Accounts from behind the Curtain: History and Geography in the Critical Analysis of Urban Theory

Abstract

This article seeks to contribute to the debate on the proposal to decentre urban the ory and to develop postcolonial urban studies, and on the related issue of the geography of the production and circulation of knowledge. It focuses on how scholars writing about post-socialist cities explain why their sub-field has so far contributed little to urban theory, and it proposes an alternative--historically informed--perspective on the issue. Based on an anal ysis of the ties and exchanges that existed between urban studies in Central and Eastern Europe and 'West-based' urban theory and research during the state-socialist period, this article argues that the recognized current position of research on post-socialist cities in relation to international urban scholarship has important historical parallels with the period prior to 1989. The article thus underlines the need to include a historically informed analysis of geography of knowledge production in critical thinking about urban theory and in the project of cosmopolitan urban studies. The capacities of researchers in different localities to contribute to this project are various and shaped by the history of the discipline. The conditions and perspectives in and from which researchers contribute to urban theory should therefore be taken into account if the project of cosmopolitan urban studies is to succeed. FERENČUHOVÁ 1Although this question is also receiving attention (see e.g. Hirt, 2012, and for an overview Ferenčuhová, 2015).

Zombie socialism and the rise of neoliberalism in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe

“…After ascending as a denominator of all things post-1989 in Central and Eastern Europe, several scholars in geography, anthropology, and sociology have pointed out that the concept of post-socialism has become less relevant (Boyer and Yurchak 2008;Cervinkova 2012;Chari and Verdery 2009;Dunn and Verdery 2015;Ferenčuhová 2016;Hirt 2013;Horvat and Štiks 2012;Humphrey 2001;Pickles 2010;Rogers 2010;Stenning and Hörschelmann 2008;Tuvikene 2016;Wiest 2012). Against this backdrop, we indicate one location where one may find continued relevance of socialism (and its "post").…”

“…Aside from becoming a weaker spatial container, post-socialism has also ceased to be a temporal container or recognizable condition (Boyer and Yurchak 2008;Dunn and Verdery 2015;Ferenčuhová 2016;Horvat and Štiks 2012;Humphrey 2001;Rogers 2010;Tuvikene 2016). Elizabeth Cullen Dunn and Katherine Verdery -two scholars closely associated with the ascent of the concept of post-socialism -observed recently that "after all, no one now refers to western Europe as 'post-feudal'" (Dunn and Verdery 2015, 1).…”

Three Metals and the ‘Post‐Socialist City’: Reclaiming the Peripheries of Urban Knowledge

“…Hörschelmann, ; Stenning and Hörschelmann, ; Ferenčuhová, ; Petrovici, ; Tuvikene, ) but they are fighting an uneven battle against a resilient teleology. Also, treating the return to Europe/normality as something that is projected upon the region entirely from the outside would be a misconception (Ferenčuhová, ). Such a post‐colonially influenced reading of the situation would have to come to terms with the fact that, yes, certain Western institutions did offer an economic transition package that has been heavily criticized in some circles, but that its promise of a radical break from the past was certainly welcomed by many as evidence of a final and indispensable farewell to the system of colonization‐by‐comrades, gaining the support of numerous scholars who identified discarding communism as a crucial moment in nation‐building (Bunce, ; Eke and Kuzio, ; Kuzio, ) and as a key prerequisite for successful economic reform (Åslund, ).…”

The urbanization of transition: ideology and the urban experience

“…Many scholars now express their discontent that the literature on post-socialism is inadequately appreciated by the wider academic world; it is either little engaged with in terms of the broader understanding of global urban change or just imports ideas already well-rehearsed elsewhere without feeding back to inform the broader debates (Sjöberg 2014;Ferenčuhová 2016). Some searches for the relevance of the post-socialist experience in the wider world have, for example, flirted with post-colonialism, thus also subjecting transition to the ideas radiating from the world's other corners -even if with inconclusive results as to whether post-colonialism and post-socialist are indeed good bedfellows (Hörschelmann and Stenning 2008;Hladík 2011;Moore 2001).…”