Beyond the decay? Positive patterns in the development of a large housing estate: the case of Olechów-Janów district in Łódź, Poland

Abstract

A lot of attention in the academic and policy debate has been given to the process of transformation of large housing estates in Central and Eastern Europe post 1989. This included debate about their decreasing socio-economic status and the gradual deterioration of housing structures. Nevertheless the transformation processes in various estates have not necessarily followed the same pattern and some districts, instead of decaying, have continued to grow during the capitalist period. This article discusses the case of one such estate in the city of Łódź in Poland, documents the 'alternative' format of transformation and discusses its implications for policy making.

Neighbourhood (dis)satisfaction in a former closed Soviet city: the case of Dnipro(petrovsk), Ukraine

“…And finally, in most Soviet housing estates of Dnipro, there is still a social mix that was established during the Soviet era, which is also typical for housing estates in other post-communist cities (e.g., Herfert et al, 2013;Neugebauer & Kovács, 2015;Gorczyca, 2016;Szafrańska, 2018;Galuszka, 2020). Perhaps, such social stability within residential neighbourhoods can be interpreted as the influence of the Soviet legacy, although since the 2000s there has been a certain maintaining of the heterogeneous social structure of these neighbourhoods with some change by occupation due to highly skilled professionals settling or continuing to live alongside the working class.…”

“…Based on this, the statement of Musterd and Van Kempen (2007) that many dissatisfied residents live in Eastern European housing estates of the postwar period contradicts the empirical results presented above: Soviet housing estates in Dnipro have mostly retained their prestige and have a good reputation. Furthermore, in Dnipro as in some other postcommunist metropolises (e.g., Herfert et al, 2013;Szafrańska, 2014;Gorczyca, 2016;Galuszka, 2020), there is a weak and fragmented influence of such a negative phenomenon as the "large housing estate syndrome" (see more Szafrańska, 2013;Szafrańska, 2017), which comprises socio-spatial and physical degradation of a large housing estate and the formation of a negative perceptron image in relation to it among the rest of the city residents.…”

Transcending path dependencies: Why the study of post-socialist cities needs to capitalise on the discussion on urbanisation in the South (and vice versa)

“…In other words, the expectation of local cities becoming more and more like Western European cities (Hirt, 2013) positioned local estates at risk of declining into ‘slums’ (Enyedi, 1998). However, in spite of the documented decreasing or fluctuating status, many estates continue to be attractive for various groups of users, and efficient upgrading and management solutions are being deployed to increase the liveability and quality of these spaces (Galuszka, 2020). Consequently, a deep qualitative study documenting these processes, rather than being labelled merely as ‘divergent pathways of development’ (Temelová et al, 2011), might hold more interesting potential for reversed ‘benchmarking’ (or reversed best-practice solutions) between Eastern and West Europe.…”

Large Housing Estates under Socialism

“…The existing investigations by architects, urban planners, sociologists, urban geographers, and anthropologists discuss the transformation of post-socialist large housing estates and societal challenges under the interdisciplinary framework covering the post-socialist East European countries (Zarecor 2011;Szafrańska 2014;Grossmann et al 2015;Erőss 2013;Steiner 2014;Galuszka 2020;Šimáček et al 2015;Tsenkova 2008). Ukraine is not fully represented in the international scientific debate (Otrishchenko 2017;Cherkes 2013Cherkes , 2015Habrel, Habrel, and Lysiak 2020).…”