Meeting Places of Transformation. Urban Identity, Spatial Representations and Local Politics in St. Petersburg, Russia

1. Erstauflage 2009
ISBN: 978-3-89821-739-2
Verlag: ibidem-Verlag

Buch, Englisch, Band 88, 234 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 386 g

Reihe: Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society

What happened with the urban spaces of everyday life when the Soviet Union collapsed? And how may this change be understood?
Based on long-term qualitative fieldwork in post-Soviet Russia, this study draws upon time-geographic, social and semiotic theory to formulate a model of how urban space is formed. Mirrored through the case of Ligovo/Uritsk, a high-rise residential district situated on the outskirts of Sankt-Peterburg (St Petersburg), the changing relation between the lifeworlds of people and the system of governance is highlighted with regard to the transformation of Soviet and Russian society over the last decades. The empirical material presented here documents a number of processes within urban identity formation, spatial representations and local politics. The resulting findings add both empirically and theoretically to the knowledge of urban cultural geography in Russia – a field of research that until recently was closed to Western researchers, and seems currently to be closing again.
The book will be of interest to researchers with an interest in social, semiotic and geographic theory as well as to students and researchers of cultural and urban studies, urban life and Russian affairs. The study could be also helpful to professionals working in fields related to post-Soviet urban identity, spatial representations and local politics.

"Borén's engaging, invaluable study is in some respects ground-breaking, and provides a primer for geographers interested in the application of phenomenological and hermeneutical approaches to urban observer-participant fieldwork." Dr. Charles Travis, Research Fellow, Trinity College Dublin

Autoren/Hrsg.

Borén, Thomas

Weitere Mitwirkende

Umland, Andreas

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Regional- & Stadtgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Kommunal-, Regional-, und Landespolitik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Note on Transliteration and Russian words
Preface and Acknowledgements
1. Modelling time-space--urban meeting-places
2. The cultural geography of Russia
3. Taming the hermeneutic animal--field method
4. A Soviet type high-rise housing district
5. Symbolic landscapes and Ligovo's genius loci
6. Secret space, mental maps and stiff landscapes
7. Political structure and communication
8. Ligovo essays of Sankt-Peterburg--Conclusions
Appendix A: Issues of local self-government
Appendix B: The Municipal Council
Bibliography
Maps and atlases
Films
Homepages

Über Autor(innen)

Thomas Borén, MSc, PhD, is Researcher, Senior Lecturer and Programme Director for Urban and Regional Planning at the Department of Human Geography at Stockholm University. Among his publications are the co-edited volumes Everyday Economy in Russia, Poland and Latvia (2003), Metropolitan Processes in Post-Communist States (2007), and Kring Beringia [About Beringia] (2008). Borén is also editor-in-chief of Geografiska Notiser, a quarterly geographical journal.