Author: Marie Horňáková

The final conference of the 4EU+ course “Urban Regulations and Political Memory” was held in Prague at the Faculty of Science on the 23^rd and 24^th of March 2023. Course „Urban Regulations and Political Memory: Towards understanding Spatio-Temporal aspects of Urban Development” (UNREAD) is one of the educational projects developed under Flagship 1 of the 4EU+ alliance. A team of historians, lawyers and geographers from University of Warsaw, University of Milan, and Charles University conducts this interdisciplinary course. The first edition started in October 2021 and was finalised in March 2022, while the second began in October 2022 and was completed in March 2023. The topics of this course are driving forces of urban changes, the development of smart cities and interdisciplinary methodologies of urban studies applied to cases in Czechia, Poland and Italy. The final conference was organized by the Faculty of Science, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development. Two members of our research team (Martin Ouředníček and Adel Petrović) together with master students of geography (Jakub Kraft and Daniel Bečvář) and the head of the Map Collection (Eva Novotná) prepared the whole two-days program. Students of the course presented their research project outcomes: suburbanisation, smart villages, social housing, spatial planning, urban green areas…These are some of the topics presented by students during two panels on the first day of the conference. On the second day, the main coordinator of the project dr. Karolina Wojciechowska led a panel discussion and asked the participants for feedback. The positive aspects pointed out that the course is interdisciplinary, interactive and international, providing hands-on knowledge and preparing students for not only academic but also professional careers. The students mentioned that meeting in person, not only at the end but also at the beginning of the course, would make the research and their engagement easier and smoother. Throughout the two days, the participants could enjoy a guided tour around the inner-city of Prague, visit the map collection of the Geographical Institute, and participate in workshops aimed at integration with colleagues from other universities and developing international contacts.

We would like to invite you to the March conference, which is the outcome of the interdisciplinary course of the same name, Urban Regulations and Political Memory.

• When: 23.-24.3.2023, Where: Faculty of Arts, Albertov 6, Leva Rýsovna

Detailed programme here.

Are you thinking of studying for a PhD? Are you interested in urban studies?

Come study with us!

We currently have 5 interesting topics listed in the areas of everyday mobility and commuting, migration processes, use of urban space, crime and segregation.

Topics and supervisors

Daily mobility and commuting within the Prague metropolitan region (Martin Ouředníček) The project is based on the main ideas of time-space geography, daily paths, rhythms, and commuting within the urban environment. As an alternative to traditional commuting data from population censuses, mobile phone data is employed together with questionnaires and qualitative methods of daily mobility pattern investigation. For the project, the mobile phone operator´s data is prepared. Potential research questions should be formulated as follows: (1) What are the typical spatial patterns of daily mobility within the metropolitan region? (2) How does the concentration of residents, daily users, and jobs change throughout the day? (3) What is the balance of centripetal and centrifugal processes within the metropolitan region? (4) What can we learn from the daily rhythms, and how would these outputs be used to plan different parts of metropolitan regions? And, (5) what novel methods can be employed in the analyses, visualisation, and modelling of daily patterns? Migration processes in Czechia (Martin Ouředníček) The main objective of the project is to describe and explain contemporary development of migration processes within the settlement system in Czechia. Till now, urbanisation and urban processes were investigated separately and for individual metropolitan regions. We can argue that gentrification, international migration, suburbanisation and counterurbanisation are interconnected processes which function as actions and reactions within the settlement system and are mutually dependent. While international migration and migration of young people are concentred more to the centres of large metropolitan areas, deconcentration processes as suburbanisation and counterurbanisation could be seen as reactions to these processes. The starting points for the theoretical basis of the proposed project would be theory of differential urbanisation and stages of urban development. The empirical analyses will first use data from migration database in the detail of Czech municipalities and then would be extended to selected case studies with more attention to qualitative research, mapping, and terrain work. Everyday life in a city: Conception, experience and use of urban space (Lucie Pospíšilová) The project is focused on unique conceptions, experiences and uses of urban spaces. Using qualitative research methods, the experience and spatial practices of women/children/people with disabilities in urban environment are studied and the theories and concepts of feminist geographies/children geographies or disability geography are used to understand the experience and practices. By studying unique experience in specific urban environment the existing theory can be also developed. The choice of experience as well as concrete focus of the thesis (e.g. material and discursive barriers and possibilities that shape an everyday life) can be discussed with the supervisor.  Geographies of crime and public policy (Martin Šimon) This research project provides an opportunity to explore and advance spatial criminology in Czechia. We know the crime clusters in time and space, therefore they can be targeted by place-based crime prevention strategies and policies. Traditional focus on spatial and temporal patterns of crime within cities has been increasingly linked to studies on police demand, public safety and prevention tools applied in urban space. Only recently, detailed data on crime became available for researchers and policy makers. The PhD project can use open data on crime provided by Czech police or detailed crime data with GPS coordinates, which are available to all cities and municipalities on request. Thus, pilot studies on crime prevention and field research experiments with local stakeholders are enabled. The research activities should be focused on a) criminological theory, b) crime data analysis, c) crime prevention praxis and evaluation or d) related case studies. Urban segregation of minority populations (Martin Šimon) Uneven distribution of social groups over space is a key characteristic of contemporary cities. Both position in social structure and residential location can have significant impact on daily life and life opportunities. Growth and diversification of minority population in Prague has been described, however, further insights into reproduction of segregation and complexities of segregation in daily life are needed. How do migrants look for housing? How are peer-networks developed? Do immigration experiences differ between generations and cohorts? Such research questions could be addressed for a selected minority population. Applicants are invited to identify a focus for their PhD within this area, preferably using mixed methods design and capitalising their language abilities. Theoretical framing could build on three main explanatory factors of residential segregation, which are (1) economic conditions, (2) preferences and (3) discrimination. The research project could benefit from register data on foreign population in Czechia and from previous surveys of minorities. You can find out more about the topics here, but feel free to contact the supervisors directly.

A paper focusing on housing estates’ trajectories was published. The authors of the paper are Kadi Kalm, Petra Špačková, Jan Sýkora and Ondřej Špaček.

The paper explores the trajectories of housing estates from 1989 to 2011 by examining neighbourhood transitions in Estonian and Czech cities based on socio-economic, demographic, and ethnic characteristics of their residents.

The authors use data from population censuses and clustering techniques to create typologies of housing estate neighbourhoods.

The results suggest that the main development trajectory of Estonian and Czech housing estates has been stability with neighbourhoods remaining in the same housing estate type and developing similarly as other urban neighbourhoods. This is mainly related to housing market specifics of post-socialist countries, and ageing being the main mechanisms of residential change of housing estates.

Other types of trajectories are differentiated along two lines: the position of the city within the settlement system and the location of heavy industry in the city during the socialist period, indicating persistent impact of socialist urban development for housing estates.

We have completed work on the critical catalogue Prague suburbs: the dynamics of social environment within the growing metropolis, which complements the finished exhibition and is one of the important outputs of the NAKI project of the same name. The full catalogue can be read on the project website. We are still waiting for the printed version. But the printer is already hard at work on it!

• The course is conducted by an interdisciplinary team of historians, lawyers, and geographers, and it’s organised by three universities: University of Warsaw, University of Milan, and Charles University.
• The course will be held online, except for the final stage, which will be held at Charles University, where the participants can meet the lecturers and students from other universities in person.
• The course is open to students of all levels. If you are interested in joining the course, please send a short CV and Motivation Letter to unread@wpia.uw.edu.pl.
• The deadline for sending the document is the 25th of September, 2022.

More information about the course, programme and how to apply:

• Information for students
• Course timetable

Five members of our team attended the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) Annual Conference. This year it was entitled „The struggle for the right to housing. The pressures of globalisation and affordability in cities today“.

Who was presenting and what about?

• From childhood to old age: Life-course differences and similarities in the perception of the residential environment (Frydrych, Horňáková, Sýkora)
• Revisiting residential satisfaction in a post-socialist city: the case of Prague, Czech Republic (Dilnoza Tasheva)
• Gentrification as rejuvenation of consumption, but also its population? (Adela Petrovic)

Jan Sýkora and Maria Horňáková have a new article in the journal Social & Cultural Geography. The article is titled ‘It is natural’: sustained place attachment of long-term residents in a gentrifying Prague neighbourhood. It was written together with Kirsten Visser and Gideon Bolt from Utrecht University. 

What is the paper about?

This paper examines how long-term residents of an inner-city neighbourhood in Prague undergoing residential and commercial gentrification have perceived and lived through its change. Specifically, it reveals how the ongoing changes influence residents’ place attachment. The paper relies upon qualitative methodology using semi-structured in-depth interviews with long-term inhabitants (>20 years).

What are the results and conclusions?

• Empirical findings point to a strong and stable place attachment, despite ambivalent attitudes towards recent changes related to gentrification.
• The effect of gentrification on place attachment appears to be relatively limited. Many residents acknowledge that gentrification has reversed the deterioration that characterised the neighbourhood in the past.
• Moreover, negatively perceived changes to the neighbourhood are often not attributed primarily to the gentrification process but understood as a natural part of residents’ own ageing, wider societal changes, and historical development of the neighbourhood.
• The article highlights the need to investigate the personal, spatial and temporal contexts to comprehend the complex effects of gentrification on long-term residents.

Where to read it?

You can read and download the paper here. 

We have a new book on the socio-spatial differentiation of Prague and the Central Bohemian Region! The book is one of the outputs of the project Prague suburbs: the dynamics of social environment within the growing metropolis, which was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic and ran from 2018 to 2021. The objectives of the project were to map contemporary changes in the social environment of the Czech suburbs and to test hypotheses about increasing ethnic heterogenization and the return of part of the suburban population back to the core cities. The book is in English and is entitled Prague and Central Bohemia: Current Population Processes and Socio-spatial Differentiation The editor of the book is Doc. RNDr. Martin Ouředníček Ph.D.

What is the book about?

The theme of socio-spatial differentiation has belonged to the core issues of social geography and urban studies for a long time. The general aim of the book is to describe and explain the current socio-spatial differentiation of Prague and the Central Bohemian Region and the processes that have influenced it during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The book offers its own theoretical perspective on the structuration of spatial patterns and the social environment, a general view of regional development, and the main socio-spatial processes of the period after transition. Maps are an important part of this volume and concentrate crucial information within most chapters. Apart from the static information described in the maps, the book offers a look at current population “processes”, as hinted at by the subtitle of the publication. The presentation and evaluation of “processes” require more dynamic forms of cartographic visualisation and new methods of investigation. Among them, new tools of segregation measurement, various approaches for the use of mobile phone data, and an innovative form of population forecast are presented in the book. The common thread connecting all chapters is a regional focus on Prague and the Central Bohemian Region and a quantitative approach to comparing spatial patterns and regional processes.

What chapters are in the book and who are the authors?

1. Prague and the Central Bohemia Region: Main Socio-Spatial Processes in the Period After Transition (Martin Ouředníček)
2. Methodological Approach: Concentric Zones of Prague and Typology of Municipalities in the Central Bohemian Region (Martin Ouředníček, Jiří Nemeškal)
3. Spatial Patterns of the Foreign Population in Prague and the Central Bohemian Region: The State 10 Years After the Financial Crisis (Adam Klsák, Ivana Křížková)
4. Migration and Residential Mobility of Foreign Citizens in Prague and the Central Bohemian Region (Ivana Křížková, Adam Klsák, Martin Šimon)
5. Residential Segregation in Prague and the Central Bohemian Region in 2012–2018: A Multiscalar Approach Using Individualised Neighbourhoods (Martin Šimon, Ivana Křížková, Adam Klsák)
6. Real Population and Daily Mobility in Prague and the Central Bohemian Region (Jiří Nemeškal, Martin Ouředníček, Lucie Pospíšilová, Pavel Frydrych)
7. The Dynamics of Age Structure and Primary School Network Development and Its Consequences for Municipalities Within the Central Bohemian Region (Jana Jíchová, Zuzana Kopecká)
8. Residential Mobility Within the Central Bohemian Suburbs (Nina Dvořáková, Marie Horňáková)
9. Demographic future of the Central Bohemian Region: A prognostic vision for the next three decades (Tomáš Kučera, Boris Burcin) 

The book was published by Karolinum Publishing House, where it is also available for purchase.