From policy mobility to top-down policy transfer: ‘Comfortization’ of Russian cities beyond neoliberal rationality
As cities around the world increasingly seek to brand themselves as comfortable and liveable places, policies aimed at enhancing the quality of the urban environment are becoming more important. Scholars interpret this development as evidence of reinforced urban entrepreneurialism and neoliberalizat...
Published in: | Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23996544221081688 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/23996544221081688 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/23996544221081688 |
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crsagepubl:10.1177/23996544221081688 2023-05-15T15:07:57+02:00 From policy mobility to top-down policy transfer: ‘Comfortization’ of Russian cities beyond neoliberal rationality Gunko, Maria Zupan, Daniela Riabova, Larissa Zaika, Yulia Medvedev, Andrey Basic research program of the Luzin Institute for Economic Studies of the Kola Science Centre RAS Basic research program of the Institute of geography RAS 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23996544221081688 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/23996544221081688 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/23996544221081688 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space volume 40, issue 6, page 1382-1400 ISSN 2399-6544 2399-6552 Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Public Administration Environmental Science (miscellaneous) Geography, Planning and Development journal-article 2022 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/23996544221081688 2022-09-21T19:50:35Z As cities around the world increasingly seek to brand themselves as comfortable and liveable places, policies aimed at enhancing the quality of the urban environment are becoming more important. Scholars interpret this development as evidence of reinforced urban entrepreneurialism and neoliberalization. The current paper focuses on comfortable city policies in Russia, where political, social and economic transformations were often depicted as the ‘Eastern branch’ of the global neoliberalization project. It draws on field data from a case study of two cities in the Russian Arctic. By focusing on locations far away from global nodes, where the ideas of a comfortable city originally took shape, we trace and analyse policy mutations and local adjustments of such policies, as well as the related rationalities and policymaking dynamics. Our findings speak to the literature on policy mobility by questioning the focus on cities as entrepreneurial actors and the depiction of comfortable city policies as mere vehicles of neoliberalism. In Russia, what began with the introduction of entrepreneurial, globally circulating comfortable city policies incrementally turned into a top-down political project that cannot be easily explained – neither by neoliberal rationality nor by the legacies of urban planning and development. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic SAGE Publications (via Crossref) Arctic Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 239965442210816 |
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Open Polar |
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SAGE Publications (via Crossref) |
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crsagepubl |
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English |
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Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Public Administration Environmental Science (miscellaneous) Geography, Planning and Development |
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Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Public Administration Environmental Science (miscellaneous) Geography, Planning and Development Gunko, Maria Zupan, Daniela Riabova, Larissa Zaika, Yulia Medvedev, Andrey From policy mobility to top-down policy transfer: ‘Comfortization’ of Russian cities beyond neoliberal rationality |
topic_facet |
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Public Administration Environmental Science (miscellaneous) Geography, Planning and Development |
description |
As cities around the world increasingly seek to brand themselves as comfortable and liveable places, policies aimed at enhancing the quality of the urban environment are becoming more important. Scholars interpret this development as evidence of reinforced urban entrepreneurialism and neoliberalization. The current paper focuses on comfortable city policies in Russia, where political, social and economic transformations were often depicted as the ‘Eastern branch’ of the global neoliberalization project. It draws on field data from a case study of two cities in the Russian Arctic. By focusing on locations far away from global nodes, where the ideas of a comfortable city originally took shape, we trace and analyse policy mutations and local adjustments of such policies, as well as the related rationalities and policymaking dynamics. Our findings speak to the literature on policy mobility by questioning the focus on cities as entrepreneurial actors and the depiction of comfortable city policies as mere vehicles of neoliberalism. In Russia, what began with the introduction of entrepreneurial, globally circulating comfortable city policies incrementally turned into a top-down political project that cannot be easily explained – neither by neoliberal rationality nor by the legacies of urban planning and development. |
author2 |
Basic research program of the Luzin Institute for Economic Studies of the Kola Science Centre RAS Basic research program of the Institute of geography RAS |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gunko, Maria Zupan, Daniela Riabova, Larissa Zaika, Yulia Medvedev, Andrey |
author_facet |
Gunko, Maria Zupan, Daniela Riabova, Larissa Zaika, Yulia Medvedev, Andrey |
author_sort |
Gunko, Maria |
title |
From policy mobility to top-down policy transfer: ‘Comfortization’ of Russian cities beyond neoliberal rationality |
title_short |
From policy mobility to top-down policy transfer: ‘Comfortization’ of Russian cities beyond neoliberal rationality |
title_full |
From policy mobility to top-down policy transfer: ‘Comfortization’ of Russian cities beyond neoliberal rationality |
title_fullStr |
From policy mobility to top-down policy transfer: ‘Comfortization’ of Russian cities beyond neoliberal rationality |
title_full_unstemmed |
From policy mobility to top-down policy transfer: ‘Comfortization’ of Russian cities beyond neoliberal rationality |
title_sort |
from policy mobility to top-down policy transfer: ‘comfortization’ of russian cities beyond neoliberal rationality |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23996544221081688 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/23996544221081688 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/23996544221081688 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space volume 40, issue 6, page 1382-1400 ISSN 2399-6544 2399-6552 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/23996544221081688 |
container_title |
Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space |
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239965442210816 |
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