Dichotomy of Territorial Development: Citizens’ Opinion vs Official Strategy

The study is devoted to the issues of urban development in the conditions of contraction and depopulation. One of the reasons, which the authors mention, is partial or complete disregard of the opinion of significant stakeholders of urban strategizing. The low level of involvement of the local population in the development of their territories negatively affects not only the level of economic development, but also has a number of social problems (criminalization, marginalization, outflow of population, etc.). In the paper, based on the synthesis of quantitative and qualitative methods, we attempt to identify the level of involvement of the local population of the city of Volgograd in the management. In order to identify the opinion of residents about the present and future of the city, an online survey of residents of the city of Volgograd was organized and conducted. The survey was conducted between September and November 2022. As a result, data on associations about the city, positive and negative aspects of living in the city were identified and analyzed, and the most typical character traits of citizens were revealed. It was found that strategic and urban planning documents of many Russian cities ignore changes in urban development and environmental factors, focusing on optimistic forecasts. Such unfulfilled attitudes lead to the absence of medium- and long-term urban development forecasts in the plans for reconstruction of buildings and structures, reclamation of territories, environmental changes, involvement of business and local communities in the development of strategies. In addition, they do not take into account the opinions of important participants of urban planning. It is concluded that it is necessary to involve actively and broadly the local population in the processes of urban development at all stages of strategizing.