ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the inherited features of post-socialist cities from socialist times and their recent transformation towards the 'space of consumption', considers the basic approaches to study cities in urban sociology in relation to the changes in the organization of urban space. Primary focus is given to the specific characteristics of space-time behaviours: how the 'network society' appropriates and perceives public space. Indeed, the transition from state-organized top-down management to commodified consumption has brought significant changes within public space and spatial distribution of facilities. Globalization is understood as a socio-cultural phenomenon driven by the space-time compression effects and the 'dissembling' effects of the application of new transport and information and communications technology (ICT). Individual perception and the individualism of using public space offer a different perspective for the creation and the design of public space in the network city.
