Kaliningrad: Planning of the Future and Demands of the Youth

Abstract

The youth are the main actor of social advancement and change. One can assume that in the urbanized society social and economic prospects of a city directly depend on individual strategies of personal achievements, on whether young people associate their own successful life with a city or not. More the youth social practices and opinions are neglected, less accurate the urban forecasts become. The paper verifi es this hypothesis. It is based on the survey conducted among the students of the Universities of Klaipeda, Gdaсsk and Kaliningrad, three major cities of the South-Eastern Baltics. The identities, social representations and ideas about the cities where these twenty-year-olds (the fi rst generation, born and grown-up in the post-Soviet time) live and study are compared. The author shows that perception of the “own” cities as particular places on the map of their country and region is a common feature for all the students. Their city identity rivals the national one; a sense of belonging to the urban community characterizes their “sameness” better than citizenship or ethnicity. The aspects of the urban life which are important for the young generations in each city are identifi ed; the similarities and differences are recognized. Further on, Kaliningrad student’s vision of their city is referred to the offi cially-approved strategy of the city development. The comparison reveals that the youth raise the questions about public sphere development and politics of historical memory, whereas the city administration is more concerned about the urban infrastructures and solid investments. The young generation demands on the diversifi ed urban milieu are not taken into consideration. The author resumes that the low responsiveness of Kaliningrad urban politics hampers improving the quality of life and accumulation of social capital.