Housing Transformation in Prague and Bratislava in the Wild 1990s

• In Event: Economy, Politics, and Aesthetics in Postsocialist Urban Transformation

Abstract

What began in the course of the 1980s as an endeavour to make cities more liveable, humane and ecological, ended up in a massive privatization at some point in the 1990s. Mostly this development has been explained by the impact of the neoliberal ideology and the particular phase of capitalism imported by East Central European states after the fall of communism from the West. This comparatively based paper will make the endeavour to historicize that essential chapter of contemporary urban history in ECE, using the example of housing transformation in two ECE capitals, Prague and Bratislava. It will take into account the different levels, on which privatization was prepared, performed and accomplished. This involves the analysis of the changing ideological framework, the establishment or adaptation of legal norms and instruments and revealing the different practices in acquiring flats and houses by individual actors or corporations. Hereby, it will especially focus on the question of continuities and ruptures in the relationship between people and housing in both cities in late socialism and early post-socialism.

Author

• Matěj Spurný, Institute for Contemporary History CAS (Czech Republic)