Papers by Nadir Kinossian
Europe-Asia Studies, 2025
This special issue offers reflections on socialist-era housing beyond the narrow focus on heritag... more This special issue offers reflections on socialist-era housing beyond the narrow focus on heritage protection, and connects social practices of state socialism with current urban contexts and broader societal concerns surrounding equity, liveability, and identity. The contributions demonstrate how the residents of socialist housing estates in Bulgaria, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine have adapted to new social and economic conditions. Despite the clichés of monotony, rigidity and minimalism, socialist-era housing continues to provide residential options for many people and demonstrates structural and social resilience.
IJURR, 2023
For researchers of cities in Eastern Europe, Jennifer Robinson’s work has been a great source of ... more For researchers of cities in Eastern Europe, Jennifer Robinson’s work has been a great source of inspiration and innovative ideas for many years. The publication of Ordinary Cities nearly twenty years ago opened (for me, at least) new perspectives and raised questions concerning both the origins of our knowledge about cities in the global North and beyond, and also the relevance of current urban theory for the world of cities. This latest book develops these ideas further.
European Planning Studies, 2023
Londongrad is at once a place, a process and a paradox. As a place, it refers to the manifold way... more Londongrad is at once a place, a process and a paradox. As a place, it refers to the manifold ways in which London has acquired a reputation for being a safe harbour for dirty money largely on account of a secure system of property rights, a cluster of professional enablers and a neoliberal politics that actively cultivated it. As a process, it illustrates the premier role that London plays in the global system of secrecy jurisdictions. As a paradox it signals the bizarre alignment of two nominally opposed systems, authoritarian state capitalism in Russia and neoliberal capitalism in the UK. Before the war in Ukraine, it was tacitly assumed that Londongrad was impervious to reform because no single political jurisdiction had the reach or the remit to confront this baroque system. Dismantling Londongrad is therefore a belated attempt to regulate the dark geography of dirty money.
‘Left behind places’: a geographical etymology
Regional Studies, 2023
‘Left behind places’ has become the leitmotif of geographical inequalities since the 2008 crisis.... more ‘Left behind places’ has become the leitmotif of geographical inequalities since the 2008 crisis. Yet, the term’s origins, definition and implications are poorly specified and risk obscuring the differentiated problems and pathways of different kinds of areas. This paper explicates the geographical etymology and spatial imaginary of ‘left behind places’. It argues that the appellation and its spatial expression have modified how geographical inequalities are understood and addressed by recovering a more relational understanding of multiple ‘left behind’ conditions, widening the analytical frame beyond only economic concerns, and opening up interpretations of the ‘development’ of ‘left behind places’ and their predicaments and prospects. While renewing interest in fundamental urban and regional concerns, what needs to endure from the ascendance of the ‘left behind places’ label is the terminology and spatial imaginary of reducing geographical inequalities and enhancing social and spatial justice.
CURDS Working Paper 05/23, 2023
Renewed political concern about geographical inequalities in the wake of the global financial cri... more Renewed political concern about geographical inequalities in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008 is raising questions about the ability of the prevalent pre-crisis model of development to generate more spatially balanced and inclusive economic development. This paper provides the first assessment of this emergent post-2008 spatial policy in relation to the interaction of three key processes: neoliberalism; the rise of state capitalism; and, populism and the geography of discontent. The paper seeks to provide the first assessment of how the interactions between these three factors has shaped spatial policy in Europe and North America since 2008. It identifies three main forms of spatial policy: metropolitanisation strategies to support the growth of large city-regions; the extension of competitiveness policies to smaller cities and towns; and, place-based industrial policies. The paper argues that while these new spatial and industrial policies are focusing attention on 'left behind places' and rejecting elements of globalism and neoliberalism, they have not as yet dislodged the underlying emphasis on growth and competitiveness.
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2022
The phenomenon of state capitalism is attracting growing attention in economic geography and poli... more The phenomenon of state capitalism is attracting growing attention in economic geography and political economy. We contribute to the debate by exploring the authoritarian state capitalism variant whereby the state moves beyond a predominantly regulatory role and appears as the dominant actor. We take Russia to be a prominent example of authoritarian state capitalism because the central state has subjugated economy, created organisational structures and designed development strategies to serve the interests of the kleptocrat, inverting the conventional meaning of ‘state capture’. The paper illustrates the centrality of the state by exploring two state-sponsored megaprojects: (i) the upgrade of the Northern Sea Route and (ii) the construction of innovation clusters (Skolkovo). In the first case, the state directs resources to the Northern Sea Route to secure Russia's control of the Arctic. In the second case, the state attempts to replicate the perceived developmental success stories of the West by fostering technology clusters. Each illustrative case offers an instructive insight into Russia's authoritarian state capitalism characterised by tensions between its own political and economic repertoires and a contentious relationship with the Western-dominated liberal capitalist world order.
Planning strategies and practices in non-core regions: a critical response
European Planning Studies, 2017
The development of non-core regions has attracted growing interest within the current debates of ... more The development of non-core regions has attracted growing interest within the current debates of economic geography, regional studies and spatial planning. The divergence between economically successful core regions and less privileged non-core regions continues despite policy interventions aimed at tackling spatial disparities and income inequalities. While traditional growth-oriented policies raise concerns over their effectiveness and relevance beyond large cities and metropolitan regions, there is growing interest in exploring new research paths and policy options that are better able to address development challenges in non-core regions. Contributors to this special issue engage with these debates by reflecting on planning policies and practices in five European countries, paying special attention to identifying planning strategies for non-core regions. This paper argues that alternatives to growth-oriented models require additional conceptualization and analysis to translate values into policies and institutions.
Book Review: Putin’s labor dilemma. Russian politics between stability and stagnation
Eurasian Geography and Economics, 2022
Stephen Crowley’s latest book, Putin’s Labor Dilemma makes a valuable contribution to the current... more Stephen Crowley’s latest book, Putin’s Labor Dilemma makes a valuable contribution to the current literature on post-communist and post-industrial transformation (see Gaddy and Ickes 2013; Gevorkyan 2018; Havrylyshyn 2019). Unlike other texts that have a defined disciplinary focus, Putin’s Labor Dilemma offers a holistic view on Russian political process, analyzing this from historical, spatial, and social perspectives. With a focus on post-socialist de-industrialization and responses from both ruling elites and labor, the volume combines discussion on soviet legacies, Russia’s diverse geography, economic restructuring policies, and labor mobilization, which forms the added value of the book.
Rethinking the post-socialist city
Urban Geography, 2022
Research on the post-socialist city remains weakly connected to global urban debates. This contri... more Research on the post-socialist city remains weakly connected to global urban debates. This contribution argues that a comparative research agenda can help the post-socialist city to overcome its isolation and to engage with urban theory (rather than simply supplying case studies for such). New comparative urbanism suggests that mechanistic, “genetic” comparisons may fail to offer new avenues for research, while “generative” comparisons that involve cities from across the globe can create spaces for conversation. Following this, there may be at least three areas of dialogue around the research on the post-socialist city. Firstly, protean post-socialist processes offer a harsh test for urban theories if they seek to claim global relevance. Secondly, the diversity of transition outcomes challenges the variegation of the liberal capitalism thesis because the latter has geographic limits. Thirdly, the emerging new state capitalism requires analytical scrutiny of its variants, including state-led and illiberal forms currently dominant in China and Russia.
Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2021
This article brings attention to the diversity of urban conditions, actors, agency, and developme... more This article brings attention to the diversity of urban conditions, actors, agency, and development paths in contrast to the imperatives of urban entrepreneurialism and competitiveness. Rather than presupposing the critical role of exogenous sources of growth, the aim of the current paper is in exploring empirically the role of local agency in achieving continuity or change through the lens of urban renewal. The data is drawn from three case studies of small, company towns (monogorods) in Russia. The paper concludes that in small towns local actors and endogenous resources play a strong role in achieving positive change. For Russian monogorods there is a tendency to ‘merge’ different types of agency into an all-embracing local-based leadership which despite the hierarchical power relations allows for certain decision-making autonomy from the central government. The study indicates the need to better account for diverse forms of human agency in various fields of urban development. While conventional approaches tend to prioritize formal hierarchies and derive agency from static positions of authority and economic power, we demonstrate that actors may assume different roles that do not neatly reflect their positions in a fixed and pre-defined manner or narrowly determined economic interests.
Eurasian Geography and Economics, 2020
This paper develops the notion of "more-than-viral" geogra-phies of the covid-19 pandemic. It int... more This paper develops the notion of "more-than-viral" geogra-phies of the covid-19 pandemic. It introduces a set of commentaries on the pandemic in the Eurasian region and its links with the rest of the globe. Taking "more-than-human" perspectives in Human Geography as an inspiration, it develops ways of analyzing the covid-19 pandemic as a "more-than-viral" phenomenon in which human and viral agencies are entangled. In this Introduction to the special issue, we focus on three key intertwined sets of processes that run through this volume, and which both shape, and are being radically reshaped by, the pandemic: interconnections, inequalities, and the geopolitics of disease. Each of these interrelated processes is developed in various ways by the commentaries which make up the special issue.
Nordlit, 2020
Cultural landscapes represent social structures, interests, and values. At the same time, the obs... more Cultural landscapes represent social structures, interests, and values. At the same time, the observer can derive, interpret, reinterpret, and inscribe new meanings to the landscape. Landscapes that are saturated with ideologically charged symbols dictate to the viewer what can and cannot be seen and derived from them. On the other hand, landscapes that are abandoned, ruined, partly erased, and deprived of actors, activities, and political context present a different sort of setting. What can be derived from them? What or whom do they represent? Can the current conceptualisations help to capture their meanings? This paper attempts to expand the debate on cultural landscapes, by exploring the linkages to the concepts of haunting and ghosts. It uses the Russian settlements of Barentsburg, Pyramiden, and Grumant, located in Svalbard (Norway), as an example. The paper argues that ruined and abandoned landscapes are 'haunted', and that the viewer can engage with a haunted landscape through interactions with 'ghosts'-fictitious agents that fulfil two roles: i) allowing the viewer to associate with the ghost, and ii) reminding the viewer of the bygone actors, forces, and contexts that shaped the landscape.
Baltic Worlds, 2019
THIS SPECIAL ISSUE deals with a number of questions related to the livelihoods of people, economi... more THIS SPECIAL ISSUE deals with a number of questions related to the livelihoods of people, economic conditions, challenges and opportunities for SME’s located on the archipelagoes and islands of the BSR. While some local conditions, problems, and challenges are shared by all rural,
remote, and peripheral areas, the BRS archipelagos and islands have their own unique characteristics.
remote, and peripheral areas, the BRS archipelagos and islands have their own unique characteristics.
Baltic Worlds, 2019
This article discusses the current research and policy approaches towards peripheral regions, and... more This article discusses the current research and policy approaches towards peripheral regions, and outlines a new approach to revive peripheries using agents of change. The paper argues that better understanding of the processes and conditions necessary for establishing new development paths in peripheral regions requires new approaches to conceptualizing the process of regional change: specifically, combining approaches of evolutionary economic
geography, new institutionalisms, and policy studies.
geography, new institutionalisms, and policy studies.
Europa Regional, Sep 2017
In sharp contrast to Soviet urban planning doctrines, which aimed to contain the growth of large ... more In sharp contrast to Soviet urban planning doctrines, which aimed to contain the growth of large cities, contemporary Russian planners do the opposite – promote urban growth by merging municipalities into " urban agglomerations ". While the economic effects of agglomeration and concentration have been studied extensively, the politics and policy of metropolitan government have attracted less attention, especially in non-Western contexts. Using the current debates on city-regionalism and metropolisa-tion, this paper examines state-led metropolisation in Russia. It concludes: i) metropolisation in Russia is promoted by the federal government; ii) case studies of the Siberian cities Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk show that the emerging form of metropolitan governance is weak and unstable; iii) state-led metropolisation is problematic because accelerated growth of selected metropolitan areas can further exacerbate existing disparities within the already spatially polarised country.
Zusammenfassung Die Kutsche vor dem Pferd: Gefahren staatlich be-stimmter Metropolisierung in Russland Im klaren Gegensatz zu den sowjetischen Städtebaudoktrinen, die auf die Eindämmung des Wachstums großer Städte abzielten, tun heutige russische Planer das Gegenteil – sie fördern das Städ-tewachstum, indem sie Stadtbezirke zu städtischen Ballungsräu-men verschmelzen. Während die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der Verstädterung und Konzentration intensiv erforscht sind, sind Politik und Strategien von Stadtverwaltungen weniger beachtet worden, besonders wenn es nicht um westliche Zusammenhänge geht. Diese Veröffentlichung untersucht die staatlich bestimm-te Metropolisierung in Russland und greift dabei die aktuellen Debatten zu Stadt-Regionalismus und Metropolisierung auf. Sie kommt zu folgendem Schluss: i) Die Metropolisierung in Russland wird durch die Regierung der Russischen Föderation gefördert; ii) Fallstudien der sibirischen Städte Krasnojarsk und Novosibirsk zeigen, dass die entstehende Form der Großstadtverwaltung schwach und unbeständig ist; iii) die staatlich bestimmte Me-tropolisierung ist problematisch, weil das beschleunigte Wachs-tum ausgewählter Großstadtbereiche vorhandene Ungleichhei-ten innerhalb des bereits räumlich polarisierten Landes weiter verschärfen kann.
Zusammenfassung Die Kutsche vor dem Pferd: Gefahren staatlich be-stimmter Metropolisierung in Russland Im klaren Gegensatz zu den sowjetischen Städtebaudoktrinen, die auf die Eindämmung des Wachstums großer Städte abzielten, tun heutige russische Planer das Gegenteil – sie fördern das Städ-tewachstum, indem sie Stadtbezirke zu städtischen Ballungsräu-men verschmelzen. Während die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der Verstädterung und Konzentration intensiv erforscht sind, sind Politik und Strategien von Stadtverwaltungen weniger beachtet worden, besonders wenn es nicht um westliche Zusammenhänge geht. Diese Veröffentlichung untersucht die staatlich bestimm-te Metropolisierung in Russland und greift dabei die aktuellen Debatten zu Stadt-Regionalismus und Metropolisierung auf. Sie kommt zu folgendem Schluss: i) Die Metropolisierung in Russland wird durch die Regierung der Russischen Föderation gefördert; ii) Fallstudien der sibirischen Städte Krasnojarsk und Novosibirsk zeigen, dass die entstehende Form der Großstadtverwaltung schwach und unbeständig ist; iii) die staatlich bestimmte Me-tropolisierung ist problematisch, weil das beschleunigte Wachs-tum ausgewählter Großstadtbereiche vorhandene Ungleichhei-ten innerhalb des bereits räumlich polarisierten Landes weiter verschärfen kann.
Focus on Geography, 2017
The Arctic is often associated with isolation, physical remoteness, and monotony of natural lands... more The Arctic is often associated with isolation, physical remoteness, and monotony of natural landscapes. Although there is some basis to these clichés, the authors encountered the unexpected more often than anticipated while based in the town of Kirkenes in Northern Norway. This paper gathers insights and impressions collected during the authors’ work and travels in the regions of Finnmark (Norway), Lapland (Finland), and Murmansk Oblast’ (Russia), which display the remarkable cultural and economic diversity of Europe's Arctic region.
Urban Research and Practice, 2016
Russian urban planning and government are undergoing a metropolitan turn. The Russian central gov... more Russian urban planning and government are undergoing a metropolitan turn. The Russian central government is seeking to spatially rebalance the Russian economy by creating new economic centres and introducing metropolitan-level urban planning and government for selected core cities and adjacent municipalities. From the urban planning perspective, metropolisation aims to promote better coordination within functional urban areas. Using the current debates in urban planning and economic geography, this paper examines the origins, content, and economic implications of this state-led metropolisation. It concludes that although some material conditions for metropolisation are present, cities may not be able to fulfil the vision of new ‘economic engines’ because of deeply embedded structural problems in the Russian economy and the current weakness of metropolitan governments.
Re-colonising the Arctic: The preparation of spatial planning policy in Murmansk Oblast', Russia
The Russian state is strengthening its positions in the Arctic in order to exploit its resources,... more The Russian state is strengthening its positions in the Arctic in order to exploit its resources, develop transport routes, and reverse depopulation trends in the country's northern regions. The ambitions of the Russian state to ‘recolonise’ the Arctic pose questions about the role of the region in the policy-making process dominated by the central state and the emerging geography of the Arctic. This article analyses these relationships using Murmansk Oblast’ as a case study. It argues that (i) there is a shift in Russia's Arctic policy – from withdrawal to re-engagement via mega-projects in energy and transport infrastructure sectors. Changes in global energy markets suggest that Arctic expansionism driven by energy projects is not sustainable; (ii) the policy framework remains incoherent as the central state revises its priorities; (iii) within the emerging polity, regions are neither ‘transmission belts’ of national policy nor independent players; instead, regions such as Murmansk Oblast’ are produced via multiscalar processes of policy making, institutionalisation, and discursive practices.
Cultural landscape of the Arctic: ‘recycling’ of soviet imagery in the Russian settlement of Barentsburg, Svalbard (Norway)
The paper analyzes the contemporary cultural landscape of the Arctic, using the example of Barent... more The paper analyzes the contemporary cultural landscape of the Arctic, using the example of Barentsburg, a Russian mining town located on the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. The study uses current debates on urban cultural landscape, heritage, and identity to explain the endurance of Soviet imagery in the contemporary cultural landscape. The article argues that Soviet heritage has not been ‘left over’; instead, it has been purposefully ‘recycled’ to serve its claimants under new economic and geopolitical conditions. By maintaining its presence on Svalbard, Russia asserts its Arctic nation status and adds the Arctic dimension to its identity project in the making. The latter instrumentalizes selective aspects of the Soviet past that fit well with political discourses in contemporary Russia, including those of power, space, and otherness.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Apr 28, 2014
The apparent success of state-managed market economies has challenged the conventional wisdom tha... more The apparent success of state-managed market economies has challenged the conventional wisdom that liberal democracy is the norm around which all capitalist countries tend to converge. If the link between democracy and development is more tenuous than we often think, the authoritarian variety of capitalism is not without its own problems, especially with respect to political legitimacy, innovation and regional development. This article explores these issues through the prism of ‘authoritarian modernization’ in Russia. We argue that this strategy is unlikely to succeed, even in its own terms, because (1) the political system fails to create favourable institutional conditions for modernization; (2) the economic system is beset by deeply embedded structural problems; and (3) the regional policy apparatus is torn between the goals of spatial equalization and spatial agglomeration. The article focuses on the Skolkovo Innovation Centre, the main symbol of Russian modernization, to demonstrate the territorial repertoire of the mega-project, a state-sponsored development strategy to create innovation clusters from above because they cannot emerge from below.