Miss Kristi Grišakov - Aalto University Shool of Science and Technology

Personal Information

Country: Finland

City: Espoo

Nationality: Estonian

Research Interests

General Research Interests:

European spatial planning, intitutionalization process of territories, local identities and symbolic values, culural regeneration and city marketing, city cultures, urban design and public spaces, interactive media tools

PhD/Postdoctoral Research Title: From connected cities to connecting cities. Possibilities for ICT enforced urban planning of border-crossing regions

PhD/Postdoctoral Research Abstract::

My research will attempt to further explain and explore the current planning practices of border-crossing cities, concentrating on participant observation of the future border-crossing city of Helsinki-Tallinn. The discourse about the network society and transnational cooperation has evoked many questions about changing borders and cultural identities. Forming twin-regions/cities is not only complicated because of the wide range of business and research networks and infrastructure needed to become a successful example, but problems also emerge when trying to imagine a common public for the future twin-region/cities.

A more flexible approach towards planning and visioning border-crossing cities has to be developed that would include the planning elites (city officials, local cooperation and governance networks) and the knowledge of the citizens, who in the end are the most valuable assets of the future success of the border-crossing city.
Providing a tool in the form of ICT that supposedly is being able to integrate different spatial contexts of boundaries (especially the local boundaries) and sustain new forms of social networks, participative planning and decision making (both governance and inhabitants) could be the solution.

Therefore, the ICT enforced urban planning and governance with citizen participation will serve as a starting point of my research to investigate how the planning of border-crossing regions could be more transparent and interactive. My aim is to explore possibilities of using interactive ICT enforced urban planning and governance, that includes citizen participation, for planning the border-crossing cities of tomorrow. Interactive in the sense that it is a possibility to link open and closed systems with one another in the physical space of the city. The concept of interactivity is therefore always in relation to an environment – an entrance point to a different spatiality, sphere, or neighbourhood.

Curriculum Vita: Download