Resistance to what? Urban contention in authoritarian Russia

Abstract

The unfolding debate on authoritarian urbanism and resistance to it largely avoided the conceptual clarification of what exactly this phenomenon is about. In this comment, I argue that authoritarian urbanism should be conceptualised as practices and tools for governing the urban space that help to maintain the autocratic order. I draw on the evidence from Russia to check if urban contention there fits into the category of „resistance to authoritarian urbanism“ and posit that it occupies the middle-ground between an open call for fundamental change in urban governance and infrapolitics.

Keywords

• urban contention
• authoritarian urbanism
• protest
• mobilisation
• urban activism