Publication details
“East meets West” – on studying “Eastern” housing estates through “Western” concepts and approaches
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Urban Development Issues |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/udi-2018-0001 |
| Keywords | housing estates;representation;symbolism;identity;everyday life;materiality |
| Attached files | |
| Description | This paper is directly associated with the international conference “East meets West – contemporary urban issues revisited”. The main objective of the paper is to provide readers with ideas related to the possibility of studying the “Eastern” (post-socialist) housing estates through selected “Western” concepts including representation, symbolism, everydayness/everyday life and the complexity of relations including the materiality or socio-technical configuration of places. The paper consists of three main sections: in the introductory section, basic information and knowledge regarding (large) housing estates are concisely presented and discussed. By means of illustrative examples, the second main section of the paper covers a brief presentation of selected “Western” concepts. The final section focuses on the discussion of the concepts’ usefulness and of the methods through which they can be utilised. The main ideas and conclusions resulting from this paper can be stated as follows: - particular housing estates in CEE countries find themselves in a common, yet at the same time always in one way or another specific and individual “post-socialist situation”; - to understand the situation of a particular housing estate means to understand the structural influences as well as the agency of particular (local) actors, either human or non-human; - housing estates can be seen as dynamic, ever-changing socio-technical-spatial formations constantly passing through a continuous process of (re) production by various forces/actors and (power) relations. |