Studying of a car park with visual sociology

The paper considers a currently relevant problem of individuals’ social interaction when arranging modern so-cio-territorial space around a housing complex. The research is based on the methods of visual sociology. The article describes advantages of this branch of sociology and reasons for the interest in visuality. The main methods used by the authors are the photographic method and blitz-survey of the house residents, so visual and verbal information complement each other. The research object was characterized with the help of photos, the main groups of the interaction participants were identified according to the blitz-survey data. A car park is characterized by low-quality environment: fuzzy boundaries of parking spaces, poor-quality soil, occupied driveways, passageways etc. A comparative analysis of the assumed and developed models of the residents’ in-teraction was carried out, which revealed their advantages and disadvantages; the forecast for the further de-velopment of the situation, based on the analysis results, is given in the article. The current model of social communication is characterized by the refusal of the co-financing principle, separation between social groups, paternalistic attitudes, irrational securitization. The article demonstrates the features of social interaction inher- ent in the residents of a multi-family house in the city of Perm when taking decisions about a car park ar-rangement. This paper describes possible conflictogenic features within the established model of space plan-ning, which include unauthorized actions of inhabitants, paternalistic model of relationships, conflicts between social groups and a house management company, low-quality control and distribution of finances, a lack of a long-term perspective. It demonstrates peculiarities of the visual approach to examining car parks in Perm. The authors made a conclusion that visual sociology has a great potential for further research. In the future studies, it is recommended to use more complicated photo documentation, to carry out a comparative analysis of park-ing with a side garden, a children’s playground etc.