Zuzana Nováková, Béla Soltész, The Dynamics of Ethnic Restructuration: "Ethnic" Spaces in Bratislava

Due to its strategic location on the crossroads of river and land routes, Bratislava has always been a meeting point of different cultures throughout history. Besides its Slovak heritage, it also keeps traces of German, Hungarian and Jewish cultural influence. After the fall of the Iron Curtain and Slovakia's independence the city underwent an economic restructuring process, industrial neighborhoods were torn down, new housing blocks were built, and newcomers of various European and Asian countries found a new home in Bratislava. Old and new minorities live together now with the city's majority Slovak population, constituting a colourful cultural mosaic. Our research would be focusing on the transformation of "ethnic" spaces that traditionally belonged to German, Hungarian or Jewish minorities to "non-ethnic" - that's to say, majority Slovak - spaces on one hand, and "non-ethnic" to "ethnic" - Chinese, Ukrainian, Western Expatriate - spaces on the other; focusing on retail shops, grocery stores, bars and restaurants. The aim of the research is to identify the common traits and the differences between these two contrary processes in Bratislava's history.     

Our theoretical framework builds on Edna Bonacich’s concept of „middleman minorities” (see Bonacich: A Theory of Middleman Minorities, ASR, 1973) and on David Harvey’s notion of privatization as accumulation by dispossession (see Harvey: The New Imperialism, Oxfor University Press, 2003). The argument of our paper is as follows. First, we define the middleman minorities, i. e. those ethnic minorities that undertake an economic activity that is aimed at the majority of the population. Before World War II it was the aforementioned German, Hungarian and Jewish who excelled in such activities, while after Slovakia’s independence in 1993 a group of – mostly East Asian – immigrant small business owners played an important part in covering the population’s consumption needs that were left uncovered by the collapsing socialist way of distribution. Second, we argue that these two shifts in ethnic entrepreneurship are due to the overall systemic changes in the economy, and as such, they are parallel to the large transformations in the structure of the city. To prove these statements, we present two case studies on different urban locations in Bratislava.

1.A place that was an ethnic-run shop, restaurant or bar before WWII and was transformed to a large communist complex:
The Neurath ironmongery was a German family-run small department store residing in the city centre of Bratislava since the end of 18th century. Facade of this shop used to bear captions in German and Hungarian language, amended with Slovak translations since the emergence of Czechoslovakia in 1919. The building was torn down in restructuration of the square - to give place to Prior, one of the largest and most popular malls in the city centre, in the 1960s. At the former location of this house one finds today an empty, not clearly conceived space.
Location: Namestie SNP/ Spitalska/ Kamenne namestie

2.An ethnic-run place that was a large communist complex (factory, market hall) and that was transformed to a shop, bar or restaurant after 1993.
Complex of buildings constructed during the communist era on Mileticova street used to house several various retail stores which neighboured a fruit-and-vegetable market. Today they form a part of the Mileticova marketplace accomodating probably the biggest spacial concentration of emigrant-run small-scale shops in Slovakia. Various case studies can be picked up to illustrate transformations of this area.
Location: Mileticova ulica

Besides the description of the microhistory of these locations, we also propose to make a photo report that helps to visualize the two contrary processes that underwent the structural changes in the economic and political structure of Slovakia.