This is another episode of our Think&Drink Series in collaboration with the Georg-Simmel-Centre for Urban Studies working with the Humboldt University Berlin.
This episode is part of our Think&Drink Series in collaboration with the Georg-Simmel-Centre for Urban Studies working with the Humboldt University Berlin. Today’s speaker is Andrei Semenov, an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Authoritarian urbanism has recently become a buzzword applied to different settings and situations. Andrei attempts to clarify the conceptual foundations of this term by using a combination of political science and urban sociology analytical frameworks. He shows that the authoritarian part refers to the dictators’ response to two key challenges to their rule: elite factionalism and mass uprisings. While a wide set of strategies is available to dictators, the instruments and practices of urban development constitute one possible way of responding. More specifically, he argues that authoritarian urbanism simultaneously aims at two (not always compatible) goals: providing rents to ensure the elites’ loyalty and satisfying the mass demand for housing and a comfortable urban environment. He illustrates these features with examples from Eurasian countries and concludes with some further research questions.
Guest:
Andrei Semenov
Andrei Semenov is an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. Andrei earned his PhD in politics from POM State University in Russia.
He taught courses on comparative politics, political science, methodology, urban politics, and various aspects of Eurasian politics at universities.
His research interests encompass political mobilization, social movements, civic and urban activism, the effects of economic shocks and responsibility attribution for economic hardships, and the political consequences of climate change.
Andrei furthermore co-edited a book, Rarities of Russian Activism, which was published in 2023. His most recent research appeared in communist and post communist studies, democratization, East European studies, European political science, problem of post communist social movement studies, and many other journals.