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Paper abstract:

Grassroots in Central Asian cities are on the move. Neoliberal urbanization taking place under authoritarian regimes has brought forward grievances related to numerous flaws in urban planning, specifically, in the field of housing and infill construction. On the one hand, demographic growth and economic opportunities cause states to encourage construction projects, on the other - developers, who pursue swift financial return, embark on the task with too much enthusiasm, securing the support of the authorities. As a result of the collusion between, broadly speaking, business and the state, many construction norms go violated and city residents' interests ignored. While political conditions make it impossible for the society to form independent political organizations, urban activism seems to be a channel for citizens to voice their grieavances and fight for what has been conceptualized (Lefebvre, Harvey) as the 'right to the city'.

This paper seeks to describe the forms, main participants, and structure of grassroot mobilizations responding to urban planning policies in Almaty, the largest and wealthiest city of Kazakhstan. It presents the current results of the ongoing qualitative research which has involved content analysis of mass media stories on city residents' protesting activities, 8 particiant observations, 13 interviews, 3 focus groups done within a year. We also participate in 4 activist messenger chats in order to observe the mobilization processes.

The actors involved in urban grassroot activism include residents, whereby they may be in favor or against infill construction projects, activists and leaders who organize the communication with the state authorities and business structures. While we initially hypothesized that these mobilizations were self-organized, chaotic, and leaderless, the research reveals that, firstly, through the last ten years, activist leaders have evolved; secondly, some activists, while representing government structures, even at the national level, prefer to remain 'under cover', offering their expertize to be publicized through more open colleagues; thirdly, the activist groups may strongly disagree on different issues, which so far makes any sort of unity and networking in the activist camp next to impossible. Forms of activism include street protests, petitioning, advocacy. An important current observation shows the beginnings of political becoming in 2023, since some activist leaders participate in local elections in order to take an active part in urban planning policies. Further research should show whether we will witness co-optation of civic activists.