Legitimacy, urban planning and sustainability in Russia and Sweden

Regional Focus: Russia and Sweden
Sustainable Development Goals: #11 and #16
Time: August 2017 – December 2018

Abstract:
The project seeks to examine the processes of urban planning in Sweden and Russia, with a focus on the input, control and output legitimacy of that process. The concept of input legitimacy will be examined through an examination of the actors in the processes of urban planning. Control/throughput legitimacy will be examined through examination of the processes of urban planning. Output legitimacy will focus on the policy outputs of the process.
Through paired comparison of different examples of urban planning, this project will give insight into the quality of governance at the local level. Moreover, the focus will be on the politics and processes behind sustainable planning and development in a number of comparable regions in each country. Finally, the project will also be capacity-building, building on existing networks and fostering new ones between scholars and local government units in Sweden and Russia.

Research Questions:
What are the generating factors and challenges faced by each city or locality?
What are the belief systems, modes of reasoning and configurations of interests underlying planning in the Russian and Swedish contexts?
What are the processes of citizen involvement? How are issues as gender equality, ethnic diversity and individual functional variation included and represented? What mechanisms ensure that such interests are carried over into the overall comprehensive plan?

  
Methods:
The project will focus on comparing the governance and outputs of Russian and Swedish planning processes in comparable contexts. The case studies will be conducted in Swedish, Russia and Denmark. In Sweden the project will look at the cities of Stockholm, Malmö, Kristianstad, Åstorp Region, Jokkmokk municipality, and Kiruna. In Russia, the cities and regions of St Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Petrozavodsk, Aramil (Sverdlovsk province), Nizhny Tagil (Sverdlovsk province), Kostomushka (Republic of Karelia) and Murmansk province (Lovozero district). In Denmark the city of Hørve (Ordsherred municipality, Denmark).

Researchers:
Prof. Bo Petersson, Global Political Studies, Malmö University
Dr Derek Hutcheson, Global Political Studies, Malmö University
Dr Marina Nistotskaya, Quality of Governance Institute, Univ. of Gothenburg
Dr Lina Olsson, Urban Studies, Malmö University
Anne Faurskov (non-academic practitioner), Principal, AFARkitektur (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Prof. Dmitrii Goncharov, Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg
Prof. Inessa Tarusina, North-Western Institute of Management, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)
Prof. Elena Trubina, Historical Sociology, Urals Federal University
Dr Elena Tselishcheva, RANEPA, Urals Institute of Administration
Dr Elena Tsumarova, Petrozavodsk State University
Evgenia Likhovtseva, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)
Anna Zamareva, St Petersburg State University