Civic Initiatives and Identity Politics: Examples of Krasnodar and Kazan Agglomerations

10.54398/1818510Х_2024_1_91

Annotation

Residents of agglomerations may be considered not only as an unambiguous object of identity politics, but also as a significant participant in this process. Formal and informal institutions of civil society, acting as local actors of public policy, have a significant impact on the formation of territorial identity. The objectives of our study are to analyze the motivation for the creation of civic movements in the Krasnodar and Kazan agglomerations, to examine the grounds for community consolidation, and to demonstrate the impact of organizations' activities on regional identity politics. The research is based on the neo-institutional methodological framework, as well as the theory of new urbanism. To collect empirical data, we conducted Internet monitoring of the websites of various agents of identity politics, then applied the case study method to analyze different practices, searching for characteristic features and peculiarities. The main territorial and demographic characteristics of agglomerations and some risks in the process of formation of urbanized territories management system are presented. The article demonstrates the high potential of urban and district communities to self-organization, articulation of their interests and influence on the formation of territorial identity “from below”, through the development of institutions of “good neighborliness” at the local level. We identify the peculiarities of interaction between civil society institutions and government agencies in Krasnodar and Kazan agglomerations and describe positive examples of collaborative formats.

Keywords

• identity politics
• identity politics actors
• territorial identity
• regional identity
• local identity
• civil society
• civic initiatives
• agglomerations
• political identity
• regions of the Russian Federation
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Contribution of the authors

Kalashnikova S. K. – research concept, development of methodology, search for materials for the case study, writing the initial text, final conclusions; Pogodina M. Y. – choice of the research topic, participation in the development of the research concept, analysis of materials during the case study, revision of the final text, final conclusions.

Acknowledgments

the research was carried out at St. Petersburg State University with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation within the framework of the research project N 23-28-00933 “Identity politics in Russian agglomerations in the context of international experience”.

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