ABSTRACT
Social and regional inequalities have always been and still are the central issues of town planning, regional and settlement policies. The official ideology of Eastern Bloc countries declared egalitarian principles; the development of underprivileged social groups, and the official discourse dealing with town planning and regional differences had the same set of aims. The new socialist towns represented the official images of cities of the future, ‘where there will not be poverty, beggars, and periphery’.1 However, the declared principles and the unofficial and western image of Hungarian urban development confronted one another every day. Segregation, urban poverty and poor housing conditions met the eye of anyone who began to analyse the urbanization processes of the socialist period in Hungary. One of the cornerstones of the urban policies was ‘to educate’ and ‘to civilize’ the youth of the towns, which represented the future of socialism. This paper deals with the youth of the first Hungarian socialist city, and its representations in official discourse.
