Having a garden or being in the city? The trade-offs and strategies of young middle-class families in Prague

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, evolving residential preferences among young middle-class families have diversified spatial mobility patterns, challenging the traditional suburban inclination with the emergence of reurbanization tendencies. Our study employs the concept of life course and explores the decision-making process of housing relocation in a post-socialist city and how housing needs and preferences are confronted with what is affordable for young middle-class families. Through semi-structured interviews in the Prague Metropolitan Area, our findings reveal heterogeneous mobility responses to family transitions and housing market dynamics. A significant trade-off is identified between having a garden and residing in the city without a commute, highlighting variations in parental perceptions of an ideal childhood. Our research underscores distinctions in residential preferences and housing choices in post-socialist cities compared to Western counterparts, driven by factors such as privatism, unique perceptions of suitable housing for young families, and historical development influencing intergenerational transmission of residential preferences.

KEYWORDS:

• Housing choice
• middle-class families
• lifestyle
• postsocialist city
• life course

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Charles University Grant Agency under [1434218].

Notes on contributors

Marie Horňáková

Marie Horňáková is an academic at the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science, Charles University. She is a member of the Urban and Regional Laboratory (URRlab). She completed her PhD in 2023, where she studied residential mobility and preferences of young families in the Prague Metropolitan Area, which is also her main area of research interest. She has also participated in projects dealing with housing estates or gentrification and place attachment. Her articles have been published in journals such as Social & Cultural Geography, Journal of Housing and Built Environment, and Norwegian Journal of Geography.

Petra Špačková

Petra Špačková is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Geography and Regional Planning at the Charles University. She researches the development of post-socialist cities and focuses on neighborhood change (with special attention to socialist housing estates), residential mobility and migration, and gender differences in everyday mobility. Her work has also been published in Cities, Housing Studies, Journal of Maps, and Comparative Population Studies.