Visual representation of desurbanization: New downshifting communities in the near north of Russia

An extensive sociological survey on the effects of ‘cellular’ globalization on a rural region typical of "Russia's heartland."  Pokrovsky's team works in the Russian region of Kostroma, which is similar in size to West Virginia and has a population of 800,000.

Despite the region's seeming isolation from the currents of the global trading system, a process of "cellular globalization" is subtly but inexorably changing the character of the region. Cellular globalization refers to the emergence of internalized changes within the individual attributable to the effects of globalization. It is noted that almost every family in the region's rural areas has relatives in larger cities—the regional capital of Kostroma, Moscow, or St. Petersburg—and these extended networks are carrying the influences of globalization back to the Russian heartland. This process is slowly changing traditional rural attitudes towards wealth—more rural residents are placing greater importance on wealth than in the past.

The effects of globalization will not be limited to the internal lives of the residents of Kostroma. It is suggested that new urban-rural aggregations would come to support each other in the formation of new communities. The economic basis of these communities will include niche agriculture (such as agricultural tourism and organic agriculture), regulated hunting and fishing resorts, and local handicrafts. A new migration force is about to radically change the profile of local community life. The dramatic crisis of urban life (for example, in the cities like Moscow) enables  sizeable groups of middle-class professionals and IT-experts to consider moving to environmentally balanced areas in the North of Russia while continuing their professional employment  in the format of distant  work. It brings into being a new form of horizontal mobility which is ‘liquid’ by its nature.

The paper is illustrated with diverse visual materials.