scholarly journals The Kidnapping of Wroclaw’s Dwarves

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 743-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hana Cervinkova
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Symbolic Politics ◽  
Historical Legacy ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Promotional Strategy ◽  
Critical Action ◽  
Neoliberal Restructuring ◽  
The City

In this paper, I draw on the approach to the study of “actually existing liberalisms” with an example from contemporary urban east-central Europe. I focus on the city of Wroclaw, a success story of Poland’s economic urban transformation, and consider the symbolic politics embodied in the city’s promotional strategy as a tool of ongoing neoliberal restructuring. I argue that an important feature of the city’s symbolic politics is the commodification and fetishization of dwarves, the historical symbols of an antitotalitarian movement that used the image of a dwarf as a means for people’s deliberative and performative action that helped lay foundations for democracy. Today, the historical legacy of dwarves as a means of associational and performative action has been disguised in the city’s promotional strategy, which has turned dwarves into commodities that help sell the city on the global neoliberal market of intercity competition. I call this process of contemporary fetishization, the kidnapping of Wroclaw’s dwarves. Kidnapping refers to the process whereby the symbol’s meaning and historical legacy is turned into a commodity, disempowering it by depriving it of its meaning for social action. At the conclusion of my paper, I offer a critical ethnographic and pedagogical perspective focused on symbolic politics as a venue for understanding and inspiring critical action in the context of these urban neoliberal developments.

scholarly journals A kelet-közép-európai városrégiók átalakulása a posztfordi korban – elméleti alapok

2021 ◽  
Vol 145 (4) ◽  
pp. 354-368
Keyword(s):  
Urban Sprawl ◽  
Urban Regeneration ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Urban Region ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The City

The post-Fordist and post-socialist transition had a significant impact on the development of cities in East Central Europe. One of the most spectacular processes in the development of postsocialist cities has been the transformation of the inner areas and outskirts of the urban regions. In the inner areas, after the regime change, urban regeneration gained momentum and thanks to the prevailing neoliberal urban policies almost without exception triggered gentrification processes in the neighbourhoods. Outside the administrative boundaries of the city, in the agglomeration zone and in the more remote areas of the urban region, suburbanisation and urban sprawl have determined the development process. As a consequence, the previously compact urban fabric of post-socialist cities slowly disintegrated and cities became more and more fragmented. The aim of this theoretical study is to explore the most important processes of urban transformation in the post-Fordist era. We briefly introduce the theoretical background of metropoliszation, suburbanization and urban sprawl, as well as the main characteristics of commuting and land use. The role of urban regeneration and fragmentation in the urban fabric will be highlighted as well.

Urban Self-Identification in East Central Europe Before the Great War: the Case of Cracow

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 9-29
Author(s):  
Nathaniel D. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Great War ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Big City ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
Mass Circulation ◽  
The Great War ◽  
The City

AbstractAbstract: This article explores the development of urban and interurban identities in fln-de-siècle East Central Europe as alternative sources of identity that do not fit simply within standard national-historical narratives. The author focuses on Cracow as an example of this trend. Analyzing three popular illustrated newspapers from the city, he argues that thanks to popular press representations of the big city at home and abroad, as well as the experience of urban life itself, Cracovians began to develop distinct urban and interurban identities. The mass circulation press was a major vehicle in fostering and developing a shared sense of modem, urban identity among its readers. How were modem metropolitan identities created in East Central Europe in the decades before the Great War, and how were such identifications informed by tropes already in use elsewhere? In general, scholarship about East Central Europe for this period has focused on the question of nationalism and its relation to politics. Even in studies of urban centers, like Prague, Budapest, and Vienna, nationality issues have often had precedence.' This is not unwarranted, as national identification defined many of the terms of urban interaction in the ethnically diverse cities of the region. But what if strong urban and interurban identities also arose during this period, identities that overlapped with, and at times even supplanted, national ones? "Islands in a sea of rural, peasant settlements," the large cities of East Central Europe were qualitatively different from the landscape that surrounded them, as Ivan Berend has observed.2 It should come as no surprise that as their citizens became accustomed to life in the city, they recognized these differences. In their introduction to The City in Central Europe, Malcolm Gee, Tim Kirk, and Jill Steward

NIKOLAI TODOROV, Society, the City and Industry in the Balkans, 15th–19th Centuries (Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 1998).

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-142
Author(s):  
Isa Blumi
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Early Career ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The City

This collection of essays, the latest in a long list of collected works put together by Variorum's Studies in East–Central Europe, 1500–1900, is supposed to give the reader a broad range of Nikolai Todorov's lifetime work. Todorov's contribution to the field is not in doubt, although this collection hardly does justice to that contribution. The fourteen separate articles often overlap in theme, and on one occasion they almost reproduce the same article, as they span a period that reaches back to Todorov's early career in Bulgaria (1964–92). The essays somewhat misplace Todorov's importance to the field, as most of the language appropriated has become outdated with the collapse of the Bulgarian institutions that funded Todorov's research until 1989. I would like to think Todorov can survive the fall of historical materialism.

The City and the Knowledge in East Central Europe: Plea for a Stronger Tie-Up in Research

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-638
Author(s):  
Heidi Hein-Kircher
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
National Movements ◽  
Social Modernization ◽  
The City ◽  
East Central European

When detaching oneself from this picture that cities in East Central Europe were “outdated,” one is quick to recognize that cities there were emerging and became at least regional metropolises. Hence, the article assumes that their development and rise took place because of a productive and dynamic reciprocal relationship between knowledge transfer and urban as well as social modernization, which developed in a tight conjunction with rising national movements. Starting from an analysis of recent research on East Central European cities, the article introduces knowledge transfer as an important, broadening perspective on the cities there, because it focuses on main factors establishing a multilayered connection between knowledge transfer and urban development in the modern age.

REDISCOVERING LARGE SCALE HOUSING ESTATES IN POST SOCIALIST CITIES

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justina Muliuolytė
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Housing Shortage ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Rehabilitation Programs ◽  
Urban Problems ◽  
Post War ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
The City ◽  
Housing Estates

Large scale housing estates, once a dream of every family, now are facing serious physical and social decline. However comparison of the post war housing has showed that despite low physical quality neighbourhoods in the east-central Europe were much less deteriorated, then their western counterparts. On the other hand nowadays post socialist cities are experiencing loss of population, sprawl and shifts in the housing market. That changes position of the estates, which is rapidly decreasing. As soon as the housing shortage is eliminated, apartments in the estates go to the bottom of the market, segregation, urban problems and decline is triggered. To prevent the threat to happen it is necessary to start rehabilitation programs in early enough stage. However it is essential that regeneration policies are included in broader city plans and strategies, as that brings long lasting results, and is beneficial for the neighbourhood and for the city itself. The paper researches tools how to prevent large scale neighbourhood decline in post socialist cities, learning from western European regeneration policies. Santrauka Masinės statybos gyvenamųjų kompleksų tipologija nepasiteisino. Vakarų Europoje tokie kvartalai prarado poliarumą ir yra probleminės miesto vietos. Buvusiose Rytų bloko šalyse industrinės statybos rajonai yra mažiau degradavę ir išlieka gana populiarūs. Tačiau situacija keičiasi. Postsocialistiniai miestai išgyvena didelius urbanistinius pokyčius: gyventojų skaičius mažėja, miestiečiai keliasi į priemiesčius, išaugo automobilių naudojimas. Šie procesai daro įtaką mikrorajonų veidui bei jų padėčiai būsto rinkoje. Kvartalams gresia tokia pati degradacija, kokia įvyko Vakarų Europos miestuose: išnykus būstų trūkumui, butų kainos masinės statybos rajonuose krenta; čia įsikelia vargingiausi gyventojų sluoksniai; atsiranda socialinė atskirtis bei iš to kylančios problemos, tokios kaip nedarbas, nusikalstamumas, blogas rajono įvaizdis, kuris dar labiau blogina situaciją. Problemų dydis masinės statybos kompleksuose tiesiogiai priklauso nuo jų padėties būsto rinkoje (Tosics 2005). Kad išvengtume nuosmukio, yra labai svarbu pradėti taikyti ištisų kvartalų restruktūrizacijos strategijas ir išlaikyti kompleksus patrauklia gyvenamąja vieta net ir nesant būstų trūkumui. Tai būtų naudinga ir rajonui, ir visam miestui. Restruktūrizacijos strategijų galima pasimokyti iš Vakarų praktikos, kur jos pradėtos taikyti jau nuo XX a. 9 dešimtmečio. Šiame straipsnyje apžvelgiama renovacijos patirtis Vakarų Europos miestuose bei urbanistikos pamokos, kurias galėtų perimti postsocialistiniai miestai bei senstantys ir prarandantys populiarumą masinės statybos rajonai.

scholarly journals city and river in pre-industrial East-Central Europe. Case study: Wrocław

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Piekalski ◽  
Paweł Duma ◽  
Krzysztof Jaworski ◽  
Artur Boguszewicz
Keyword(s):  
Lowland River ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Lower Silesia ◽  
Main City ◽  
Hydrographic Network

The aim of the article is to assess the relationship between living conditions in the city and the natural environment determined by a large lowland river. This problem was examined via the example of Wrocław, the main city in Lower Silesia, which developed on the border of cultural and political zones. The natural hydrographic network and the scope of anthropogenic changes are presented. Also analysed are aspects of the land’s suitability for construction, water supply techniques for crafts and townspeople’s houses, drainage techniques, protection of street and squares surfaces against mud, and the use of water for defensive purposes. The chronological framework extends from the beginning of settlement to industrialisation and the introduction of modern water and sewage techniques in the 19th century.

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