This book explores urban dynamics in Europe fifteen years after the fall of communism. The ‘urban mosaic’ of the title expresses the complexity and diversity of the processes and spatial outcomes in post-socialist cities. Emerging urban phenomena are illustrated with case studies, focusing on historical themes, cultural issues and the socialist legacy. Among the cities analyzed are Kazan, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Prague, Komarno, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia and Tirana.

This book focuses on the spatial transformations in the most dynamically evolving urban areas of post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. It links the restructuring of the built environment with the underlying processes and the forces of socio-economic reforms. The detailed accounts of the spatial transformations in a key moment of urban history in the region enhance our understanding of the linkages between society and space.

The vast territory from Asia to Eastern Europe that was part of or under the influence of the Soviet Union comprised cities, which have undergone profound changes in the last twenty years. The opening of borders combined with the affirmation of market dynamics, privatization and concentration of wealth, and the emergence of nationalist discourses have upset ways of life and value systems leaving deep marks on the urban landscape and organization of living space. These essays take an in-depth look at specific cases – Samarkand, Sarajevo, Berlin, Almaty, and others – to offer a complex picture of the transformations affecting the post-communist city.

Hauptbeschreibung This book looks at the consequences and implications of an emerging new way of local politics in Europe. With the term governance1/2, changes in the political and social constitution of cities are analysed. Based on theoretical and empirical studies by scholars from ten countries, different aspects of urban governance1/2 will be presented

This book presents cross-national insights into spatial fragmentation in post-socialist cities in Europe. Trying to rethink the heritage of the last 30 years of transformation and grasp current processes taking urban units of various categories as examples, the book exemplifies typical or unique causes of political, social and ethnic disintegration of cities in Central and Eastern Europe. Presenting spatial studies into different cases of conflict in a cross-national context, the authors apply concepts of contested and divided cities, urban geopolitics, cultural atavism, contested heritage, etc. The book is divided into four parts. The first part raises the issue of genesis, development and contemporary discrepancies of cities divided by political and state borders. The second part includes chapters which deal with the impact of ongoing geopolitical divisions, wars, and ideologies on the social and political tensions as well as their polarising effect on urban territory. The third part comprises reflections on controversial relations of ethnic and national culture with urban space. The fourth part deals with socio-economic transformation of post-socialist cities which went through transition of old patterns of spatial planning and attempts to establish more rational and justice spatial order.

Covering territory from Russia in the east to Germany and Austria in the west, The Routledge History of East Central Europe since 1700 explores the origins and evolution of modernity in this turbulent region. This book applies fresh critical approaches to major historical controversies and debates, expanding the study of a region that has experienced persistent and profound change and yet has long been dominated by narrowly nationalist interpretations. Written by an international team of contributors that reflects the increasing globalization and pluralism of East Central European studies, chapters discuss key themes such as economic development, the relationship between religion and ethnicity, the intersection between culture and imperial, national, wartime, and revolutionary political agendas, migration, women’s and gender history, ideologies and political movements, the legacy of communism, and the ways in which various states in East Central Europe deployed and were formed by the politics of memory and commemoration. This book uses new methodologies in order to fundamentally reshape perspectives on the development of East Central Europe over the past three centuries. Transnational and comparative in approach, this volume presents the latest research on the social, cultural, political and economic history of modern East Central Europe, providing an analytical and comprehensive overview for all students of this region.

Recent history has seen Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) cities undergoing several transitions. Their cities have developed under socialism (1945 – 1992), have suffered through the civil war during the 1990s, and during the last twenty years have been undergoing a slow and multifaceted transition to an indeterminate end point. Focusing on the post-socialist, postwar, and neoliberal transitions experienced in BiH, the book shows that planning systems deviated from control-oriented and top-down regulation to flexible approaches for more open for informal development. The book analyzes several levels of planning-related processes: the former Yugoslavia, BiH, the city of Mostar, and three urban zones (the Industrial Zone Bišće Polje, the City Zone Rondo, and the Historic District and the Old Town Zone) in order to offer insights into the new planning systems in the late phase of post-socialist transition.