Bogdanov, V. S. (2023), “Trends in the development of Russian “Smart Cities”: problems of governance and inequality”, Research Result. Sociology and management, 9 (1), 85-97. DOI: 10.18413 ...

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: http://rrsociology.ru/en/journal/annotation/3043/ (дата обращения 25.04.2023)

Abstract

The relevance of the issues of "smart cities" in Russia, recorded as part of the discussion areas of the All-Russian Scientific Conference of the XXII Dridzev Readings "Predictive Social Design: the diagnosis of the development of "smart cities" is now due to the study of the trends in the reformation of traditional cities in the style of a "breakthrough," namely, the formation of a new approach to the transformation of urban settlements, taking into account the implementation of national projects and newfangled discourse based on technological determinism, and not fully understood, from the point of view of utility and digitalization. On the one hand, this approach can be considered as an attempt by the authorities to respond to the modern challenge associated with the public request of citizens in the context of solving the accumulated socially significant problems of their living environment, especially in small and medium-sized cities. On the other hand, this approach raises many questions against the background of the continuing extinction of small and medium-sized cities, trends of their enlargement, the migration of residents to larger cities, the alienation of citizens from urban management and the deformation of urban management systems, in particular the reproduction of the imitation of real inclusion of the latter in solving urban development issues on the basis of digital platforms. The above social contradictions, unfortunately, are either weakly or not at all updated as problems in official documents and practical measures for the development of "smart cities." Against the background of the alleged digitalization, as a priority direction for the transformation of the urban environment, they are unlikely to be resolved, and will rather contribute to the emergence of new hybrid infosocial management barriers, as well as new types of social and digital inequalities. To clarify the real state of affairs in the selected pilot "smart cities", to study the real needs of their residents, the collection of information about these residents should precede the development of strategic solutions and become the basis for the socio-economic and digital development of urban settlements, including the achievement of the specified parameters of the Standard of "smart cities," it is necessary to carry out social diagnostics (social and managerial expertise) of territorial-settlement objects. Such a socially based management approach based on the knowledge of social sciences will identify a range of critical socio-economic and management problems, introduce social technologies for establishing and "mitigating" excessive inequalities in urban settlements (infrastructure and social).