Grassroot Organization of Leisure in Abandoned Buildings in Vorkuta

Abstract

In the conditions of institutional and spatial limitations and poor infrastructure of Vorkuta, young people are actively developing non-functioning abandoned buildings. The purpose of this article is to analyze how social and spatial aspects are intertwined in the context of various youth scenes that independently organize leisure through the creation of unique leisure spaces in a situation of limited resources. Two cases were selected for the research: the Polar Wolves bike club and a skate-park in an abandoned building. The empirical data of the article was collected during a sociological expedition from July 7th to 13th, 2019 in Vorkuta as part of the “Otkryvayem Rossiyu zanovo’’ project in the form of 20 in-depth interviews with Vorkuta residents aged 16 to 35 and more than 200 hours of included observation. The analysis is based on the scene approach and the concept of third places by Ray Oldenburg. The authors of the article define the leisure space of youth in the described cases as a place in which a youth scene (or scenes) exists. The analysis highlighted the features of the grassroots organization of leisure spaces in Vorkuta — young people reuse abandoned buildings and create their own special social and related spatial order inside them. It is concluded that the constant transformation of buildings is equated with the development and continuation of scenes. Once abandoned buildings become places with a certain social dynamics, which is constantly reproduced through the intersection of the daily practices of the scene participants. Relatively little attention is paid to studies of the organization of youth leisure in Arctic cities remote from central Russia. The results of this article can draw the attention of further researchers to the study of youth leisure in the Arctic regions, as a response to institutional restrictions in the place of residence.