Rural gentrification: City dwellers in rural areas of Russia’s Non-Chernozem Region
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-4-137-151Keywords:
countryside, migration from the city to the village, rural gentrification, cultural initiatives, Vologda oblast, non-Chernozem regionAbstract
Under the long-term rural outflow to cities, urban migration to rural areas, especially of those not changing urban registration or staying in the countryside seasonally, is almost invisible. However, the influx of new residents affects rural areas greatly since city dwellers have rich social capital and other resources to transform the countryside. Foreign researchers suggest the term ‘rural gentrification’ to describe such processes. On the example of the Verkhovazhsky district of the Vologda oblast, the author shows how city dwellers participate in different spheres of the rural economic and social life or introduce new types of activities that could be characterized as sprouts of rural modernization if not for their close connection with the traditional rural life. The paper is based on the field studies conducted from 2019 to 2023, combining in-depth and expert interviews with participant observation. In the villages of the Vaga valley, there are guest houses, a center for wood-fired ceramics, a base for restorers of wooden architecture and other facilities created by city dwellers. At the same time, former city residents work in the rural social infrastructure - schools, cultural centers, shops, administrations, offering rural residents new, urban practices (public lectures, book crossing, separate waste collection, second-hand stores). On the one hand, former city residents contribute to changes in certain aspects of rural life; on the other hand, they adopt elements of rural lifestyle, which is manifested in clothing, everyday practices, and way of thinking.References
Averkieva K., Nefedova T. (2016) Dachas and the colonization of rural areas by urban residents in Russia: The case of the Kostroma Region. Mir Rossii, vol. 25, no 1, pp. 103-128. (In Russian)
Bell M., Osti G. (2010) Mobilities and ruralities: An introduction. Sociologia Ruralis, vol. 50, no 3, pp. 199-204.
Between Home and… Home. The Return Spatial Mobility of Population in Russia (2016). T. Nefedova, K. Averkieva, A. Makhrova (Eds.), Moscow: New Chronograph. (In Russian)
Makhrova A., Medvedev A., Nefedova T. (2016) Gardening and dacha communities of city dwellers in the rural settlement system. Bulletin of the Moscow University. Series 5: Geography, vol. 2, pp. 64-74. (In Russian)
Malinova-Tziafeta O. (2013) From the City to the Dacha: Social-Cultural Factors of the Dacha Space Development around Saint Petersburg (1860-1914), Saint Petersburg: European University in Saint Petersburg. (In Russian)
Melnikova E. A. (2020) Village in urban projections of Russians. Ethnographic Review, vol. 6, pp. 5-11. (In Russian)
Nefedova T., Pokrovsky N., Treivish A. (2015) Urbanization, desurbanization and rural-urban communities under the growing horizontal mobility. Sociological Studies, no 12, pp. 60-69. (In Russian)
Nelson P., Oberg A., Nelson L. (2010) Rural gentrification and linked migration in the United States. Journal of Rural Studies, vol. 26, pp. 343-352.
Old-Developed Areas of Russia: History and the Present Time (2021) T. Nefedova, A. Starikova, Moscow: KMK. (In Russian)
Ovchintseva L. (2021) New villagers: Motives and factors for moving from the city to the countryside.RUDN Journal of Sociology, vol. 21, no 2, pp. 296-310. (In Russian)
Phillips M. (2010) Counterurbanization and rural gentrification: An exploration of the terms. Population, Space and Place, vol. 16, pp. 539-558.
Pokrovsky N., Makshanchikova A., Nikishin E. (2020) Reverse migration under the pandemic: Russia's out-of-town spaces as an adaptation resource. Sociological Studies, no 12, pp. 54-64. (In Russian)
Pokrovsky N., Nefedova T. (2013) ‘Cellular globalization' and trends in rural communities of the Near North. Sociological Studies, no 4, pp. 13-23. (In Russian)
Shchepetkova I. O. (2018) Territorial organization of gardening and dacha communities in the suburbs of Perm. News of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Geographical Series, no 4, pp. 46-54. (In Russian)
Shepanskaya T. (2021) On the dynamics of the post-agrarian development: Recycling of a rural fur farm in the Republic of Karelia. Literature and History, no 2, pp. 108-124. (In Russian)
Solana M. (2010) Rural gentrification in Catalonia, Spain: A case study of migration, social change and conflicts in the Empordanet area. Geoforum, vol. 1, pp. 508-517.
Stockdale A. (2010) The diverse geographies of rural gentrification in Scotland. Journal of Rural Studies, vol. 26, no 1, pp. 31-40.
Townspeople in the Village. A Sociological Study in the Russian Hinterland: Disurbanization and Rural-Urban Communities (2016). V. I. Il'yin, N. E. Pokrovsky (Eds.), Moscow: University Book. (In Russian)
Zhadnova E. (2014) Methodological approaches to the study of the city-village interaction. Historical and Social-Educational Thought, no 1, pp. 194-199. (In Russian)
Zvyagintsev V., Neuvazhaeva M. (2015) Migration from urban to rural areas: The phenomenon of ‘counter-urbanization' in modern Russia. Mir Rossii, vol. 24, no 1, pp. 101-135. (In Russian)
