Post-socialism and urban transition: Transforming the socialist city

Abstract

The paper investigates causal relationships and correlations between transitional reforms and various levels of urban restructuring that has taken place in the Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Numerous urban changes were not regarded as series of separate ?events? with a specific background in political, institutional, economic and/or social context of transition, but as a set of results which, in a radical and chaotic manner, deconstructed socialist and stimulated formation of the post-socialist city. The post-socialist city is treated as a temporary phenomenon that adapted to the rules and conditions of transferring from socialism to capitalism or as a socio-spatial manifestation of various transitional processes. The aim of the paper is to detect common influential factors of genesis of the post-socialist urban landscape.