@ Luba Krutenko, 2024

What existing urban structures and values does civil engagement focus on (or not) – and why?

Civic engagement is a part of the processes through which urban structures are being symbolically and/or physically appropriated and named heritage. Therefore particular urban structures and values associated with them are being used to create new narratives about the city - which help activists to explain why this city is worth living in.

This journey of narrative-making can start from popular assumptions about the “real city” which activists can straighten or counter through their activities. For example, it’s often implied that a city should have a “historical centre”, where “historical” means pre-revolutionary while industrial and/or soviet heritage needs to be explained and put into the context to become meaningful and valuable.

In cities like Ivanovo or Novosibirsk where urban environment is mainly presented by soviet developments, it leads to the activists’ attempts to construct not only the value of the curtain building but to bring meaning to the whole historical and social context in which the building was built and in which it exists now.