New-build gentrification in the post-socialist city: Łódź and Leipzig two decades after socialism

Abstract

This contribution focuses on the role of new-build gentrification in the socio-spatial re-differentiation of shrinking second-tier post-socialist cities in Germany and Poland, countries that differ in terms of the pace and character of post-socialist transition. Our main goal is to compare and contrast the unfolding of new-build gentrification in different post-socialist settings with the examples of new-build gentrification known from international studies that mostly cover “Western” cities. One of the main findings of our study is that the tempo and scale of new-build gentrification is sensitive to the pace of post-socialist transformations and to institutional contexts. Regarding the international debate on newbuild gentrification, our findings from Łódź and Leipzig highlight a rather distinctive mode of the process. Despite the undeniable similarities with the spatial patterns detected by previous studies illustrating the “Western” contexts, the new-build gentrification detected in our case cities points to different economic roots as well as specific social consequences. Irrespective of identified differences between Leipzig and Łódź, the new-build gentrification appears to be economically independent from the former (other) forms of gentrification and its dynamics.