Moscow under Construction

City Building, Place-Based Protest, and Civil Society

By (author) Robert Argenbright

Not available to order

Publication date:

26 July 2016

Length of book:

218 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498522038

Moscow under Construction explores the growth of place-based opposition to destructive redevelopment practices in Moscow and the consequent changes in city’s governance regime. The groups of citizens discussed in this study have struggled to defend homes, neighborhoods, heritage buildings, and historic districts, and in the process they’ve built up civil society and advanced democratization. Heritage preservationists and other aggrieved Muscovites have organized themselves into “initiative groups” and “social associations” to protect specific places in the city and to influence the planning process, and these place-defenders have become more confident and capable as citizens. Their activities also have caused Moscow’s city government to shift along the political spectrum away from highly authoritarian and opaque habits of ruling toward a more open and collaborative governance regime.

Chapter 1: City-Making
Chapter 2: Two Transitions
Chapter 3: Malyi Kozikhinskii Case Study
Chapter 4: City Defenders vs. Luzhkov’s Machine
Chapter 5: City-Builders vs. City-Defenders in the First Decade of the New Century
Chapter 6: Accommodation of Purposes
Chapter 7: “Leave Us in Peace!”
Conclusion: Moscow Citizens in a Changing Context

The great merit of Robert Argenbright’s book is its willingness to challenge prevailing opinions about the strongly autocratic governance regime in Moscow and its impotent civil society in order to better understand the complexities of city life. Moscow under Construction is an excellent book which provides detailed, pragmatic, well-balanced, and unprejudiced analysis that enables the reader (even Russian ones) to attain a deeper understanding of social transformations in Moscow.