation report of the master plan. The results showed that the optimal segmentation parameters combination was 0.1 shape and 0.5 compactness factors. Two main city centers and ten subcenters were detected. Comparison with the evaluation report of the master plan indicated that the combination of nighttime light data and POI data could identify the urban centers accurately. Combined with the characteristics of the two kinds of data, the spatial structure of the city could be characterized properly. This study provided a new perspective for the study of the spatial structure of polycentric cities.

scholarly journals Changes in Spatial Inequality and Residential Segregation in Metropolitan Lima

2021 ◽  
pp. 471-490
Author(s):  
Graciela Fernández-de-Córdova ◽  
Paola Moschella ◽  
Ana María Fernández-Maldonado
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Residential Segregation ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Transitional Zone ◽  
Spatial Inequality ◽  
Dissimilarity Index ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
The City

AbstractSince the 2000s, Lima city shows important changes in its socio-spatial structure, decreasing the long-established opposition between the centre and the periphery, developing a more complex arrangement. Sustained national economic growth has allowed better socio-economic conditions in different areas of the city. However, high inequality still remains in the ways of production of urban space, which affects residential segregation. To identify possible changes in the segregation patterns of Metropolitan Lima, this study focuses on the spatial patterns of occupational groups, examining their causes and relation with income inequality. The analysis is based on the 1993 and 2007 census data, measuring residential segregation by the Dissimilarity Index, comparing with the Diversity Index. The results confirm trends towards increased segregation between occupational groups. Top occupational groups are concentrated in central areas, expanding into adjacent districts. Bottom occupational groups are over-represented in distant neighbourhoods. In-between, a new, more mixed, transitional zone has emerged in upgraded formerly low-income neighbourhoods. Areas of lower occupational diversity coincide with extreme income values, forming spaces of greater segregation. In the metropolitan centre–periphery pattern, the centre has expanded, while the periphery has been shifted to outer peripheral rings.

scholarly journals BODILY OPPRESSION AND INTERACTION: A SPATIAL ANALYSIS ON MRS. DALLOWAY

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 301-310
Author(s):  
Tingting Li
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
British Literature ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Internal Space ◽  
Literary Modernism ◽  
External Space ◽  
Surrounding Space ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The City

Virginia Woolf is one of the most influential novelists in British literature and also one of the pioneers who leads the trend of literary modernism. Just as artists engaged in Cubic painting and sculpture in the same developmental period, such modern novelists as Virginia Woolf were keenly aware of the significant influence of space on their artistic creation. Therefore, this essay tries to explore the interrelation between men and space through analyzing Woolf’s modernist masterpiece—Mrs. Dalloway. Focusing on Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith, this essay aims to interpret how they struggle against bodily oppressions, namely the restraints and controls imposed on the individual body by the external space, and how they make an effort to interact with space as a way out. Clarissa’s interaction with space involves her participation in constructing urban space through walking, directly affecting the external space; at the same time, urban space also affects her internal space by cheering her up when she walks in the city. And as for Septimus, he integrates into space by committing suicide so that his flesh is eventually decomposed to dust and returns to nature. By analyzing all those, this essay tries to argue that modern society not only makes people suffer from spatial oppression but also offers new opportunities and development prospects, enabling people to liberate themselves from numerous oppressions and create positive integration and communication with their surrounding space, which finally reaches a balanced state.

scholarly journals FACTUAL REFLECTION OF URBAN SPACE IN WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS'S SHORT PROSE

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia L. Fesyanova ◽  
Ekaterina A. Khuzina
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
William Dean Howells ◽  
Modern World ◽  
American Writer ◽  
The Road ◽  
Inner World ◽  
The City ◽  
Artificial World ◽  
Intensive Search

American writer William Dean Howells led an intensive search for artistic means to represent reality throughout his creative journey. His creative method was characterized by an acute sensation of the world's objectivity and the understanding of art as a special language. In this article, various types of art (landscape, music) are examined by which the writer created a factographic reflection of the urban space that determined the artistic specifics of his works. The theme of the city and the motive of the road in W. D. Howells creative destiny became fundamental ones and were reflected in his small prose. The studied texts of the American writer focused the attention on the inner world and the feelings of the author-narrator. He has a phenomenal memory that helps to save not only the experienced events, but also the emotional fabric of his wanderings in detail. The urban pictures conveyed by W.D. Howells are as detailed as possible, demonstrate both the author's picture of the world and the specific norms of the urban space of the XIXth century. In the stories the writer shows such power of the urban environment, which adversely affects the development of urban culture, not only ecological but also psychological pollution occurs, the break with the surrounding reality and the construction of an artificial world. Thus, it allowed the author to combine documentality and artistic generalizations, confirming everything with specific names, titles, and events. Throughout the narrative in the small prose by W. D. Howells, the idea of the organic development of small towns and the existence in harmony with the surrounding natural environment is the main one, which is of enormous importance for the modern world. An original translation from English in the article was performed by the author.

scholarly journals Anthropology of religious conflict in post-soviet urban space during society transformation.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 79-89
Author(s):  
Olga B. Khalidova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual

Depending on the specific historical and socio-political situation in society, religious fac-tors can play various roles. In times of social crisis, it becomes one of the most influential forces used by various social and political groups in their own interests. In the capable hands of both individuals and statesmen, religion has the ability to influence the internal political situation and the mobilization of society. This was especially evident in the transit period of our country's history, when the historical prerequisites for the reforms defined the essence of socio-economic, political, spiritual development of the USSR in the second half of the 1980s – early 1990s. During this period, the development of the spiritual field of Russian society was characterized by a growing interest in Islam. All the prerequisites for the re-Islamization process have been established here. In this context, the Republic of Dagestan can serve as a local example, the development of which in the post-Soviet period of Russian history was conditioned by a difficult and sometimes rather complicated socio-political situation closely intertwined with the Islamic factor, headed by religious leaders who created a conflict situation. Concentrating attention on the role of the individual in the formation and development of social and religious processes, in the proposed article the authors try to consider the confrontation between society and the state in the struggle for the dominance of religious ideas against the background of the existing socio-economic and socio-political factors in the conditions of increased national consciousness in the Dagestan society.

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