ABSTRACT
Urban Planning During Socialism delves into the evolution of cities during the period of state socialism of the 20th century, summarizing the urban and architectural studies that trace their transformations.
The book focuses primarily on the periphery of the socialist world, both spatially and in terms of scholarly thinking. The case study cities presented in this book draw on cultural and material studies to demonstrate diverse and novel concepts of ‘periphery’ through transformations of socialist cityscapes rather than homogenous views on cities during the period of state socialism of the 20th century. In doing so the book explores the transversalities of political, economic, and social phenomena; the places for everyday life in socialist cities; the role of professional communities on production and reproduction of space and ecological thinking.
This book is aimed at scholarly readership, in particular scholars in architecture, urban planning, and human geography, as well as undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students in these disciplines studying the urban transformation of cities after World War II in socialist countries. It will also be of interest for planning officials, architects, policymakers and activists in former socialist countries.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |12 pages
Revisiting urban planning during socialism
part I|86 pages
Urban planning, politics and power
chapter 2|19 pages
From Breslau to Wrocław
chapter 3|16 pages
Dreaming the capital
chapter 5|20 pages
From reverse colonial trade to antiurbanism
part II|52 pages
Architects and urban planners in the socialist city
chapter 6|18 pages
Passive agents or genuine facilitators of citizen participation?
chapter 7|15 pages
The influence of nuclear deterrence during the Cold War on the growth and decline of the peripheral town of Valga/Valka
chapter 8|17 pages
The role of architects in fighting the monotony of the Lithuanian mass housing estates
part III|55 pages
The non-politics of everyday life in spatial peripheries during socialism
chapter 9|23 pages
Courtyards, parks and squares of power in Ukrainian cities
chapter 11|15 pages
Gldani
part IV|61 pages
Ecology and environment in the socialist periphery