In the post-Soviet period, scientific centers faced various problems: stagnation, decreasing demand, inconsistency with market conditions, etc. Residents of scientific towns, where science was a city-forming industry, were forced to reorient themselves to more applied tasks or leave for countries where fundamental science received greater support from the state. As a result, scientific towns began to collapse not only physically (“the urban environment” began to absorb the scientific infrastructure, turning the territories into city suburbs), but also symbolically, i.e. began to lose their significance and distinctive features in the public mind.
To stop the destruction, various programs for the transformation of science towns are being developed. These are aimed at creating conditions for the development of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as promoting Russian science on the world stage. In the case of Novosibirsk Akademgorodok, these projects include Technopark, the campus of Novosibirsk State University, the SKIF Shared Use Center, and Smart City, which were included in the Akademgorodok 2.0 territory development program.
The emergence of new projects in the local community can cause social tensions and negative, as well as positive, effects for the development of the science town. These must be taken into account, so sociologist from the NSU Department of Economics and Institute of Economics and Trade SB RAS Natalia Mosienko and Senior Lecturers at the General Sociology Section Ksenia Kalashnikova and Anastasia Pirotskaya, decided to investigate the perception of several infrastructure projects by the residents of Akademgorodok, the Technopark and the CUC SKIF. To do this, they analyzed the results of surveys of representatives of the local community conducted in 2006 and 2021, and analyzed how the perception of infrastructure development projects has changed over 15 years.
Sociologists have found that attitudes towards new infrastructure development projects are related to the level of public awareness. For example, those who had a positive attitude towards the emergence of Technopark (66.2% of respondents) turned out to be more informed. And those who expected negative effects from the construction of the Technopark (10%) were most often poorly informed about the project. With regard to SKIF, those who assessed the project positively (73.3%) were most often either well-informed or knew little about the project, but wanted to know more; at the same time, those who were neutral (do not know, but want to know or do not know and are not interested) did not necessarily react negatively to the construction of SKIF (5%). On the whole, less than one-fifth of the respondents consider themselves aware of both projects, it is primarily researchers and people with a higher level of education who are informed about the projects.
In this case, awareness includes not only knowledge of basic information about the project (goals and objectives of the project, location, plans, timing and pace of implementation, etc.), but also financial, economic, infrastructural, environmental and other aspects, as well as information on the consequences of the implementation of projects for the territory and residents.
Mosienko, Candidate of Sociological Sciences, explained the results of the survey,
There was a less wary and more positive attitude towards the SKIF project. This is probably due to the fact that the construction of Technopark was a truly innovative undertaking in the sense that it invaded the familiar fabric of Akademgorodok. In addition, at the time of the survey, there were active discussions about the location of Technopark, including within the boundaries of the historical territory of Akademgorodok. Modern projects "SKIF" and "Smart City" do not violate the integrity and architectural appearance of Akademgorodok since their facilities are located outside of it and they have clear scientific objectives.
In addition to awareness of the project and attitudes towards it, the scientists studied the most common fears of Akademgorodok residents. It turned out that the negative expectations (fears) of residents are divided into two groups: relatively stable and changeable. They remain relevant for a part of the population, thus forming potential points of conflict in terms of environmental and infrastructural problems that must be taken into account in the development of the territory.
In 2006, the most common fears of residents in connection to the construction of Technopark concerned environmental aspects (deforestation, the state of the environment, the deterioration of the status of Akademgorodok as an ecologically clean area), the social status of the scientific town, overpopulation, the appearance of strangers (9.6%), the loss of special the status and the authenticity of Akademgorodok, its transformation into an “ordinary district” (5.4%), worsening of the crime situation, the domestic sphere (exacerbation of transport problems, an increase in the burden on housing and communal services and infrastructure). In 2021, the relevance of environmental issues and deforestation turned out to be significantly lower, although they remain. At the same time, concerns related to transport problems (more traffic jams, lack of public transport) became important. Fears associated with a change in the social structure of Akademgorodok and the loss of authenticity do not appear in relation to SKIF.
Mosienko added,
In our opinion, this is due to the planned placement of SKIF facilities outside the territory of Akademgorodok, in contrast to the original plans for placing Technopark in its center. In addition to a similar set of expressed negative expectations, new specific concerns have emerged regarding the safety of SKIF for the health of residents.
The researchers also noted the stability of positive expectations from projects. Mosienko continued,
First of all, these are expectations directly related to the purpose of scientific and technical infrastructure facilities and their functions: the emergence of new jobs, the development of science in general, and strengthening the status of a scientific center. Another group of expectations is related to the fact that the implementation of projects will have a positive impact on the development of urban infrastructure and the environment as a whole.
The results of the study were published in the journal Regional Research of Russia (Q1). Earlier we talked about the large-scale project "Structural studies and radiation testing of promising materials using synchrotron radiation and neutrons", which will help in the formation of synchrotron-neutron literate specialists to work at SKIF.
