Disorder, Safety, and Collective Efficacy: Case of Saint Petersburg High-rise Housing

The following study in the field of urban sociology investigated the level of crime in Russian high-rise housing and whether it was connected with both direct and indirect effects of neighbourhood self-organisation practices and physical disorder through the sense of safety and respondents’ characteristics. Analysis included 387 responses collected by clustered random sampling strategy in two oldest Saint Petersburg high-rise residential areas “Vena” and “London” in Kudrovo district and “North Valley” near Parnas metro station (with average buildings’ height 26 floors). All the variables were measured in the perceived level. Findings illustrate a significant positive connection of perceived social disorder with (1) physical disorder, (2) collective efficacy moderated by low level of safety, (3) fact of having no children under 16, (4) property non-owning status; negative connection with (5) perceived safety. This further analysis indicated that collective efficacy was positively associated with having no children and being unmarried. It was hypothesised that residents of the researched high-rise housing were gathering together mostly in the cases of already existing problems, visible in the physical environment. For instance, most popular activities were self-organized for cooperative active labor, where the most engaged residents were single property non-owners without children, living long in the house. The research conclusions can assist city activists, politicians, and administration to ascertain the ways of neighbourhood improvement strategies and social disorder decrease in high-rise estates. Keywords: Social disorder, collective efficacy, physical disorder, safety, high-rise housing, Russia.