Социальные условия деятельности гражданских и экспертных групп по улучшению качества городской среды

Журнал социологии и социальной антропологии. 2016. № 4. С. 103–120.

Москалева С. М., Tykanova E.

The article discusses the implementation possibilities and limitations of projects on improving the quality of the urban environment proposed by civil and expert groups in St. Petersburg. The authors analyze the processes of social construction of external social and political conditions by group members, as well as the combination of resources available to them. The empirical base of the study consists of a series of semi-structured interviews (N = 14) with members of the three associations in St. Petersburg, involved in the creation and promotion of projects on the transformation of urban public spaces. The authors conclude that during the process of projects implementation the groups face multiple constraints defined by the existing structure of political opportunities. For instance, they include the following: an insufficient number of lobbyists allies; low groups’ awareness on planning programs of the city budget; constant rotation of officials who make decisions concerning urban space; legislation barriers, bureaucratic obstacles; low business interest in the projects and others. However, there are also several conditions in the favour of city projects realization, e.g.: the personification of contacts with legislative and executive authorities, the availability of professional and other groups’ resources. In the context of described socio-political conditions the groups can count on a very poor repertoire of project implementation capacities. Among these are the following: the delay of projects, which becomes the cause for a long process of their integration into targeted programs and the city budget; partial implementation; transformation or splitting a large project into parts.

Keywords: ресурсы, публичное пространство, структура политических возможностей, качество городской среды, городские движения