The Discourse of Nature in Young Towns

Abstract

The article is devoted to the "reading" and production of nature (in the terms of Macnaghten and Urry) in the discourse of young industrial towns arising in Russia after 1917. The empirical research is focused on four Ural settlements of Krasnoturyinsk, Lesnoy, Zarechny, and Kachkanar. Two chronologically different types of sources are used, those related to the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, which accumulated official and unofficial discourses. The main field method is the go-along interview. The analytical scheme elaborated to deal with the collected materials includes: a) semantic statements specifying the general vector of expression and perception of nature; b) the status of nature in a relationship with man, and; c) the predicative elements which reveal the understanding of nature and its relationship with non-nature. Three phases of the discourse of nature are highlighted on the basis of the analytical scheme. 'Conquest' is a semantic statement at the first stage. In the second stage, it is changed by the rhetoric of partnership, while the third stage emphasizes environmental issues. The article concludes that a fundamental duality is characteristic for the discourse of nature in young towns. On the one hand, it articulates environmental risks, and an admiration of forests and mountains since "natural" and "refined" environment are valued as a source of positive local identity, comfort, and interesting leisure opportunities. On the other hand, there is a recognition of the need for the further industrial use of nature to maintain the vitality of the town. The ecological line (argument?) is weaker because the perception of enterprise as a backbone of the basis of life persists.