Sustainable Urban Development: Agency, Networks and Communication in uncertain times

During the last years, sustainable urban development became the focus of agenda for both governmental agencies and citizens in Russia.

Several international projects aimed to promote sustainable development were launched and some of them have had concrete results.

However, Russian military aggression in Ukraine has put an end to any political opposition and resulted in harsh oppression of activism in Russia and many activists leaving the country.

Hence, the project will study what happened with SUD initiatives in post-2022 Russia by focusing on the investigation of the networks and communications the stakeholders create while working with urban planning, environmental protection and social innovation in new political and security conditions.

What citizens can do if there are no opportunities to get funding or learn from other international experiences? What networks activists build given that many activists have left?

What resources civil society still has to drive social and political agendas?- these are some of the questions that the study will provide answers to.

By working together with activist groups, civil society organisations and citizens, who care about democracy and environment, the project will provide a set of guidelines on how to work together.

The guidelines will be useful for both policymakers and citizens and result in a tool kit, a series of publications, a series of workshops and a conference.