Citizen Agency and Ecology in Krasnoyarsk

ABSTRACT

The agency of citizens in influencing the environmental agenda in Krasnoyarsk is analyzed, with special attention to the role of online ecology activism. The ecology and politics of “black sky” pollution is discussed, as well as the concept of “citizen science,” based on a possible “democratization of data.” Background and history of industrialization of the region is provided, as is comparative context for other ecology protests. The author argues that her internet ethnography case provides some differences from “traditional” eco-activism practiced in the city, in terms of statements and goals, as well as understanding environmental problems. She theorizes about the constructedness and contingency of environmental activism.

KEYWORDS:

• ecology
• environmental agendas
• air pollution
• civic society
• citizen agency
• citizen science
• internet ethnography

Notes

1. Case 02-2473/2022, URL: https://mos-gorsud.ru/rs/tverskoj/services/cases/civil/details/de7ea6a0-a3ab-11ec-8a7e-51b31fb55b35?participants=Meta

^2. Recommendations to the population upon the onset of unfavorable meteoconditions of January 12, 2016, URL: http://24.rospotrebnadzor.ru/epidemiologic_situation/129324/

^3. Cited from description of an official group of the community on the VKontakte social network, URL: https://vk.com/clearsky24?offset=5&own=1

^4. A group created around the “Nebo.Live” project.

^5. Official website of AIRNOW: https://www.airnow.gov/aqi/aqi-basics/

^6. The protests at the Shies station—an environmental protest against the construction of a dump at the Shies railroad station in Arkhangel’sk Oblast, which began in 2018. The dump was being designated for the storage of solid household and industrial waste hauled from Moscow and a series of other regions of the western part of Russia. As its construction was planned for a swampy locale, it represented a danger for the residents of the region, since it would lead the pollution of surface and underground sources of water. After nearly two years of active and unceasing protests by residents, with harsh countermeasures from the authorities (arrests of activists, dispersal of protesters), the project for the dump construction of the dump was finally shut down.

a. Please see my introduction to this issue for references to additional research throughout Russia by domestic and foreign scholars on the environmental movements, with various analyses and time frames.

b. Reference is probably to the Shies station protests, which are described in the author’s note 6.