Voloshinskaya A.A. New trends of management of “sustainable city”: what prevents Russia from applying the best global practices?

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the evolution of the concept of “sustainable city” proposed by the United Nations in the early 1990’s, as well as opportunities for its implementation in Russian practice. Over the recent years, based on the UN concept of “sustainable city” we can observe the emergence of other approaches towards the balanced socioeconomic development, such as “sustainable city” of the European Union, “sustainable city in the aging society” of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, “smart city”, “digital city”, “information city”, etc. These new approaches make accent on implementation of the modern technologies, transition to the knowledge economy and democratization of managements; the head of the concepts is human – his ability to create. Some positions of the concepts of “sustainable” and “smart” city are being gradually implemented in the Russian practice. However, their popularization is constrained by the lack of the necessary institutional conditions and management practices, such as the procedure of assessment of the regulatory impact of planned solutions (and not just draft bills that contain barriers for the business), compliance with the civil liberties, actual democratization of management, and others. The foreign experience can be useful in strategic and tactical planning of urban development, as the management practices will be changed diligently.  

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