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The Expatriate Real Estate Complex: Creative Destruction and the Production of Luxury in Post-Socialist Prague
Abstract
This article explores the influence of international financial capital on the production of exclusionary housing markets and spatialities in the city of Prague, Czech Republic. It focuses on the regeneration of Karlín, a district of Prague increasingly defined by the presence of luxury housing and high-specification office developments. Through a critical discussion of two private companies heavily implicated in the renewal of the district, it is possible to examine the ways in which these actors are contributing to this regeneration. I argue that the regeneration of the district is intimately bound up with processes of capitalist uneven development that couple networks of foreign investors with local municipal authorities through an asymmetric set of power relations. These relations are heavily skewed in favour of the private sector, and the complexity of the linkages between these actors makes meaningful regulation of foreign investment extremely challenging. I also suggest that such practices should not be seen as a transitory position between state socialist planning mechanisms and mature 'Western' practices of regeneration, but rather as explicitly post-socialist in nature, and only as a partial reading of a number of different post-socialisms, instead of being seen as representative of a singular 'post-socialist condition'. © 2010 The Author. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
... Key topics addressed in this meta-category were differences between local and international, the role of intermediaries in creating interscalar investment relations, a focus on Chinese investors, and the interplay between local regulatory frameworks and international investment channels. Scholars describe investors operating beyond the scale of their nation-state, or the nation-state in which their headquarters are located, as international (Rosato et al. 2010), foreign (Rogers, Lee, and Yan 2015), global (Searle 2014), crossborder (Eichholtz, Gugler, and Kok 2011), or overseas investors (Cook 2010). Often, this set of terminology is used interchangeably even within a single analysis. ...
... The differentiation between international and other investors is often either explained or indirectly assumed based on the (expected) divergent effects of their capital in receiving cities. These effects are predominantly evaluated as negative, such as the creation of exclusionary housing markets (Cook 2010). ...
... The relations and collaboration between municipal authorities and international investors are created "active intermediaries in the flow of capital into India" (Searle 2014, 62) and led to a "building frenzy" in the country. Similar processes have been observed in Prague, Czech Republic, where a new set of intermediaries emerged to connect both institutional and individual foreign investors to Czech property developers, to local municipal authorities, and to potential local tenants (Cook 2010). The role of intermediaries, however, is not a recent phenomenon when it comes to residential property investments: Charney (2003), for instance, describes the process of Israeli property firms creating partnerships and joint ventures with local developers and domestic and foreign banks to invest Israeli capital in Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic since the mid-1990s. ...
This article presents a systematic literature review on residential property investor types in selected social science disciplines and critically evaluates the status quo of academic engagement within this diverse group of property market actors. A recurring critique in recent years has been the minimal acknowledgment of investor heterogeneity particularly in relation to urban development and the financialization of housing. Yet, to date, there is no systematic evidence supporting these contentions. Therefore, we conducted an exhaustive literature review of residential investment landscapes through the Web of Science citation database in the following fields: Urban and regional planning, geography, sociology, urban studies, public administration, and economics. Subsequently, we methodically searched for the types of investors addressed, and investor categories employed, in journal articles published between 2000 and 2019. Following a meta-categorization of the results, we demonstrate how existing literature differentiates investors in terms of their spatial scale of operation, size and social composition, investment object and finance, or investment and social behavior. Additionally, we highlight the key topics and issues addressed in the reviewed literature within each meta-category. We propose to turn the four meta-categories into a multidimensional analytical framework as a point of departure for a more nuanced and in-depth understanding of investor differentiations, a tool that is urgently needed in Planning Studies and related disciplines. Furthermore, we argue that mixed method approaches combining hard and quantifiable with soft behavioral investor characteristics, as well as institutional analyses combining structural considerations with actors’ agency, are indispensable to disentangle contemporary residential property market dynamics.
... However, the termination of a rental contract by a landlord was already possible from 2001 in Czechia, from 2007 in Estonia and from 2012 in Slovakia, and the deregulation of rents in tenement blocks commenced in Poland from 2006, in Czechia from 2012 and in Slovakia from 2015. Real estate developers were important drivers of inner-city regeneration and the emergence of a rent gap (c11), who enabled the transfer of plots and apartments among different actors and facilitated the arrival of younger and better-off households in inner-city neighbourhoods (Badyina and Golubchikov, 2005;Cook, 2010;Ruoppila and Ka¨hrik, 2003;Temelova´, 2007). ...
... These newbuild forms of gentrification often adjoin core areas of classic gentrification occupying vacant plots or brownfield sites. According to Ilı´k and Ourˇednı´cˇek (2007) and Cook (2010), after the devastating flood in 2002, Prague's Karlı´n was quickly transformed into a modern, poly-functional neighbourhood with new luxury-housing enclaves. Cook (2010) classified this as 'post-socialist creative destruction and the production of luxury'. ...
... According to Ilı´k and Ourˇednı´cˇek (2007) and Cook (2010), after the devastating flood in 2002, Prague's Karlı´n was quickly transformed into a modern, poly-functional neighbourhood with new luxury-housing enclaves. Cook (2010) classified this as 'post-socialist creative destruction and the production of luxury'. The process was organised by foreign developers with the support of the district municipality and it was intended for wealthy (mostly Western) managers. ...
Countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have transformed from a centrally planned communist system to a market economy and liberal democracy after 1990. The rapidly changing social and power relations have been gradually manifested in the spatial pattern of cities. After the turn of the millennium, a growing number of papers reported that the regeneration of inner-city neighbourhoods intensified, generating population change in certain areas. Authors writing on urban renewal and gentrification in CEE have been inspired by the typology of gentrification elaborated in Western contexts, even though historical legacies and specific local conditions set serious limitations on the use of such concepts. The aim of this paper is to scrutinise the essential features of urban change and gentrification in post-socialist cities, discussing the main pre-conditions for, actors in and the resulting types of this process. Existing literature in the field has been systematically collected, analysed and compared. According to our findings the classic stage model of gentrification cannot be used in post-socialist cities, partly because the process is still in its infancy and partly because several hybrid forms of gentrification-like processes hide the spatial effects of market-based renewal. The variegated forms of urban change are the result of historical legacies, path dependencies and a set of factors embedded in local contexts. The paper highlights some of the research gaps in the field.
... Postupně se stala důležitou hnací silou proměn sociálně-ekonomické a fyzické prostorové struktury těchto měst, resp. jejich vnitroměstských obytných čtvrtí - Cook (2010), Holm (2014), Haase a Rink (2015), Kovács a kol. (2015) a další. ...
... Po povodních v roce 2002 bylo třeba zásadně přestavět pražský Karlín. Výsledkem byla nová polyfunkční čtvrť zahrnující také plochy nového luxusního bydlení vzniklé díky novostavbové luxusní gentrifikaci -Ilík a Ouředníček (2007) nebo Cook (2010). Temelová (2007) se věnovala vzniku a působení revitalizačního a převážně komerčního souboru zástavby Zlatý Anděl (na pražském Smíchově) na své okolí, na okolní zástavbu starých ulicových domů. ...
... Na základě odpovědí respondentů a s přihlédnutím k analyzované literatuře o postsocialistické gentrifikaci lze zdejší gentrifiéry označit především za pionýry gentrifikace v podobě "young transtitory urbanites" (dle Haase et al. 2012 jsou významně zastoupeni i v Brně a Lodži) a za marginální gentrifiéry (Sagan a Grabkowska 2012 a Grabkowska 2015 je identifikovali v Gdaňsku), a jen v menší míře za typické gentrifiéry ("yuppies" a "yupps"). Typičtí gentrifiéři se vyskytují hlavně ve velkoměstech, především v Berlíně (Holm 2014, Bernt andHolm 2014), také v Praze -Karlíně (Cook 2010). ...
In the introductory parts of the article, attention is paid to the definition of gentrification and to the particularities of gentrification in Central-European postsocialist countries on the background of urban geographical and sociological literature. Pioneer, marginal and sometimes developed types of gentrification can be found in their inner-city residential neighbourhoods with good conditions for gentrification, mainly gentrification through young transitory urbanites, marginal gentrification, new-build gentrification, controlled soft gentrification (East Germany, Budapest) and locally typical gentrification through yuppies and yupps. Another part is focused on the terminological issue of physical upgrading of inner-city residential neighbourhoods in connection with gentrification-for the renovation and rebuilding of houses and regeneration of the whole neighbourhood and construction of new condominiums. The final part is devoted to gentrification and the associated physical upgrading of inner city in the Czech provincial city of České Budějovice, especially in its inner-city neighbourhood Pražské předměstí. In the period of socialism, the local old street multi-dwelling houses were considerably neglected. But the neighbourhood has a good location within the city. The high rent gap and the demand for housing here created good conditions for the modernization of houses and the entire neighbourhood and the arrival of gentrifiers. Approximately 60% of the houses here have been recently upgraded or newly built (only 39% in other inner-city neighbourhoods). Mainly young transitory urbanites and families of marginal gentrifiers have come here to a greater extent (other inner-city neighbourhoods retained a larger share of the original population).
... the public sector actively supports socio-spatial upgrading (Bernt 2012). It also seems that new built, often luxurious, residential and office spaces developed by national and international private investors dominate in the regenerated tracts (Cook 2010;Kovacs, Wiessner, Zischner 2012). Finally, whereas some scholars argue that the process of gentrification in the Central and Eastern Europe city simply reflects the wider global phenomenon (Nagy, Timar 2012), there are critical voices questioning such universalist assumptions (Sýkora 2005, Chelcea 2006, Gentile, Salukvadze, Gogishvili 2015. ...
... Such reasoning is also reflected in a wide range of studies that picked up the concept of new-build gentrification to describe new urban trends in cities like London (Davidson, Lees 2005, Montreal (Germain, Rose 2000;Rose 2002), in Swiss cities (Rerat et al. 2010) or Berlin (Holm 2010;Marquardt et al. 2013), but also in second-tier West European cities like Newcastle (Cameron 2003), Glasgow and Rotterdam (Doucet, van Kempen, van Weesep 2011) or, outside the West European/North American context, in Shanghai (He 2008), Cape Town (Visser, Kotze 2008) and Tokyo (Lützeler 2008). In post-socialist Europe, although new-build residential projects have been discussed in the works on socio-spatial change in the post-socialist city (Badyina, Golubchikov 2005;Cook 2010;Kovacs, Wiessner, Zischner 2012), new-build gentrification has not been studied systematically. ...
... The interviewed developers also mentioned international, but also domestic, investors who often buy more than one apartment for profit. A similar phenomenon was reported in Prague (Cook 2010), Budapest (Kovacs, Wiessner, Zischner 2012), and Tbilisi (Gentile, Salukvadze, Gogishvili 2015). The development of the IT sector and business process offshoring after 2004 contributed to the steady growth of the group of young professionals starting their employment and family career in the city. ...
2015): New-build gentrification in the post-socialist city: Łódź and Leipzig two decades after socialism. Geografie, 120, No. 2, pp. 164–187. – This contribution focuses on the role of new-build gentrification in the socio-spatial re-differentiation of shrinking second-tier post-socialist cities in Germany and Poland, countries that differ in terms of the pace and character of post-socialist transition. Our main goal is to compare and contrast the unfolding of new-build gentrification in different post-socialist settings with the examples of new-build gentrification known from international studies that mostly cover " Western " cities. One of the main findings of our study is that the tempo and scale of new-build gentrification is sensitive to the pace of post-socialist transformations and to institutional contexts. Regarding the international debate on new-build gentrification, our findings from Łódź and Leipzig highlight a rather distinctive mode of the process. Despite the undeniable similarities with the spatial patterns detected by previous studies illustrating the " Western " contexts, the new-build gentrification detected in our case cities points to different economic roots as well as specific social consequences. Irrespective of identified differences between Leipzig and Łódź, the new-build gentrification appears to be economically independent from the former (other) forms of gentrification and its dynamics.
... Innymi słowy liczba nowych mieszkań drastycznie spadła, udział sektora publicznego zmalał do nieistotnych rozmiarów, a nowe budynki wznoszone przez prywatne firmy deweloperskie oraz spółdzielnie mieszkaniowe sprzedawane są po cenach rynkowych tym, których na to stać (Pichler-Milanovic 1994, Węcławowicz 1998, Marszał 1999, Sagan 2000, Vesselinov 2004. Także globalizacja, zarówno prywatny kapitał, jak i imigranci (zwłaszcza menadżerowie międzynarodowych korporacji), wywierają coraz większy wpływ na produkcję i konsumpcję luksusowych mieszkań w szybko rozwijających się i atrakcyjnych miastach postsocjalistycznych (Cook 2010). Powyższe zmiany, a zwłaszcza szybki spadek zakresu dekomodyfikacji 6 mieszkań, przyczyniły się zatem do pogłębienia podziałów społecznych. ...
... Z terenami podmiejskimi związane jest także powstawanie coraz liczniejszych osiedli grodzonych dla nowej elity (Marin 2005, Blinnikov i inni 2006, Stoyanov i Frants 2006, Kostreš i Reba 2010, Hirt 2012. Jednak projekty mieszkaniowe tego typu, zwłaszcza "nisze" dla zagranicznych menadżerów zatrudnionych czasowo (nierzadko jest to kilka lat) przy projektach z zaangażowaniem kapitału globalnego, powstają także w centrach stolic krajów postsocjalistycznych (Cook 2010). ...
... China has also remained the top source country for student visas over the last 8 years, with nearly 66,000 student visas granted to Chinese nationals in (DIBP 2016b, and is the second top source country (after India) across the migration programme as a whole (DIBP 2016c). According to the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board, Chinese investment in residential and commercial real estate increased from $2.4 billion in 2009/2010to $24.3 billion in 2014(Australian Government 2009. This was an increase of over 900% with China the largest source of foreign real estate capital in Australia during the 2014/2015 calendar year. ...
... Recent ethnographic and place-based research has engaged with foreign homebuyers in specific locales from a variety of perspectives. Pow (2011) for example, explores Singapore's gated community of Sentosa Cove as an elite transnational enclave; Cook (2010) views the regeneration of urban districts in Prague through foreign capital as 'the production of luxury'; and Cousin and Chauvin (2013) explore the socio-spatial segregation between 'islanders, immigrants and millionaires' on the island of St Barts in the French West Indies. While these studies shed important light on to how mobile investors' practices reshape urban spaces and relations, brokers and agents remain at the periphery of such analyses, and foreign property investment remains considered only within the domain of the global 'super rich' rather than also as a potentially middle-class transnational practice (see Davies 2016; Rogers 2016a for important exceptions). ...
Mobilities of people and capital from Asia to Australia now encompass policies and practices that link immigration, citizenship, international education and real estate investment in complex and entangled ways. These mobilities are mediated by ‘brokerage assemblages’ that cut across state, non-state, human and non-human actors and processes. This article’s primary contribution is to establish how assemblage thinking can be productive for understanding how such complex and interconnected mobilities are mediated. It then illustrates the potential of this approach with a preliminary empirical analysis of a selection of online content that forms part of the brokerage assemblages that link, facilitate and create education, immigration and real estate mobilities from Asia to Australia, primarily from China. We focus on online materials that circulate through three key platforms: (1) a major online investor portal based in Hong Kong and Shanghai that targets transnational investors and brokers (2) a smaller Australian-based property portal utilised by Australian real estate brokers and (3) one mainstream and one industry specific Australian media outlet. We use assemblage thinking to show how forms of information are coded and recoded across different platforms not only to represent, but also to constitute, the links between education, real estate and migration mobilities.
... Konkrétně reagují na proměny města v důsledku urbánní neoliberalizace a na vznik nových nerovností ve městě (Jacobsson, 2015b;Petrović a Backović, 2020;Pixová a Sládek, 2016;Polanska, 2010;Stanilov, 2007b). Vývoj demokratických institucí v SVE zaostával za tržními mechanismy, což vedlo k demokratickému deficitu na lokální úrovni, ztrátě vlivu samospráv na městský prostor, neomezené moci soukromého sektoru, korupci, propojení ekonomických a politických elit a omezení příležitostí pro aktivismus (Cook, 2010;Horák, 2007;Jacobsson, 2015a;Pixová, 2018Pixová, , 2020Sýkora a Bouzarovski, 2012;Temelová, 2009). Pixová (2018) nazývá tyto změny postsocialistickou šokovou terapií. ...
... Consequently, such polarisation of power makes the public willing to contest urban megaprojects, however, they are not fully capable of doing so. Briefly put, the megaprojects' 'excessive nature' peaks in fuzzy social-economic-political settings: it is just the lack of consistent regulatory frameworks and transparent decision-making mechanisms that fuel the planning, governance, and implementation of urban megaprojects (Cook, 2010;Cope, 2015;Zeković et al., 2018). ...
As many as twenty years after the overthrow of its authoritarian political regime, Serbia remains a ‘proto-democracy’, supported by the economic ideology of wild neoliberalism. Under such circumstances, urban development is subject to various abuses, such as the misapplication of legal procedures, neglect of the public interest, and politicisation of planning. In particular, urban megaprojects exhibit various distortions, as they require
special regulations, additional funding, long-term timeframes, and ad hoc actor-networks. Against that background, this paper examines the main ideological landscapes behind the Belgrade waterfront regeneration, illustrated by two projects – City on the Water and Belgrade Waterfront. By collecting 65 articles from the daily press, we identify relevant stakeholders and present their statements to depict their positions, viewpoints, interests,
and specific value frameworks. The research is directed towards 1) recognition of conflicts and coalitions, 2) elucidation of decision-making patterns, and 3) identification of power structures in these two projects. Finally, comparing the key findings in each case helps understand the transformation of the ideological narratives and their effect on urban governance.
... Como ejemplo de estas centralidades, expresadas como "mezcla de actividades", podemos considerar aquellos espacios atractivos, vinculados al consumo, que realizan una "renta multifuncional" como si se tratasen de "centros comerciales". En este sentido, la aglomeración en un mismo lugar de cafés, cines, discotecas, restaurantes y tiendas, en general, constituye la receta para crear lugares que han resultado como consecuencia de un (Cook, 2010). En Košice, Eslovaquia, la reconversión del cuartel Jaroša en el Kulturalpark ha sido la principal actuación para albergar la manifestación "Capital Europea de la Cultura" de 2013, marcando el comienzo de la explotación cultural y turística de esta ciudad a nivel internacional (krCho, 2013). ...
El artículo analiza el caso de la Torre Glòries de Barcelona para demostrar las dinámicas económico-financiarias del proceso de construcción de la ciudad catalana. Haciendo hincapié en el concepto original de “espacio de renta”, el análisis de este caso de estudio demuestra que la construcción de dicha Torre es parte del más amplio proceso de renovación-regeneración urbana impulsado en todo el barrio del Poblenou, desde a finales del siglo pasado, para la terciarización y mercantilización del espacio urbano. La finalidad de este estudio es poner en énfasis las vicisitudes ocurridas en la gestión de la Torre Glòries que son típicas de los procesos globales neoliberales de especulación inmobiliaria que inciden en las desigualdades entre ciudadanos, y cierta tendencia de réplica a nivel internacional.
... The demolition of obsolete buildings in urban regeneration projects of other CEE cities is generally lesser in scale. In Warsaw, for instance, it presented the only possible solution for the renewal of many urban areas [53,59], but there are also examples from other CEE capitals [39,60,61]. New-build gentrification has been identified in Łódź, a second-tier Polish city, where an industrial brownfield and poor-quality municipal tenements were demolished, the locals were relocated on government expense, and the land was sold to a private investor for a middle-class residential development that now juxtaposes with the remaining social housing across the street [48]. ...
Although a growing body of literature examines the post-socialist European context of urban regeneration, studies on the demolition-based approaches are relatively scarce. Moreover, the regeneration policies of cities in non-EU Balkan countries with a distinctive transitional path remain largely unexplored. The paper contributes to filling these voids by investigating a specific demolition-based urban regeneration strategy named permanent reconstruction, which has been launched in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city, and applied to low-density neighborhoods with a derelict housing stock, being seen as a tool for achieving sustainable urban development. The specific research aims are to explain the origin of this strategy; analyze the institutional and planning framework, mechanisms, and dynamics of the regeneration process through a case study; and assess its outcomes based on a mixed methodology. The main research objective is to identify the issues of a post-socialist entrepreneurial urban governance, primarily deriving from Serbia’s distorted transition, which hampered the development of a strategic, integrated, and locale-conscious approach. The findings suggest that Novi Sad and other Serbian cities necessitate socially responsible and context-perceptive regeneration that would produce sustainable regeneration projects. The authors propose the means for redefining them, emphasizing the responsibilities of the public sector and the significance of involving the local community in the planning and decision-making process.
... It is clear from the outline of Serbian socio-spatial context presented above that brownfield regeneration initiatives have much potential for manipulation that involves public land, public interest, and taxpayer money. Though these practices are common to most post-socialist countries faced with the private sector in a position of power, opportunism in governmental structures, and lack of professional expertise (Cook, 2010;Keresztély and Scott, 2012;Cope, 2015;Osman et al., 2015;Djurasovic, 2016;Peric, 2016b;Zdunic, 2017), resulting in the neglect of public interest in favour of profit for foreign and domestic developers, the Serbian case reveals nation-state politics unambiguously supporting the private sector at the expense of the citizens. Such authoritarian entrepreneurialism is particularly seen in the Belgrade Waterfront project (Grubbauer and Camprag, 2019;Peric, 2020a;Cukic and Peric, 2019;Zekovic et al., 2018;Pope, 2020). ...
This paper investigates the regeneration process of military brownfields in Serbia through the lens of a deliberative planning approach. The topic is important for Serbia as a proto-democratic society where brownfield regeneration follows market rules, thus neglecting the interests of other actors. However, military brownfields are considered an exception in this regard as the starting point for their revitalisation is agreement between public institutions – the Ministry of Defence and municipalities. This, however, does not mean that the regeneration process runs smoothly. Considering this issue from the perspective of theory, the paper examines the starting assumptions of deliberative planning to highlight the role of the moderator in the public deliberation procedure. An empirical in-depth case study illustrates the regeneration of the Army Club in Vršac, Serbia, based on collaboration among various national bodies (ministries), local authorities, local entrepreneurs, and other agencies that facilitate the process. Using analysis of the institutional framework, findings of desk research, and interviews with key informants, the paper contributes to an understanding of the limits and potentials of deliberative practice for regeneration of military brownfields. More importantly, it outlines a theoretically informed and empirically tested mechanism to tackle the critical issues, elements, and steps discovered by an exploration of the process. The lessons prove valid not only for Serbia, but also for similar socio-spatial contexts.
... The boost of global economy makes urban megaprojects an attractive model for the development of urban patterns in post-socialist states faced with political, institutional and market transition (Cook 2010;Cope 2015;Zekovic et al. 2018). However, as the key drive behind any urban megaproject is extra-profit for its developers, megaprojects in the context of wild neoliberalism clearly point to "social distortions caused by the superior position of the private sector, opportunism within government structures, lack of professional expertise and, finally, neglect of the public interest" (Peric 2020a, p. 213). ...
Throughout its history, but also squeezed between the current challenges of globalisation and sovereignty, the Balkans has been confronted with a number of different political, economic, environmental, and cultural problems. Such a complex social framework inevitably implies spatial degradation, not only in terms of the urban forms as the final planning product, but also in terms of the nature of the planning process and urban governance. Notably, we assume that territorial capital in the Balkans is under serious threat due to the abuse of legal procedures, the neglect of the public interest and the politicisation of planning. To elucidate this, we focus on the megaprojects Belgrade Waterfront (Belgrade) and Hellinikon (Athens) as examples of urban development that require exceptional conditions such as special regulations, additional funding, long-term timeframes, and ad hoc actor networks. Against the conceptual background of multi-level governance and based on in-depth case studies, we examine the nature of vertical cooperation between authorities at different levels (from supranational to local), horizontal cooperation amongst different stakeholders, and the role of planning professionals who are seen as facilitators in this process. Finally, we point out to the most important conditions that enable a democratic social, political and professional framework for urban megaprojects.
... Gentrification in post-socialist cities was not only dependent on social, political, and economic transformations, being in turn shaped by a subtle process of local integration in a more global economic system. The pioneer gentrifiers were basically newcomers who were involved in foreign investments and demanded luxury dwellings in central neighborhoods [79][80][81]. To increase the major benefit of land rent, the developers constructed residential buildings on former wasteland or post-industrial sites in inner cities [79]. ...
Reflecting a broader form of neo-liberal urban policy underlying the progressive return of capital investment, gentrification is a key issue in urban studies. Although earlier definitions of "gentrification" focused mostly on socio-cultural processes, recent works have qualified gentrification as a mixed political-economic issue. Clarifying whether inner city gentrification should be supported, controlled, constricted, or prevented is a key debate in urban sustainability and metabolism, contributing to managing and, possibly, enhancing metropolitan resilience. To define the causes and consequences of gentrification, understanding the intrinsic linkage with different social contexts is crucial. There are no universal and comprehensive gentrification processes, displaying similarities and differences at the same time. A comparative analysis of different forms of gentrification and urban change provides basic knowledge to delineate complex, non-linear paths of socioeconomic development in cities, shedding light on the increased socioeconomic complexity and the most appropriate policies to fuel metropolitan sustainability in a broader context of global change. From this perspective, our commentary focuses on the main issues at the base of gentrification in Europe, starting from basic definitions and providing a regional vision distinguishing three "gentrification ideal-types" (northern, eastern, and Mediterranean). The implications of these different socioeconomic processes for the policy and governance of sustainable and resilient cities were discussed, evidencing new lines of investigation to frame (or re-frame) the increasing complexity of urbanization patterns and processes.
... When Harvey (1989: 7) wrote that 'the activity of that public-private partnership is entrepreneurial precisely because it is speculative in execution and design and therefore dogged by all the difficulties and dangers which attach to speculative as opposed to rationally planned and coordinated development', meaning 'that the [local] public sector assumes the risk', his concern was primarily with cities in the USA and UK. Such processes are today standard practice around the world, with cities from East Africa (Ajibade, 2017;Morange, 2015) to Eastern Europe (Cook, 2010;Grubbauer and Č amprag, 2019) to East Asia (Jou et al., 2016;Kim, 2020) competing to attract businesses and investors, partnering with private actors and undertaking speculative development. ...
This paper considers the cases of urban redevelopment at waterfront and brownfield sites in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Hamburg (Germany) to explore how two municipal governments have pursued divergent kinds of entrepreneurial governance, even as they have aimed to create similar kinds of new-build neighbourhoods. Copenhagen and Hamburg have both engaged in large-scale speculative development projects, simultaneously raising urban land values and adding urban public good. The cities follow a long tradition of using land value capture to raise funds for municipal activities , yet their scopes of action and tools for achieving progress have been shaped by local economic and political conditions. Although both cities began redevelopment at similar kinds of sites in the 1990s, Copenhagen's municipal government was relatively impoverished, while Hamburg's municipal government was relatively wealthy. As a result, even though both cities deployed state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and revolving funds models to reinvest revenues in future development, they possessed different potential strategies for increasing intercity competitiveness: Copenhagen's immediate aim in redeveloping its Ørestad and harbour districts was to fund a citywide mass transit system and thereby enhance competitiveness through infrastructure development, while Hamburg sought to use its HafenCity waterfront redevelopment to boost competitiveness through port mod-ernisation, increased in urban quality and commercial expansion in the city centre. By comparing these two cases, we can better understand the contingent nature of entrepreneurial governance and urban redevelopment processes.
... W tych krajach, jak zauważa Amore (2019), rewitalizacja wprowadzana po 1990 r. jako agenda rynkowa promowała tworzenie w historycznych centrach ekskluzywnych enklaw dla turystów i zamożniejszych city users -m.in. w Pradze (Cook, 2010), Tallinnie (Stanilov, 2007), Krakowie (Murzyn--Kupisz, 2012). ...
Abstract: The article shows the author's concept of urban tourism hypertrophy as well as the genesis of this phenomenon in the context of transformation of the modern city. Based on literature, the logic of rooting and using tourism in the transformation of the urban economy and the transformation of the urban space, as well as the roles assigned to tourism in urban policy has been clarified. Also, the processes and phenomena accompanying the current stage of tourismification of the city, in various geographical contexts, have been discussed. In particular, the growing importance of tourism-related housing financialization was highlighted.
... W tych krajach, jak zauważa Amore (2019), rewitalizacja wprowadzana po 1990 r. jako agenda rynkowa promowała tworzenie w historycznych centrach ekskluzywnych enklaw dla turystów i zamożniejszych city users -m.in. w Pradze (Cook, 2010), Tallinnie (Stanilov, 2007), Krakowie (Murzyn--Kupisz, 2012). ...
W artykule zaprezentowano autorskie ujęcie hipertrofii turystyki miejskiej, jak i genezę tego zjawiska w kontekście przemian współczesnego miasta. Przedstawiono, na podstawie literatury, logikę włączania i wykorzystywania turystyki w transformacji miejskiej gospodarki i przestrzeni oraz przypisane jej role w polityce miejskiej. Pokazano ponadto w różnych kontekstach geograficznych procesy i zjawiska towarzyszące współczesnej turystyfikacji miasta, w tym zyskującą na znaczeniu finansjalizację zasobów mieszkaniowych.
Słowa kluczowe: turystyka miejska, miasto postindustrialne, turystyfikacja, miejska przedsiębiorczość, rewitalizacja.
... In developing this alternative framework, we first explore how patterns of "expatriate world-city formation" (Beaverstock, 2010;Cook, 2010) can trigger globalizing tendencies in the urban real estate markets of Southern economies. Krijnen (2018), for example, highlights state practices in Lebanon that enabled real estate actors to attract capital not only from neighboring countries but also from the Lebanese diaspora as a source of wealth to be absorbed into Beirut's housing market. ...
The emerging literature on the globalization of real estate has addressed how internationally circulating capital has increasingly found its ways into housing markets of the “Global South”. With relatively underdeveloped financial and real estate markets, these countries have discursively and materially been rebranded as emerging markets, that is, they have been shaped into frontiers in the global urbanization of capital. In this paper we scrutinize the transnational real estate networks that shape and reshape the Cuban housing market. First, we reconstruct how, following the 2011 legalization of housing prices set between buyers and sellers, Cuban migrants and a few foreign investors, in cooperation with Cubans residing in Cuba, are buying properties in Cuba’s cities, beach resorts and other towns. Second, we explore the economic and extra-economic motives behind such transnational property transactions, highlighting how residential properties are bought and converted into private restaurants or hotels. Central to our analysis is that the present development is not simply shaped by local or national demand and processes but also by international investment. We contend that a pattern of economic globalization unfolds where transnational remittances, rather than institutional investments or mortgage finance, steer Cuba’s emerging property market, along with local investments among Cuban citizens.
... For the housing market, local politics about the presence of international housing investors (Rogers et al., 2015;Rogers and Wiesel, 2018;Paik, 2019), housing market movements in the U.K. (Hamnett and Reades, 2019), and geographies of international investors in South Korea (Kim et al., 2015a) have been research foci. These housing investors were ethnically connected, super-rich and/or expatriate workers (DeVerteuil and Manley, 2017;Cook, 2010;Searle, 2014;Kim, 2017). For the office market, geographies, investor profiles and growing trends have been explored in global cities or mega cities such as London, Shanghai and Seoul (Lizieri and Kutsch, 2006;Zhu et al., 2006;Kim et al., 2015b). ...
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been recognised as a major influence upon urban development within emerging economies. As the focus of production shifted toward higher skills and advanced technologies, expatriate high-skilled employees of the Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) began to play a significant role in FDI projects and recipient cities begin to experience urban development associated with residential development and community services for the settlement of these expatriate staff. This research reports on the experience of Korean investment in real estate following earlier projects in manufacturing activity in the Hanoi Capital Region. Korean investors are currently the largest FDI source in Vietnam and Hanoi has been favoured by them. The purpose of this research is to examine that the urban impact of manufacturing FDI on a recipient city is magnified by its connections with Real estate FDI (RFDI) in a way that it spurs (1) intensified real estate development, (2) the creation of new urban cores, and (3) new commuting patterns. The clustering of Korea-specific residential development and service functions is a contribution to change in Hanoi. The Korean-built housing complexes have transplanted Korean-style housing design into gated communities and the residents continue their Korean life-styles with easy access to language-specific community facilities. This research sheds light on the coalescent nature of RFDI with overall FDI via flows of MNEs and expatriate staff that can generate direct and indirect spatial impacts at project, city and regional scales.
... In particular, which logics did urban planning adopt, and which trends can be traced in the changing relations between urban planners, politicians, and the real estate sector? Scholars interested in post-1989 urban development in CEE extensively discussed the lack of transparency in urban planning, the speculative business culture, and broadly speaking the 'socialisation of risks and privatization of benefits' which made property developers and private investors the winners of the transition (e.g., Brabec & Machala, 2015;Cook, 2010;Horak, 2014;Suska, 2015). The role of local governance was, during the 'roll back' phase of the transition, associated with terms such as ad-hoc, fuzzy, or acting in a "firefighter style" (Feldman, 2000). ...
This article discusses the implementation of two large-scale urban waterfront projects that are currently under construction in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) capital cities of Belgrade and Bratislava. Against the backdrop of post-socialist urban studies and recent reflections on urban or 'world-city' entrepreneurialism (Golubchikov, 2010), we reveal how both elite-serving projects are being shaped according to their very own structure and agency relations. Our comparative analysis unravels the power-geometry of the decision-making processes that reshape urban planning regulations of both transforming waterfronts. The path-dependent character of "multiple transformations" (Sykora & Bouzarovski, 2012) in the CEE region can, even after three decades, still be traced within the institutional environments, which have been adapting to the existing institutional architecture of global capitalism. Yet, at the same time, the dynamic globalization of this part of the world intensifies its further attractiveness for transnational private investors. As a consequence, public urban planning institutions are lagging behind private investors' interests, which reshape the temporarily-fixed flows of capital on local waterfronts into landscapes of profits, politics and power. We argue that suchlike large urban developments , focused on promoting urban growth, accelerate the dual character of these cities. Thus, while the differences between both investigated case studies are being highlighted, we simultaneously illustrate how national and local state actors respectively paved the way for private investors, and how this corresponds to similar overarching structural conditions as well as outcomes.
... Dalsza globalizacja gospodarki miała dwojaki wpływ na proces gentryfi kacji postsocjalistycznej. W przestrzeni najszybciej rozwijających się miast w regionie pojawiła się, chociaż nieliczna, nowa kategoria społeczna skłonna i zdolna do konsumpcji luksusowych mieszkań w centrum -(expats) zagraniczni specjaliści związani z bezpośrednimi inwestycjami zagranicznymi [Cook 2010]. W połączeniu z rozwojem klasy średniej, który towarzyszy postępującej profesjonalizacji rynku pracy, wzrósł popyt na mieszkania o dobrym standardzie i w dobrej lokalizacji. ...
... Dalsza globalizacja gospodarki miała dwojaki wpływ na proces gentryfi kacji postsocjalistycznej. W przestrzeni najszybciej rozwijających się miast w regionie pojawiła się, chociaż nieliczna, nowa kategoria społeczna skłonna i zdolna do konsumpcji luksusowych mieszkań w centrum -(expats) zagraniczni specjaliści związani z bezpośrednimi inwestycjami zagranicznymi [Cook 2010]. W połączeniu z rozwojem klasy średniej, który towarzyszy postępującej profesjonalizacji rynku pracy, wzrósł popyt na mieszkania o dobrym standardzie i w dobrej lokalizacji. ...
... Dalsza globalizacja gospodarki miała dwojaki wpływ na proces gentryfi kacji postsocjalistycznej. W przestrzeni najszybciej rozwijających się miast w regionie pojawiła się, chociaż nieliczna, nowa kategoria społeczna skłonna i zdolna do konsumpcji luksusowych mieszkań w centrum -(expats) zagraniczni specjaliści związani z bezpośrednimi inwestycjami zagranicznymi [Cook 2010]. W połączeniu z rozwojem klasy średniej, który towarzyszy postępującej profesjonalizacji rynku pracy, wzrósł popyt na mieszkania o dobrym standardzie i w dobrej lokalizacji. ...
... Dalsza globalizacja gospodarki miała dwojaki wpływ na proces gentryfi kacji postsocjalistycznej. W przestrzeni najszybciej rozwijających się miast w regionie pojawiła się, chociaż nieliczna, nowa kategoria społeczna skłonna i zdolna do konsumpcji luksusowych mieszkań w centrum -(expats) zagraniczni specjaliści związani z bezpośrednimi inwestycjami zagranicznymi [Cook 2010]. W połączeniu z rozwojem klasy średniej, który towarzyszy postępującej profesjonalizacji rynku pracy, wzrósł popyt na mieszkania o dobrym standardzie i w dobrej lokalizacji. ...
... In the first decade of the transition, the city centers were declining because of the flight of capital and became places of segregation and exclusion (Kovacs, Wiessner, & Zischner, 2013). Since approximately 2000 the situation changed and although on a much smaller scale than in Western Europe gentrification has taken place, for example the creation of luxury expat apartments in Prague (Cook, 2010), gentrification of the city center of Moscow (Badyina & Golubchikov, 2005) and in Budapest (Kovacs et al., 2013). In most of the city centers of Central and Eastern European major cities, most of the original residents moved away from the crumbling decrepit buildings to new apartments built outside the center, a situation not unlike in earlier mentioned Berlin (Urban, 2007). ...
This study is about gentrification. It focuses on the effects of both the influx of new residents and commercial gentrification on satisfaction of local non-gentrifying residents with the Roombeek neighborhood in the Dutch city of Enschede. The Roombeek neighborhood has a turbulent and very specific history, as it was all but destroyed in the Enschede S.E. Fireworks disaster on 13 May 2000 (Oosting, 2001). Because of this dramatic event, there was a lot of attention from policy makers and the media for the reconstruction of Roombeek. Also the scientific community (albeit with very little attention from geographers) studied the consequences of the disaster and subsequent reconstruction. However, so far, no systematic scientific study on the effects of the gentrification in the reconstructed neighborhood after the disaster has been undertaken.
The reconstruction of Roombeek following the disaster was an attempt of the municipality of Enschede to not just rebuild, but also improve this previously deprived inner city neighborhood. Already in the years before the Fireworks disaster, extensive plans were made for urban renewal in this part of the city (Vollaard, 1998), but in two consecutive explosions on the afternoon of 13 May 2000, the city planners had to completely turn back to the drawing board. In the aftermath of the disaster, the municipality decided to change the way the gentrification and rebuilding of the neighborhood would take place. The new plan of the reconstruction process was different from most other state-led gentrification projects in the Netherlands, as the municipality took great effort to actively involve as many residents as possible in the planning of the reconstruction process (Denters & Klok, 2010). In most cases of large scale gentrification projects in The Netherlands, plots of land that have to be redeveloped, are sold to project developers who then within the limits of the master plan design and build new houses or commercial spaces. The Enschede municipality went to great length in involving the residents of the neighborhood in the redevelopment plans, while controlling as much as possible the entire process.
... In many cases, the outcomes confirmed the assumption that cities throughout CEE have embraced entrepreneurial strategies of urban imagineering and actively supported the transformation of central urban spaces modelled on Western examples (e.g. Cook, 2010;Golubchikov, 2010;Temelová, 2007). Scholars additionally stated that nation-state politics showed a greater influence in the CEE context compared to Western examples, particularly in regard to the implementation of large-scale urban development projects. ...
This comparative study on the urban re-imagineering performed through large-scale urban refurbishment focuses on the specific post-socialist and post-conflict contexts of former Yugoslavia. Through the analysis of legislative and planning documents, expert interviews, reports, and media coverage, this study shows how initiatives for the implementation of grandiloquent urban megaprojects (UMP) in the capital cities of Serbia and Macedonia became extreme examples of national image reconstruction, carried out through autocratic state-led interventions that disregarded public input. The two main insights that the study provides classify these cases as rather particular in the European framework. First, the national governments have played a decisive role in conceiving entrepreneurial strategies for national rebranding through urban re-imagineering of its capital cities. Second, this politically orchestrated processes advanced through non-transparent decision-making, in spite of the rising opposition by the civic alliances. In conclusion, autocratic implementation of UMPs in the urban contexts of the Yugoslavian successor states played out much more forcefully, overriding the imperative to satisfy genuine public interest.
... The degree to which UMPs in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) follow the same trends and facilitate comparable processes of socioeconomic restructuring as in Western Europe, North America and other global contexts is under debate (Cope, 2015;Kinossian, 2012;Kinossian and Morgan, 2014;Koch, 2014;Koch and Valiyev, 2015;Mu¨ller, 2011). On the one hand, there is ample evidence that cities throughout the region have embraced entrepreneurial strategies and have in many cases actively supported the transformation of central urban spaces modelled on Western examples (see Cook, 2010;Golubchikov, 2010;Temelova´, 2007). Yet at the same time, and particularly with regard to large, prestigious urban development projects, scholars point out that CEE nation-state politics have considerably more influence than in Western contexts (Cope, 2015;Kinossian, 2012;Koch and Valiyev, 2015). ...
In this paper, we explore how state-led regulatory planning is utilised to push for delivery of an urban megaproject (UMP) in the specific context of post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. Our focus is on the large-scale brownfield redevelopment project ‘Belgrade Waterfront’ under implementation in the Serbian capital, a joint venture between the Republic of Serbia and Abu Dhabi-based investor Eagle Hills. We show this UMP to be an extreme example of state-led regulatory intervention, characterised by lack of transparency and haste in decision-making processes, all of which serve to prioritise private investors’ interests in project delivery above the principles of representative democracy. Through analysis of legislative and planning documents, expert reports and media coverage from the period between 2012 and 2017, we explore the legislative mechanisms, contractual strategies and modes of governance involved in the project’s delivery. This provides two insights: first, it reveals that, in contrast with the active role of local governments in conceiving entrepreneurial strategies that is often assumed today, in the case of Belgrade Waterfront, the national government has instead played the decisive role; second, it shows how modifications to national law were instrumental in defining public interest, in enabling certain types of contracts to become technically legal, and in minimising risks for the private investor. We conclude by highlighting the need to further conceptualise nation-state politics and autocratic rule as driving forces of urban development processes.
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... 1 . In the most quickly developing cities a new social group appeared, which, though not very numerous, was able to acquire luxury apartments in central districts -they were foreign specialists engaged in direct foreign investments (Cook, 2010) . This, plus the growth of the middle class, led to a growing demand for high quality dwellings in good locations, which motivated domestic and foreign developers to intensify the construction of high standard housing in central parts of large cities (Holm et al ., 2015;Kovács, 2012); 2 . ...
This paper discusses the specific character of gentrification processes in Polish cities, with a particular focus on Warsaw, Łódź and Gdańsk. It explains the forces and factors behind gentrification, and highlights its types and effects as well as the gentrifiers. It also addresses the problem of the absence of reprivatisation law in Poland. The paper concludes that gentrification processes in Polish cities occur in a different way and less intensively than in Western cities. They often have a localized character, mostly in the form of new-build gentrification carried out by developers and state-led gentrification with significant participation of the public sector.
... As Stenning and Hörschelmann (2008: 313) propose, the researcher should be attentive, then, and ask 'how and where we might identify the post-socialist and if and why we might want to do that'. This article therefore still agrees with Stenning and Hörschelmann (2008) and others (for example, Humphrey, 2002;Cook, 2010), that instead of avoiding the use of the term 'post-socialism', we reserve it for use in carefully specified ways that can help us make sense of some aspects of various cities. ...
The aim of this article is to critically assess the study of post-socialist cities with respect to comparative urbanism. Even though comparative urbanism has challenged the division of the world into largely incommensurable regional containers, where some regions are sources of theory while others remain in the periphery of thinking, post-socialist cities have remained doubly excluded: neither centre nor periphery, neither mainstream nor part of the critique. This article introduces three ways in which post-socialism has and could be perceived: as a container, as a condition and as a de-territorialized concept. It is argued here that seeing post-socialism as a de-territorialized concept that would apply to particular aspects of cities and societies rather than territorialized units in general would allow cities regularly seen as post-socialist to be incorporated into global urban theorizing, while distinctive local histories and experiences still remain analytically present. The article cautions researchers against area-based imaginations of urban theorization, instead arguing in favour of an approach that sees cities first and foremost as ordinary while some aspects could be claimed to be post-socialist. Tallinn is used here as a site from which to draw examples for this mainly literature-based conceptual analysis.
... The local effects of transnational real estate investments by the super-rich have now started to receive critical and, increasingly, politically charged attention (see chapters 12 and 13 by Paris and Woods in this volume). There is, for example, increasing debate on the unbalanced attention to high-end real estate development in cities (Cook, 2010); on impacts on local real estate markets and prices that put properties and neighbourhoods out of reach of local residents (Ley and Tutchener, 2001;Ley et al., 2002;Ley, 2010); and on neighbourhoods where (second-home) houses remain unoccupied most of the year (Paris, 2011). As Lees (2012) highlights, gentrification of world cities and the 'gentrifying global elites' have now become a global problem. ...
This chapter conducts a critical review of the existing literature on the super-rich. We call for social science research to reconsider the super-rich in two interrelated ways. First, we highlight the need to examine the structural conditions that have led to the emergence and growth of super-rich wealth in certain cities. This entails examining how the super-rich has been discursively constructed and materially produced over the last decades. Second, we argue for a shift from focusing on the spaces of the super-rich to super-rich spatiality. We suggest four potential research inquiries: (1) the influence of the super-rich on the production of space; (2) the situated connections of the super-rich within and beyond cities; (3) the various real estate investment strategies of the super-rich; and (4) the discursive construction of the super-rich and their agency by diverse groups in the city.
... Podkreślano także wpływ nowego budownictwa na powstawanie ognisk gentryfi kacji w różnych częściach miasta (Kovács i inni, 2013). Prywatne inwestycje w dzielnicach śródmiejskich były często łączone z procesem reprywatyzacji, otwierającym drogę prywatnym inwestorom (Bernt i Holm, 2005), w tym zagranicznym deweloperom -jak to miało miejsce w Pradze (Sýkora, 2005;Cook, 2010). Wizję korzyści wynikających z podniesienia czynszów w odnowionych budynkach uznawano często za podstawową dźwignię uruchamiającą inwestycje prywatnych podmiotów. ...
... Thus, whereas gentrification prevails in former East-Berlin and in many major cities of "fast-track" reforming countries 1 , it has remained a much more piecemeal process in Russian metropolitan centres, and is nearly unheard of in Albania or Bulgaria. Specifically, whereas inner-city upgrading in some cases seems to be driven by the "spontaneous" movements of a new generation of urbanites who are not necessarily wealthier than their "veteran" inner city neighbours (Grabkowska 2012;Haase, Grossmann, Steinführer 2012;Standl, Krupickaitė, 2004), elsewhere it is dominated by newbuild developers (Badyina, Golubchikov 2005;Cook 2010;Kovács, Wiessner, Zischner 2013). In some cities gentrification is evident on a broad spatial scale (Bernt, Holm 2005;Holm 2010), whereas in others the phenomenon is fragmented and circumscribed (Kaczmarek, Marcińczak 2013;Sýkora 2005). ...
... Nur wenige Analysen thematisieren hingegen die glokalen Zusammenhänge politischer Kultur und städtischen Regierens im (süd-)östlichen Europa. 6 Dabei zeigen unterschiedliche Studien für Prag (Cook 2010), St. Petersburg (Golubchikov 4 Dass diese Frage kaum diskutiert wird, mag vielfältige Gründe haben. Wesentlich scheint jedoch, dass mittels "Postsozialismus" ein Identitäts-und Abgrenzungsmerkmal geschaffen wurde, das vor allem zur Positionierung innerhalb der scientific community dient (Gentile et al. 2012). ...
Ein Nachdenken über Kultur ist ein schwieriges Unterfangen. Dies zeigt bereits ein Blick in Lexika und andere Nachschlagewerke, wo einem neben der langen und vielfältigen Geschichte " des Kulturbegriffs " , der umfangreiche und teilweise auch widersprüchliche Inhalt, mit dem dieser Begriff gefüllt ist, verdeutlicht wird. Klar scheint lediglich, dass Kultur ein umkämpfter, vielfältig gedeuteter, ja auch ein politischer Terminus ist. Nicht zuletzt aufgrund dieser Ambivalenz wird er in den Sozialwissenschaften spätestens seit dem cultural turn primär als eine veränderbare Ordnungskategorie gesehen, deren Definition je nach Kontext und Fragestellung variiert (Williams 1998: 48; Lossau 2014: 27). " Politische Kultur " ist ähnlich schillernd und wird ebenso häufig als Schlagwort genutzt. Dies zeigen Zeitschriften für politische Kultur ebenso wie alltägliche Berichterstattungen in diversen Medien, wo häufig der Begriff " politische Kultur " genutzt wird. Was aber kennzeichnet politische Kultur jenseits des Schlagwortcharakters? Was kann politische Kultur als forschungsleitender Terminus leisten? Welches erkenntnistheoretische Potenzial beinhaltet dieser Begriff mit Blick auf das (süd-)östliche Europa
... (3) deindustrialization, brownfield regeneration, and inner city commercialization (Sýkora, 1999;Kiss, 2002;Temelová, 2007;Temelová and Dvořaková, 2012); (4) gating and exclusionary practices and expatriate "nicheing" (Blinnikov et al., 2006;Stoyanov and Frants, 2006;Cook, 2010;Kostreš and Reba, 2010); (5) the socioeconomic plight of the socialist-era housing estates Temelová et al., 2011); and 6 MARCIŃCZAK ET AL. ...
The state of the art in research on residential segregation and concentration in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) largely focuses on process description (e.g., the multitude of works on gentrification and suburbanization). Even though major advances in the conceptualization and measurement of segregation have been made, works that scrutinize the patterns of segregation and/or concentration in CEE are rare, while studies that simultaneously explore and link segregation patterns under socialism and after are virtually nonexistent. Relying on Polish census-tract level data on the educational structure of population in 1978, 1988, and 2002, this study explores the patterns of social segregation and concentration in the three major Polish cities (Warsaw, Cracow, and od), representing different paths of development under socialism and after. The results show that the population of the three major Polish cities was still socially heterogeneous at the census tract level in 2002. The results also reveal that the level of social residential segregation in the three cities has been decreasing steadily since 1978, irrespective of the prevailing economic system. [Key words: Residential segregation, concentration, socialist city, post-socialist city, Poland.]
... Government is replaced by governance as the capacity to govern depends on the successful ensemble and maintenance of coalitions of local government agencies and the private sector. As explained by Cook (2010) with respect to the development of Prague, it means the replacement of enduring partnerships, institutions, and class interests with reliance on fluid and personalized networks, which in effect weakens the local government. Jerusalem's ghost apartments are evidence that the capacity to govern in fact derives from relations between market forces and political control, whereas trade-offs among the parties produce the urban space in practice. ...
This article examines the relationship between recent luxury residences built in Jerusalem and the city’s fragile urban fabric regarding the extent to which government affects the form of such projects in practice. It highlights the establishment of a pattern-driven policy—a form of policy resulting from the entrenchment of specific solutions. The research addresses two seemingly unrelated spheres, namely urban regime and planning gains, and urban design, as embodied in Jerusalem’s “ghost complexes”. Based on the Jerusalem case, we depict the practicability of the planning deal between the municipality and the entrepreneur as the driving force shaping the built environment under the neo-liberal rationale that controls negotiations between the municipality and the developers. Relations between local government and developers may develop in a pattern-driven path; hence, specific solutions may become entrenched and affect the nature of understandings or agreements, thereby continuously affecting the cityscape.
... Only very limited amount of work then specifically targets regular migrants in ECE, particularly those from outside the EU. The work of Williams and Baláž on the transnational spaces of Vietnamese petty traders in Slovakia (Williams and Baláž, 2005a;Baláž and Williams, 2007), Górny's and Kę piń ska's (2004), Veermersch's (2007) and Triandafyllidou's (2009) studies of the mobility of Ukrainian migrants in Poland and Hungary, and Cook's (2010Cook's ( , 2011 research on the geographies of transnational elites in Prague, are among the few examples of in-depth research into migration patterns and everyday experiences of non-EU migrants in ECE. Yet these studies focus on single groups of migrants from a particular angle and little is known conceptually about the diversity of migrants and their experiences in the region. ...
Migration to East and Central Europe (ECE) remains under-researched, not least because of the relatively small number of migrants in the region. Exploring experiences of documented non-EU migrants in Slovakia with various forms of violence – including violence motivated by hate and associated with work exploitation – the paper uncovers patterns of violence and vulnerability across the migrant cohort. As a broader contribution to studies of migration, the research alerts scholars to the need for a greater attention to the experiences of smaller cohorts of migrants, which often remain under the radar because of their size. The second line of the argument highlights the complexity and relations between different kinds of violence. Several risk factors are identified as contributing to the risk of migrants’ exposure to various forms of abuse at the same time, providing with implications for preventive and supportive policies and practices. The analysis particularly emphasises the importance of ties between migrant communities and formal institutions for mitigating violence.
... However, a growing body of literature has indicated a turnaround in the development of post-socialist inner cities recently. Signs of physical upgrading coupled with gentrification have been reported from several CEE cities even though most of these studies focused on capital cities where systemic transformations and globalisation processes have been most advanced, like Prague (Cook, 2010;Sýkora, 2005;Temelová, 2007), Moscow (Badyina and Golubchikov, 2005;Gritsai, 1997), Vilnius (Standl and Krupickaitë, 2004) or Budapest (Földi, 2006;Kovács, 2009). Most of the literature to date, however, lacks a convincing empirical underpinning as far as the mechanisms of gentrification, its actors and outcomes are concerned. ...
After the political and economic changes of 1989–90, the concept of gentrification inspired many urban researchers in central and eastern Europe (CEE). Despite the growing number of papers, there is still a substantial empirical gap concerning the transformation of inner-city neighbourhoods in the CEE. This paper is based on empirical data regarding the physical and social upgrading of neighbourhoods in inner Budapest. The paper argues that gentrification in its traditional sense affects only smaller areas of the inner city, mostly those where demolition and new housing construction took place as an outcome of regeneration programmes. At the same time, the old housing stock has been less affected by gentrification. This is mainly due to the high share of owner-occupation and the social responsibility of local governments. Thanks to renovation and new housing construction, a healthy social mix will probably persist in the inner city of Budapest in the future.
... In contrast to suburbanization, so far gentrification has proceeded in a piecemeal fashion and had more discrete and spatially limited results (Sýkora, 2005;Brade et al., 2009). Owing to the legacy of socialism, gentrification in CEE mostly occurs in the form of small-scale, luxury, new or renovated apartment buildings that are often mixed with socially and physically dilapidated urban fabric (Badyina and Golubchikov, 2005;Kowalski and Śleszyński, 2006;Murzyn, 2006;Kovács, 2009;Cook, 2010). Supposedly doomed to become the slums of the 21st century (Szelényi, 1996), and despite population outflow, socialist housing estates still seem to maintain their medium social status (Sýkora, 2009;Kährik and Tammaru, 2010;Marcińczak and Sagan, 2011). ...
In Europe a range of segregation studies can be found in the North, West and South, but hardly any in Central Eastern Europe – a region where the major economic and political changes induced by the demise of socialism in 1989 contributed to new social divisions and related spatial patterns. However, these changes have not been uniform and have resulted in context-specific outcomes. Relying on data on the socio-occupational structure of the population from the National Census 2002 at the census tract scale, this article explores the levels and patterns of social segregation in three major Polish cities: Łódź, Cracow and Warsaw, urban areas that reflect divergent paths of more and less successful post-socialist transformations. This contribution concludes that, more than a decade after the demise of socialism, census tracts still generally contained populations that were heterogeneous with regard to socio-occupational status and that socioeconomic transformations in Poland and the social toll these processes involved have not yet been fully translated into intra-urban spaces.
Cities of the Global South constitute a wide band in terms of their integration into the global economy. For cities like Hanoi, the sustained influx of foreign direct investments has propelled them into playing increasingly important roles as manufacturing centres. Along with this new role is the influx of expatriate managers who watch overseas manufacturing subsidiaries. Our paper focuses on Korean expatriate neighbourhoods and their impacts on Hanoi. More specifically, we show how the presence of such communities has resulted in important changes in the host city, firstly in housing typology (such as the introduction of high‐rise mixed‐use complexes), and secondly, in cultural consumption. We argue that Korean privilege, cultural consumption practices, and the desire for support and solidarity within the Korean social network in Hanoi work to create new forms of city‐building knowledge, one that originates from the neighbourhoods of these new and rich settlers in the city. Such forms of knowledge subsequently go on to reshape the economic, cultural and social spaces in the globalising city.
Urban dynamics in European Mediterranean countries reflect a mosaic of responses to different economic impulses. Suspended between suburbanisation and reurbanisation, socio‐economic development in Southern Europe outlines a possible ‘Mediterranean’ path to gentrification that deserves further investigation. By considering together population, housing, business dynamics and specific aspects of life quality, we developed a quali‐quantitative analysis of urban dynamics and gentrification processes in postcrisis Athens, Greece. The political side of gentrification, informal planning and the difficulty to stabilise a nexus with inner city rehabilitation accounts for the heterogeneous outcomes of urban transformations in Southern Europe. In such contexts, inner city gentrification was interpreted as an informal process consolidating a social mix similar to the most advanced cities in Western Europe. Our study delineates a Mediterranean perspective to inner city gentrification, reconnecting these processes with more general socio‐economic conditions, and demonstrates the intrinsic advantage of quali‐quantitative assessments of gentrification patterns and processes in urban Europe. A refined knowledge of these processes—also in light of more recent urban crises (e.g., driven by the pandemic challenge)—finally provides an interpretative key for a better management of inner city gentrification, not only in advanced economies but also in emerging (or peripheral) contexts.
This cumulative habilitation thesis is composed of one book chapter and four peer-reviewed academic papers, written and published in the period between 2014 and 2019. In the focus is the phenomenon of urban regeneration, perceived as a consequence of socioeconomic and political transitions.
Článek rozebírá rozdíly mezi představami o "ideálním městě" v komunistickém a post-komunistickém v urbánním plánování. Nejprve nabízí přehled akademických prací, které buď líčí ideje plánování za komunistického režimu, anebo popisují představy propagované v praxi plánování od 90. let 20. století v post-komunistických zemích. Ve druhém kroku text analyzuje reprezentace "ideálního města" v koncepcích plánování připravených pro město Brno v letech 1951, 1966, 1973, 2002 a 2007. Poznatky z literatury o "post/komunistickém" plánování ukazují na podobnost mezi urbánním plánováním v Brně a několika dalších městech. Srovnání idejí o žádoucím městském rozvoji pro město Brno během uplynulých šesti dekád však také poukazuje na určitou neměnnost reprezentací "ideálního města" v "komunistickém" a "post-komunistickém" plánování.
Urban megaprojects as a spatial manifestation of neoliberalism are in transitional societies considered a tool for extra-profit for private developers and a source of great corruption among the high-level public authorities. Consequently, such a relationship has negative effects on socio-spatial reality. The paper illustrates how a large-scale unitary project – the Belgrade Waterfront project – jeopardizes the public participation through: the misuse of legal procedures and spatial planning instruments, neglect of private property rights, and simulation of public debate. The conditions enabling democratic social, political and professional environment as a backbone for citizen involvement in public issues are briefly indicated in conclusion.
In the past five years, several critical commentaries have been published about the state of the art in research and theory on post-socialist cities. Besides overviewing and generalizing the findings of previous studies, authors have identified several weak points in this field. This paper attempts to echo this body of work through reflecting on one simple, yet crucial question that has emerged in some of the contributions. This question is what the post-socialist city actually stands for in urban research. The paper discusses the variety of meanings that this concept has acquired in academic literature and in scholars' attempts to explain the characteristic development of cities in former socialist countries since the 1990s. It argues that besides explicit definitions, different implicit imageries of the post-socialist city have appeared in urban research. It has been presented as a passive structure moulded by the events in the political and economic sphere, as a specific place creatively responding to local and translocal processes, and as a place of innovation. The last post-socialist-city-imagery partly responds to impulses coming recently from international urban theory, especially from the calls for a critical rethinking of the hierarchies reproduced in and through theoretical concepts (Robinson 2006; McFarlane 2010). I argue that we are currently witnessing a shift in the way the concept is being used. This brings new stimuli, topics, and also challenges to this field of research.
A Path Dependent Process? This article aims at finding a theoretical and empirical explanation for the particular housing privatisation approach applied in the Czech Republic. The explanation pays special attention to inequalities in owner-occupied housing accessibility created by housing privatisation. In order to explain the process of housing privatisation, the article discusses theories of social change (transition, transformation and path dependence). The following qualitative empirical analysis of alternative theoretical explanations consists of thirteen semi-structured interviews with politicians, state officials, municipal experts and local citizen movements. In addition, the data from the interviews is commented with the use of data from public opinion about housing policy. In the conclusion, the author critically evaluates the usefulness of presented theories (especially path dependence) and states that the privatisation process should be explained as a transformation rather than a transition, with a specific role played by ideology. The analysis led to a conclusion that the consequences were unseen given the "ad-hoc" feature of policy decisions.
Over 180 articles concerning urban geography aspects of European post-socialist cities and their near hinterland, published between 1990-2012 in international journals, were selected for the analysis in this paper. Statistics of articles by journals, analysed cities (and their countries) and authors proves the preponderance of research on post-socialist Central European capitals, especially Berlin, Prague and Budapest, followed by Leipzig and Łódź, as well as Moscow and Tallinn. It also proves that the number of domestic authors and those who moved from post-socialist Europe to Western universities gradually increased, while the number of authors from the West decreased. The analysis of representations of article topics, their explanations and justifications were carried out in the second part of the paper. The most frequent article topics include 'social spatial structure of the city and its transformation', followed by 'urban planning and management in the city' and 'suburbanisation and urban sprawl in the near hinterland of the city'. A smaller number of articles refers to 'physical spatial structure of the city and its transformation', 'housing structure in urban neighbourhoods in connection with changes in housing policy and market' and 'functional spatial structure of the city and its transformation'. Indexes of the articles are part of this paper. © 2013 Nicolaus Copernicus University Press. All rights reserved.
Waterfront areas are undergoing rapid transformation in many post-socialist cities. This
paper focuses on the uneven access to the waterfront in post-socialist Bratislava. We use the
bluefi eld concept of Pinch, P. and Munt, I. (2002). The goal of the paper is to investigate the
mechanisms and key forces of waterfront transformation in post-socialist Bratislava in the
context of institutional practices, where the role of individual stakeholders and planning are
critically evaluated. The limited capacity of post-socialist institutions to mediate and respond
to the dynamically increasing demand to waterfronts is highlighted. In the paper two case
study areas are investigated with sharply diff erent conditions. In the case of Karlova Ves
cove contradictions between the use value and exchange value is demonstrated, leading
to a sharp struggle among potential users. The transformation of the second chosen area,
Jarovce river branch, demonstrates a power invasion in the area and the illegal privatisation
of public areas by ‘bett er off ’ people. The comparison of transformations of these two
localities in a relatively similar time frame, provides a picture about the uneven struggle
for access. Both discussed examples draw att ention to persisting institutional adaptation
and the fragile de facto position of the municipality in urban development.
This paper serves to offer an exploration of the everyday geographies of transnational elites (TNEs) living and working in Prague, Czech Republic. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu regarding the existence of multiple forms of capital, the author suggests that by reconsidering the role of place in understandings of cultural capital, and the links and interactions between social and cultural capital, original insights concerning the everyday lives of spatially dislocated individuals can be arrived at. Through a combination of in‐depth interviews and secondary data, the spatio‐temporal development of everyday social practices is investigated, paying particular attention to the interactions and social groups that TNEs are embroiled within. The qualitative analysis is embedded within a discussion of the economic and social changes that have occurred in Prague since 1993 in order that the historical specificities relevant to the growth of a significant TNE community in Prague are appreciated.
Economic geographers have neglected the international activities of workers and working class organizations. Worker invisibility has been particularly evident in explanations of the geography of foreign direct investment. Yet for over a century workers have built international labor organizations which have shaped economic and political geographies. This paper examines an international campaign waged on behalf of some 1,700 members of United Steelworkers of America Local 5668 who were locked out of an aluminum smelter in Ravenswood, West Virginia on expiration of their contract in November 1990. The lockout was part of a company plan to break the local union and operate the smelter with a non-union work force. The paper analyzes how Local 5668 and its supporters built a global solidarity network which successfully forced a multibillion-dollar transnational metals trading corporation to reinstate the locked out union workers and sign a new contract. As the paper shows, workers clearly make economic geographies through their actions. Economic geographers should pay greater empirical and theoretical attention to this fact.
The article deals with the development of the housing market and its influence on the development of social inequalities in the post-communist Czech Republic. It originated within the framework of the project 'The Housing Market, its Regional Differentiation and Social Circumstances', sponsored by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic. The different position of households in the housing market is understood not only as a consequence of social inequalities but also as an important source of them. The paper identifies two basic features of housing market development that have profoundly influenced social inequalities in the Czech Republic in the 1990s: the large and rapid increase of regional differences in market prices, and the division of the housing market into several sectors operating under different legal and financial conditions. Special attention is paid to the situation of households renting at market prices and the consequences of the privatisation of municipal houses.
In recent decades, and especially since the late 1970s, the industry and industrial areas of Western cities have undergone considerable restructuring. In east European cities, however, these changes began later and accelerated only after 1989, when radical political change permitted economic and social reforms. This study aims to examine the most important trends in the restructuring of industrial areas in Budapest. In particular, the study considers: how industrial restructuring affected the spatial structure of industry, the urban space and land use and, whether and to what extent these changes are similar to or different from processes in western and other east European cities.
This paper analyses processes which transform the socio-spatial pattern of post-communist Prague and describes major changes in the city's social geography. It begins with a brief introduction about the socio-spatial pattern of a socialist city and a discussion of methods and concepts of investigation of processes of socio-spatial change in contemporary Prague. Growing income inequalities and transformations in the housing system are examined as the main underlying causes of growing socio-spatial disparities. In the section concerning the mechanism of socio-spatial differentiation, attention is focused on the role of social mobility, migration, housing renovation and new housing construction. The conclusions summarise major changes in the social geography of post-communist Prague and discuss implications of central and local government policies for the growth in socio-spatial disparities.
The article overviews the most important changes in the internal urban structure of Prague since 1989. Post-communist urban
development has been influenced by government-directed reforms of political and economic system, internationalisation and
globalisation, public policies favouring unregulated market development, economic restructuring in terms of deindustrialisation
and growth of producer services, and increasing social differentiation. The three most transparent processes of urban change
in Prague have been (1) commercialisation of the historical core; (2) revitalisation of some inner city neighbourhoods; and
(3) residential and commercial suburbanisation in the outer city.
The article provides the comparison of state housing policies in six selected Central and Eastern European countries. The description of the basic elements of policy approaches is followed by an analysis of both the efficiency and effectiveness of new supply- and demand-side subsidies. For this purpose the author set particular criteria allowing evaluation of subsidies. According to the results the most effective/efficient subsidies were implemented where general policy orientated towards the rental model was combined with decentralization/deregulation in the rental sector. The worst results appeared in countries where the same orientation of policy was not accompanied by decentralization/deregulation of rental housing. The factor of housing shortage may also influence the level of efficiency and effectiveness of public subsidies.
An ultra-secretive club dominates the murky world of independent global oil trading. The members' mentor: Onetime billionaire fugitive Marc Rich. They're in the spotlight for possible involvement in the Oil-For-Food scandal, and their activities are on the rise in some of the world's most unsavory spots.
Based on theoretical approaches towards housing market transition in post-socialist countries, the article analyses change and persistency in the Czech housing sector in the 1990s. The main focus is on housing policies, privatisation strategies, the segmentation of the market, old and new ownership structures and the relationship between demand and supply. It is argued that despite the public perception of the country as belonging to the rental model, profound changes are under way, so that the housing sector is moving closer to the dualist model (Kemeny) where public housing is marginalised and owner-occupancy becomes widespread.
First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Six month ago, it was exactly ten years since the Velvet Revolution started in Prague with Police brutal action against peacefully marching students. That was the commencement of a process of essential political and social changes in former Czechoslovakia. Since the time when hundreds of thousands of Prague citizens on the Wenceslas Square tolled the end of communist regime by ringing keys in their lifted hands, many things have changed in the world around us and in Prague itself. The global political and economic order has changed and after the break up of the communist block, a number of new democratic countries with market economies were established in Europe. The internationalisation of economic activities took place, new technologies were developed and the access to information has been improved with an unprecedented speed. In view of the continuing devastation of nature and the depletion of resources, an internationally shared necessity has been established to increase the responsibility of our generation to preserve the natural resources and the environment for future generations and it is expressed in the principles of sustainable development. In the Czech Republic and its capital Prague, the political system, the administration of the state and city and the local government have completely changed, as well as ownership relations. The market economy has emerged, modifying the social structure and lifestyle of Prague's population. Under the influence of these changes, the picture of the city is changing quickly. At attractive locations, new office and commercial buildings, hotels and shopping centres are growing; old shops and restaurants reappeared in the downtown, plenty of new were opened. The world has rediscovered Prague after a half-century of isolation and the city is flooded with a wave of tourists admiring Prague's historical monuments and its unique atmosphere. Prague has a good rating, a very low level of unemployment and attracts not only businessmen and investors but also dynamic young people from East and West alike. It is an interesting partner for all who wish to develop their activities in a city of extraordinary beauty, capable and educated population and new opportunities.
This article analyses the efforts to regenerate the centrally located but underdeveloped waterfront of Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, into an area of new offices, tourist services and up-market housing. The objectives of this article are twofold. First, it provides a case study of Tallinn waterfront revitalisation, focusing on the role of local governance in that project. Second, it examines the similarities and differences between Tallinn and the cases hitherto examined in the urban regeneration literature. I argue that, owing particularly to the fragmented and unstable institutional setting that is among the central components of post-socialist transformations, the waterfront regeneration process in Tallinn differs considerably from Western examples. Thus, the concept of entrepreneurial urban governance as a local coalition or partnership actively promoting local economic development, extensively used in Western contexts, has a limited applicability to Tallinn. I suggest that in order to improve our understanding of urban regeneration and local governance in Eastern Europe, research must incorporate the specific post-socialist context of urban development. In emphasising the specificity of this context, I do not wish to deny a diversity of experiences and circumstances among both Western and post-socialist cities, nor to imply a trite analytical separation of 'the West' and 'the East', but to argue for a sustained and in-depth engagement with post-socialist transformations. The article thus contributes to studies critically interrogating the ways in which we conceptualise the varied institutional and economic settings of urban regeneration and governance.
Based on theoretical approaches towards housing market transition in post-socialist countries, the article analyses change and persistency in the Czech housing sector in the 1990s. The main focus is on housing policies, privatisation strategies, the segmentation of the market, old and new ownership structures and the relationship between demand and supply. It is argued that despite the public perception of the country as belonging to the rental model, profound changes are under way, so that the housing sector is moving closer to the dualist model (Kemeny) where public housing is marginalised and owner-occupancy becomes widespread.
Over the past decade, Czech society has been bombarded with reporting on a variety of corruption scandals. The most prominent example is tunelování [tunneling], a uniquely Czech form of large-scale corruption rooted in privatization and post-socialist economic reforms. Since it first appeared in print some time in 1996, tunelování has become a staple of the Czech media and public discourses. Its ubiquity makes it a useful lens through which to explore many significant issues in post-socialist Czech society: tensions over the meanings of justice, morality, emergent socioeconomic differences, national identity and international reputation. This article explores the workings of tunelování and suggests the ways these discourses gain meaning within the specific context of the Czech transition.
This paper is concerned with three levels of urban system changes; changes in the intra-urban structure of cities after the collapse of the communist regimes; changes in the national or state urban systems, i.e. inter-urban systems; and changes in the international system of capital cities in central Europe. The restoration of the land market and the removal of rent controls will lead to socially polarised neighbourhoods and new retail patterns. The reintroduction of market economies will convert the socialist policy of even development into one of increased concentration on growth centres within deindustrialisation in which national capitals will play a greater role. Lastly, at the international level national capitals will hierarchicise as in pre-1914 years and new dynamic frontier zones may arise.
This paper critically evaluates the changes in the housing system and housing policies of the Czech Republic after 1989. The dismantling of the old socialist housing system, part of a more general transformation of Czech society, is shown to have been guided in the first instance by the belief that the introduction of a market model would create a balanced housing economy. The subsequent failure of this approach has led to the adoption of more pragmatic housing policies which have been developed in conjunction with continued efforts to establish a housing finance system. The paper concludes that the housing needs of low-income households require the introduction of new forms of affordable social housing.
Gated communities represent an urban phenomenon that is spreading all over the world. This paper presents evidence of what the literature says about the link between gated communities and urban social segregation, showing that the development of gated communities contributes to segregationist tendencies in the city. It suggests the use of structuration theory as a theoretical framework to study the link between gated communities and segregation. A case study from an intermediate city in Argentina is presented. The paper provides the perceptions and opinions of the residents of the gated community as well as the outside community and shows that this segregationist process has two sides and that both groups of people feel segregated and discriminated against. Therefore, urban social segregation is addressed in relation to gated communities, considering the opinions and perceptions of the people living there as well as in the surrounding community, to answer the main question of the paper: who segregates whom?
This paper describes the recent changes in housing in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. It focuses on the three main restructuring processes, restitution, privatisation and rent deregulation. The outcome of these processes is analysed in the light of so‐called ‘gap theory’ as developed by Neil Smith, Eric Clark and others. This theory is subjected to some minor adaptations and extensions for the sake of a better understanding of the specific Prague context. Moreover, the contemporary trends are more or less speculatively extrapolated into the future, in order to draw attention to the challenges for the housing sector in transforming a post‐Communist capital.
This article attempts to identify some trends in the recent urban restructuring of the city of Prague within the framework of the rent gap theory. As the contemporary development is considerably influenced by structures inherited from the past, this article starts with a brief outline of the development in Prague's city structure. Basic features of socialist housing policy and its impact on the development of Prague's social-ecological structure are discussed. An introduction to the basic steps of economic reform related to the urban environment is given as a background to hypothesis on the role of rent gaps in the inner-city restructuring process. Particularities of the application of the rent gap theory in the context of the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy are stressed, and the role of a specific force, namely, functional gaps, is outlined. Some implications of rent gap theory for the urban restructuring of Prague are outlined. and the social aspects of contemporary development are stressed.
Privatization and its MeaningsSoviet Property RightsSoviet and Western Property Rights ComparedThe Transition from Soviet Property RightsThe Legislative History of Privatization: A Generalized ModelSummary and InterpretationNotes
The restitution of private property has been a widespread and controversial part of the post-socialist transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, raising issues about social justice and the responsibilities of national governments for the actions of their predecessors. This paper reviews the implementation of the restitution process in the countries of the region and assesses the impact on the social and economic landscape. The policy has been most extensive in Germany and most controversial in Poland, and the impacts in these two countries are considered in detail. The results show that everywhere restitution has resulted in winners and losers, with some claimants having long-lost property returned, but too often at the cost of residents losing their homes. However, an important benefit, notably in Germany's New Bundesländer, has been the introduction of much-needed new investment into the urban fabric of towns and cities, although the landscape impacts elsewhere have been less significant. Nevertheless, throughout Central and Eastern Europe restitution policies have helped governments to come to terms with a difficult aspect of the past and move forward.
How does globalization unfold in the process of urban development? Rather than examine the impact of globalization on the city as if the former were independent of and superimposed on the latter, this paper aims to address how globalization can be imagined, pursued and exploited in the process of local growth. Through examining the emergence of Western architectural motifs in a late socialist capital, Beijing, it is shown that transplanting cityscapes is a conscious action by developers to exploit globalization and thereby overcome the constraints of local markets. By associating themselves with globalization, the development elite hope to sell the vision of the good life in the era of globalization.
An “institutional trap” is a sequence of misplaced regulatory steps that have increased the costs of institutional transformation to the level at which inefficient structures can remain stable, despite changes in the external economic environment. This is a common occurrence in Central and Eastern Europe because of the path-dependent nature of the postsocialist transformation process. This article examines the organizational and territorial transformations of housing, utility, and social welfare policies in the Czech Republic through a comparative analysis of institutional power geometries and household expenditures at the national scale. The results indicate that the Czech Republic is facing an institutional trap in the restructuring of its rent control and social welfare policies. The trap operates within three nested circuits: the power geometries of postsocialist reforms, the geographies of housing prices and social welfare, and the consumption patterns of disadvantaged households. The lock-in created by the trap can be resolved only through carefully targeted and synchronized social support and housing investment programs, parallel to rent liberalization. This article argues for comprehensive, rather than partial, solutions to the institutional trap and emphasizes the need for a deeper understanding of the relationships among institutions, space, and inequality.
Recent theoretical and empirical work in economic geography has experienced what might be termed a ‘relational turn’ that focuses primarily on the ways in which socio-spatial relations of economic actors are intertwined with processes of economic change at various geographical scales. This phenomenon begs the questions of whether the ‘relational turn’ is simply an explicit reworking of what might be an undercurrent in economic geography during the late 1970s and the 1980s, and whether this ‘turn’ offers substantial advancement in our theory and practice. In this paper, I aim to evaluate critically the nature and emergence of this relational economic geography by revisiting its antecedents and conceptual frameworks. This evaluation opens up some significant conceptual issues that are further reworked in this paper. In particular, I argue that much of the work in this ‘relational turn’ is relational only in a thematic sense, focusing on various themes of socio-spatial relations without theorizing sufficiently the nature of relationality and its manifestation through power relations and actor-specific practice. This paper thus illuminates the nature of relationality and the multiple ways through which power works itself out in ‘relational geometries’, defined as the spatial configurations of heterogeneous power relations. As a preliminary attempt, I first conceptualize different forms of power in such relational geometries and their causal effects in producing concrete/spatial outcomes. I then show how this relational view can offer an alternative understanding of a major research concern in contemporary economic geography – regional development.
This paper seeks to build on ongoing work in east central Europe and the former Soviet Union—in geography and beyond—to think through the conceptualisation of post-socialism. The rationale for this is threefold. Firstly, we see a need to understand post-socialist conditions as they are lived and experienced by those in the region. Secondly, we seek to challenge the persistent tendency to marginalise the experiences of the non-western world in a discourse of globalisation and universalisation. Thirdly, we identify a need to ask how the conditions of post-socialism reshape our theorising more widely. Centring our analysis on history, geography and difference, we review a wide range of perspectives on the socialist and post-socialist, but argue for a strategic essentialism that recognises post-socialist difference without eclipsing differences. In outlining how we might understand history, geography and difference in post-socialism, we draw on key theorisations from post-colonialism (such as the articulation of the post- with the pre-, the relationship to the west, the rethinking of histories/categories, the end of the post) and outline post-socialisms that are partial and not always explanatory but nevertheless important.
Over the past few decades many urban leaders have searched for an appropriate policy response to tackle urban decay. Various kinds of flagship projects emerged in many cities as the products of a property-led approach to the regeneration strategies adopted by local governments in North American and European cities. It was expected that the creation of high-profile milieux would launch chain reactions which would eventually lead to the regeneration of declining neighbourhoods.
The focus of this study lies in the anatomy of physical transformation in an inner city neighbourhood within the context of post-socialist transition. In particular, the paper discusses the flagship role of the Golden Angel commercial centre in the physical upgrading of the Smíchov district in Prague. The case study contributes to the understanding of complex circumstances and mechanisms of revitalization in the post-socialist inner city. The empirical material is based on field observations, expert opinions and existing documents.
The paper shows that a high-profile project can be one of the driving forces in physical revitalization through the provision of symbolic power, credibility and appeal to a declining neighbourhood. At the same time, it is emphasize that physical transformation is a multi-conditional and context-related process rather than an automatic and straightforward outcome of flagship developments. Successful revitalization depends on a favourable constellation of various factors. On the local level, the key factors include the development potential of the location, the attitude of the local authorities and the commitment of all involved actors.
Changing the property rights arrangements to land and buildings is a fundamental step in the transformation process underway in Eastern and Central Europe and elsewhere. The concept of property hinges on the choice of property conventions adopted by each society. Defining what property means is a complex and controversial task, especially when the scope of change in transition countries is so dramatic. Restitution is often a first step in acknowledging a latent property rights paradigm in these nations. Since property rights form the foundation of how and why economies function, it is important to identify the theoretical and empirical evidence relating property rules to economic outcomes. In this paper, we investigate why restitution is implemented in some countries but not in others. Further, if restitution is adopted, how is it implemented? We speculate that the choice of restitution as a property institution may be a proxy for the development of future institutions.
This paper, using survey data collected in Budapest, Kraków, Prague and Warsaw, examines how people have reacted to certain
aspects of the transition to a market orientated economy in Central and Eastern Europe. It shows, by social class and level
of education, which groups are now more likely to be working in the state and private sectors and proceeds to an examination
of the impact of privatisation on the everyday life of households and families as the state's role in providing essential
services has been reduced. Housing tenure is highlighted and it is reported that the rate of privatisation of housing in Budapest
has proceeded much faster than in Kraków, Prague or Warsaw. Older people are much more likely to be owner occupiers than the
young, as are entrepreneurs and upper white collar employees. The paper also examines the impact of four types of privatisation
on households and concludes that in Budapest, except for housing, the impact has been slight, in Prague many claim to have
participated in large privatisation through the voucher scheme while in Kraków and Warsaw small privatisation appears to have
had the greatest impact.
The central question addressed in this paper is whether both thesocial and private rented sectors in Central and Eastern Europeancountries are based on robust institutions or constitute a no man''sland. The latter case is a position a landlord tries to avoid andpublic authorities try to abandon by promoting home-ownership.As we argue in this paper, during the transformation of economic and housing policy in Central and Eastern Europe,the perception of the social rental sector as a no man''s landis not far from the truth. The same applies for private renting,which has the reputation of being an extension of the owner-occupiedsector. A truly professional private rented sector is still lackingin Central and Eastern Europe. National and local governments try to get rid of rented dwellings by promoting owner-occupation.If they want to prevent the rented sectors from remaining orbecoming a no man''s land, they have to create regulations andinstitutions like those in West European countries to supportboth social and commercial rented housing.
This study examines residential house price trends in the East European economies. The data are described and evaluated in terms of their quality and reliability; both official data from national statistical offices and that compiled by real estate companies are used. Current prices are evaluated in terms of the economic fundamentals in the region including GDP growth rates, interest rates, rental prices, alternative asset prices, and the availability of mortgages. The role of foreign currency mortgages is given special treatment given their importance in a number of countries and the vulnerabilities they introduce. For some of the markets a more detailed description of price trends by region or type of property is provided. Comparisons with western markets are made where appropriate. Generally it is concluded that price increases have been quite significant but any over appreciation is difficult to evaluate given the very positive changes in the economic fundamentals. In addition to price trends, the implications of the changing institutional structure of these mortgage markets are explained along with the implications of the housing market developments for consumer spending, fiscal and monetary policy. The possibility of a housing bubble and bust is examined along with its implications for the economy; policy options to minimize this likelihood and its consequences are also explored with due consideration of the limitations on macroeconomic policy options given the constraints imposed by euro accession in a number of the countries.
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