Urban Activism as an Ideology

In July 2013, The HSE's Graduate School of Urban Studies and Planning hosted its first summer school on promoting urban activism. The school was attended by international experts, including the architects Stefan Retich, professor at the University of Bremen, Janine Walter from Berlin, and Lukasz Pancewicz from Gdansk. We spoke to the organiser of the summer school, Dmitry Savkin, Deputy Dean of the Higher School of Urban Studies and Planning.

— What is special about HSU's summer school?

- The main difference between this summer school and other similar courses is that this one targets members of the creative class, i.e. active young urbanites with ideas on how to transform their city by, for example, refurbishing a square, creating a new park or providing a safe passage across the railway. The problem is that these people often have the desire, the capacity, and some lobbying power to achieve their goals, but they do not necessarily have the required know-how. Our objective was to bring such people together to provide the needed momentum and to teach them how to push for a better quality of life in their communities.

We discussed specific projects and looked at various suggestions and opportunities for Moscovites to make life in their city  better. In particular, people came up with some interesting ideas concerning the rivers in Moscow and its image of a religiously diverse city.

- Did the school meet your expectations? How many people attended?

- There were 60 people from all across Russia, and I found the participants from Rostov, Samara, St. Petersburg, and Nizhny Novgorod particularly active. The majority of the participants were young people between 20 and 35.

- Are there any common trends in urban activism? Can you describe some of the most persistent problems that activists in most cities are concerned about?

- Of course, there are always some problems which are region-specific, and some challenges are specific to certain cities - for example, the traffic problems of Moscow, the territorial fragmentation in Volgograd, environmental problems in industrial cities - but overall, we have identified a few major common areas of urban activism: changing the physical environment, changing the context, changing the institutions, and changing people's attitudes.

- Are you planning similar programmes in the future?

- Informal learning is an important part of education globally. Young activists are an enormous human resource: on the one hand, they wish to improve the lives of their communities, and on the other hand, they are prepared to take responsibility. Their activities may encourage other people in Russian cities to move away from their denial of responsibility for their own living space and help them make a commitment to create a better environment. And we are prepared to support them by offering such schools and bringing active citizens together, so that we may find new opportunities to improve our shared future.

Ludmila Mezentseva, HSE News Service