ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the production of localities in the spatiality of communist modernity that was dominated by central élites, decision-makers and local representatives. The vital scalar resituation in the production of localities through development was the centre—local relationship of the Party-state. Local power relationships were also important in producing localities. Both were surrounded by a tension between ideological ambitions and practical difficulties. I will show that whilst localities were produced by and for central state purposes, they differentiated communist modernity as an experience of development in time and space. The chapter begins by referring to representations of power relationships, within the organisational and institutional framework, that are important for local development. It then explores the details of how these institutions produced rural and urban localities. A short description of some cities in the 1960s gives an eyewitness account of the experience of early communist modernity. Romanian settlement planning provides an example of the extreme local impact that could occur in communist modernity.
