11th International Urban Geographies of Post-Communist States Conference (CATference) took place in Tirana, 22–25 September 2025. The theme of this year’s edition was: Cities after Transition: Innovative, inclusive, informal?
As usual, several members of our team attended the conference. The conference provided an excellent opportunity to meet not only researchers from other countries, but also several researchers from other Czech universities and research institutions (e.g., from Brno and Ostrava).
The conference again included a field trip. As part of this, the participants saw Tirana’s city spread out into the countryside and then travelled around the mountains on a boat trip on Lake Koman. They also visited small towns that used to be new towns in communist times, such as Fierza, Reps and Rubik, as well as the cities Prizren and Kukës. They spent the night in Valbona Valley, then visited Kosovo quickly before going back to Albania.
What presentations did our team give at the conference?
- New socio-spatial differentiation finally comes: Mapping of segregation in Prague Metropolitan Area 2001–2011–2021 (Martin Šimon, Martin Ouředníček)
- At the Edge: Migration and Peripheralization in Czechia’s Westernmost Region (Adam Klsák, Jiří-Jakub Zévl, Jiří Nemeškal)
- Mapping gentrification in Prague inner city neighbourhoods: a quantitative analysis (Martin Ouředníček, Adela Petrović)
- Housing Choices of Young Families: Housing Estate, Inner-City Neighbourhood, or Both? (Petra Špačková, Niloufar Ghafouriazar)