Citizen involvement in urban planning process in Russia

The paper examines citizen involvement in the urban planning process. Although different forms of public control have been established in Russian legislation application of western approaches for urban planning process, organizations face low interest from local communities, on the one hand, and inability of local authorities to work with public initiative, on the other. The research is based on the multidisciplinary approach. The methodology includes deliberative democracy, advocacy planning conceptions, spatial economic theory, and urban studies. Methods of system, institutional, comparative analysis, focus groups and content analysis are used. The research has been conducted based on the materials of public space renovation projects in some major cities - regional capitals in Russia. The empirical base of the research includes acts regulating the urban planning sphere, mass media content about urban space renovation projects, materials from focus groups with representatives from local authorities and initiative citizen groups. The paper represent results of the international scientific research project “Legitimacy, urban planning and sustainability in Russia and Sweden (LUPSRUSS)” which was funded by the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD)