Image of a City as a Factor of Strategic Development of a Territory

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 925-929

J. Environ. Treat. Tech.

ISSN: 2309-1185

Journal web link: http://www.jett.dormaj.com

Image of a City as a Factor of Strategic

Development of a Territory

Yuliya A. Efremova , Olga N. Goryacheva *, Rusalina F. Kurbanova

Kazan Federal University, Naberezhnye Chelny Institute of Kazan Federal University, Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia

Faculty of philology, Perm State National Research University, Perm, Russia

Received: 05/08/2019

Accepted: 20/11/2019

Published: 20/12/2019

Abstract

This paper discusses the problem of strategic development of a territory. The urbanization processes are manifested, inter

alia, in the outflow of population from Russian provincial cities. Young people are increasingly striving to move to a larger city

in order to satisfy their needs for education, cultural development and professional realization. The relevance of the work is

associated with the study of subjective and objective factors affecting the development of the territory. In order to identify the

main features of the image of the city, it is necessary to conduct a study of public opinion. The data obtained can help in

developing a program to form a positive image of the city. In order to identify positive and negative assessments of respondents

characterizing the image of the city, we used methods of interviewing and questioning residents of the city of Naberezhnye

Chelny. As a result of the data obtained during our work, it was possible to study the prerequisites for the relocation of citizens to

more attractive cities from their point of view. The practical significance of the work lies in the fact that based on the analysis of

the respondents' opinions about the city, proposals were formulated to create a positive image of the city and directions for its

effective promotion were determined.

Keywords: strategic development, image of the city, urban studies, perspectives of perception, positioning.

developing the quality of the urban environment

highlighting six areas as priority: “safety, comfortable

urban infrastructure, adequate housing, preservation of the

Introduction

Studies of modern urbanists indicate that “today most

cities have lost their urban identity” (1). A number of works

by foreign experts (2-4) are devoted to the problems of

branding territories. In domestic urbanism, the term “urban

passengers” (1), introduced by S. Murunov, appeared; it

described about 80% of the inhabitants of modern Russian

cities. Such townspeople move from home to work, from

work to the store, sometimes only going into a park or cafe.

They are characterized by a lack of goal-setting; their

planning horizon is limited to one year. Developing his

ideas, the urbanist notes the importance of such an indicator

as the percentage of eleventh-graders leaving their native

city, since this mass of people is the most active and able to

develop and change a city.

The crisis of single-industry towns identified by 2011 is

associated, according to the public, with the problem of

self-identification and self-determination of citizens (5, 6).

The issues of quality of the urban environment, satisfaction

with the living conditions of citizens (7) become important.

T. A. Morozova in her study “Mediating the technologies

for designing an image of a city” explores the concept of

cultural environmental

responsibility and public involvement in the life of the city”

8). The author notes that despite the active formation of

and

historical

heritage,

(

communities capable of discussing and solving urban

problems, and financing research in the field of urban

studies, there is still no recognizable “face” of territories in

the urban consciousness. “Many of our cities,

unfortunately, now do not have their own “face”, notes I.

Smirnov (9).

In order to identify the main features of a city image, it

is necessary to conduct a study of public opinion. The data

obtained can help in developing a program to form a

positive city image.

2 Methods

The following methods were used in the work:

description, comparison, analysis, questionnaire and

survey. To conduct a survey among eleventh graders in the

city of Naberezhnye Chelny, the author’s profile “City

Image” was developed, which allows the image of

Naberezhnye Chelny to characterize, to determine the

subjective assessment of respondents, their emotions and

feelings that arise when describing the city. In addition, a

poll “Our city - what is it?” was conducted on the social

Corresponding author: Olga N. Goryacheva, Kazan

Federal University, Naberezhnye Chelny Institute of Kazan

Federal University, E-mail: mas_o_menos@mail.ru,

olganikgor @ mail.ru. Tel: 9600590820, 9172298950.

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Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 925-929

network “Vkontakte”.

229.3 thousand; Chuvash - 10 thousand; Ukrainians - 3.4

thousand; Udmurts - 2 thousand; Mordva - 2 thousand;

others – 9.3 thousand (14). The “Strategy for the Socio-

Economic Development of Naberezhnye Chelny until

Results

An important factor in the development of the territory

2030” (15) states that Chelny is characterized by a

is a balanced strategy for positioning the city. Due to the

peculiarities of historical development and composition, in

Naberezhnye Chelny, occupying 34th place in terms of

population among Russian cities, the city administration

was faced with the problem of population migration to

larger cities. The elements of the model proposed by S.

Anholt can be considered optimal in territory branding and

the concept of competitive identity: tourism, export brands,

politics, investment and immigration, culture and history,

and the population (10). We analyze the image of the city

of Naberezhnye Chelny through these components.

Historical and cultural grounds. The history of the city

of Naberezhnye Chelny seems interesting to study:

according to the local historian B. Kaneyev, the city could

be over 800 years old since it was founded (11), but in most

historical sources the exact date of foundation of the first

settlement is 1626. The names of some of the very first

Chelnyans have been preserved: in addition to Fedor

Popov, these are Zotik Bukharin and Mironka

Martemyanov.

relatively young age among the general Russian population,

the absence of interethnic conflicts and a significant

decrease in crime. Moreover, among the problems there is a

migration outflow of the population, a clear decrease in the

birth rate and a large percentage of divorces.

Political positioning of the city: The aforementioned

strategy fixes a stable internal political situation in the city.

At the last election of the President of the Republic of

Tatarstan and deputies of the City Council, our city was

marked by the highest voter turnout in the republic

(

namely, 85.84%) (16). The city council of Naberezhnye

Chelny consists of 45 deputies: 41 representatives of the

Edinaya Rossiya (United Russia) party, 2 representatives of

the Communist Party, 1 representative of Spravedlivaya

Rossiya (Just Russia), and 1 self-nominated deputy. In the

planned development strategy of the city, it is assumed that

by 2030 an image of a “city-politician” should be formed in

which the townspeople and their associations will be able to

directly participate and implement local self-government.

City economy, export: One of the most noteworthy

characteristics is the large industrial component of the city -

engineering, represented by the key KAMAZ enterprise,

and the food and paperboard industries are also developing.

At the moment, Naberezhnye Chelny is a single-industry

town, which is a definite minus, since KAMAZ is in crisis.

Chelny enterprises provide only 10% of the gross regional

product of the Republic of Tatarstan (15). The

predominance in production of transport equipment and

transport means is noted (74.7%); therefore, the

development of an adaptable economy of “new

technologies” should be considered a priority. In recent

years, there has been a significant increase in industrial

parks, technology parks and business incubators.

The favourable location in the Kama backwater has

made the city one of the trading centres for many years.

V.V. Ermakov notes that “it is obvious that there was

already a wooden church in the new settlement of Chelny at

that time. In any case, the list of its inhabitants mentions

“

the irrelevant priests Ondrey Nikonov and Ivan Vasiliev”

(

12). The local historian also draws attention to the

uniqueness of the names of city residents of those years by

which it is possible to determine from where a person

moved and what nationality he was: Demka Elizarov

Vyatchenin, Onkudinko Maximov Permyak, Tomilko

Sergeev Mordvin.

Thus, it can be argued that Naberezhnye Chelny is a

city with its unique and storied history on the territory of

which there are significant architectural monuments: the

building of the Holy Ascension Cathedral built in 1872; the

temple of Cosmas and Damian built at the end of the 18th

century; Naberezhnye Chelny elevator built in 1917;

trading shops and houses of merchants on Central Street.

But, unfortunately, the history of the city is not known to

most of the surveyed population (13).

Migration component: In recent years, there has been a

negative migration growth in the population. The outflow

in age groups from 15 to 19 years (most youth express a

desire to live in another city), from 30 to 34 years, and from

40 to 44 years is especially stable (15). The results of a

survey conducted among eleventh-graders in the city show

a high rate of those leaving.

Tourist potential: Currently Autograd is not active

enough in the development of the tourism industry of the

republic. At the same time, there are prospects for the

development of tourism in Naberezhnye Chelny and they

are primarily associated with the Five Winds investment

project aimed at developing the riversides, because

restoration of the tourist pier would increase the flow of

travellers to the city. The expansion of the tourist potential

of the city can be associated with national and city

holidays: Sabantuy, Flower Festival, Youth Festival of

theatre groups, the project "Tales on the Kama". A set of

measures for the development of tourism would make it

possible to present Naberezhnye Chelny as a developing

tourist site.

Territorial identity, and city population: Naberezhnye

Chelny is located in the centre of the Volga region, between

the industrially progressive Urals and the Centre of Russia.

A good geographical location is also associated with the

proximity of the river and the presence of rich natural

resources. Naberezhnye Chelny is one of the centres of the

millionth polycentric Naberezhnye Chelny agglomeration

which occupies 34th place in Russia in terms of the number

of people. For 2019, the population of Chelny totals 533

907 people. The city is unique in the structure of its

national composition, combining an almost equal

percentage of two cultures: Russian (namely, 44.87%) and

Tatar (47.42%). Due to its historical features, the city of

Naberezhnye Chelny is interethnic, and has the following

ethnic composition: Tatars - 242.3 thousand; Russians -

Characterizing the information environment in the city,

its single information space should be noted, which allows

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Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 925-929

the editorial offices to work in comfortable conditions. It is

the informational promotion of positive information about

the city that can form a positive image of the territory in the

public mind.

All of the above applies to the objective characteristics

of the city, but in our paper it seems important to study the

subjective opinion of the local population and guests about

Naberezhnye Chelny.

inhabitants has such opinion about the city. According to

urbanists, one of the indicators reflecting the success of a

territory is the percentage of eleventh-graders remaining in

their hometown. For this, a survey was conducted among

graduates of secondary schools and gymnasiums of the city.

The questionnaire “Image of the city of Naberezhnye

Chelny in local electronic media” included four questions:

1. Do you plan to stay in Chelny?

. What do you dislike in our city?

. What attracts you to our city?

. Describe in one word the city of Naberezhnye

Discussion

Currently, most Russian cities are faced with the

Chelny.

The survey was conducted anonymously; 459 people

problem of loss of self-identification. This situation also

occurred in Naberezhnye Chelny, when KAMAZ ceased to

be an integrating factor and there was a situation of

disunity, the loss of a recognizable image, and an “identity

crisis” (17;24). These data were confirmed by the survey

from a total of 1,737 graduates in 2016 were participated in

it. According to the aforementioned method V.I. Paniotto,

this percentage is also representative for the survey. The

sampling error is 4%. The results of the study are presented

in Figure 2.

"Our city - what is it?" among the population of

Naberezhnye Chelny conducted as part of a study from

April 18 to May 20, 2016. The townspeople were offered

an equal number of positive and negative answers to the

question “Naberezhnye Chelny is...”:

. A modern city convenient for living;

. A sports city, homeland of informal communities;

. A single-industry town dependent on KAMAZ;

. A promising city with a rich history;

. Sleeping city with depressing architecture;

. A boring city with nowhere to go.

The survey was conducted in one of the most visited

publics of Chelny residents “Naberezhnye Chelny Online”

and in a specially created group with the same name of the

survey in the social network “VKontakte”. The number of

respondents reached 3399 people. Using the methodology

of sociological research V.I. Paniotto (18;29;30), we found

Figure 2: Plans for eleventh graders for the future in their

hometown

that the claimed population of respondents is

representative sample for the selected territory. In addition,

we used the marketing research sample calculator

It also turned out that most eleventh-graders believe

that the city is not a carrier of negative reputation (2.5%).

Among the obvious advantages of the city, there is a calm

rhythm of life (49.5%) and the general well-furnished of

the city (25.2%). Least of all respondents believe that good

work is available in the city (2.6%). More than half of the

respondents (55.1%) associate the city with a house and a

(

19;27;28) finding that of our total population (526,750

people), the required sample size is 1843 people with an

error of ± 3%. According to a survey of city residents, they

managed to find out their opinion about the city (Figure 1).

“

normal” city. Eleventh-graders assess the image of the city

more positively (26.6%) than negatively. They characterize

it as “beloved”, “sunny”, “dream city”, “fragrance”, “city

of development”, “green”. There are 18.3% of eleventh-

graders who are carriers of negative opinions about

Naberezhnye Chelny and who described their city as

“

cramped,” “dirty,” “village,” “dangerous,” “marginal,”

trash.” The questionnaire revealed the main disadvantages

and advantages of the city according to the opinion of the

most active population (school graduates). The survey

results were taken into account when drawing up

recommendations for creating a positive image of the city.

Important is the opinion of specialists in the field of

urban studies. S. Murunov noted that the auto giant

KAMAZ did not make Chelny its appendage, and residents

have something to unite around it: “Chelny is a unique city

in Russia, mainly because of its urban history” (20;23). It is

Naberezhnye Chelny, where urban spaces began to appear

in Russia. The first among them is the “Metro” cultural and

educational multi-format platform (opened in September

Figure 1: Opinions of residents about the image of the city

It turned out that 71% of respondents hold a negative

opinion about the city, and 29% consider the image of the

city to be positive. There is a contradiction - the above data

show that Chelny is a city with an interesting rich history,

but the survey data show that only a small part of its

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2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 925-929

014). Also there is an Applied Urbanism Centre on the

3. Skinner H, Kubacki K. Unravelling the complex relationship

between nationhood, national and cultural identity, and place

branding. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. 2007 Oct

basis of Metro, which is capable of developing an urban

environment.

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receivers. 2001:59-96.

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Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, 2011. Marketing.

Summary

A meaningful policy for structuring an attractive media

image is important for realizing the tasks of promoting the

territory. The Chelny-2030 strategy proposed by the

working group of the Naberezhnye Chelny Institute of

Kazan Federal University, notes a key trend in the

transformation of our city as universal "humanization", that

is, it seems important to make the city suitable for a person,

not for production. O. N. Goryacheva notes that “As a

result of long recommendations; historical interaction

within a single state the population has many common

cultural traits” (21,22,25,26,31,32). The future image of

Chelny is associated with an innovation city, a technopolis,

an eco-city in the development strategy of the territory.

The priority task in the strategy of socio-economic

development of the city of Naberezhnye Chelny until 2030

for the formation and promotion of a positive image of

Naberezhnye Chelny is to work with the media, which are

one of the main actors in shaping the image of the city, and

which have a significant arsenal of means and methods for

constructing it.

011;42(1):81-3.

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resource development. Human Resource Development

International. 2011 Nov 1;14(5):623-31.

7. Glazytchev VL. Organization of architectural design. Moscow,

2003; 97.

8. Morozova TA. Mediatization of image design technologies.

Krasnodar. 2013; 158.

. Each city has its own face.

http://www.strf.ru/material.aspx

0. Anholt S, Hildret D. Brand America: the mother of all brands.

Moscow. 2010; 21.

1. Kaneev BA. Naberezhnye Chelny elevator. Encyclopedia of

the city of Naberezhnye Chelny. Kazan. 2007; 256-257.

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beginning of the 20th century. Ufa, 2007. URL:

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4. Data from the 2010 All-Russian Population Census. 2010.

5. The strategy of socio-economic development of the

municipality of the city of Naberezhnye Chelny until 2030.

URL: http://nabchelny.ru/page/228

6. 45 deputies of the City Council elected In Naberezhnye

Chelny. URL: http://nabchelny.ru/news/17600

7. Hesle V. Crisis of individual and collective identity. Questions

of Philosophy, 1994; 10: 120.

8. Paniotto VI, Maksimenko VS. Quantitative methods in

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Conclusions

The considered “image of the city” concept includes

various subjects of formation, among which are:

authorities, city activists, users of social networks, tourists,

as well as the media, on which we focused our attention in

our study. According to the results of surveys among

residents of the city and eleventh graders, it turned out that

in their view Chelny have more negative characteristics

than positive ones. In this regard, the authors offer a

number of recommendations aimed at creating a positive

image of the city:

0. Murunov S. KAMAZ has not turned Naberezhnye Chelny into

its appendage, people have something else to unite around”.

Chelny

izvest.ru/news/date/list/

News

2014-08-03

URL:

http://chelny-

Increase in the number of publications in local media

about the potential and development prospects of

Naberezhnye Chelny;

1. Goryacheva OPR. Technologies in Multicultural Society. Life

Sci J. 2014; 1 (8): 261-264.

Increase in the share of materials about the historical past

of the city;

Conducting sociological, historical and cultural studies to

collect materials about the city;

Improving visual content about the city (creating a map of

attractions, a single map of the future of Naberezhnye

Chelny, creating a guide).

22. Abdussalam-Mohammed W. Review of Therapeutic

Applications of Nanotechnology in Medicine Field and its

Side Effects. Journal of Chemical Reviews. 2019 Jul 1;1(3. pp.

54-251):243-51.

3. Hayat A, Jahangir TM, Yar Khuhawar M, Alamgir M, Ali R,

Ali A, Musharraf SG. Determination of Important Phenolic

Compounds in Pakistani Brown Rice Varieties in Controlled,

Germinated and Fermented Conditions by High Performance

Liquid Chromatography. Progress in Chemical and

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4. Rashed MN, Gad AA, Fathy NM. Adsorption of Cd (II) and

Pb (II) Using Physically Pretreated Camel Bone Biochar.

Acknowledgements

The work is performed according to the Russian

Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan

Federal University.

Advanced Journal of Chemistry-Section A (Theoretical,

Engineering and Applied Chemistry). 2019 Apr 1;2(4, pp.

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