Urban Spaces After Socialism : Ethnographies of Public Places in Eurasian Cities

The two decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union brought great changes to the new nations on its periphery. "Urban Spaces after Socialism" offers a detailed ethnographic look at one area of change: the use and understanding of public space in the region's cities. Presenting case studies from Tashkent, Yerevan, Gumri, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi, Baku, and Osh, the book examines the way that different groups, from Christians and Muslims to ardent reformers and Soviet apologists, assign meaning to public spaces and deploy them in attempts to construct - and even control - the way the history of their cities is understood.