scholarly journals Political Effects of Digital Transformation of Urban Governance (On the Example of Moscow)

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-32
Author(s):  
A. A. Balayan ◽  
L. V. Tomin
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Biometric Recognition ◽  
Camera Systems ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
City Model ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The City

The paper is devoted to the study of particular political effects of digitalization of urban governance in the Russian Federation. Based on the concept of «surveillance capitalism» and research on the digital transformation of public administration, the authors analyzes the structure and logic of functioning of the «smart city» model using the example of Moscow. Based on the material of street protests, the political effects of the use of digital infrastructure by the city authorities, in particular, camera systems with face recognition technologies, are examined. The study of the Russian situation correlates with the latest decisions of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council and the European Union’s initiatives to control remote biometric recognition technologies.

Modern problems of the activities of public authorities in the light of their legiti-macy

2021 ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Dmitry A. Аvdeev
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Modern System ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Existing Structure

The article examines the constitutional foundations of the legitimacy of public authorities, concludes that their activities correspond to the political interests of Russian citizens. The problem of the legitimacy of the activities of public authorities in the Russian Federation and the process of their legitimation, after the constitutional amendments, acquired particular relevance. Participation in the management of state affairs is determined by the peculiarities of the modern system of organization of power, as well as the ability of citizens to influence the functioning of the activities of its bodies, which makes it possible to determine the degree of legitimacy of public administration. The author, analyzing the existing structure of public authorities through the prism of the legitimacy of their activities, identifies some problems of an organizational nature and suggests ways of solving them in this regard.

NEW POWER-PUBLIC COMMUNICATIVISM AND POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIETY

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-138
Author(s):  
M.A. CHEKUNOVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Russian Federation

The purpose of the article is to consider the influence of the processes of digital transformation of society on the change of the model of power and public communications. The positions and arguments of technological optimists and alarmists on the prospects for the development or involution of democracy in the context of further digitalization are considered. Scenario variants of the political consequences of the "digital revolution"are presented. A special place is given to the analysis of the discourse, catalyzed by anti-covid events, around the problem of a new type of totalitarianism. The author, pointing to the opportunities of digitalization that are favorable for the development of power and public relations, also notes the risks associated with it for the political sphere. As a result of the research, the author suggests two main directions of digital transformation in the field of political communication in the medium term: 1) creative, enhancing the effectiveness of dialogue communications between the authorities and the public (including through the implementation of the national project "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation"), 2) destructive, forming the language of hostility in society and the activity of anonymous political trolls that generate conflict.

scholarly journals City Profile: Johannesburg, South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-270
Author(s):  
Caryn Abrahams ◽  
David Everatt
Keyword(s):  
Urban Governance ◽  
Industrial Plant ◽  
The Political ◽  
African Continent ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fiscal Management ◽  
The North ◽  
Rivers And Streams ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

The city of Johannesburg offers insights into urban governance and the interesting interplay between managing the pressures in a rapidly urbanizing context, with the political imperatives that are enduring challenges. The metropolitan municipality of Johannesburg (hereafter Johannesburg), as it is known today, represents one of the most diverse cities in the African continent. That urbanization, however, came up hard against the power of the past. Areas zoned by race had been carved into the landscape, with natural and manufactured boundaries to keep formerly white areas ‘safe’ from those zoned for other races. Highways, light industrial plant, rivers and streams, all combined to ensure the Johannesburg landscape are spatially disfigured, and precisely because it is built into the landscape, the impact of apartheid has proved remarkably durable. Urban growth is concentrated in Johannesburg’s townships and much of it is class driven: the middle class (of all races) is increasingly being found in cluster and complexes in the north Johannesburg, while poor and working-class African and coloured communities in particular are densifying in the south. The racial and spatial divisions of the city continue to pose fundamental challenges in terms of governance, fiscal management and spatially driven service delivery.

Refusing relocation: Urban street vendors and the problem of the neoliberal device

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110611
Author(s):  
James Christopher Mizes
Keyword(s):  
High Price ◽  
The Political ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Urban Street ◽  
User Charges ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
The City ◽  
Commercial Center

In 2010, the City of Dakar published its new master plan for a clean, competitive, modern city. This plan entailed the relocation of thousands of walking street vendors to free up traffic circulation and reduce the economic costs of congestion. Unlike previous relocations, this program required the political participation of vendor associations in the planning and design of a new commercial center. It also required the vendors to pay user charges: monthly payments for the use of the center and its utilities. Yet most Dakar's street vendors unequivocally refused to relocate, citing the building's poor location, bad design, and high price. Such user charges have become a contentious device with which governments across the world are financing the provision of public services. In this article, I analyze the politics of this device by tracing the linkages from Dakar's relocation program back to the political philosophies of prominent intellectuals commonly associated with “neoliberalism.” In doing so, I reveal how popular refusal is not beyond or opposed to a depoliticizing neoliberalism, but instead forms an integral part of neoliberal reflections on popular politics. I conclude by analyzing the political effects of this neoliberal device in Dakar: it introduced a new style of political engagement—consumption—through which individual vendors could dispute their relocation. And this individualized refusal to consume incited their representative associations to extend a popular mode of valuation—negotiation—into the calculation of the building's price.

scholarly journals Ambassad’Air: A French example of how citizen sensing can fuel the smart city

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Dardier ◽  
F Jabot
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Implementation Barriers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Citizen Sensing ◽  
City Model

Abstract Low-cost sensors are considered as a promising tool to contribute to urban air quality policies. In some initiatives, based on citizen sensing, they are used to gather data and gain a better understanding of the problem, thus fitting in a technology-oriented smart city model. In others, closer to citizen science, they are used to engage citizens in finding solutions, therefore fueling a more citizen-oriented smart city model, the smart enough city. Although important, the political effects of such initiatives have not been widely analyzed so far. To address this issue, we have studied Ambassad'Air, a citizen sensing initiative led in Rennes since 2016: What are the political consequences of this project? And which smart city model does it fuel? Based on a littterature review, we built an analytical framework for the two smart city models. Then, we realized 81 interviews with Ambassad'air's volunteers and managers to analyze the initiative's strategy, its implementation (participatory mechanisms; use of data) and its political effects (change in political agenda or projects; citizen mobilization). Initially, micro-sensors were lent to volunteers with the aim of turning them into peer-educators able to raise awareness around them and into empowered citizens able to influence local air quality policies. However, the initiative faced implementation barriers (persistent blurring between citizen science and citizen sensing; limitations to produce problem-oriented, scientifically validated, mass data) that limited its short-term political effects. It has sparked a local interest, though, for micro-sensors, and it is questionning the management of citizen-produced data. With no political mechanisms that transform citizen sensing from a practice to an input for risk regulation, Ambassad'Air is not quite yet a tool of a smart enough city. But as a way to produce sensitive environments that any citizen can interact with in real-time, it is a step towards a more senseable city. Key messages Citizen sensing can fix the participatory breakdowns of the smart city while feeding its big data but it needs political mechanisms that recognize the role of citizen expertise in decision making. Micro-sensors can serve a wide range of strategies, from community-based environmental surveillance that seeks knowledge to gain power, to top-down citizen sensing that seeks data to gain control.

scholarly journals ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ УПРАВЛЕНИЕ И ИНФОРМАЦИОННОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО: ГРАНИ ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЯ

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-89
Author(s):  
Оlga. V. Khabibulina ◽  
Alexandra. V. Prokopchuk
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Supervision ◽  
Cultural Sphere ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Legal Entities

Цифровизация государственного управления затрагивает взаимоотношения органов исполнительной власти с физическими и юридическими лицами во всех сферах жизнедеятельности и преследует двуединую цель: противодей-ствие коррупции и обеспечение законных интересов частных лиц во взаимоотношениях с публичной администрацией. В статье дается характеристика цифровой трансформации административно-политической сферы на примере государственного контроля в таможенной, миграционной сфере. Расширению свободы предпринимательства, снятию ограничений для развития бизнеса способствует предоставление большинства государственных услуг предпринимателям и юридическим лицам в электронной форме, появление «Платформы для работы с обращениями предпринимателями». Учитывая важность социально-культурной сферы в формировании социально и юридически ответственного гражданина РФ, поднимается вопрос глобальной цифровой трансформации образования и просвещения в интересах обучающихся в плане создания основанной на принципах равенства и открытости возможностей безграничной образовательной среды, а также доступности педагогам передовых образовательных программ для обеспечения применения индивидуальных подходов к обучению. Цифровизация внутриаппаратных отношений, связанных с государственной службой, позволяет решать вопрос соответствия чиновников предъявляемым требованиям и совершенствования кадровой политики в направлении обеспечения продвижения современных профессиональных кадров. The digitalization of public administration touches the cooperation between the executive bodies and legal entities and individuals in all spheres of life and seeks for a dual aim, i.e. to combat corruption and to provide the legal interests of private persons in their interaction with public management. The paper characterizes the digital transformation of administrative and political sphere illustrating the state supervision in the customs and migration. Digital way of providing the majority of public services to the entrepreneurs and legal entities, as well as the new Platform for Work with the Entrepreneurs, contributed to an increased free business activity and remove of restrictions on business development. Taking into consideration the importance of social and cultural sphere in developing a socially and legally responsible citizen of the Russian Federation, the paper discusses the issue of global digital transformation in education, so that to create an equal and giving open opportunities unlimited educational environment for all students, along with advanced educational programs for teachers to provide individual approaches in education. The digitalization of inside relations connected with the public service allows solving the problem of meeting the requirements for the officials and development of human resources policy in promoting up-to-date professional staff.

scholarly journals Бурятия 1920-х гг. в путевом дневнике немецкого врача Карла Вильманса

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1256-1270
Author(s):  
Vsevolod Yu. Bashkuev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Travel Diary ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Travel Journal ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

Introduction. The article is based on the travel diary of German doctor Karl Wilmanns reflecting his impressions of the trip to Buryat-Mongolia. K. Wilmanns, a psychiatrist from Heidelberg, and A. Stühmer, a venereologist from Münster, were members of the group to have organized the joint 1928 Soviet-German expedition for the study of syphilis in Buryat-Mongolia. In the summer of 1926, they undertook a reconnaissance trip to the BMASSR for an initial assessment of the situation. Their visit determined the course of further preparatory arrangements, scientific and practical agendas of the Soviet and German sides. Goals. The article is aimed at singling out of descriptions and characteristics of Buryat-Mongolia, its multinational population, and cultures from the general narrative of the document and analysis of this material in the political and cultural contexts of the Soviet-German medical cooperation of the 1920s. Results. The study reveals some previously unknown information about the city of Verkhneudinsk and Khorinsky Aimag of the BMASSR during the NEP era. In particular, the travel journal outlines the atmosphere of daily life in a small town in the periphery of the USSR, describes its residents and features of the region’s economic conditions, highlights its nature and objects of tangible and intangible culture. The document also provides insight into the healthcare system of the BMASSR, as well as new data on the physical condition of the republic’s population. The diary’s materials proved essential in further analysis of archival materials about the subsequent conflict between Soviet and German participants that arose after the Germans returned to their homeland. Conclusions. The investigation of materials contained in Wilmanns’ diary disprove the Soviet-era belief that his research was racist. On the contrary, Wilmanns’ reasoning demonstrates sympathy to the Buryat people, empathy for their problems, and a desire to help them. The rather meager medical content of the diary is compensated by Wilmanns and Stühmer’s reports on their trip to the BMASSR in the summer of 1926 which were discovered in the State Archive of the Russian Federation.

scholarly journals Sustainability of the state system in the context of digital transformation

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-22
Author(s):  
V. A. Kornilovich ◽  
K. A. Aramyan ◽  
A. V. Milekhin ◽  
A. V. Mironov
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Political System ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Organizational Forms ◽  
Structural Components ◽  
Political Interaction ◽  
The Impact

The digital transformation of the structural components of the state system forms new socio-organizational forms and practices of political interaction. The transformation process is based on the dialectical overcoming of existing elements of the old order, the development of new goals and the formation of new specific ways to achieve them. As a result of the digital transformation of the structural components of the state system, new socio-organizational forms and practices of political interaction are being formed. Before our eyes, the transition of initially networked social formations into political offline processes is unfolding, new power resources and mechanisms of influence on the political organization as a whole are emerging in society. These processes relate to social self-organization and are characteristic of the adaptive algorithm of social changes. At the same time, changes in system parameters do not violate the contours of the existing state system. However, in the conditions of deliberate stimulation by the authorities of the digital transformation of all spheres of society’s life, the limited ability of the political system and the state to ensure the manageability of social and political processes is more clearly manifested.The article considers the process of deformation of the state system caused by the digitalization of public relations, analyses changes in theoretical models of explaining social reality and related changes in the organization of the political system and political practices.The multi-component nature of the impact of the global ICT paradigm on the sphere of public administration of a particular state is noted. In the era of the diversity of broadcast information, the dominance of the mass media and social networks, the public becomes a mass / crowd and an object of manipulation. The impact of information and communication technologies on the functioning of society is manifested in maintaining the gap between formal and informal institutions, intensive introduction of innovations, launching new mechanisms of social inequality, and the like, as a result, the integrity of the social system is violated. The risk of loss of manageability of social processes increases due to the fact that the recommendations for authorities on digital transformation, as well as most scientific publications on the topic of digitalization of public administration do not contain a critical assessment of the ICT paradigm itself and the concepts, concepts and practices formed on its basis.

Extreme municipal fiscal stress and austerity? A case study of fiscal reform after Chapter 9 bankruptcy

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 522-538
Author(s):  
Mark Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Urban Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The Political ◽  
Fiscal Stress ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
Urban Restructuring ◽  
Managing Risk ◽  
The City

Post-recession urban restructuring in the U.S. has involved national and state governments pushing budget problems to the local level, with municipalities implementing a variety of responsive reforms. Although the term “austerity” has often been used to characterize these reforms, others have argued municipal responses to fiscal stress have been largely “pragmatic”. Disagreement therefore exists about the extent to which austerity is a post-recession tendency across U.S. urban governance. However, there is a consensus that extreme municipal fiscal stress is linked to austerity restructuring. But can cities who have experienced extreme fiscal stress avoid austerity restructuring? This paper draws on research that examined bankruptcy-related reform in the City of Vallejo, California. In 2008, Vallejo became the first municipality to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy after the financial crisis. During and after its bankruptcy, the City has faced extreme budget problems, making it a prime candidate for austerity restructuring. However, research shows that Vallejo undertook a set of post-bankruptcy reforms—controlling labor costs, revenue raising, managing risk, participatory budgeting—that are not collectively characteristic of austerity or pragmatism. In conclusion, the paper reflects on the political and ideological factors that shaped Vallejo’s post-recession restructuring and how the City’s core fiscal problems have avoided resolution.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document