Vera Smirnova
Urban political geography | Land and property regimes | Territory and territorialization | Russia
I. TERRITORY AND RUSSIAN POLITICAL GEOGRAPHIC THOUGHT (geopolitics, history of geographic thought)
This work problematizes traditional political geographic perspectives by rereading the concept of 'territory' from Russian standpoints. The history of Russian political and geographic thought borrowed from the modern Western paradigms yet offered new political technologies of controlling the land and securing the population and developed new categories of geographic analysis. In the Russian context, territory as a spatial practice of power-making takes on complex political forms, operates on multiple spatial scales, and presupposes different political projects, which diverge from modern Eurocentric interpretations. This work charts the more-than-state ontologies of territory from a Russian political geographic thought and delineates connections of theoretical trends with current events in Russia's geopolitical realm.
II. LAND AND POST-SOCIALIST PROPERTY REGIMES
(urban and legal geography)
This project analyzes patterns and political technologies of the “new land enclosures” in the post-socialist space and traces their similarities with the fictitious property regime first proposed in late imperial Russia. It explores how private property in Russia is negotiated, appropriated, and maintained in a time of political and economic uncertainty. It also draws on my dissertation that provided a historical, geographical analysis of land enclosure in late imperial Russia. Where using original records of Russian land deals obtained in the federal and municipal archives, I explored how the coalitions of landed nobility, land surveyors, landless serfs, and peasant proprietors used land enclosure as a conduit for coercive governance, accumulation of landed capital, or, in contrary, as a means of resistance.
III. URBAN POLITICS AND NATIONAL PRIORITY PROJECTS
(urban policy, regional governance)
This multi-faceted project examines political effects and regional outcomes of the recent urban initiatives in Russian cities. It develops a nuanced understanding of the influences of Russia’s authoritarian political governance on urban policy in its regions, that is often seen to intensify structural inequities and predatory center-periphery relations. Grounded in a number of different case studies, from the discourse analysis of the recent housing renovation initiative in Moscow and its national repercussions, to the local case of the urban national priority project in a provincial city in the Russian North, this project taps into the wider debate on authoritarian urbanism and its adverse tendencies across the post-socialist cities.