Notman Ol’ga V.

The contradicting conditions of the local self-government existence in modern Russia provide for actual search for the efficient tools for the civil society involvement in the urban development management. The purpose of the article is to introduce a social technology developed and tested in the course of designing Ekaterinburg microdistricts development programs, aimed at improving interaction processes between the municipal authorities and urban stakeholders.

The given technology is based on the author’s concept of ”microlocal urban modes”, that is, modes of interaction between district administrations and intracity territories residents (organizations and population). The novelty of the proposed social technology is in building consecutive multi-level communications  with consideration for the diagnostic screening of the urban microdistricts environment quality, together with a communication space arrangement for the authorities and urban stakeholders interaction, not only citywide but also at local microlevel.

Following the results of the social technology evaluation, its key principles have been formulated: 1) integration of the results of empirical diagnostics and multi-subject ”coordinating” communications aimed at developing programs to improve the urban microdistricts environment quality; 2) organization of the city actors interaction in a multi-level communication space, involving direct and reverse communications between the city administration, district administrations, researchers, experts and local residents;

3) using a set of interrelated procedures providing for informed decision-making, considering objective and subjective information on the urban environment quality, and involving the post-diagnostic comparative analysis and discussion of microdistricts environmental profiles; 4) combining traditional research functions (diagnostic, analytical) with moderator, consultative, project functions, allowing for the ”activist- transformative” strategy implementation for the research group participation; 5) interaction participants self-training, which contributes to the mutual awareness growth.

The conclusion is made that ”cultivation” of the microlocal modes of city actors interaction regarding the local territories environment quality improvement will contribute to the intensification of processes of various public groups involvement in solving problems at the city level.

FUNDING: Acknowledgments: the article is supported by the Council on grants of the President of the Russian Federation (project NSh-1327.2022.2)

Purpose. The analysis of people's level of satisfaction with various areas of life in the places of residence as information basis of development of the concept of perspective development of residential districts of Ekaterinburg. Methods. We used stratified sample of respondents who live in Ekaterinburg city (N=3547). We applied SPSS 22.0 for data analysis. Descriptive statistics, the correlation analysis and tests for independent samples were used. Results. The received estimates of citizens demonstrate differentiation of residential districts by value judgment of the population. The most safe on «feelings» of citizens: new residential districts with actively developing infrastructure; «old» prestigious residential districts of the downtown; the brought closer to the center and sleeping residential districts with the developed infrastructure. Significant correlations between the level of satisfaction and social and demographic characteristics of respondents are revealed: the assessment of financial position is higher, the degree of satisfaction with various areas of life in districts is higher. We found distinctions in estimates of some areas of life in residential districts depending on sex and an occupation of respondents. Results of research will form the basis of the Concept of perspective development of residential districts of the municipality of Ekaterinburg city till 2035 (the municipal contract No. 15/2016-2 of 17.11.2016). Scientific novelty. The realized research project is the first empirical work on microdifferentiation of the territories of accommodation in Ekaterinburg city. The significance of a study of satisfaction of inhabitants as element of a technique of applied urbanistic researches is shown. Use of results of such researches in the course of the municipal government, on the one hand, increases the level of validity of the made decisions, and on the another hand bring closer it to the models of city comanaging which were extremely demanded today.