Economy, Politics, and Aesthetics in Postsocialist Urban Transformation

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel is concerned with urban development in East Central Europe towards the end of the 20th century and beyond. It frames the analysis of the individual cases through the prism of the collapse of state socialism in the region (in the late 1980s) and by the post-socialist transformation. It focuses on the intersections between politics, economics (especially transformation of property regimes dominated by the privatization of the former state-owned property), urban planning and architecture. The key questions of the panel are related to the roots, dynamics and actors of these multiple transformations. It also challenges the common narrative of the abrupt change of 1989, followed by the one-way import of neoliberal urban policies from the West, by highlighting changes in urban policies, property regimes and aesthetics in late socialism and understanding the continuities, that go beyond the political turn of 1989/90.

The case studies and areas of research that the speakers will address as an empirical basis for interpreting wider developments are spread across East Central Europe, with a focus on four of the region's capitals: Prague, Warsaw, Budapest and Bratislava. The presenters are trained in several disciplines (urban history, architectural history, urban sociology), which also promises a highly stimulating discussion on the roots of current problems and challenges of ECE cities.

Sub Unit

• History: Since 1990

Papers

• Spatial Transitions: Urban Space in Postsocialist Poland - Lidia Klein, UNC at Charlotte

• Housing Transformation in Prague and Bratislava in the Wild 1990s - Matěj Spurný, Institute for Contemporary History CAS (Czech Republic)

• Neoliberalisation or Neroisation: A Strange Tale of Privatisation of Prague Public Spaces - Petr Roubal, Institute of Contemporary History CAS (Czech Republic)

Discussant

• Philipp S Ther, U of Vienna (Austria)