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Антонова Н.Л. [Healthy city: practices of youth civic engagement] World of Science. Series: Sociology, Philology, Cultural Studies, 2021, Vol. 12, No. 2. Available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/22SCSK221.pdf (in Russian).

Healthy city: practices of youth civic engagement

Antonova Natalya Leonidovna
Ural Federal University Named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Ekaterinburg, Russia
E-mail: n.l.antonova@urfu.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2063-4970
РИНЦ: https://elibrary.ru/author_profile.asp?id=135864
Researcher ID: https://www.researcherid.com/rid/Q-1495-2015
SCOPUS: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.url?authorId=57038433100

Abstract. The article attempts to sociologically comprehend the practice of civic participation of urban youth in the production of health-preserving city space. The image of the future for the younger generation is associated with a territory where needs and requests, interests and activities can be successfully realized. Thus, the younger generation asserts the right to the city: civic participation in the transformation of the urban environment becomes the practice of involment in the production of the city. Based on the results of a personal semi-structured interview with students of the Ural Federal University (n = 20) enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs in the humanities and social profile, the article argues that the image of a healthy city for the younger generation is an environmentally friendly, clean/beautiful and sporty city; it is a territory whose inhabitants are responsible citizens with a high level of self-awareness, who are involved in the practice of creating a health-preserving space. Young people use collective and individual actions/interactions to form social bonds and relationships that aim to create a healthy city. Young townspeople use ecological modes of transport, take part in separate waste collection, and show responsibility in the sphere of consumption. The materials obtained testify to the formation of everyday environmental awareness, which is manifested in the daily life of young people in a large city. In addition, young people are ready to get involved in collective forms of civic participation: subbotniks, landscaping, agitation/informational events and actions aimed at protecting the environment. The concept of a healthy city also applies to traditional practices of individual health preservation: annual medical examination, rational nutrition, physical activity and maintaining hygiene. Research data have demonstrated the need to develop an effective communication system between government authorities, business structures and citizens in building a healthy city as an up-to-date conceptual model aimed at removing contradictions in the industrial and technological world order.

Keywords: city; health; ecology; civic participation; the right to the city; youth

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