Industrial cities of th Urals: specificity of local identity and political practices

Abstract

The article focuses on the study of industrial cities where large factories of machinebuilding, metallurgical, mining and chemical industries are situated. In Russia, a large number of factories of heavy industry are located in the Urals, especially in the traditionally industrial territories of the Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Perm regions. The paper presents the results of research conducted on the materials of industrial cities of these regions. The conclusions presented are based on the analysis of interviews with representatives of the local authorities, enterprises management, municipal deputies, and local citizens, on materials of the corporate and local media, and on electoral and municipal statistics. All the materials were gathered during the last five years. The enterprise acts as an economic base and, therefore, a guarantor of the quality of life in cities of such economic origin. It is shown how the industrial specificity of such cities influences the formation of their local identity. Production is a key attribute of the local identity of industrial cities, and it determines the formation of the local factory identity. In local identities of many Ural cities, it is important to emphasize the industrial essence. It is noted how the formed local factory identity is taken into account in the development of strategies for political participation of enterprises and how it is used in municipal election campaigns. The tactics of nominating enterprises' employees as their candidates in local elections is considered, and a significant proportion of enterprises' employees in municipal representative institutions is marked. The authors demonstrate that the urban community's orientation to take part in city governance along with representatives of enterprises can not only increase the quality of the governance but also provide some guarantees for the stability of the municipaldevelopment. The ideas developed in the local community about the public role of the factory motivate enterprises to respond to the social needs of the local community. Evidently, in modern intricate socio-economic conditions, enterprises intentionally reduce the contribution to the urban environment, which inevitably leads to a deterioration in the quality of life of the citizens. The local identity of industrial cities can be derived beyond the limits of industrial identity and, thus, become a resource for the development of the city. It is shown why local identity is an underestimated resource of urban development and how it can be used by the urban community. If there is only one key enterprise in the city, and thereby it is a single-industry and singlefactory city, it creates a mono-industry identity, in the shaping of which the cityforming enterprise plays a dominant role as a unifying element. Therefore, the cityforming enterprise occupies an important place in the value content of the residents' identity. In cities losing their industrial specialization after the closure of the cityforming factories or the crisis of local economy, traditional factory symbols no longer reflect the identity of the place, local discourse is gradually changing, and enterprises are being removed from the municipal government. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17072/2218-1067-2018-3-148-165