Neighbourhood reputation in the Soviet city and beyond: Disassembling the geography of prestige in Ust’-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan

Abstract

This paper revisits the geographical legacy of socialism in the urban areas of the former Soviet Union. Building on research on housing and socio-spatial differentiation under and after socialism, this will be achieved by examining an important component in the spatial differentiation of the city, namely neighbourhood reputation. The analysis is based on survey data ( n = 1515) from the city of Ust’-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan; a combination of descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression are deployed in order to shed light on the factors that are associated with the reputation of the neighbourhoods in which people reside. The results show that the Soviet system manufactured its own brand of socio-spatial distinction, which reflected the priority hierarchies built in the socialist planned economy. Education, age and, most importantly, area of employment appear to have been ‘rewarded’ with prestigiously located housing.