Whatever happened to the (post)socialist city?

Abstract

For several decades, urban geographers asked themselves whether there was such a thing as the “socialist city.” Did cities during the duration of state socialism (in most parts of East-Central Europe, roughly 1949–1990) include spatial features that were sufficiently distinct from the characteristics of cities located farther west to warrant the existence of an autonomous term: the so-called socialist city? Were the processes of spatial production in these cities also sufficiently distinct? A quarter of a century after the end of state socialism in East-Central Europe, this paper revisits the old debate with a new twist. Assuming there was a “socialist city,” is there a post-socialist one? Did the features of the “socialist city” disintegrate or endure after 1990? Is the new formation distinct not only from its socialist predecessors but also from contemporary European cities that were never socialist?