«Хватит гадить нашу землю»: региональная идентичность и экологическая мобилизация в российских регионах

Журнал социологии и социальной антропологии. 2024. Т. 27. № 1. С. 216–246.

Tulaeva S. A., Nemirovskaya A.

In recent years, environmental protests have intensified in Russian regions.
At the same time, the level of protest activity in the population is not directly dependent
on the degree of environmental threats but is due to various political and social factors.
According to researchers, one of the main factors contributing to the mobilization of the
population is regional identity. In this paper, we analyze why regional identity is important
and what elements are actualized in the process of environmental mobilization in the
Russian regions. The results of the study show that mobilization was based on such
components of collective identity as the opposition of regions to the center, peripherality,
ethnicity, and historical past. The environmental agenda turned out to be significant in
conjunction with perceptions of social injustice. Natural objects were considered by local
residents from the perspective of their social Environmental problems were mainly
presented as threats to national culture, traditional ways of life, religious, and culturalhistorical
objects. At the same time, global environmental values were articulated mainly
by professional ecologists. In addition, in some cases, a strong collective identity could
contribute to environmental demobilization and resistance to those environmental
projects that conflicted with the interests of the local population. Thus, grassroots
environmental mobilization in Russia is mainly associated with ideas about the uneven
distribution of resources and survival values.

Keywords: российские регионы, regional identity, региональная идентичность, Russian regions, экологическая мобилизация, environmental mobilization, environmental protests, экологические протесты