Tactical Urbanism as a New Form of Citizens Participation in Urban Development: Existing Practices in Russia

The master thesis is devoted to the analysis of the existing tactical urbanism practices in Russia. Tactical urbanism is new approach to changing the urban environment through short-term, low-cost and scalable interventions. It appeared in response to the shortcomings of the traditional planning system and existing urban problems. At the same time, it provides high level of democratic potential and can be an effective tool for transforming the urban environment for both active citizens and city authorities. Today urban planners, government officials and citizens are faced with the question of integrating tactical urbanism into the existing urban planning system. The first theoretical chapter is devoted to the conceptualisation of tactical urbanism in the context of "right to the city» theory and the analysis of the understanding of this approach in Russia. The second chapter presents the methodology of the study and the results of empirical analysis of the cases of tactical urbanism in Russia. Eight examples of tactical projects implemented by both citizens and the city administration were chosen for the study. On the basis of semi-structured expert interviews and analysis of documents the key problems and peculiarities of tactical urbanism application in Russia were formulated. The third chapter contains proposals for the legislative legalisation of the results of tactical urbanism, as well as the institutionalisation of the approach as a whole.