The Post-Socialist City : Continuity and Change in Urban Space and Imagery

Urban planning under socialism cannot be envisaged without its ideological purport. Socialist ideas were realised in buildings, street ensembles and squares, in films, literature and the visual arts. This title examines how Eastern European cities are dominated by large industrial complexes and panel buildings.

For twenty years now, cities from Central Europe to Central Asia have seen revolutionary change. Following the collapse of socialism, their outward appearance, functional composition, and symbolic representation have been shattered and reassembled by new political forces and market economies. Yet, the legacy of socialist urban planning and imagination has neither just disappeared, nor did it come to coexist peacefully with the new. Rather, the story is one of conflict and hybridity, of replacement as well as of recodification. This volume explores such transformations from a variety of perspectives. Revealing a puzzling, heterogeneous vitality, the chapters contrast similarities with local specifics across half a hemisphere from Berlin to Astana. Authors include urban planners, architects, art and political historians, and literary theorists from across the region as well as from outside. Genres range from scholarly analysis to polemic essay, supported by rich visual material.