From Palaces to People's Parks to the new "Siburbia:
Exploring the Changing Russian City
2007 Exploration Seminar in Russia

**THIS PROGRAM IS FULL AND NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS**

Program Director: Christopher Campbell, Ph.D.
Dates of Instruction: August 19 - September 9, 2007

Course Description: The subject of this course is the Russian city: what it is, why it is, and where it’s going. We will take on these admittedly large questions in several ways. First, we will explore the city as an object in its own right, studying the architecture, form and spatial evolution of Russian urban areas. Second, we will consider the city as a social product and context. We will ask, what does the city tell us about Russian social, political, and economic life, both how it has changed and how it is changing? And third, we will explore the city as a management and planning problem. As responsibility for planning and managing cities is decentralized, what special problems are local governments and agencies facing and how are they attempting to solve them?

Although it is analytically useful to separate these three approaches to the Russian city, in practice they will certainly intersect, and much of our intellectual exploring will involve understanding how. Thus, to take one example or case study, we might begin by noting that many Russian cities are surrounded by large semi-public gardens (similar to P-patches in the U.S. but bigger). These give Russian cities a particular form that reflects both an historical period and what might be called a particular Russian character (an urban-agrarian meld). Today the traditional uses of these gardens are changing as their proprietors become owners and convert them to housing sites, which in turn is spurring the development of distinctly Russian suburbs (or “siburbia”, east of the Ural Mountains). Urban planners, in turn, are struggling with what to do – if anything – about all this in a rapidly and somewhat unpredictably evolving regulatory environment that is itself a reflection of larger political shifts in the country. Thus, by starting with a small issue or part of the urban environment, we will follow it outward to see how it fits within a larger complex of issues, histories, policies, and problems.

We will explore these questions in the context of three-four Russian cities. Our two primary or “anchor” cities will be Moscow and Krasnoyarsk, a major economic, administrative, and cultural center on the western edge of Siberia (and little visited by Westerners). The other city or cities will lie between Moscow and Krasnoyarsk along the Trans-Siberian railway, which we will use to move through the country. Traveling between the cities by train will give us the opportunity to see more of the Russian countryside, meet more Russians, and spend more time discussing our observations and work. Perhaps most exciting, we will also join forces with Russian colleagues. Two faculty and 8-10 students from Krasnoyarsk State Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering will accompany us on all our travels. The Russian faculty will serve as translators and co-instructors and help arrange our professional meetings, while the students will join in a common educational and exploratory experience.

Course Structure and Requirements: There are, obviously, any number of specific issues regarding the Russian city that we might focus on and the intent at this point is to let them emerge as we encounter them “in the field”. But to bring some structure and continuity to our explorations we will also apply a general framework to our work. The first part of this will be a pre-departure seminar and reading list focusing on Russian history, geography, and current political and social conditions. This will give students the basic background they need to begin asking questions of the cities we encounter. We will also practice a method of exploring cities called “reading the city” that is commonly used by urban planners and historians to “make sense of” the urban environment. Second, while in Russia we will engage in several standard practices. These will include an overview of the history, architecture, and form of each city we visit led by a professional architect or historian; interviews with local politicians, planning authorities and developers who will describe current conditions; and “intentional observations” of the city facilitated by the faculty but defined as well by the particular interests of the students. For this latter exercise, students will be required to keep a note book of their observations. Third, each student will be required to conduct and complete an original comparative research project of his or her choice using data from the cities we visit. Topics might include the growing impact of automobile use; the changing form and use of public spaces; environmental issues; housing styles and changes in the Russian family; the place and role of minorities in the Russian city and culture; or the impact of decentralization on local planning practices, among others. Each student will be required to work in a team consisting of at least one American and one Russian. Teams will formally present their findings at the end of the journey in front of an audience of Russian faculty and students. Thus, by the time students complete this seminar they should not only have a very broad understanding of the Russian city, but also a more in depth specialty in one particular area of Russian urban studies.

Instructor Qualifications: The primary instructor for this course from the American side will be Assistant Professor Christopher Campbell, from the Department of Urban Planning and Design. From the Russian side, the primary instructor will be Dr. Irina Kukina, Professor of Architecture and Planning, who will be assisted by Professor Valentina Suray, Head of the Foreign Languages Department, both of Krasnoyarsk State Academy. Besides teaching several very successful planning courses, including the undergraduate Introduction to Urban Planning and the graduate Community Development and Neighborhood Planning, Professor Campbell also holds a degree in Sociology with an emphasis on urban sociology and cultural change. Moreover, all three faculty have been involved in jointly creating a new exchange program between the UW and Krasnoyarsk State University focused on urban planning and policy (the first of its kind in the U.S.) and have led students on trips to Russia to study and engage in planning activities. This Exploration Seminar would be somewhat more ambitious than past efforts but well within their capabilities. All three faculty have been involved in the creation of this proposal and will continue to work together to finalize the course content and itineraries.

Target Audience: Our last trip, which focused primarily on urban planning, attracted 12 students, a mix of undergraduate and graduates mostly from Urban Planning and Architecture. This trip, however, is more broadly defined and will appeal to a larger undergraduate audience. In addition to students from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, we envision students from Slavic, Geography, Sociology, and the Jackson School of International Studies being interested. The course will also count as an elective in the Urban Planning minor (Urban Planning does not have a major). We are confident that the course will also be endorsed and promoted by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, which has historically been an enthusiastic friend of our efforts.

Participants will earn 5 credits of URBDP 498 or CHID 471 Europe Study Abroad (I&S). Participants should check with their advisors to determine how these credits can count towards departmental requirements.

Student costs:  
$2,550 Program Fee
$200 IPE Fee
Additional costs include: Round trip airfare to Krasnoyarsk, meals, health insurance, visa, course materials, and personal spending money.

Back to 2007 Exploration Seminar List of Programs