Urban Change and Urban Development Strategies in Central East Europe: A Selective Assessment of Events Since 1989

Abstract

This introductory article to the present collection outlines a comparative research perspective that focuses on processes of post‐socialist urban transformation and strategies of urban regeneration in different cities of Central Eastern Europe. In particular, urban regeneration will be discussed within the context of post‐socialist urban governance and processes of institutional change. This paper consists of three sections. The first deals with trends of socio‐spatial change, including “shrinkage”, socio‐economic polarization, industrial restructuring and simultaneous tends of gentrification and “downgrading” within inner city neighbourhoods. Discussion then follows with an overview of urban development challenges associated with these socio‐spatial changes. We will also describe at length conceptual approaches of strategic planning as a form of governance that addresses processes of urban decline. Critical sources of debate that stem for the experiences of West European cities will be summarized and their relevance to East German and Central European contexts discussed. The last part of the essay provides brief overviews of the six essays featured in this special issue of European Planning Studies, indicating how they address questions of urban regeneration and the strategic management of urban development processes.

Notes

See Jon Pierre's (2005) comparative characterization of governance models.

Urban regeneration processes are reverse developments within urban shrinkage. In urban research we are frequently confronted by a plethora of “re”‐words that include, among others: revival, renewal, renaissance, reurbanization, revitalization, re‐development and resurgence. It can be rather difficult to separate different understandings of these terms as they are generally appropriated locally under specific contextual circumstances. For the sake of this particular discussion, we want to distinguish “regeneration” from three other main terms: reurbanization, restructuring and revitalization. The classic theory of “reurbanization” focus on potential trends of back‐migration into cities after a period of suburbanization (Van den Berg, 1982). In this demographic theory, cities are seen exclusively as locations for housing. The socio‐economic factor of employment growth or decline is not considered. In contrast, many economic or geographical theories use the term restructuring to describe the structural change of cities and the shift from industrial to post‐industrial, service‐ and knowledge‐based economy (Peck & Ward, 2002). From the more physical view of urban planning, the terms revitalization and, alternatively, “renewal” are used to describe the emergence of new uses of derelict land and vacant buildings (Couch, 1990). The resurgence of cities is defined in a recent demographic report as a period of population decline followed by a period of absolute population growth (Turok & Mykhnenko, 2006, p. 15).