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The problem of interpreting local history is relevant to St. Petersburg, as to many other major historical cities. This article examines phenomena united by the concepts of local (spatial) myth and urban narrative, which go beyond official discourse. Alternative images of the city, based on its concealed places of interest contrast with one of the most widespread representations of St. Petersburg – its association with the heritage of imperial culture. The selection of memorable places and stories shifts from recognizable city landmarks to other objects that reveal the history and image of particular St. Petersburg sites, people’s daily lives and peripheral issues of urban life. This approach to the exploration of urban space, a phenomenon called New Local History, is presented and explained in the article as the rediscovery of the historical potential of the city. The examples given in the article also show the possible role of New Local History in encouraging residents to develop an interest in their own history, in the problems of modernity and in participating in socially significant projects. Trends in interaction with urban space and memory practices that offer alternative interpretations of the past have been identified in various socio-cultural initiatives. In the context of Russian memory politics, this approach often becomes oppositional.

In modern Russia, the problems of institutionalized participation of the communities of major regional centers in political conflict management and decision-making on the urban development agenda are becoming more relevant. Political institutionalization is considered by the authors in the context of the liberal theory of conflict, the neo-institutional approach, and illiberal peacebuilding. The authors draw conclusions on the growth of the subjectivity of urban communities with their lack of involvement in the system of political governance at the city level, based on the data of an empirical study conducted through semi-structured interviews with leaders and activists of urban communities in three major regional centers of Russia - Voronezh, Krasnodar, Yaroslavl, as well as an expert survey in these cities. The analysis of the “Krasnodar Tram” case reveals such problems as the low level of institutional trust in the system of interactions between urban communities and local authorities, as well as the lack of effective mechanisms for coordinating decisions in a conflict. Thus, the political institutionalization of communities is limited in scale, which is due to the state of the public policy space at the municipal level, the hybrid nature of institutional regulation, as well as the structure and characteristics of the activities of the communities themselves.

Urban communities are one the varieties of interest groups in local politics. The study examines the channels and the possibilities of their influence on the political agenda formation. The resources of interaction communities with other political subjects are analyzed. The success of communities in protecting group interests is assessed in terms of factors of two types - internal, reflecting the state and resource base on the communities themselves, and external, primarily institutional. The influence practices in the urban communities on local politics, as well as the degree and barriers to participation in the political processes in large cities in modern Russia are revealed.

The problem of interpreting local history is relevant to St. Petersburg, as to many other major historical cities. This article examines phenomena united by the concepts of local (spatial) myth and urban narrative, which go beyond official discourse. Alternative images of the city, based on its concealed places of interest contrast with one of the most widespread representations of St. Petersburg - its association with the heritage of imperial culture. The selection of memorable places and stories shifts from recognizable city landmarks to other objects that reveal the history and image of particular St. Petersburg sites, people's daily lives and peripheral issues of urban life. This approach to the exploration of urban space, a phenomenon called New Local History, is presented and explained in the article as the rediscovery of the historical potential of the city. The examples given in the article also show the possible role of New Local History in encouraging residents to develop an interest in their own history, in the problems of modernity and in participating in socially significant projects. Trends in interaction with urban space and memory practices that offer alternative interpretations of the past have been identified in various socio-cultural initiatives. In the context of Russian memory politics, this approach often becomes oppositional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Currently, the development and convergence of virtual digital practices actualizes the need for theoretical and methodological understanding of the transformations of social capital in the urban environment. The purpose of the article is to explore the process of changing the mechanisms for the formation of social capital, based on expert assessments and the results of an analysis of public opinion, as well as conjunctive processes that are being transformed under the influence of the digitalization of urban spaces. Methodology and Methods. The methodological basis of the study consists of the provisions of the social capital theory, the theory of social conjunction; the concept of digitalization of social reality. The empirical base of the scientific article includes the results of a complex of sociological studies conducted by a team of authors of Belgorod State University in 2020–2022. The research data has made it possible to determine the dispositions of various population groups in relation to the social consolidation of urban communities in the context of the digitalization of the urbanized environment, as well as to identify the specifics of values, attitudes and behavioral motives in the implementation of consolidation practices. Results. On the basis of empirical data, it has been possible to reveal that the process of forming and building up the social capital of urban communities has serious limitations that do not disappear in the course of digitalization of the urban environment. On the one hand, this process creates opportunities for consolidation based on social digital platforms; on the other hand, network social capital turns out to be very fragile, since it does not involve “live communication” and does not connect the participants of the interaction with reliable grounds. Discussion and Conclusion. The analysis has made it possible to note that, while creating new conditions for communication and unification of citizens, digitalization also leads to the emergence of new barriers, the most significant of which is the lack of “real life communication”, which prevents the participants of interaction from being bound by reliable grounds. Prospects for further research on the topic under study are related to the development of such criteria that will allow us to assess the sociodynamics of the process of the social capital forming in urban communities, as well as the process of consolidation.

Introduction. The paper is devoted to the theoretically and practically relevant issue of constructing the social identity of the administrative centers of the Russian republics, considered by the authors as one of the factors of positive regional self-identification of the population of the republics. The purpose of the article is, based on the materials of the study, to identify the specifics and factors in the formation of the capital’s identity of the republic within the Russian Federation on the example of Saransk (the Republic of Mordovia). Materials and Methods. The empirical basis of the article consists of the data of quantitative (mass survey of the population of Saransk, n = 443) and qualitative (2 focus groups) field studies carried out in November-December 2020, with the help of which specific features, main structural components and factors of formation of a positive metropolitan identity have been identified. Results. In the structure of the capital identity of the population of Saransk, the system-forming component is identification with the capital status of the city, indirectly based on identification with the status of Mordovia as a republic and its representations in the urban environment. The paper demonstrates that a positive identification with the republican capital is formed on the basis of not so much symbolic politics but factors that create urban identity in general, including economic success and the quality of the urban environment. Discussion and Conclusions. The authors conclude that the main limitations of the formation and maintenance of the capital identity of Saransk are associated with a shortage of urban identity in general, due to a low assessment of the state and prospects, a low level of self-organization at the place of residence and the rotation of the urban population in each generation, which forms the “transit city” identity for a part of the population. The basis of urban identity in Saransk, as in larger cities, is made up of networks of “weak ties”, but the quality of the urban environment, in the opinion of its residents, does not contribute to the formation and development of such contacts. On the basis of results of researches, the authors claim the necessity of studying of city activism for the cities which are not among largest, as an independent research problem.

The article analyzes the results of international and Russian studies of the level of trust of citizens. For example, studies of territorial areas, and the conclusion about the negative impact of low trust of citizens to power on the development of new territories. The low level of trust of residents in the government is considered as one of the key negative prerequisites that distorts the principles of creating urban communities. As a result, a chain of interaction between citizens is formed, which leads to the spontaneous formation of protest behavior. Based on the analysis of factors of influence that distort the motives for uniting urban residents into territorial communities, the author concludes that the importance of building trust in the authorities among residents is underestimated, which is classified as a serious omission in the management of the political space of the annexed territories.

The paper intends to explore three archetypes of possible interaction between the agent and the social space in which one's own action is located. In this article, we will talk about modalities endowed with normative significance, that is focused around universal scopes and extra-contextual validities (values). Special attention will be paid to the dimension of the “intersection of social spaces” (the scheme assumes both the permanent dimension of “acting within spaces” and the dynamic dimension of “passing beyond them”), the modalities of exclusion, transition, and recognition are thus presented. Their action is complicated by alternative intersection paths in introdynamic and extradynamic dimensions. The study proposes to represent these modalities in order to further offer scenarios for the development and change of urban social spaces. Finally, the paper intends to propose a phenomenological interpretation of their possible interaction with reference to some ways of transforming urban spaces, which are typical of the European context.

The article analyzes the communicative practices of citizens, carried out in the public space of Minsk and transforming the urban environment by working with small architectural forms and contributing to both the creative self-realization of local residents and the formation of local urban communities. Through the narrative and intertext analysis, communication strategies such as palimpsest and intertext are identified as contributing to self-organization, identification, nominalization, symbolization and mobilization of these communities. Based on the material of announcements, leaflets, posters and alternative press (in the format of telegram channels and printed materials), the role of communicative design tools as a means of marking the territory and interacting with various social actors is shown. The use of these technologies contributes to the actualization of ideas about the historical past of urban places (such as the military town of Masyukovshchina in Minsk) in the memory of local residents, informing, enlightening and mobilizing them to form their local identity within the framework of narratives of memory and protest as an unofficial historical policy pursued by the civil activists regardless of the position and actions of the city authorities. The analysis of these cases and situations reveals the peculiarities of the implementation of the historical "policy of me mory" and the preservation of the historical heritage of the Great Patriotic War in the public space of Minsk, indicating the possibilities of more or less active public participation in resolving conflicts and interfering with the situation at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the first analyses of power in urban communities in different countries conducted by Delbert Miller. The author examines the special features, stages, methodology and main conclusions of the project. Analyzing at the same time the limitations of the Miller’s work, the author, however, admits a powerful influence of its results on the following empirical projects.

In this paper I propose a multidisciplinary model of urban development which goes beyond the notion of ecological sustainability, by building on the concept of eco-anthropic compatibility. First of all I will sketch the historical development of human aggregations and I will underline the difference between ancient and modern aggregations. On the basis of this analysis, I will take into consideration the notion of sustainability and its possible application to present conurbations. I will underline several limits of the notion of sustainable development and I will propose a multidisciplinary model grounded on a broader and new notion: the eco-anthropic compatibility. Using this notion, which includes the idea of sustainability, it is possible to handle, within the model, the human factors and human living conditions inside an urban aggregation. Finally, I will state that the actual urban model is decaying and therefore, sooner or later, we will have to face the end of urban civilization; for this reason we can start imagining new future ways for human aggregations on the planet based on the notion of eco-anthropic compatibility.