Fences, private and public spaces, and traversability in a Siberian city

Segregation, exclusion and partitioning of urban space are widely discussed in social sciences. Thus far, however, remarkably few studies have addressed micro-practices of dividing space. This article explores such practices in private and public spaces of a post-socialist city. It sets the focus on fences as a particular structuring element of urban space, examining both their material and symbolic meanings. Using Yakutsk, a city in north-eastern Siberia, as an example, we explore a twofold hypothesis. First, has the post-socialist condition brought about a growing awareness of individual space and, furthermore, an extension of private space? Second, can we assume that houses and their surroundings, in particular fences, walls and hedges, serve as means of displaying social status? An examination of these questions requires a typology of buildings and neighbourhoods. Significant are the differences between apartment-building areas and private-property neighbourhoods across the city with regard to the use and materiality of fences, notions of private space, and the web of shortcuts within the urban grid. Drawing on the work of anthropologist Alexei Yurchak, we finally discuss the concept of traversability of contemporary urban space.