Mobility and Solidarity in Urban Transit Space of the Moscow Metro

Student: Gornostaeva Viktoriya

Supervisor: Greg Yudin

Educational Programme: Bachelor

Year of Graduation: 2014

ABSTRACTThe graduation project gives the types of social in the urban transit area of the Moscow Metro. There were used such approaches as E. Durkheim’s and J. Urry’s to highlight the “social as society” and “social as mobility”. Research question is what type of social in the form of features of interaction characteristics, cohesion and perception of other people and places can be found in the urban transit area of the Moscow Metro?Basic concepts are defined as follows:“Solidarity” is some positive attitude of people to each other, understanding that there is a “we”, understanding of belonging to a wider circle than a circle of close relatives, and considering oneself as a value team.“Mobility” is real and potential movement of people, things and images in their relationship with the social relations in space and time. Empirical object made by users of the Moscow Metro over 16 years with experience in independent travel in this kind of transport. Test method: semi-structured interviews with a focused narrative technique using mental maps. According to the analysis of 24 interviews the parameters important for the characterization of interaction and cohesion in the Moscow metro include: 1. Time: history and architecture names, part of the day (morning / evening), rush hour / moderate traffic; 2. Space: finding relative to the ground stations (over / under), former and current stations, specific location in the metro (train, escalator, platform, transition); 3. Status of metro-users: friend-or-foe identification, guest / typical user (experience with);"Social as society": the situation of the first half of the day, but with moderate traffic movement (not rush hour) finding station as underground station, built in the Soviet period with a fairly pronounced historical aspects of decoration and names, location of the wagon, metro-user status as a “foe” (tourist) and a guest (little or lack of experience of using the Moscow metro). “Social as mobility”: rush hour, modern station "technical" station in a minimalist style, the place of transition, status of a metro-user as a “friend” (non-tourist) and the typical user (sufficient experience in the use of the Moscow metro, routinization of the route).Thus, the type of the social in the Moscow Metro is linked to the value of it for the transport system, architectural and aesthetic component of the metro, also associations and inclusiveness in historical context through the design and the name of the stations, as well as a representation of Moscow through the use of the space station.

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