Rhythmanalysis and reproduction of space in a brownfield regeneration process: the case of Ústí nad Orlicí, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT

The article deals with the regeneration of a former textile factory in the Czech Republic, focusing on different types of actors and their distinctive rhythmicity. At least three types of actors with a distinct relation to time can be identified in the regeneration process: NGOs, municipal authorities, and private companies. NGOs tend to think with a long-term scope, municipal authorities have a four-year election period, and private companies plan time in months. The authors explore the question: how is the different rhythmicity of individual actors reflected in the process of negotiating brownfield regeneration in Ústí nad Orlicí, a small Czech town located outside metropolitan areas and development axes? We use an interpretive framework derived from Lefebvre’s The Production of Space and Rhythmanalysis and analyze in-depth interviews with key actors of regeneration. At a general level, interconnections of the politics of time and the politics of space are explored. One of the main findings is that actors use specific combinations of time and space – in the form of slowing-down and speeding-up tools – in regeneration negotiations.

KEYWORDS:

• Brownfields
• regeneration
• actors’ perspectives
• rhythmanalysis
• production of space
• politics of timespace

Funding

This work was supported by the Grantová Agentura Ceské Republiky/Czech Science Foundation [Geography of Recycling Urban Space, grant number 17-26934S].

Acknowledgement

The authors are very thankful for the support from the Czech Science Foundation. We also kindly thank our respondents from the Ústí nad Orlicí case study. Last but not least, we are grateful to the two anonymous referees of the journal.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. The establishment of the company is officially dated from 1844, in 1888 the company had 3000 mechanical states and numbered 2,600 textile workers from five surrounding towns. The company engaged in the production of cotton fabrics and yarns, flannel, poplin and pajamas and employed at least one person from each family in the town at the time of its greatest boom. Perla was privatized in the 1990s, similar to most other national companies in the Czech Republic. Perla finished its production in 2009 and released all of its last 150 employees. Since 2009, Perla 01 has been abandoned and meets all brownfield definition features.

2. This means that one of the key stakeholders was interviewed twice. This is one senior city representative, nicknamed “Premysl”, who was interviewed again two years later.

3. The school year in elementary and high schools in the Czech Republic is divided into 10 months of teaching and 2 months of summer holidays.

4. Municipalities in the Czech Republic both carry out agendas delegated by the state and also create their own political agendas (Osman et al. 2020).