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Growing income differentiation in society, diversification of housing supply and selective population mobility are resulting in increasing socio-spatial differentiation in Czech cities and neighbourhoods during the post-socialist transition. Housing estates are no exception to the processes of urban change. The paper shows that development trajecto...
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... the late 1990s and mainly after the year 2000, a process of physical regeneration was begun (fig. 5). Thanks to local government, regeneration took the form of a coordinated initiative leading to upgrading of housing stock and public spaces. At the beginning the city council carried out an architectural study of regeneration. It then gradually financed the renovation of council housing stock and public spaces. However, since the majority of housing stock was privatized, both the activity and the most of financial resources for housing renovation originate from private owners of apartments. It can be assumed that the process of incumbent upgrading is taking place in Jižní M ě sto. As discussed earlier, during the last 10 years Jižní M ě sto has become increasingly attractive especially to young people. From all appearances, we may envisage that the prospects for future development of Jižní M ě sto are promising. Housing estates on the crossroad Most of the housing estates in the Czech Republic today stand at a crossroads and their development depends on a range of factors; on external circumstances which are mostly economic, but importantly also on internal conditions of the housing estates, on housing policies and on local government decision making. The Kro č ehlavy housing estate is situated in Kladno (70 thousand inhabitants), an industrial city located 20 km north west of Prague. With a population of 27 thousand Kro č ehlavy is the largest housing estate in the city. The area grew like a snowball from the 1950s, when the first houses were built of bricks, until the end of the 1980s when prefab construction followed. Kro č ehlavy is a typical example of a working class housing estate built for employees of large industrial plants in the city. Despite the sharp decline in the local industrial base during the 1990s, Kro č ehlavy did not turn into a deprived urban zone. The area benefits from a favourable location in the proximity of Prague. Although the population of the housing estate is generally aging, it is gaining younger residents through migration. Good accessibility and cheaper flats compared to the capital make it a relatively attractive residential location especially for younger people from Prague. Even though young and educated newcomers represent an improvement in the age and social structure of the formerly working class housing estate, residential stability of the population is crucial. If Kro č ehlavy only serves as temporary accommodation for these groups, as a substitute for starter flats for young people from Prague, the positive effect on social and demographic structure will not occur. The results of the questionnaire in the housing estate clearly pointed to a danger of age selective out-migration (fig. 6). The outflow of young people, especially the middle and upper middle classes, can start a long term filtering process resulting in falling social status, physical degradation and image deterioration of the housing estate. The condition for future development in the Kro č ehlavy housing estate contains many challenges as well as risks. Kro č ehlavy concentrates 40 % of all dwellings in the city (and 65 % of all prefab flats in Kladno) which makes the chance for degradation of the whole housing estate rather low. Nevertheless small estate locations and house clusters in less attractive parts of the area may become possible sites of social and physical deterioration, which will be explored in the next chapter. Reinforcing ghettoes State housing policy played an important role in the distribution of population during the socialist period. Although the majority of housing estates were designed as socially mixed, targeted allocation of population to certain areas, particularly to industrialized regions in northern Bohemia and northern Moravia is even today evident in the higher concentration of some social and ethnic groups (working class, Roma people) in certain housing estates. The contemporary transformation processes usually reinforce the segregation pattern created under state socialism. The Roma ghetto of Chanov, located at the edge of the city of Most in northern Bohemia, represents an extreme and exceptional case of politically imposed segregation in the Czech context. The Chanov housing estate was constructed on the city periphery as a result of a political decision by the socialist regime in the second half of the 1970s. The aim was to accommodate the problematic Roma population from tenement houses in the old town of Most, which were demolished because of coal-mining. The Czech and better-off Roma families gradually moved out from Chanov and only the most deprived households remained in the vacant dwellings. During the transformation period problems have even deepened as the whole reindustrializing city faces economic failure. The area became a synonym for physical and social degradation. The housing stock is in a catastrophic state due to constant devastation by inhabitants (fig. 7). The vast majority of people are poorly educated, unemployed and in debt. Drug addiction and early pregnancy are common among Chanov teenagers. Stigmatization by outsiders, social and spatial exclusion together with passivity and apathy on the part of the local population make integration into the labour market, upward social mobility or escape from the ghetto extremely difficult. The city recently launched several strategies and projects to assist socially excluded people in Chanov, but other moves by local government contributed to conservation of the housing estate as a segregated and stigmatized area. In the 1990s the city did not manage to privatize flats in Chanov as the poor and indebted tenants were not able to buy. Dwellings in Chanov, which are at the dead end of the housing market, represent the vast majority of municipal housing in Most. Residual council housing bound to a certain location creates a stigmatized neighbourhood where only those with little choice are prepared to live. This mechanism behind social deprivation has also been described in many West European housing estates (Hall, 1997, Taylor, 1998, Holt- Jensen, 2000). Moreover, the city established dormitories for people with rent arrears next to the Chanov housing estate in the 1990s. Relocation of people who did not pay their rent to basic social housing became a widespread instrument of municipal housing policy in the Czech Republic. At the same time it became an unwanted mechanism of residential segregation and neighbourhood downgrading. The case of Chanov shows how political relocation of the population rooted in state socialism can be reinforced by the contemporary economic situation and local housing policy and alerts us against creation of new extremes similar to Chanov. The Kro č ehlavy housing estate in Kladno serves to demonstrate micro scale differentiation. The example of Kro č ehlavy is interesting to consider since the future development of this housing estate balances between the good and the bad scenarios. The socio-spatial analysis at the micro level is of particular importance in the Czech context since segregation processes take place mainly at a very small scale in houses or blocks of houses. It is reasonable to suggest that degradation in the form of housing clusters or small estate locations rather than deprivation of the whole area are more likely in the case of Czech housing estates. The Kro č ehlavy housing estate shows a strong inner heterogeneity in the demographic, social and physical characteristics of the population. The age structure in basic settlement units mirrors various periods of housing construction and the two-generation character of housing estate. While the oldest parts of the housing estate are aging, recently constructed units show a much younger demographic structure (fig. 8). The existing social heterogeneity within the housing estate is at best illustrated by looking at differentiation in the unemployment rate. While the average rate for the housing estate reaches 7.3 %, it varies between 4.7 % and 8 % in basic settlement units (fig. 9). The level of houses shows a more detailed pattern of uneven spatial distribution of unemployed people in Kro č ehlavy (fig. 9). The maps illustrate that several pockets of poverty are emerging in the southern part of housing estate. These locations also show a higher incidence of social pathology, a higher concentration of people on housing benefits and the level of education of the population is lower (Temelová et al. , 2007). There is a danger that such seeds of social degradation may develop into larger areas of segregation in the future. The characteristics of the physical environment basically support the pattern of social differentiation in Kro č ehlavy. Housing from the 1970s and 1980s in the southern part of the neighbourhood, where roads with heavy traffic circle the area, represents the worst residential environment measured by the physical condition of houses, amount of green areas and quality of public spaces. Moreover the residents questioned in the survey perceive the physical environment in these areas as the worst (Temelová et al. , 2007). Analyses of the real estate market also proved that the flats located here are cheaper and more difficult to sell. Differences in the outdoor environments of the housing estate are well illustrated in the photos (fig. 10); while private and public spaces in the worst parts are deteriorating, some locations within the neighbourhood offer renovated housing and cultivated outdoor spaces. Diverse factors explain the inner variability in the Kro č ehlavy housing estate. Many explanations are drawn from internal conditions of the housing estate and local variations in the period of construction, previous and current ownership structures, access to nature, position in relation to main roads, transport links and other features of particular sites. Under socialism tenement structure was tightly ...
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... Jde o přirozené střídání bydliště domácností, čímž se 4 část bydlení pravidelně uvolňuje pro další poptávající. Relevantní pro MD může být pokračující suburbanizace středních generací z Prahy (Ouředníček et al., 2019), stárnoucí populace sídlišť (Temelová et al., 2011a) nebo reurbanizace z pražského zázemí (Ouředníček et al., 2015). Část poptávky přesto musí být uspokojena novou bytovou výstavbou. ...
... V případě městských regionů východního Německa, kde suburbanizace oproti Česku započala i kulminovala dříve, začaly být migrační trajektorie MD ze zázemí měst sledovány ve druhé polovině desátých let 21. století v souvislosti s migrací do vnitřních měst (Haase et al., 2017;Siedentop et al., 2018) nebo vnitřních suburbií (Kabisch et al., 2019). V pražské aglomeraci odhadují obdobné trajektorie i Ouředníček et al. (2015) a shledávají imigrační potenciál i v panelových sídlištích vnějšího města, která již delší dobu fungují jako startovací bydlení pro mladé rodiny nebo studenty (Temelová et al., 2011a). Alternativní migrační trajektorie MD ze zázemí měst, jako tangenciální migrace v rámci suburbánní zóny nebo migrace mimo metropolitní region, zatím v postsocialistickém prostředí řešeny nebyly, ale Sander (2014) uvažuje, že snížená nabídka bydlení povede v důsledku rostoucí preference života ve městech k alternativním trajektoriím. ...
... Lepší finanční možnosti a intenzivnější vazba na město nově příchozích obyvatel mohou vést potomky k migraci do velkých měst či zahraničí (Kährik et al., 2016). Na druhou stranu bydlení v Praze, především ve vnitřních částech a sídlištích, může být z hlediska životního cyklu člověka (Temelová et al., 2011a) či životního stylu MD (Melia et al., 2018;Opit et al., 2020) pouze dočasným řešením, po němž následuje další přesun, např. do zázemí Prahy. ...
... This massive-scale construction, the most visible of all the spatial changes to have affected the post-socialist suburban landscape (Leetmaa et al., 2012), contributed to the overall urbanisation of Central and Eastern Europe -by 2000, the population of Central and Eastern Europe had reached 125 million with 60% in urban areas, the most rapid post-World War II growth in total and in the urban population of any region in Europe (Pichler-Milanovič et al., 2007). By the end of the 1980s, about one third of Czechoslovak citizens inhabited this kind of settlement (Temelová et al., 2011), and in Bratislava this number is estimated to be as high as 80% (Moravčíková et al., 2011). It is obvious that Slovak panel block housing areas have failed to deliver the unique "tomorrow's quality of life" as once declared, but on the other hand, they have never become completely excluded localities without any vital contact with the city's organism. ...
The identity of a city is represented not only by its attractive historical centre with its landmarks, but also by the peripheral parts. Large parts of Slovak cities and neighbourhoods are covered by residential areas of panel blocks of flats built in the 1970s and 1980s. These communities and settlements are often more than 30-40 years old and have their own history, social climate and narratives. The unique and specific metatext of almost any Slovak city would remain unfinished without residential areas of panel blocks of flats. These areas have generated a specific identity based upon specific examples of urban semiotics. Urban semiotics considers the city/urban environment as a multilayer text based upon the social meaning and grammar of spatial patterns, signs and symbols. During recent years, it can be seen that Slovak mass housing neighbourhoods are not monolithic senseless places, but rather chronicles of various stories and experiences which overcome the obsolete and uniform architectural language-landmarks and symbols of their identity are not only mere physical (architectural) forms but rather common experience and shared stories. It is obvious that Slovak mass housing neighbourhoods have failed to deliver the unique "tomorrow's quality of life" as once declared but, on the other hand, they have never become completely excluded localities without any vital contacts with the city's organism. Their semiotics have absorbed the overall societal development with all its ambiguity, manifoldness and uncertainty. Petržalka, as the largest Slovak mass housing neighbourhood, is particularly in the spotlight of this contribution. Once an alternative modernist vision of old Bratislava, then a drab grey dormitory without any flair, it is now transformed into a polyvocal and versatile urban environment full of opportunities, as well as challenges.
... Substantial differentiation of mass housing estates in Kyiv in terms of their imageability and likeability in the eyes of the student youth resonates with the assertion that large housing estates appear to be merely identical from the very beginning, but their personal stories are very different (Temelová at al., 2011;Benkő, 2012;Gnatiuk & Kryvets, 2018). Besides the differences of the impoverishment level and the share of economically active population (Węcławowicz, 1998;Ruoppila & Kährik, 2003), there are other significant factors influencing the image of a neighbourhood. ...
This paper describes and analyses the imageability and the perceptual portraits of the (post-)socialist large-scale housing estates in Kyiv in the eyes of young people (university students). The research is based on the analysis of Lynch-type mental maps focusing on urban vernacular districts among the other their principal elements. The results show that mass housing areas still constitute an important part of the city's image. However, apparently similar neighbourhoods differ significantly in terms of their imageability and likeability depending on their location in the city and the trajectory of the post-socialist development. Consequently, individual approaches to positive image change based on the complex evaluation of development factors are needed to response the challenges faced by the different types of the (post-)socialist mass housing.
... Such residential greenery, defined as the green (and partially blue) of the immediate surroundings of the residential buildings regularly created in connection with the construction of the respective settlements (21), is rarely studied, is often overlooked by planners and is accorded stepmotherly treated by architects and housing companies (21). These green structures undergo continuous changes over time according to the individual developmental pathways of the housing estate including socio-economic ups and downs (22)(23)(24)(25)(26). At the same time, due to the compact city approach, it is under strong pressure from urban (re) densification trends (27,28). ...
As multiple crises deepen existing inequalities in urban societies within and between neighborhoods, strategically integrating nature-based solutions into the living environment can help reduce negative impacts and improve public health, social cohesion, and well-being. Compared to public green such as parks, semi-public residential greenery is rarely studied, is regularly overlooked by planners, and often receives step-motherly treatment from architects and housing companies. We approximated the area of residential greenery of modernist multi-story apartment complexes in Berlin, Germany. We surveyed residents’ suggestions for improving their living environments in vulnerable neighborhoods, report on co-creation experiences, and provide a practical guideline for optimizing health-promoting residential green spaces. The semi-public open space on the doorstep of two-thirds of Berlin’s population is highly fragmented and, in total, has a similar area as the public green spaces and a great potential for qualitative development. Just as the suitability of different nature-based solutions to be integrated into the residential greenery depends on building types, resident demands differ between neighborhoods. Residents called for more involvement in design, implementation, and maintenance, frequently proposing that biodiversity-friendly measures be included. As there is no universal solution even for neighborhoods sharing similar structural and socioeconomic parameters, we propose, and have tested, an optimization loop for health-promoting residential greening that involves exploring residents’ needs and co-creating local solutions for urban regeneration processes that can be initiated by different actors using bottom-up and/or top-down approaches in order to unlock this potential for healthy, livable and biodiversity friendly cities.
... The case of Krakow has been presented by Zborowski (2005), among others. The literature on the subject also presents other cases of post-socialist cities in Europe (Aernouts et al., 2020;Sendi & Kerbler;Temelová et al., 2011). However, as a dynamic phenomenon large socialist housing estates require further theoretical and empirical research in response to social and spatial changes in cities. ...
... Although housing estate neighbourhoods in different spatial contexts share many features, including their physical form and function, large variations among them exist not only across different countries but also within cities (Hess et al., 2018;Turkington et al., 2004). Several studies have shown that different housing estates have followed divergent trajectories (Beckhoven et al., 2009;Kovács et al., 2018;Leetmaa et al., 2018;Temelová et al., 2011). Some housing estate areas continue to suffer from serious social decline, whereas others have retained their status relatively well and, for many people, are acceptable residential neighbourhoods (Krišjāne et al., 2019;Temelová et al., 2011). ...
... Several studies have shown that different housing estates have followed divergent trajectories (Beckhoven et al., 2009;Kovács et al., 2018;Leetmaa et al., 2018;Temelová et al., 2011). Some housing estate areas continue to suffer from serious social decline, whereas others have retained their status relatively well and, for many people, are acceptable residential neighbourhoods (Krišjāne et al., 2019;Temelová et al., 2011). The extent of this difference is dependent on when, how, and where these estates were built (Leetmaa et al., 2018;Vasilevska et al., 2020). ...
... The extent of this difference is dependent on when, how, and where these estates were built (Leetmaa et al., 2018;Vasilevska et al., 2020). Although many studies have focused on the divergent trajectories of housing estates, they are mostly case studies of particular cities (see e.g., Kovács & Herfert, 2012;Temelová et al., 2011). There is little research that offers a more systematic analysis of different housing estates between the settlement systems of different countries. ...
An increasing number of studies focus on the divergent trajectories of housing estates in post-socialist cities; however, they are mostly case studies of particular cities. There is little research that offers a more systematic and comparative analysis of different housing estates between the settlement systems of different countries. This study aims to explore the trajectories of housing estates from 1989 to 2011 by examining neighbourhood transitions in Estonian and Czech cities based on socio-economic, demographic, and ethnic characteristics of their residents. We use data from population censuses and clustering techniques to create typologies of housing estate neighbourhoods. Our results suggest that the main development trajectory of Estonian and Czech housing estates has been stability with neighbourhoods remaining in the same housing estate type and developing similarly as other urban neighbourhoods. This is mainly related to housing market specifics of post-socialist countries, and ageing being the main mechanisms of residential change of housing estates. Other types of trajectories are differentiated along two lines: the position of the city within the settlement system and the location of heavy industry in the city during the socialist period, indicating persistent impact of socialist urban development for housing estates.
... Cities in Central-Eastern Europe abound in LPHEs that were developed in the socialist era. These estates account for 20-40% of the housing stock in Central-Eastern Europe [26]. In Western Europe, prefabricated apartment buildings have a bad reputation and are often regarded as problem areas, whereas many MFREs in the former Eastern bloc countries have been successfully revitalized. ...
... (1) complete degradation of buildings and/or public open spaces resulting from the absence of planning regulations, lack of funds to cover maintenance costs [36], or the residents' reluctance to take on additional responsibilities [26]; (2) uncontrolled and uncoordinated development and renovation on a "do-it-yourself" basis, as demonstrated by buildings where additional stories and balconies were built at the residents' request [37], or where ground floor apartments were converted to non-residential functions [38]; and (3) comprehensive revitalization projects aiming to increase the appeal of large residential estates for inhabitants belonging to specific socioeconomic groups, as was the case in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czechia, and Romania [30,39]. ...
Motives: The need for sustainable urban development, including an improvement in residents’ quality of life, requires ongoing urban diagnostics. Assessments of multi-family housing estates play a very important role in this process. Population growth influences the expansion of housing estates in limited urban space. The extent to which spatial and functional structures (SFS) in housing developments meet the residents’ current needs should be evaluated. These needs undergo dynamic change and are influenced by economic, socio-cultural, sanitary, and ecological factors. Aim: The main objective of this study was to develop a methodology for assessing SFS solutions in open spaces in multi-family residential estates (MFREs) based on a complete list of SFS indicators, and to determine the potential of GIS tools and selected open data sources for automating this process. GIS was used to represent data. The intermediate goal was to determine differences in the SFS solutions of two MFREs that were built with different technologies and urban layouts in the last 70 years in the city of Olsztyn (Poland). Methods: An empirical study was conducted with the use of qualitative and quantitative methods based on a review of the literature, the results of a resident survey, and an analysis of spatial data in ArcGIS and QGIS software. Results: The residents’ needs for SFS in MFREs were identified. A list of 26 SFS indicators and their values (on a 3-point scale) was developed to assess multi-family housing. The applicability of GIS software and spatial data from the national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) and other sources was assessed in the process. The research method was tested to reveal differences in SFS solutions in the compared MFREs.
... There are differences within one nation (Gorczyca 2016; Pirrus 2021), within one city (Marques Pereira 2017; Kährik, Tammaru 2010;Szafrańska 2011) and within one estate as well. Nevertheless, only a few studies investigate internal differentiation within one LHE (e.g., Temelová et al. 2011;Lelévrier, Melic 2018). This raises the issue that scientific literature and public discourses usually present these estates as uniform entities without inner variation. ...
... Many studies rely on existing data from national panels or municipal statistics. At the micro-scale, however, comprehensive data are rarely available (cf. Temelová et al. 2011;Lelévrier, Melic 2018). This makes it more difficult to analyse, evaluate and compare subspaces that do not correspond to statistical boundaries. ...
Large housing estates (LHEs) in eastern Germany are often stigmatised in media and public discourses. They are considered symbols of the state-socialist era. Furthermore, LHEs are usually presented as monotonous entities without inner variation, including in scientific literature. This poses the risk of a general and thoughtless stigmatisation of these estates. This paper focuses on the concept of territorial stigmatisation. Although stigmatised from the outside, in many cases the internal image contrasts with the external one. Previous literature indicates four main aspects that need more attention in scientific studies on LHEs and territorial stigmatisation: (1) a longterm perspective including the area’s historical development, (2) the analysis and evaluation of micro-scale data independent of common statistical boundaries, (3) the residents’ perceptions of their living environment, and (4) a more critical reflection in the academic discourse about one’s own role as a knowledge producer. By using the Leipzig-Grünau LHE as an example, we explore, first, how the internal image has changed over time, and second, whether micro-scale differences within the estate can be identified. We draw on findings of a long-term study investigating the development of the Leipzig-Grünau LHE since 1979. The results illustrate that the respective historical context has had a major influence on image generation over time. Furthermore, a micro-scale analysis reveals that even subspaces in immediate proximity differ with regard to socio-demographic characteristics, the housing and neighbourhood conditions and ownership. In particular, the residents perceive their living environment in a more nuanced way, which influences their image of the estate.
... In the case of the Czech Republic, researchers have studied and analysed communist housing estates and their 'future' within the context of transition and privatisation, as evident in "The Future of Housing Systems After the Transition -The Case of the Czech Republic" (Lux & Sunega, 2010); others (Temelová et al., 2011). Furthermore, a question of diversity in CEE cities, particularly in Prague's housing estates, has been a topic of interest in recent years, welldescribed in "Arrival City: Invisible Diversity at Prague's Housing Estates" (Heřmanová & Lehečka, 2019). ...
Studying the Post-Socialist City in Yugoslavia: An Examination of Multi-Disciplinary Methodologies and Theoretical Approaches
Since the end of the state-socialist era in the early 1990s – and effectively, since the end of the Yugoslav federation and the subsequent wars that had engulfed the Western Balkans for almost a decade – the study of the twentieth-century South-Eastern Europe has intensified. The scholarship on the region’s twentieth-century architecture has been prolific since the early years of the new millennium, and the new generation of urban and architectural scholars has further amplified this trend. However, an inquiry into the post-socialist city in Western Balkans has been relegated largely to the secondary position to the study of the Yugoslav modernist architecture and its role within the socio-political mechanisms of the Cold War era. In this discourse, the study of the post-socialist urban space remains lacking in architectural and urban history – it is mainly conducted within the methodological and theoretical frameworks of sociology, socio-cultural anthropology, and urban geography.
To bridge this scholarly gap and identify possible new trajectories of inquiry, I probe into the different scholarship dealing with the post-socialist city and the urban, ideological, and social remnants of the state-socialist era in former Yugoslavia. I argue that the study of the multi-disciplinary nature of the scholarship examining the state-socialist and post-socialist city serves as a vital step in the more comprehensive understanding of the (post-)Yugoslav architectural space, its particulars, and idiosyncrasies. Methodologically, I identify and outline the different disciplinary strands in the study of the post-socialist space in general, and post-Yugoslav space in particular, followed by an analysis of the established discourses and their points of interference and overlap. By investigating qualitative methodologies and different theoretical approaches in the study of the Central-East European and Yugoslav post-socialist city, I explore the post-socialist urban space in former Yugoslavia in a wide-ranging manner, ultimately identifying conduits for future research.
Istraživanje postsocijalističkog urbanog prostora u bivšoj Jugoslaviji: analiza multidiciplinarnih metodologija i teoretskih pristupa
Od svršetka perioda komunizma u Evropi u ranim devedesetima—i tehnički, od raspada Jugoslavije i rata koji je obilježio posljednju deceniju dvadesetog stoljeća na Balkanu—stručni istraživački rad na temu jugoistočne Evrope se samo intenzivirao. Tematski akademski projekti posvećeni arhitekturi dvadesetog stoljeća su prisutni u nauci još od začetka novog milenija, a nova generacija istoričara arhitekture i urbanizma dodatno naglašava i širi već postojeće teme. Ipak, studij postsocijalističkog arhitektonskog perioda u gradovima zapadnog Balkana zauzima pak sekundarni položaj u odnosu na istraživačke djelatnosti posvećene arhitekturi modernizma u Jugoslaviji te ulozi arhitekture u sociopolitičkim preturbacijama perioda hladnog rata. U okviru diskursa istorije arhitekture i urbanizma, studij postsocijalističkog urbanog prostora je tek minimalno zastupljen—stručno-istraživački projekti na temu se prvenstveno vrše u oblasti sociologije, sociokulturne antropologije i urbane geografije.
Cilj stručnog rada „Studying the Post-Socialist City in Yugoslavia“ je analiza postojeće literature na temu postsocijalističke arhitekture te studij urbane, ideološke i sociološke baštine socijalističke Jugoslavije; drugi cilj rada je identifikacija mogućih pravaca daljeg istraživanja na temu. Tvrdim da studija multidisciplinarnih istraživačkih radova na temu socijalističke i postsocijalističke arhitekture služi kao krucijalan korak u razumijevanju jugoslovenskog i post-jugoslovenskog urbanog prostora kao i njegovih idiosinkratičnih karakteristika. Metodološki, „Studying the Post-Socialist City in Yugoslavia“ prvenstveno identificira pristupe temi različitih disciplinarnih oblasti i njihovih tačaka preklapanja te vrši analizu postojećeg diskursa. Dalje, kroz studije različitih metodoloških i teoretskih pristupa u već postojećem istraživačkom diskursu na temu postsocijalističke arhitekture gradova središnje Evrope, „Studying the Post-Socialist City in Yugoslavia“ predlaže i definira moguće pravce u daljim studijama postsocijalističke arhitekture i urbanizma u zemljama bivše Jugoslavije.
Badanie przestrzeni miasta postsocjalistycznego na obszarze byłej Jugosławii: analiza wielodyscyplinowych metodologii i perspektyw teoretycznych
Od upadku ładu komunistycznego w Europie na początku lat 90. XX wieku, czemu towarzyszył rozpad Jugosławii i wojna, która naznaczyła ostatnią dekadę minionego stulecia na Bałkanach, intensywnie rozwijają się badania naukowe poświęcone Europie Południowo-Wschodniej. Od początku nowego tysiąclecia pojawiają się projekty akademickie dotyczące dwudziestowiecznej architektury, zaś nowe pokolenie historyków architektury i urbanistyki z rosnącym zainteresowaniem rozwija poruszaną dotąd tematykę. Jednakże badania nad architekturą okresu postsocjalistycznego w miastach zachodnich Bałkanów odgrywają drugorzędną rolę w porównaniu z aktywnością naukową poświęconą architekturze modernizmu w Jugosławii, jak też miejscu architektury w przemianach społeczno-politycznych podczas zimnej wojny. Badania przestrzeni miejskiej w okresie postsocjalistycznym zajmują marginalne miejsce w dyskursie historii architektury i urbanistyki, zaś projekty naukowe o tej tematyce rozwijają się głównie w perspektywie socjologii, antropologii społecznej i geografii miasta.
Celem artykułu jest analiza dotychczasowej literatury dotyczącej architektury postsocjalistycznej oraz miejskiego, ideologicznego i socjologicznego dziedzictwa socjalistycznej Jugosławii; przedstawione przeze mnie prace starają się również określić możliwe kierunki dalszych studiów nad tą problematyką. Uważam, że analiza wielodyscyplinowych badań naukowych dotyczących architektury socjalizmu i okresu post-socjalistycznego może być kluczowym krokiem w procesie odkrywania znaczeń jugosłowiańskiej i postjugosłowiańskiej przestrzeni miejskiej, jak też w próbach scharakteryzowania jej specyfiki. Pod względem metodologicznym artykuł rekonstruuje sposoby badania typowe dla poszczególnych dyscyplin oraz ich punkty wspólne, jak też dokonuje analizy istniejącego już dyskursu naukowego. Ponadto dzięki badaniu różnorodnych perspektyw metodologicznych i teoretycznych w studiach na temat miast Europy Środkowej w artykule zaproponowano możliwe kierunki dalszych prac badawczych nad architekturą i urbanistyką okresu postsocjalistycznego w krajach byłej Jugosławii.
... However, in spite of the documented decreasing or fluctuating status, many estates continue to be attractive for various groups of users, and efficient upgrading and management solutions are being deployed to increase the liveability and quality of these spaces. Consequently, a deep qualitative study documenting these processes, rather than being labelled merely as 'divergent pathways of development' (Temelová et al., 2011), might hold more interesting potential for reversed 'benchmarking' (or reversed best-practice solutions) between Eastern and West Europe. Similarly, in the context of increased interest in the creation of massive low-income multi-storey housing in cities such as Addis Ababa or Delhi, it is not hard to imagine that the exchange of expertise and solutions between the East and the South can be truly beneficial for these developments. ...
Recently, the theoretical relevance and utility of the regionalised notion of post-socialist cities have been questioned. The ensuing debate has resulted in several positions, including suggestions to drop the term entirely or to create a distinctive narrative based on the concept of a Global East, in order to position the knowledge as equal vis-a-vis discourses originating from Western power centres. This article responds to this call through efforts to transcend the dominant frames of research on post-socialist cities. However, I argue that the first step in overcoming the subaltern positioning of local knowledge is to refocus attention on previously marginalised urban phenomena, and to link the post-socialist research agenda to existing empowering discourses. The importance of creating linkages with the research originating from the South, and the potential for such joint engagements to contribute to global theory-making are discussed in the context of the study of urban informality.
