Twenty years after socialism: the transformation of Prague´s inner structure

OUŘEDNÍČEK, M., TEMELOVÁ, J. (2009): Twenty years after socialism: the transformation of Prague´s inner structure. Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Sociologia, 54, č. 1, s. 9-30.

The cities of Central and East Europe have by now passed through 20 years of democracy and market economy. The new political, economic and societal climate brought a revival of urban processes which had been interrupted by forty years of socialism. The article discusses the relevancy of the post-socialist city concept. We search for specific aspects of development of cities influenced by socialism taking the example of urban processes, which have been changing the inner spatial structure of Prague. Globalization, new technology and new forms of work and mobility have similar impacts on urban development on both sides of the former Iron Curtain. However we argue that other aspects, such as the inherited physical and social structure of the socialist city as well as the institutional context of post-socialism, have resulted in a specific form of urban processes, at least during the transformation era, in the majority of European post-socialist countries. Although similar key urban processes are forming the spatial patterns of post-socialist and western cities, they often have different causes, dynamics and consequences in the two contexts.