Uncovering the Network of Planning Expertise in St. Petersburg: Civic and State by Svetlana Moskaleva Submitted to: Central European University Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology and Social Anthropology Supervisors: Prof. Jean-Louis Fabiani Prof. Judit Bodnar CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2019 Abstract This study explores the role of expertise in urban planning. Using the example of “urbanistica” – a local name for urban studies in Russia, the thesis will discuss the possibility of conceptualization of the struggle for recognition between various groups, including activists and professionals. The analysis will focus on an activist group which is involved in the projects of urban redevelopment in St. Petersburg. Members of the group work in research centers, as well as in city committees and use digital platforms to involve citizens in the discussion of urban problems. The purpose of the study is to expose the mechanisms of the social construction of civic expertise of urban problems and to contextualize global and local conditions in which this activity has been forming. Following Gil Eyal’s concept of expertise as a network as well as studies on transferring urban ideas (Friedman, King, Collier), I describe the hybridity of civic and state expertise and comprehend the processes occurring within groups, their integration into the institutional context. Through the analysis of planning documents, I trace how global urban concepts influence this context, producing political discourses or rather co-producing them together with citizens who are striving to become new political actors in urban planning. The methodological optic of the research is following the process of creating a network between techno-social elements, mechanisms, and conditions necessary for urban problems to become objects of expert labor. I show that civic expertise is a phenomenon which combines local and professional knowledge of citizens, which come to matter in the process of political struggle between state and civic groups. The mechanisms of construction of civic expertise include rational discourses, transferring urban concepts from “western” studies, devices and technologies which come to matter in the context of urban decision- CEU eTD Collection making. I Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Jean-Louis Fabiani and Judit Bodnar, for their support through this fascinating journey to the roots of civic expertise and urban planning ideas. This study would not have been possible without your wise advice, genuine help, and understanding. I appreciated giving me enough freedom to develop my study as it looks now. For my informants, their enthusiasm to speak with me, while activist work takes a lot of time and effort in their sphere. I’m very grateful to CEU for giving me a chance to accomplish my MA thesis, which was difficult in my own country. I want to thank especially my previous supervisor – Diana West, who found my topic interesting and contributed a lot to its development, suggesting books, articles and writing a recommendation letter to CEU. I also want to thank my groupmates, who became the source of my inspiration through the writing and studying period. For my family, who struggled with me and believed that I will manage everything. CEU eTD Collection II Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... I Acknowledgements................................................................................................................................ II Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................ III List of Figures ...................................................................................................................................... IV 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Expertise as Network: Methodological Reflections ............................................................. 4 2 The Transfer of Urban Ideas in Post-Soviet Space ..................................................................... 8 2.1 The Roots of Civic Expertise: Analysis of Architectural Projects on Bolshaya Mosrskaya Street 11 2.2 Transformation of Urban Policy in St. Petersburg ............................................................ 17 2.3 New Educational Trajectories in Russia ............................................................................. 19 3 Constructing Expertise of Urban Problems ............................................................................... 22 3.1 Role of Activist Groups in Constructing Expertise ........................................................... 25 4 From Activists to Experts? Mechanisms for Constructing Expertise: Discourses, Concepts, Actors, Devices ..................................................................................................................................... 32 5 Networks of Expertise and Spaces of Political Struggle ........................................................... 41 Conclusion............................................................................................................................................. 44 Appendix A. Interview guide ............................................................................................................... 46 Appendix B. Materials and data ........................................................................................................... 48 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 49 CEU eTD Collection III List of Figures Figure 1. Project by state-led bureau ................................................................................................... 12 Figure 2. Petersburg establishment project ........................................................................................ 13 Figure 3. Project made by civic group “Beautiful Petersburg” ......................................................... 14 Figure 4. Project made by civic group “Urban Projects in Petersburg” .......................................... 15 Figure 5. The reconstruction of the street in 2017 ............................................................................ 16 Figure 6. Civic platform for gathering citizens' complaints .............................................................. 39 CEU eTD Collection IV 1 Introduction The study is devoted to the emerging phenomenon of urban expertise in Russian cities called “urbanistica”, which is a term for activities related to urban planning. The field of “urbanistica” has a rather sui generis history in Russia and requires an in-depth study of the processes that form it. The activity of people involved in it considers a wide spectrum of social factors and forms of engagement while working with planners and architects, practices of invoking social scientists into urban projects and it combines an eclectic mix of skills, training and ways of so-called “expert” engagement with the city. My study aims to analyse the process of the social construction of civic expertise on urban issues in the context of Russia, where the field emerged from a few individual initiatives rather than as an institutionalized form. In Russia, the field of urban planning is being in the process of transition (Friedman 2005, Golubchikov 2004). From Soviet times there is a profession of town planner (in Russian - gradostroitel), while since 2010 the new educational programs of urban studies and related professions were implemented. For current moment this field is not institutionalized, there are no state diplomas in urban studies as such, but the new institutes provide diplomas of managers, city planners, entrepreneurs. In this research I am revealing the particularities of the process of constructing expertise in the emerging field of studies: practices, actors, ideas which are involved in the creation of civic expertise, as well as opportunities which make its development possible in the political context. The study addresses two problems: a crisis of expertise or crisis of trust in those experts who provide it, and secondly, the changing role of “urbanistica” as a scientific discipline which is developing and becomes highly politicized in Russia. There appeared new public CEU eTD Collection initiatives who started to promote their studies by connecting them with this discipline. These techniques of democratization and control are interrelated and will be traced using the methodological optic of actor-network, starting from an activist group which is involved in the process of urban decision-making in St. Petersburg. 1 Another feature of the formation of urban studies in Russia is the changing content of the activities of civic initiative groups that appeared in major Russian cities in 2011-2012 and concerned with the quality of the urban environment. In St. Petersburg since 2012 the objectives of the activist groups have become not only the protection of urban areas, as has been described in previous works on urban activity in St. Petersburg (Gladarev 2012, Clement 2013, Miryasova, Demidov 2010, Tykanova, Khokhlova 2014,