Degraded towns in Poland as cultural heritage

2017

Fennia

Self Cite

Despite fierce criticisms, ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ still constitute powerful narratives around which our society is structured. The ‘formal reality’, however, frequently disregards the cultural nature of these concepts, elevating them to the role of objective spaces apt to serve as acceptable guiding perspectives. While the analytical inadequacy of rural-urban ideations is well-documented, the phenomenon of formal-cultural conflation remains much less explored. Acknowledging that ideational space of social representations can only exist through the practices of discursive interaction, this paper’s objective is to lay bare the phenomenon of rural-urban thinking when externalized through the little-known practices of ‘degradation’ and ‘restitution’ in Poland. Using conceptual methods, including discourse analysis and historical deconstruction, this paper assays the hidden architectures of formal-cultural conflation by means of a richly contextualized analysis. The findings, presented in four discursive openings, reveal embedded elements of hierarchy, loss, injustice and self-victimization, which may create a divisive culture spawned by elusive promises of development at the cost of misinterpretations of history, local disappointment and cultural segmentation. In conclusion, formal appropriation of historical concepts is likely to engender a cultural geography of discord spun around a largely insignificant division, especially when development-oriented aspects of urbanization become entwined with emotional issues.

Section: Methodology and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: First Discourse: Urban Is Better Than Ruralmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Degradation, restitution and the elusive culture of rural-urban thinking

2017

Fennia

Self Cite

“…Regardless of the various interests in derelict settlements, urban policy usually involves elements of revitalisation and pro-development transformation of functionally derelict or degraded areas (cf. Dymitrow, 2013;Krzysztofik, Dymitrow, 2015). Regardless of whether the municipal authorities have a financial interest in the derelict area or not, they become involved in the process of structural renewal of every such neighbourhood.…”

Section: Functionally Derelict Settlements In Urban Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poverty and social exclusion: An alternative spatial explanation

Krzysztofik

Bulletin of Geography. Socio-Economic Series

Grzelak-Kostulska

et al. 2017

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Poverty and social exclusion remain some of the biggest concerns in the face of obtaining social sustainability. In this respect, the continuing immense spatial differences between individual localities of seemingly similar characteristics have puzzled social scientists for decades. In quest for a better understanding, this article highlights the role of spatial heterogeneity as a factor conducive to the formation of functionally derelict areas, which in turn play a crucial role in the formation of spatial mismatch. Using two case studies from Poland, one from a big city and one from a small village, we explore the relationality between the phenomena of spatial heterogeneity, functional dereliction and spatial mismatch, whose mutual reinforcement seems to lead to a specific kind of deprivation in terms of scale and intensity. Special attention is paid to the role of spatial heterogeneity, which under certain conditions is capable of changing from being a developmental stimulant to becoming a destimulant. We argue that taking greater account of the intricate historical contexts responsible for the resistance of some pressing socio-economic problems is key to breaking the deadlock in the implementation of ineffective sustainability policies.

“…Instances of rural-urban blurring have been represented through phenomena such as disserviced housing estates, brownfield villages, flophouses, residential trailer parks, shantytowns, favelas, tent cities, degraded towns, hibernated towns, etc. Vaishar et al 2016;Connell 2016;Nefedova, Pallot 2013), but also through the introduction of urban agriculture in large cities around the globe (Antrop 2004b;Deng et al 2009;Tornaghi 2014;Mazzochi et al 2013;Wu et al 2013;Dymitrow 2013Dymitrow , 2014Krzysztofik et al 2016;Cavallo et al 2016;Prové et al 2016). Effectively, many settlement forms today structured around the concepts of "urbanity" and "rurality"' respectively, also have an embedded element of the opposite binary concept.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscapes with different logics: A physicalistic approach to semantic conflicts in spatial planning

Krzysztofik

Quaestiones Geographicae

Biegańska

et al. 2017

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This paper deals with the ways of categorising landscapes as ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ using a physicalist approach, where these terms have special meaning. The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the question whether such a division is still meaningful with regard to anthropogenic landscapes, not least in spatial planning. The concerns raised in this paper depart from the increasingly complicated structure of geographical space, including that of anthropogenic landscapes. Our standpoint is illustrated using cases of landscape ambiguities from Poland, Germany, Romania and Greece. Leaning on frameworks of physicalist (mechanicistic) theory, this paper suggests an explanation to the outlined semantic conflicts. This is done by pointing to the relationality between the impact of centripetal and centrifugal forces, the specifics of socio-economic development, as well as the varying landscape forms that emerge from the differences within that development.