Prostranstvennaâ Èkonomika (Jan 2020)
Urban Development Strategies: Russian Practice 2014–2019
Abstract
The article continues the research cycle on the state of strategic planning in Russian municipalities. The authors provided formalized text analysis result of 82 socio-economic development strategies, that have been adopted in cities with a population above 100 thousand citizens over five year period from the adoption of the Federal Law ‘On strategic planning in the Russian Federation’ (from the middle of 2014 to the middle of 2019). During the study, a search was conducted and an array of official urban strategies texts was formed. During the above mentioned period, 75 of 168 cities included in the studied size group developed new strategies (45%). Each text was characterized using a content codifier. For each strategy, the characteristics of continuity, balance, ambitiousness were obtained; the true and claimed priorities were revealed; flagship projects presence was marked; the scale of outlined transformations in economic structure was evaluated; industry priorities were traced. Special attention was paid to the reflection of spatial development issues in the strategies. The analysis of the frequency of marker words in the formulations of the main goals of the urban strategies and missions showed that the ‘quality of life’ remains the leading word combination as it is used in 69% of the main goal description. The study revealed the attention paid to such aspects as comfort (40), urban environment (41) and space (6), citizens (24), and such qualities as auspicious/prosperous (21) and sustainable (26). Many cities are focused on innovation (27), unleashing the potential (27), raising competitiveness (19), attracting investment (11), improving governance and self-government (12). Less commonly mentioned are busyness (10), infrastructure (10). The generalizing characteristics of 82 strategies array of the 2014–2019 period were calculated and compared to the characteristics of 40 strategies array of the 2010–2014 period. It was revealed that the adoption of the law has led to an increase in the number of strategies compared to the last five-year stage as well as to a greater unification, increased attention to the project approach and a decrease in ambitiousness
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