Relations with the Stranger: Government, Business, and Society in a Post-Soviet City

Abstract

The challenges of building viable relations between government and business in transitioning societies remains a popular research topic in post-Soviet studies. Scholars seek to understand how entrepreneurs, corporations, and other agents ofemergent markets communicate their business interests to local authorities and urban residents (Cohen & Arato, 1997; Titarenko, 2009). After the fall of the Soviet Union political and economic changes have come into a conflict with the mission and legacy of the urban landscape of former Soviet cities causing a spatial crisis (Harvey, 1996). This crisis occurs when the legacy landscape created under socialism becomes a barrier for further development under new capitalist realities.