Comparison of Finnish and Russian Urban PLanning: Citizen's Involvement

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School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Bachelor's thesis

Date

2017

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Mcode

Degree programme

Arkkitehtuuri

Language

en

Pages

32

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Abstract

This study is a comparison of citizen’s involvement in urban planning in Russia and Finland, based on case studies Helsinki Vision 2050 and St.-Petersburg 2030. Quite a few studies of citizen’s involvement were recently made, but the majority of them are concerned with Finnish cases. The analysis of the St.-Petersburg 2030 -case is emphasized in the study, as Helsinki Vision 2050 is very much familiar to the practitioners of Urban Planning. The study provides a cursory overview of citizen’s involvement in St.-Petersburg, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Even though the legislation for urban planning in both cases is quite similar, the analysis has uncovered differences in implementation that have decisive impact on the outcome. The premise for citizen’s involvement is motivation of the citizen, in the case of St.-Petersburg 2030 the motivation by possible negative impact has shown to activate the citizens. However, such activation leads to nimbyism that does not serve the process of urban planning as a whole. The involvement of citizens as creative actors in urban planning is important and it affects positively the outcome, but it requires that citizens strive for the common goal and seek joint solutions. Such activities require that the citizens are confident in their ability to have impact on the outcome and that they perceive the cityscape as a whole. The openness and availability of the data are different criteria than applicability and accessibility of the said data. In case of St.-Petersburg 2030 -case the unrealistic basis of urban planning and the illegibility of the data provided by the officials have had a negative impact on citizen’s involvement. At the present moment it is not yet possible to assess how much does such participation benefit the city planning and if it does at all. The feedback collected from the citizens is at the present point being processed by the city planning department of St.-Petersburg, any changes to the city plan that stem from that feedback will manifest themselves in future revisions of city plan.

Description

Supervisor

Krokfors, Karin

Thesis advisor

Hewidy, Hossam

Keywords

urban planning, citizen's involvement, St.-Petersburg 2030, Helsinki Vision 2050

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