Levkov Sergey

№ 2, 2007

• REGIONAL CITIES: BETWEEN “GLOBAL GATEWAYS” AND “MUNICIPAL UNITS”

  The article covers the analysis of sociopolitical processes taking place in the big cities of one of the most problematic Russian region — the Far East under the impact of the municipal reform started in 2004. The authors characterize the Far East as the region with “flowing culture” that neutralized the innovation drive conditioned by constant big migration flows and that was built on the simplest network systems. They show how with the disintegration of the organized recruitment system and consequently the disappearance of constant innovation “feeding” the “flowing culture” turned into a mechanism that “damped” any innovations. According to their conclusion the conduct of the municipal reform in Far East could not but disturb links between big cities and the “chorus” and cause the factual disintegration of the system of the interactions between the city and the territorial state. According to L.Blyakher and S.Levkov today, instead of “gateways into the global world”, “municipal units” appear legally and factually separated from the external impact and more and more reminding of an oligarch cityrepublic of the 16th century rather then of a global city of the 21st century.

  DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2007-45-2-27-43