europeancityseminars

Pictures from the meeting in Berlin

2010-06-22T16:23:00.009+01:00

Preliminary programme - Ethnicity in Berlin

2010-06-07T13:36:00.007+01:00

Venue: Three Little Pigs Hostel Berlin, Stresemanstraße 66, Berlin 10963, Germany, Telephone: +49 (0)30 - 32 66 29 55, Fax: +49 (0)30 - 32 66 29 56, http://www.three-little-pigs.de

Friday 18. June 2010
until 16:00 – arrival to the hostel, checking-in
16:00 – 16:15 – Introduction to the overall idea of research seminars (Ondrej Daniel, Multicultural Centre Prague)
16:15 – 16:30 – Ethnicity in Berlin (topics to focus on, Bjoern Jungius, Rejs e.V.)
16:30 – 17:15 – Quick presentation of the participants and advisors
17:15 – 18:00 – Lucia Ilieva - Roma Settlements in Bulgaria and in Western Europe
18:00 - 18:15 - Break
18:15 - 19:00 - Dušan Ugrina - (Ex-)Yugoslav Communities in Europe and Berlin
19:00 – 19:45 – Ezgi Haliloglu Kahraman – Turkish Communities in Europe and Berlin
19:45 – 20:30 – Viola Donata Rauch – Children of Migrants in Berlin

Saturday 19 June
9:00 – 9:30 – Logistics of the research seminar (Ondrej Daniel, Multicultural Centre Prague and Bjoern Jungius, Rejs e.V.)
9:30 – 10:00 – Andreas Kapphahn – title of the lecture to be confirmed
10:00 – 10:30 – Discussion
11:00 – 13:00 – Alternative City Walk (Kreuzberg)
13:00 – Lunch
Emergeandsee media arts festival, Stattbad Wedding (optional)
Theme: Hybrid metropolis - in between spaces, http://blog.emergeandsee.org/
Afternoon – research (individual or in groups)
20:00 – Dinner

Sunday 20 June
All day – research (individual or in groups)
Dr. Andreas Langer - Nature Park Südgelände Berlin Walk (optional)
20:00 – Dinner

Monday 21 June
8:30 – 12:00 – Quick presentations of the research outcome
12:00 – 12:30 – Advisors comments
12:30 – 13:00 – Feedback, planning, sustainibility

Radka Svačinková - Turkish Muslims in Berlin

2010-05-30T10:41:00.005+01:00

In my research, I would like to focus on Muslims of Turkish origin living in Berlin. In the methodological part of my research, I will determine and classify who may be referred to as a Muslim (of Turkish origin). I shall answer a methodological, rather tricky, question - how do we classify such a person? Can a Muslim be called someone who attends the mosque on Friday night and maintain his or her religious duties according to the Islamic tradition, or may we call a Muslim someone whose family is of Muslim background?

In the second part, the research will discuss both the ethnicity and religious beliefs of those whom we may refer to as Muslims, as the two aspects are connected. Therefore the second part of my research will be consisted of two partial areas. In the first subarea, I will analyze statistics and academic researches regarding ethnicity and religiosity of Turkish Muslims in Germany, particularly in Berlin, with a closer look at a process of integration, the theories of multiculturalism etc. and their execution in the reality with an aim to find out how (or if) the process of integration has an direct impact on religious and ethnic self-perception of Turkish Muslims. In the second subarea, I will conduct a field research by means of direct interviews in which I will analyze how (or if) Turkish Muslims maintain their religion and ethnic self-determination in a country with Christian and Germanic majority, provided the fact that Berlin is a multireligious and multicultural city. In my interviews, I will attempt to explore religious needs and possible satisfaction/dissatisfaction, measure of integration, communication evaluation with institutions and non-governmental organization that work with Turkish Muslims (both German and non-German citizens).
Based on the interviews and the analysis of scientific researches, I will consequently distinguish means of integration within the society, possible obstacles or advantages of such an act and other specifications of the Turkish Muslims’ self-perspective.

Some pictures from the meeting in Vienna

2010-05-27T09:02:00.008+01:00

Thanks to Sylvia Stancheva

Eszter György - Kreuzberg and Josephstadt

2010-05-21T08:20:00.010+01:00

Kreuzberg and Józsefváros (Josephstadt): city quarters in Berlin and in Budapest, where social and urban questions of disadvantaged situation, spatial segregation, different ethnic backgrounds, special educative and cultural programs for integration are quite apparent.

In my research, I would like to compare the social rehabilitation works of Quartiersmanagement of Kreuzberg and the Magdolna-project in the 8th district of Budapest. Both of these city planning programs have been launched at the same time, in 2005 and both provide social participation, integration and development of „difficult” neighborhoods or, put differently, of districts with special development needs. Naturally, it would be a much greater work to analyze in parallel the two programs, and as our research in the frame of the seminar could only be quite restricted, I will simply focus on some points, which, nevertheless, will hopefully reflect on the most important themes of public participation-based district-development.

By interviewing some members of Quartiersmanagement and by observing their work related to the neighbourhood council, I will concentrate on their program themes such as thedistrict culture, the integration of diverse social and ethnic groups, the living environment and public space and the image improvement and public relations.

I hope that by getting closer to the patterns and methods used in Kreuzberg, I can also approach from new perspectives the development projects in the 8^th district, whose social history and identity-building is the question of my PhD in Budapest.

http://www.quartiersmanagement-berlin.de

http://www.rev8.hu/eng.php

József street, 8th district, Budapest

My fest 2009, Kreuzberg, Berlin

http://www.quartiersmanagement-berlin.de/Zentrum-Kreuzberg-Oranienstrasse.99.0.html

Sebastien Gobert - Embassies and ethnicity

2010-05-19T14:15:00.001+01:00

Berlin is one of the few places in the world where international embassies are more than diplomatic representations. Indeed, many of them are not just located in pre-existing buildings rented out by foreign governments, as it is the case in most capitals of the world. Following the fall of the Wall and the reunification of the city, Berlin became the capital of unified Germany in summer 1999. Part of the extensive reconfiguration of the urban space was dedicated to building and renovating 'official' edifices to host an entire set of governmental, administrative and diplomatic services. Such a process allowed many foreign governments to build and design their own embassies out of stratch, thus turning their representations into national showcases.
My research focuses on the exhibition and promotion of national and ethnic characteristics through the architectural design of some foreign embassies in Berlin. The way these charateristics are displayed reflects some common understandings on so-called 'national' features these countries wish to promote and be associated with. The embassies of South Africa, India or else Egypt seem to be designed quite explicitely for this purpose. It might as well be interesting to investigate the political dimension of some of the diplomatic buildings, such as the Russian one (still referring explicitely to the Soviet times) or the Nordic embassies (a 'Scandinavic' building hosts the representations of Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Sweden).
I wish to replace this research in the context of the restructuration of the urban space, since many embassies are located on former segments of the dividing wall and no man's land. I also intend to use the results of my investigation in understanding the renewed strength of Berlin as one of the major European and world capital cities.

Tools/Methods:
Observation of a selection of embassies (Tiergarten, Mitte);
Internet sources on the buildings and architectural styles;
Interviews with members of the embassies' staff and specialists (if possible on weekends)

Anna Wnuk - Berlin Research Plan

2010-05-19T14:13:00.001+01:00

In such a heterogenic city as Berlin the sphere of ethnicity seems to be quite visible and also challenging and exciting. My interests in ethnicity in Berlin especially concern in Jewish culture. I would like to explore ethnicity especially in the city space (architecture) but also among people – inhabitants of Berlin.
Berlin is the specific city, its history is strongly related to Jewish culture and also nowadays we can observe some traces of this past interaction. At the same time in Berlin still live Jewish people and establish a new community. Therefore I would like to research how the Jewish past and the present create contemporary reality of the city.
I would like to examine some former Jewish district (ex. Oranienburger Strasse, Prenzlauer Berg which is now gentrified area and it could be interesting to view how it changes), to find for example Jewish street names, restaurants, shops as well as visit some places which commemorate Jewish culture, such as Jewish Museum Berlin and Holocaust Memorial by Peter Eisenman. What interests me the most is how these places interweave with surrounding area, how contemporary Berlin inhabitants perceive these past traces, are they visible for them, are some monuments significant, maybe some not?
Also important for me, is to scrutinize contemporary Berlin’s Jewish community, its places and people (for example Jewish Community Centre, New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum Foundation) in order to study how Jewish and other nationalities/ethnic groups of people live together and how they deal with their traditions. For now I have some questions to consider and I hope I could find more information on some issues, for example: Does the Jewish community lives isolated or maybe they are quite integrated with Germans? Do they want to emphasize their culture background and if yes in what way?
Moreover it seems to be inspiring to examine how such ethnic diversity, in this case Jewish culture, influences on the city space and perhaps generates new places where different cultures merge each other. Such an example perhaps could be the Kreuzberg district which is known as “little Istanbul” and as well there is Jewish synagogue.
Due to the time limitations of the project I do not know if it is possible to carry out my whole research plan, but at least I would like to deal with part of this. My methods of research will be probably: observation, short interviews with inhabitants (ex. passer-bys) and photos.

Francesca La Vigna - Open air flea markets and ethnicity

2010-05-11T20:53:00.006+01:00

Flea market Mauer Park (Prenzlauer Berg)

In a relatively new and open-minded capital city, as Berlin likes to be defined and to present itself to Germans, tourists and to new migrants, traces of ethnicity are latent and visible in every district (with due differences), corners, streets or simply listening to passers-by conversations. An important aspect that makes Berlin less German and accesible at least for the very (long) beginning, is the fact that a newcomer non-German-speacker can survive communicating in English. Nevertheless when thinking about ethnic minorities in Berlin, the Turkish and Polish ones open the list among several groups of migrants coming from east-Europe, Mediterranean area and eastern Asia. Considering the specific physical distribution, the district of Neükolln is the most hetrogeneus in terms of ethnic differences and social inequalities, according to statistic data provided by the Regional Statistical Office (Statistisches Landesamt Berlin. www.statistik-berlin.de). The first pull reason is related to the historical tradition of migration to that area that seems to be confirmed also nowadays (as well as in other parts of the city, but keeping into account the Gentrification and “fashion” factors, too) mainly due to the still relatively low rental prices (a huge percentage of Berliners is tenant rather than owner). Then follow Kreuzberg and its young, alive and artistic-cultural stimulating atmosphere, the touristic new Mitte, Charlottenburg-Wilelmdorf and Tempelhof-Schöneberg in the former western part of the city.

Apart from these kind of analyses there are some Berlin´s peculiar places where it is possible to have a comprehensive overview of such a complex and heterogeneous ethnic mosaic: the flea and food markets. Within them economic activities, cultures, tourism, artistic expressions and ethnicity are melted together.
Mostly during the weekends, markets are present in every district. The nature of sold items is almost the same everywhere (second hands stuff, antiquities, new hand-crafted creations), what makes the difference is the location (pedestrian areas, squares, parks, streets, etc.) and the visitors´s features. Quite often flea markets are also a kind of “established” gathering place for some ethnic groups, whose members not necessarely live in the same neighbourhood.
Research proposal:

After having selected one or more flea markets (according to time schedule and other participants´interests), possibly not the most famous, the research would be oriented to point out some of the main features of each market as a whole, paying attention to: space (how much surpface do they occupy and its conformation, ex. square, street, dismissed factory, etc.), location within the city and Kiez´s peculiarities, average confluence of people, average age of the visitors, ethnic variety.

Turkish market in Maybachufer (Kreuzberg)

Flea Market in Boxhagener Platz (Friedrichshain)

Tools/Methods:

• Continuative observation (from the opening till the closing time) and small written report about it.
• Short questionnaire (to be prepared in cooperation with some expert in the field among the WS participants) or random direct questions to visitors/sellers, whereas it won´t be possible to guess ethnic belonging from physical appearance or spocken languages.
• Photos (they will be commented using all the collected data).

Markéta Vrabcová - Research proposal

2010-05-06T18:20:00.004+01:00

Interaction between people in the city with different cultural background with view to the phenomenon „Spirit of Place“

During the research in Berlin I would like to follow on the survey" Spirit of Place" of UNESCO sites which is my student project in the framework of my doctoral studies at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague.

Detailed description of the project: Spirit of Place
This project is inspired by the conception of genius loci in accordance to Christian Norberg-Schulz (Norwegian architect, architectural historian and theorist):
''Genius loci is a roman term. According to the conviction of the Old Romans any 'independent' being possesses his own genius, such a protective spirit. This spirit revives people and places accompanies them from birth to death and destines their character and disposition (Schulz, Genius loci, 1994)."

The origination of genius loci in cities
The Spirit of Place in cities is something more than we can see on the first view (it´s not only an account of streets, electric lights, trams, telephone boxes, buildings etc.), but behind the view is hidden a message about the society and people who live there.
Places are linked with humans through belief, ritual, magic and religion. Any place present and outward, reflects human and inward, and is a projection of human subjectivity and everyday life.

The importance of genius loci
Spirit of Place is important because of the variety – different content, use, messages in every place.
Variety and meaningful places hence may enlarge well-being and satisfaction with life.

Genius loci of UNESCO sites
Genius loci of UNESCO sites in the world helps people to be intensely aware of their cultural identity and national heritage, and to become proud of it. It also helps develop their sensitivity to the environment by which they are surrounded.
Research
The research for Spirit of Place of UNESCO sites is a qualitative project research based on the method of visual sociology called auto-photography (described by the Polish sociologist Piotr Sztompka). Within this method respondents take a concrete amount of photos related to a theme according to their personal perception and interpretation. The research is usually combined with questionnaires.
The main aim of this project is to find out how the Spirit of Place is perceived and interpreted by people from different parts of world and with different cultural backgrounds.

My project in Berlin consists of two parts:
Part A)
In Berlin I would like to use also the method of visual sociology. I plan to research space around mostly visited historical sites how is it used by people with different cultural backgrounds and how these people interact there between themselves and if it helps them to create positive connections. I plan to take photos and then analyse the collected material.

Part B)
As Berlin is the city with developed alternative artistic scene I plan also research this scene – street art- and how does it reflect multiculturalism in that city.

Additional information

Examples from research:

(Flavien)
Questionnaire:

Personal information:
Sex: male
Age: 22
Nationality: French
Occupation: Student of History
Name of chosen UNESCO site, city, country: Klementinum, Prague, Czech Republic
Date of research: 20/11/2008

Comment on chosen photograph:
I am interested in this picture of Klementinum, because it represents the cultural sides of the place. Klementinum is a national library and in this place are many artworks, temporary or permanent. The building is massive and large but in these walls full of history is hidden a delicacy of culture and knowledge.

(Andrew)
Questionnaire:

Personal information:
Sex: male
Age: 30
Nationality: American
Occupation: Teacher and Journalist
Name of chosen UNESCO site, city, country: Prague Castle, Prague, Czech Republic
Date of research: 20/11/2008

Comment on chosen photograph:

"Standing in Line at Zlata Ulicka"
Zlata Ulicka is without a doubt one of the most famous (and charming!) features of Prazsky hrad! As such it is also very popular with the tourists. Back when I visited Prague for the very first time in 1998, access to the alley was still free of charge and one could also see the little cute houses in full detail. As with all things related to mass tourism, that changed over time, and now there is normally a price of admission to be paid for entrance. The image of all the tourists properly lining up to show their tickets to the policeman standing next to the iconic and also very touristic little guard-house, is quite representative of the general transition that Prague and Prague Castle have made as tourist destinations. While Zlata Ulicka certainly is worth a few Crowns and hence the price of admission, and maintaining and preserving Prague Castle costs a lot of money, there still seems something ideologically wrong with placing a price on the alley. The picture shows how Prague Castle has become both a place of culture and commerce.

(František)
Questionnaire:

Personal information:
Sex: male
Age: 27
Nationality: Czech
Occupation: Student of Music
Name of chosen UNESCO site, city, country: Charles bridge, Prague, Czech Republic
Date of research: 20/12/2008

Comment on chosen photograph:
The spirit of place of Charles Bridge appears in three different plains and all these plains are caught in this photo: 1) river, blocks against the ice, birds, 2) construction of Charles bridge and it´s characteristic shape, arches, patterns of stones, protective pillars against the ice, 3) people, who do something on the bridge - unfortunately usually they are caricaturists or marketeers who want to earn as much as possible from tourism. There are also a lot of beautiful details: paving, sculpture, lamps.

(Tadeuš)
Questionnaire:

Personal information:
Sex: male
Age: 29
Nationality: Czech
Occupation: Student / Teacher
Name of chosen UNESCO site, city, country: Klementinum, Prague, Czech Republic
Date of research: 15/11/2008

Comment on chosen photograph:
The office in the vestibule is a famous place for all university students in Prague. Students from different disciplines meet here. It´s a suitable place for searching in the library funds, having a short rest or getting to know other people. I usually meet here a lot of my colleagues or peers. Students and Klementinum for many years have belonged together. In the atmosphere of old Jesuit wisdom, this hall always appeals more as office. Its appeal is like old and yellowed civil architecture from the early 20th century. I like this place because of that. It breathes on me a dream about a period when any free research and creation will be available for everybody because of a prevailing free time, when this place will be perceived as reader´s place, and when people can freely decide where they want to read a book. During any pause they will be able to share with others their love and passion for books.

Denitsa Ruseva - The Turkish community in Kreuzberg, Berlin

2010-05-06T18:17:00.004+01:00

"Kreuzberg is a kind of biotope where different nationalities live, but the environment determines their lives, not their nationalities."

I decided to make a small research of the Turks in Kreuzberg, Berlin, because the story of the “Gastarbeiters” is very interesting for me. I know, that so much is written and spoken about them, that this is like a “cliche”, when we talk about integration and ethnic problems. But I don’t have my personal experience in this field and the problems with the Turks in my country are on different level.
In the 70’s Kreuzberg was an isolated corner, known as one of the poorest quarters in West Berlin, squeezed along a far circumference of the wall where ''guest workers'' from Turkey found places to live. This district is known as “Little Istanbul” for its large concentration of Turkish immigrants and their German-born families. After the fall of the wall Kreuzberg turned to one of Berlin's cultural centers in the middle of the reunified city. Now 40 years later this is an emblematic place for art, culture, contemporary art galleries and night life. The city-district has become known for its bohemian way of life. Today, you can walk through the neighborhood and spot trendy bars and outdoor cafes existing side by side with traditional Turkish bakeries and small shops. Walking on the cobblestone streets along historic apartment buildings gives you a little sense of what the area was like before World War II.
Since 2001 Kreuzberg is a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. It’ s interesting, that in 2006 31.6% of Kreuzberg's inhabitants did not have German citizenship. While the neighborhood thrives on its diverse culture and is still an attractive area for many, the district is also characterized by high levels of unemployment and some of the lowest average incomes in Berlin.
I have never been there, but I’m very interested what happens there nowadays. I’m full of questions: How does the symbiosis between the West and the Orient exist and what happens with this first generation of migrants? Are they still living there and how - as anachronism or as integrated part of this changing place? How visible they are and how much they want to be visible? Is the second/third generation of them part of this “modern art”/underground life or even made it happen?
At first sight I imagine my work as research of the inhabitants in one building. I plan it as dissection of the place with the photography as a main tool. Interior portraits with an interviews with this people or short description of their life.

For example – there is a famous punk club, or modern art gallery or Turks who sell döner kebap on the ground floor and on the next floors in strange harmony are living different types of people – students, Turks families, other migrants… Or, I could find a building where different generation of Turks are living together – everyone with his/her rituals in the everyday life. I imagine that some guys are “gangsta” hip-hoppers on the street, but because of their religion and patriarchal relations they respect the most the oldest man in the community. I see this on the movies, but this could be very different in the German reality. This second generation of the Turks immigrants grew up speaking German in school and Turkish at home. Life in two dimentions – the language determinates the behaviour models in and out of home.

The easier possibility is to make a study on a single lively street . This way the research is on a horizontal, not on vertical level. And the idea is the same – how the different generations and genders of the Turks live together with the others. I’m sure, that some of the old Turks live only in the territory of the neighborhood, where they develop local patriotism and identify themselves with this place, where they feel completely integrated.

It’s strange to write about something, you have never seen or places, you have never been. I don’t know how close my idea is to the reality in this Berlin neighborhood. But also it is difficult to make a profound observation of the topic, because of the short time of the project. For the above ideas I need time to gain the trust of these people. That’s why I decided to come a few days earlier and during the project to live in Kreuzberg and to feel the spirit of this emblematic place.

As a photographer I imagine my work more as visual research during the project, part of the collaboration with another answears-seeker… I know that we will work in small groups, so we could transform our ideas in something new.

Ian Cook, Alexandra Szoke - Beware of the Stag

2010-05-03T23:47:00.004+01:00

A British man on his stag party in 2007 managed to gain the attention of two Slovak police officers. He was apparently bollock-naked in a fountain in downtown Bratislava in the small hours of the morning and, according to some sources, having a wank. After asking the man to exit the fountain and dress, the officers arrested him. A night in the cells and a fast-track court procedure later, and the young gentlemen was facing a two-month spell inside, a sentence which would have resulted in him missing his 20,000 pound wedding. Luckily for him and his wife-to-be, leniency prevailed and he was released on time, flew back to England and began a much longer and more severe sentence than the Slovaks could ever have dreamed of. Newspapers in the UK and Slovakia revelled in self-righteous ingloriousness of it all.

The headline-making wanker in the fountain was part of what is now a declining trend for British men to travel to Bratislava for their stag parties. The event, also known as a bachelor's party outside of the UK, is a traditional occasion for flexing freedom's last muscles with a hedonistic mix of booze and boobs. Cheap flights and relative economic wealth has been identified by the media as the main reason behind the rise in popularity of eastern European destinations amongst those in search of a stag destination. There is also no doubt much to be gleaned from scraping the bottom of the gender-studies' barrel to construct sophisticated explanations about why men like to get drunk and have their faces pressed into a naked bosoms. Neither of these however is the subject of my research. I am rather more interested in the relationship between the stag and the city, why it garners so much anger amongst the local population, why usually money-hungry pubs shut their doors and why a naked man in a fountain caused such a news-paper worthy story. But also why Bratislava continues to draw tourists in spite of the hostility, why eastern European cities continue to have a certain draw.

I argue that it is all a matter of a clash of rhythms. The diverse rhythms of a city that are interrupted by the one-off rhythms of the stag. The slow-burning life-long rhythms of marriage and kids are engulfed by the two-day binge of stings-free enjoyment. As the stag parties come to be a regular part of the city, they become an overtly noticeable rhythm to be curtailed and constrained. A rhythm that disrupts the quiet humdrum of small city life, simultaneously is a rhythm that brings excitement.

Theoretical Interlude: Ešte Jedno Pivo vs. The Pub Crawl

According to the Henri Lefebvre in his book Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time, and Everyday Life, nothing in the world is inert; everything is moving; from people to flows of capital, from stones to buildings. Some things are moving very slowly and others are moving very quickly – but they are all moving; they all have a rhythm. This conception of rhythms is a little different from the common understanding of what constitutes a rhythm; for Lefebvre, a rhythm is produced through a dialectical triad of space, time and energy: whenever there is a meeting of time, space and energy there is a rhythm. There are two basic oppositions of rhythms: “repetition and difference; mechanical and organic; discovery and creation; cyclical and linear; continuous and discontinuous; quantitative and qualitative . . .” (p.9)⁠ Though we can separate out these two categories when we analyse them, the world is made up of innumerable interactions between the two. The cyclical rhythms of days and nights, lunar cycles and seasons continually clash with the liner rhythms of everyday grind, monotony of repeated actions and brutal repetition. Whereas the cyclical is refreshing and renewing, the linear is exhausting, gruelling and arduous. Whereas dawn brings replenishment, a city’s traffic induces unease. From here it is possible to analyse rhythms in terms of: a) repetition (movements, gestures, actions, situations, differences); b) interferences of linear processes and cyclical processes; and c) lifespan, i.e. birth, growth, peak, decline and end (p. 15). In sum: the world is made up of a collection of (time-space-energy) rhythms, these rhythms are either cyclical or linear (or their corresponding categories) and can be analysed in terms of their repetitiveness, interferences and lifespans.

If we can imagine the city as such, we can move beyond the 'spatial turn' in the social sciences to embrace temporality as an equal alongside spatiality. The stag party is not only abhorrent in the eyes of local city-dwellers because it is an invasion of their city space – be in fountain, favourite bar or woman's dignity. It is also detested because of its short and violent interruption to the times of the city, times that appear in material forms in bus schedules, market days, student holidays and working patterns. The short, obnoxious and violent rhythm disturbs.

The city's rhythms used to part for the stag in a Moses-like fashion, with Western money opening bars' doors and girls' legs. Yet this is a rhythm that Bratislava was too proud or too small to accommodate. The city said no. However, though in increasingly diminished numbers in Bratislava, eastern European cities still retain a unique draw for the pre-married British male. It is a mix of danger and unknown with cheapness and availability. The desire for the sense of liminality that arises out of the spatial and temporal dislocation. Out of time and out of space – away from the married future and the domestic cocoon.

Methodology and Output

I plan to make a short (around 15 minutes) film of the interactions between the rhythms of the city and how they mould, play with and reject the rhythms of the stag; between the rhythms of the stag and his cohorts and how this moulds, plays and accepts them. Film is an appropriate medium (though text would also be conducive, although in a very different manner) to capture the clash of movements. Concretely, I plan to make a number of 'talking head' interviews about the issue of stag parties in the city and combine them with images of stags in action amongst the city's other rhythms. Possible interviewees include: stag party organisers (company owners and guides), 'disgruntled locals', bar owners who are anti-stag, British embassy representatives, journalists who covered the story, stag party attendees, people who benefit from the stags. In terms of images, I still need some more conceptual work (it's my weakest point, I've only ever made one film before). I don't want to create something that could easily be from a tabloid (which would be easy and soon as I spot a tourist throwing up in the street, or dancing naked through the city centre) nor something boring with lots of talking.

Preliminary programme of European City seminars 2010 – Ethnicity in the City (Bratislava and Vienna)

2010-05-03T01:13:00.002+01:00

Friday 14.5.2010

Address of hotel: City Hostel, Obchodná 38, 811 06 Bratislava, www.cityhostel.sk

15:15, Meeting at the reception of the hotel (optional)

Venue: Inštitút pre verejné otázky, Baštová 5, 811 03 Bratislava

16.00 – 16.15, Presentation of the idea of research-seminars (Ondřej Daniel, Multicultural centre Prague)

16.15 – 17.00, Short presentation of the participants and advisors

17.00 – 18.00, Presentations of Keynote Speakers
Michal Vašečka, PhD, Centre for Research of Ethnicity and Culture, Bratislava
Paul Scheibelhofer, Vienna University

18.00 – 18.30, Discussion about the presentations

18.30 – 19.30, Logistics: division into the research groups

19.30, Welcome dinner

22.00, City walk (optional)

Saturday 15.5.2010

Venue: Inštitút pre verejné otázky, Baštová 5, 811 03 Bratislava

9.00 – 12.00, Discussion about the research projects with advisors

12.00, Leaving IVO and start of research

Trains to Bruck an der Leitha from Bratislava-Petržalka (5 minutes by bus lines 91 and 191 from Novy Most, New Bridge) at 16:34, 18:34, 20:34 and 22:41 (arrival to Bruck at 17:03, 19:03, 21:03 and 23:10)

Address of hotel: Hotel Ungarische Krone, Parndorferstraße I., 2460 Bruckneudorf, http://www.ungarischekrone.com/index2.html

19.00 – 21.00, Consultations in the hotel (optional)

Overnight in Bruck an der Leitha.

Sunday 16.5.2010

Trains from Bruck an der Leitha to Bratislava: 7:32, 9:38, 11:38, 13:38
Trains from Bruck an der Leitha to Vienna: 7:55 – 9:44 (every cca 15 minutes), 10:37-11:44 (every cca 15 minutes), 12:37 – 13:44 (every cca 15 minutes)

10.00 – 19.00, Research project – whole day.

Last train from Wien Südbahnhof Ostbahn at 0:49
Last train from Bratislava – Petržalka at 22:41

19.00 – 21.00, Consultations in the hotel (optional)

Overnight in Bruck an der Leitha.

Monday 17.5.2010

10.00 – 17.00, Research project – whole day.

17:00, meeting at the reception of the hotel (optional)

17:37, train to Vienna

Address of hotel: Etap Hotel Wien Sankt Marx, Franzosengraben 15, 1030 Wien, Austria, http://vienna.nethotels.com/english/etap

21.00, City Walk in Vienna (optional)

Overnight in Vienna.

Tuesday 18.5.2010

8:00, meeting at the reception of the hotel (optional)

Venue: RSKS Österreichisch-Slowakischer Kulturverein, Rakúsko-slovenský kultúrny spolok, Otto-Bauer-Gasse 23/11, 1060 Wien, http://www.slovaci.at/kontakt.html

9.00 – 12.00, Short individual presentations of each participant from a research, advisors´comments

12.00 – 13:00, Follow-up activities, sustainibility

Miroslava Hlincikova - (In)visible migrants – Vietnamese in Bratislava

2010-04-26T21:19:00.001+01:00

Compared with other adjacent countries in Slovakia there is still a relatively small number of foreigners. According to the latest survey of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Migration trends and situation in the area of migration in the Slovak Republic the share of foreigners to the total population is only one percent (approximately 52 000 foreigners). Is spite of it the number of foreigners coming to Slovakia is growing. Urban space attracts migrants with its variety of work oppurtunities and possibilities of earnings.
Vietnamese are one of the more numerous and relatively new immigrant groups in Slovakia. They started to arrive at Slovakia in the 1970s and their number is constantly growing as they have already formed a relatively stabile „migration bridge“ between Slovakia and Vietnam. Vietnamese traders and Vietnamese restaurants have become a part of the urban space of Slovak towns and cities. Although Vietnamese community seems isolated their entrepreneurial activities are oriented to the constant interaction with majority population. Since in Slovakia there is no form of support for individual immigrant groups which must then mainly rely upon their own social networks and assistance sources in acquisition of information. That is one of the reasons why Vietnamese in Bratislava mainly concentrate at the lodging house on the Nobelova street in Nové mesto, open-air markets (Miletičova) and in Vajnory.
During seminar I would like to pay specific attention to the integration strategies of Vietnamese migrants in Bratislava. Each of migrants’ communities has elected a sligtly different strategy for adapting to the urban enviroment. The particular strategies that have been chosen range from that of the labour-migration to multicultural and incorporative strategies. I would like to answer the question what strategies do they elect and how do they interact with majority population. Using qualitative in-depth interviews and method of participant observation I will investigate their everyday life and interactions at their work in restaurants and markets in Bratislava.

Alexandra Ďurčová, Migrant workers as source of new ethnic stereotypes - The case of Slovak caregivers in Austria

2010-04-26T13:58:00.002+01:00

The general research topic is a social categorisation process and conditions that determine stereotyping of essencialised and non-essencialised social groups. With the basic premise about ethnicity not being an inner quality but a socialy constructed category, the project focuses on the impacts of growing migration and a new multicultural face of european cities on conceptualisation of ethnic groups within the interactive urban environment. The transfornmation of the ethnic structure of the city and new ways of coexistence result in transformations in perceiving the others and thus creating new kinds stereotyping patterns. The aim of this project is to investigate the principles of categorization and stereotyping in case of Slovak caregivers in Vienna.
In the last decade, the position of a caregiver in Austrian households has gone through signifficant changes. In contrast to common status of migrant workers who are often perceived in a negative way by the citizens due to their “foreignness”, there is a growing demand for caregivers resulting from the current population trends in Austria. While at the beginning of 2000’s “pendling”(work practice including regular moving from Slovakia to Austria in one-week or two-week periods) was a “not so visible” working practice common especially in western parts of Slovakia near Austrian border, it is now a whole country phenomena. It became a distinct profession organized by specialized agencies. Two years ago, it was officially recognized work position by the Austrian government and it is now being incorporated into the social system of the both countries.
What are the categorization principles in this specific reciprocal relation and how are they interconnected with other dimensions of increased migration and change of ethnic structure of the city of Vienna? Interviewing the Slovak caregivers in Austrian families in Bratislava and Vienna, we will try to find some answers to the stated question.

Couple of blurry pictures from Krakow and Ostrava

2010-04-23T18:24:00.007+01:00

Felix Jeschke - Tourism in Bratislava

2010-04-23T11:50:00.000+01:00

In my experience, Bratislava does not have a good reputation among the Central European city tourists. Used to the Baroque splendour, old-world charm or exciting cosmopolitanism of cities such as Vienna, Prague, Kraków or Budapest, most must be disappointed by Bratislava’s tiny – if pretty – centre, and such disfiguring elements as a four-lane motorway running right through it and onto the main bridge over the Danube (appropriately unimaginatively, one might say, named Nový Most). For many international tourists who “do” both Vienna and Bratislava, the cities must seem like two unlikely siblings, despite their long and close cultural, economic and infrastructural links. In the popular consciousness of many, Vienna arguably represents the multicultural history of the Habsburg Empire, colourful and somewhat morbid; Bratislava is often represented as a relict of socialism, interesting only because of the greyness symbolized by the view of Petržalka from the top of the “UFO tower.”
Based on some work I have been doing on the the notion of the German tourist in Prague, I will research the tourist discourses in Bratislava. Twenty years after the ‘Changes,’ it has become a significant tourist attraction. In a 2007 rankings, Bratislava was the 150th most popular city destination in the world with 500,000 visitors, ahead of famous architectural pearls such as Oxford and Dubrovnik.1 My previous experience of travelling to Bratislava suggests that the official tourism bodies are following the general trend to portray state socialism as a historical aberration, and hark back to the Habsburg and inter-war periods in the tourist presentation of their city (that the little sightseeing train was named Prešporáčik is a case in point). This touristic presentation thus clashes with the image of ‘grey socialist Bratislava’ outlined above. It also includes an effort to touristically align Bratislava with Vienna in order to make it into the “Little Big City” its official motto proclaims – the little Habsburg brother of Vienna. For my piece, I will further investigate tourist publications to see whether my impression can be substantiated. Most of my research will be taken up by interviewing tourists in the streets of the Old Town, in order to see what their motivations were to come (including whether it is a free-standing trip or if are they visiting the city as part of a bigger tour), what places they have been visiting, what their general impression of the city is and if it has been changed by the visit.
I hope that this research might tell us more about the image of Bratislava perpetuated at home and abroad. In the study of ‘ethnicity,’ it is often forgotten that tourists form by far the largest contingent of non-Slovaks in Bratislava, and also the most visible one. Personally, I disagree with both notions of Bratislava mentioned here: neither the disparaging foregrounding of its socialist architecture nor a false evocation of pre-war history does this fascinating city any justice. It could be said that in urban discourses, the discourse of tourism forms a mainstream; however, this mainstream can only be criticized if one studies it.

Milena Migut - “Shadow of my former neighbor” – research on awareness of citizens of former Jewish districts of Bratislava and Vienna

2010-04-22T18:19:00.002+01:00

While being in Bratislava and Vienna I am planning to contact people living in the former Jewish districts, to ask if they know about the Jewish heritage there and check, how the new citizens are influencing the post-Jewish parts of the city. Both Vienna and Bratislava had big and influential Jewish communities – Jews were highly integrated citizens, influencing city development and culture. Vienna’s Jewish population numbered more than 185,000 before 1938. Nowadays there are around 7000 Jews living in Vienna, most of them are Jewish refugees from the post Soviet countries. In 1930 the Jewish population in Bratislava numbered 14,882. Nowadays it doesn’t reach 1000.

In my research I’d like to ask people who live in the former Jewish neighborhoods (many of them have Arabic background), what they know about the history of the district and if there are any social/cultural actions focused on commemorating the former citizens (and not organized by the Jewish Community, but by the people living in post-Jewish houses). Some of the questions I’m going to ask are:
Why and when did you move into this district / house?
Do you know how old the house / district is?
Do you know, who was living here before you? Before the war?
Do you know your neighbors? Who are they? What nationality are they?
Do you know any places of Jewish heritage in your surrounding?

I would also like to check, how the external appearance of the former Jewish quarters is changed by the non-Jewish citizens nowadays. Besides writing an article I am planning to make a photo-reportage, consisting on pictures showing the former Jewish quarter.
If the people, who I will be asking, will allow for that, I would like to record their answers to make kind of multimedia report (with podcast and pictures) on the issue of consciousness of Jewish heritage in Bratislava and Vienna.

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

2010-04-22T18:13:00.001+01:00

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.

European City seminars 2010 – Ethnicity in the City (Ostrava and Krakow) Preliminary programme

2010-04-13T17:00:00.002+01:00

Friday 16.4.2010
Check-in at Penzion Sokolská, Sokolská třída 131, Ostrava (very close to the train station Ostrava hl.n.: http://www.penziony.cz/ostrava/penzion-sokolska/#)
Meeting at the reception of Penzion Sokolská: 16:00
Trolleybus 101/106/108, every 2/3 minutes direction Michálkovice/Důl Heřmanice/Sokola Tůmy, 10 minutes to Stadion Bazaly, 13,- CZK ticket; from Stadion Bazaly 10 minutes walk: down the hill the main street (Českobratrská), to the right down to Dědičná street, until the main street (Bohumínská) – Hotel Safari is at the right across the street.
16:30, Restaurant of Hotel Safari, Bohumínská 67/1139, 702 00 Slezská Ostrava – Kamenec, http://www.mapy.cz/#st=s@sss=1@ssq=id%3Apremise%202035639
17:00, Presentation of the idea of research-seminars (Ondřej Daniel, MKC Praha)
17:15, Short presentation of the participants and advisors
18:00, Guest-speaker 1 (Kumar Vishwanathan, Vzájemné soužití, Roma NGO, Ostrava)
18:30, Guest-speaker 2 (Dominika Kasprowicz, Political Science, University of Krakow)
19:00, Guest-speaker 3 (Kateřina Sidiropulu Janků, Cultural Geography, University of Brno)
19:30, Discussion
20:00, Dinner
22:00, City Walk

Saturday 17.4.2010
Check-out, meeting at the reception of Pension Sokolská: 9:30
Trolleybus 101/106/108, every 2/3 minutes direction Michálkovice/Důl Heřmanice/Sokola Tůmy, 10 minutes to Stadion Bazaly, 13,- CZK ticket; 10 minutes walk: down the hill the main street (Českobratrská), to the right down to Dědičná street, until the main street (Bohumínská) – Hotel Safari is at the right
10:00, Restaurant of Hotel Safari, Bohumínská 67/1139, 702 00 Slezská Ostrava – Kamenec, http://www.mapy.cz/#st=s@sss=1@ssq=id%3Apremise%202035639
10:00, Presentations of the research-projects, first part (5 minutes per person)
11:30, Advisors´ comments to the first part of the research-projects
12:30, Lunch
13:30, Presentations of the research-projects, second part (5 minutes per person)
14:30, Advisors´ comments to the second part of the research-projects
15:30, Krakow research group travels to the railway station; Ostrava research-group will check-in at Hotel Safari and will start the research
17:05, Ostrava hl.n., EC 102 Polonia – 18:50 (Katowice) – 18:55, TLK 83110 – Krakow Gl. – 20:48
Krakow-research group will check in at Dom Erazma and Dom Laskiego.

Sunday 18.4.2010
Research in Ostrava and Krakow agglomerations:
Ostrava-Poruba, Ostrava-Mariánské Hory, Opava, Havířov, Český Těšín etc.
Kazimierz, Nowa Huta etc.

Monday 19.4.2010
Research in Ostrava and Krakow agglomerations:
Vyšní Lhoty, Ostrava-Poruba, Ostrava-Mariánské Hory, Opava, Havířov, Český Těšín etc.
Kazimierz, Nowa Huta etc.

Tuesday 20.4.2010
Research in Krakow agglomeration:
Kazimierz, Nowa Huta etc.
Ostrava research-group will take the train to get to Krakow:
11:05, EC 104 Sobieski – 12:50 (Katowice) – 12:55, TLK 7310 – Krakow Gl. – 14:48

Villa Decius, ul. 28 Lipca 1943 roku 17 A, 30-233 Krakow, http://www.villa.org.pl/mapa.htm
Check-in of the Ostrava research-group (Dom Erazma and Dom Laskiego)
16:30 – Presentation of the research results, first part
19:00 – Advisors´ comments
20:00 – Dinner
22:00 – City Walk

Wednesday 21.4.2010
8:30 – Presentation of the research results, second part
11:00 – Advisors´ comments
12:00 – Lunch (also take-away)
13:00 – Departures

Ostrava: A Czech City Reclaims Its Past

2010-04-07T07:18:00.000+01:00

By DINAH SPRITZER, The New York Times, April 4, 2010

HUGE hunks of rusting iron and coal dust might not seem like ideal catalysts for a cultural revival. But a former mining town in the Czech Republic that once epitomized Communist-era bleakness is embracing its industrial heritage, with a little help from punk rock, an all-night party street and a “castle” made of steel.

For decades Ostrava’s most famous symbol was a 1,033-foot-high slag heap, a conical pile of coal residue. Nicknamed “black Ostrava” after its mining industry, which went belly up in the early 1990s, the city sought to cast off its grimy reputation by attracting high-tech investment, leaving behind a patchwork of empty factories, mines and warehouses. Now a movement is afoot to revitalize the derelict sites.

“After Communism everyone wanted to build new things and erase the past, like they were ashamed,” said Marta Pilarova, an artist and the singer for two Ostrava-based “crust punk” bands, Disney and Kulma. “But this industry is a part of us — why should we pretend otherwise?”

The centerpiece of Ostrava’s new industrial chic is its “castle” — the former Vitkovice steel and ironworks smack in the city center (Ruska 24/83; 420-5 95-95-25-70; vitkovice.cz), whose soaring towers and subtle Art Nouveau details evoke an industrial version of the famous Prague Castle (hence the slightly ironic nickname). Lower Vitkovice opened for tours in 2007, offering visitors the chance to wander around a stunning maze of pipes, compressors and mysterious metal machines. (The plant will eventually be part of a $52 million science museum, conference center and “educational trail,” scheduled to debut in 2013.)

During a visit last summer, the musician David Byrne was enthralled with the former factory. “The place is awesome in its terrible beauty — similar to the works in Essen I visited a couple of years ago,” he wrote on his blog. “Some of the turbine parts looked like aliens or the statues of Easter Island.”

Two former mines are also taking on new incarnations as sites for exhibitions and concerts, often with industrial themes. Hlubina, part of the Vitkovice complex, opens for tours in May and will host electro-punk dance parties and art “happenings.” And on the outskirts of town, Michal Mine (Ceskoslovenske Armády 95/413; 420-5-96-23-11-60; dulmichal.cz) offers jazz concerts and art installations, as well as “day in the life of a miner” tours of equipment and living quarters.

But it’s the night-life scene a 10-minute tram ride away from Lower Vitkovice, on Stodolni Street (stodolni.cz), where dozens of bars and restaurants have emerged from a derelict strip of 19th-century warehouses, that has become the town’s biggest tourist draw.

At Dublin Pub (Stodolni 9; no phone; stodolni.cz/klub/dublin/), you can join the eye-shadow-and-oxford-shirt set dancing on tables to Euro-pop remixes. The two-year-old Kralovstvi Pecivalu, or the Lazy Man’s Kingdom (Stodolni 4; 420-5-96-12-22-62; upecivalu.cz), has a more dungeonlike feel, enhanced by patrons with multiple piercings and a D.J. spinning speed metal.

Despite revitalization, Ostrava’s potential to go upmarket may be limited. Many residents say swank is not for them.

“This is still a worker’s city, where you spend your cash at the bar on Friday right after you get paid,” said Jason Fitzgerald, an Irish expatriate who owns several Stodolni pubs. “If it gets too fancy, Ostrava will lose its magic.”

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/travel/04surfacing.html?emc=eta1

Olga Smirnova - Ostrava Research Project

2010-04-04T19:15:00.001+01:00

The discovery of coal and regular mining activities in the second part of the 18th century boosted the economical development of once a peripheral area of the present day Ostrava and in the second half of the 19th century it became one of the most significant industrial centers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The number of inhabitants increased drastically which led to the transformation of the administrative, social and cultural life of the town. Known after the WWII under the names of the “city of coal and iron” and also the “steel heart of the republic”, nowadays Ostrava is aspiring to acquire the status of the European Cultural Capital in 2015.
Ostrava’s Moravian-Silesian National Theatre ranks among the best in the Czech Republic. The Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava became one of the leading Czech symphonic orchestras very shortly after its founding in 1954. High quality opera, drama, ballet performances and classical music concerts often attract a great number of visitors. It can be easily considered to be “Ostrava phenomenon” having a high-rank professional theater and orchestra in the city with the population slightly over 330 thousand inhabitants.
Ostrava’s public is very demanding. And the theater halls are often full. I found very interesting the fact that about 25 % of the cast of Ostrava’s leading cultural institutions consists of foreigners. Among them the great number of artists, musicians, dancers come from the countries of the former Soviet Union. In addition there is a large group of Italian professionals – mainly opera singers – who found an application to their talents in Ostrava. Such a large number of foreign professionals permanently based in Ostrava could not but influence the quality of the theater performance and the choice of the repertoire. And possibly as a consequence shape the cultural preferences of the Ostrava’s public.
In my research I would like to focus on the professionals from the former Soviet Union republics who are now performing in Ostrava Theater and singing in Ostrava orchestra. Many of them started coming to the Czech Republic already in the early 90ies – the time when the general spirit of suspicion towards “the Russians” was in the air. Many of them are now active in the cultural scene. How do they reflect upon their life in Ostrava? Do they identify themselves with the Czech in general and Ostrava’s in particular cultural sphere? Do they build relations with their Czech and non-Czech colleagues following the rules of the “healthy competition” (I’ve often heard the claim that “a Russian professional has to be three times better than the Czech one in order to get a job position in the Czech Republic”) and what relation does it have to the quality of Ostrava’s cultural life?
During my stay in Ostrava I will conduct a series of interviews with the Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian ballet dancers, opera singers and chorus singers. I will attend a performance in the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre (and time permitting also Arena Chamber Theater) and talk to several regular theater goers.

Alexander Onufrak - The consequences of the Paris Peace Conference: The case of Czieszyn/Cesky Tesin.

2010-04-01T18:24:00.000+01:00

It is generally known, that the European continent was an unstable for ages and the international borders between former empires moved all this time. The instability in Europe was a result not only by the military impacts from outside (from the others empires or states), but quite often by the ethnic disturbance inside local society. Even though, the process of self-determination of several European nations, especially at Central and South – Eastern Europe, generally began at the middle of the 19th Century, the most significant territorial changes occurred at the beginning of the 20th Century – shortly after World War I. The collapse of the Central powers brought not only ending of battles on the fronts, liberty and peace, but also a new configuration of Europe and the new independent national states.
The collapse of Austro – Hungarian Kingdom and the following formation of the new states like Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Romania or Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes often brought a large scale of the ethnic tension on the both side of the new international borders. Although, the international borders emerged from the series of post-war summits also known as the Paris Peace Conference and by the international treaties signed by the European and also by non-European politicians, between common people the process of demarcation was quite frequently criticized and considered as unfairness. Although, the creation of the Central European region had been realized nearly 90 years ago, the local ethnic tensions are still actual and alive. In this sense, it is so important to realize, that many present ethnic tensions have their roots somewhere at the beginning of the 20th Century. At that time several historical regions had been divided between two or more neighbour states including their autochthonous inhabitants. The former state of Czechoslovakia was a typical representative of it. Its international borders with the neighbours generally depend on the international treaties from 1920s. For the new established state of Czechoslovakia, the most significant treaties were this:
1.The Treaty of Versailles, which confirmed Czechoslovak border with Germany (Part III. Section VII. Article 81 – 86).
2.The Treaty of Saint Germain which recognized international border between Czechoslovakia and the new state of Austria.
3.The Treaty of Trianon. By this treaty Hungary lost over 70 % of its former territory and almost 65 % of all inhabitants, including 3 millions of ethnic Hungarians who became the citizens of the neighbouring states. The international border between the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia and new Hungarian state was (and still is) the most complicated of all. The border of Hungary had been fixed by the Article 27. of the Treaty of Trianon.
4.The Treaty of Sevres had just marginal importance for the Czechoslovaks officials, since it concerned only few villages in Subcarpathian Rus (Carpathian Ruthenia) near the Romanian and Polish borders.
5.The Spa Conference was not a direct element of the Paris Peace Conference. It was just based on it. Its main duty was to adjust relations between Czechoslovakia and Poland and also drafted a common border line between both states in the region of Czeszyn/Tesin Silesia. On the base of the Spa Conference, historical region of Czeszyn/Tesin Silesia had been divided between to neighbour states – Czechoslovakia and Poland. The Goral villages in the regions of Northern Orava and Spisz were affected by the similar fate.
In my research I would like to focus to geopolitical and territorial changes at the region of the Central Europe and their impacts to the economic, social and cultural live to ethnic communities especially to this who lived at the border zones. In this research I will try to explain how important is to permanently remind historical development of the present Central European states and nations and also their international relations between them. On the case of divided Czieszyn/Tesin Silesia, I will try to explain some historical facts which happened almost one century ago, but their consequences people have felt during all this time. The ethnic prejudices and stereotypes to those which live on the other side of the border are still actual and alive. The stereotypes like resistance, aversion, antipathy, repulsion and disgust to other ethnic group are still to strong in the region of Central Europe. This problem is much more evident between those individuals and their relatives that lost their properties on the other side of the border where they live now. This situation is quite dangerous and it helps to encourage to a new and a new ethnic strain between different ethnic groups. This status is much more visible at the time of crisis. The region of Czeszyn/Tesin Silesia was a great example of it, considering that three big ethnic groups lived there all together. There were Czechs, Poles and Germans.
On this case, it is very clear to see, how the influence of the concrete ethic group was increasing and decreasing depend on, if the ethnic group was at the ruling position or not. Initially, Poland annexed the Czechoslovak part of Czeszyn/Tesin Silesia that leaded to displacement and persecuting of Czechs. After few months of the polish governing supremacy, the border area of Czeszyn/Tesin Silesia became once again a part of the territory of the Bohemian lands under Nazi control and this status to survive until the end of the World War II. The German ethnic group hold a complete control over public administration until 1945, when the new Czechoslovak states took a power on this area back. This period of the Czechoslovak history is an inglorious known as a wild displacement especially of Germans, but also of Poles in Bohemia and Hungarians in Slovakia. On the other hand, it is important to say, that this practise happened not only at the former Czechoslovakia, but also at the neighbouring states.
At the summary, I would like to say, that it is so important to point out of some historical facts and analyze them, because it is only one way, how is possibly preceded to any ethnic collisions at to the future. Even if, my research is exactly aiming to region of Czeszyn/Tesin Silesia and on the Czech – Polish relations since 1920s to now, the core itself of this issue it could by used anywhere. Since, in the Central European region there is still a high level of the probability, that one day some radical groups could use negative power of stereotypes and try to establish a new order, which could be a similar to that of the interwar period.

Lorena Arocha - Roma people and trafficking discourses – the tale of two cities

2010-03-22T13:08:00.001+01:00

The Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings entered into force on 1 February 2008. The added value of this new piece of international legislation lies in its human-rights, victim-centred approach and how it obliges Member States to provide assistance and support to all those who have been trafficked. The Czech Republic has not signed the Convention yet, but Poland ratified it in November 2008. It came into force in Poland in May 2009.

Roma people, one of the most mobile groups in Europe, have had a long history of discrimination and ostracism. Many have been left with no citizenship and almost always living in ghettoes and in dire economic circumstances. They are known to be particularly vulnerable to trafficking in human beings. Only recently, statutory and non-statutory agencies across the continent are placing more attention on understanding these vulnerabilities so as to develop social schemes and programmes that can deliver successful assistance to Roma people who may have been victims of trafficking. For example, the European Roma Rights Centre and the People in Need Slovakia are conducting a research project funded by the European Commission in five different Eastern and Central European countries in order to improve our knowledge of how the Roma community is affected by trafficking.

There are known cases of Roma people being trafficked into Poland and the Czech Republic, and Roma people being trafficked from the Czech Republic further afield to countries such as Spain, the United Kingdom and France. In Poland, the greatest number of non-Polish citizens identified as victims of trafficking for any form of exploitation are from the Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria and Romania. Of these last two countries, the great majority of them are of Roma background. Although most have looked into the trafficking of young people and women for sexual exploitation, only recently attention is being paid to trafficking for forced labour, benefit fraud and criminal activity across Europe.

During the two day investigation I would speak to NGOs working with Roma people and on trafficking in both, the Czech Republic and Poland. I will be contacting NGOs in both of these locations to examine the extent of Roma inward and outward migration, their socio-economic circumstances and issues of integration and identity, as well as how trafficking discourses may be impacting on Roma migration and integration. I would also examine whether the implementation of the Convention since May 2009 has delivered the assistance and protection it recommends in the Polish context and how this differs from the Czech Republic context, which has not signed the Convention but has greater numbers of Roma population and whose government has formulated anti-trafficking policies since 2003, the year in which the National Rapporteur for Trafficking in Human Beings was established.

Darya Marchenkova - A place for a happy life: the city’s ethnic minorities in Ostrava 2015

2010-03-21T14:46:00.003+01:00

Ostrava is a 2015 European Culture Capital hopeful. The candidacy, which in his endorsement Václav Havel calls “an effort to recognize, appreciate, and develop even the less conspicuous beauty of our country and our cities,” is the impetus behind Ostrava 2015, an urban and cultural revitalization project designed both to place Ostrava on the European culture map and improve the daily life of Ostrava residents. Central to the vision is the introduction of culture clusters, or planned environments that concentrate cultural institutions and spaces to create a “mutual synergy” between interactive parts. While architects of the Ostrava 2015 envision generating a dynamic culture cluster that places Ostrava on a European culture map, a second ambition is to improve the daily and cultural lives of city residents. How do project planners include ethnic minorities in this vision for an improved life? How will members of ethnic minorities and their communities be impacted by, or participate in, Ostrava 2015? Do communities actively participate in aspects of the planning process? Does culture, in fact, of the type represented by Ostrava 2015 have the capacity to benefit local communities of ethnic minorities, and how?

Ostrava 2015 has four components—five construction initiatives, improved networking between Ostrava cultural institutions and the larger European cultural community, increased education in arts management, and improved quality of life, including an emphasis on ecological sustainability, an important response to the externalities of the city’s industrial legacy. The first component, deemed Buildings, is “the main investment activity of the Ostrava 2015 project.” The Black Meadow Cluster is the largest of the five construction projects envisioned by Buildings. The project will transform Black Meadow, a presently unutilized former industrial site advantageously located in the city center, into a culture cluster with a music hall and pavilion and a gallery with temporary exhibitions.

The Black Meadow Cluster plans are comprehensive. Aside from music and visual arts institutions, the project will found an educational complex for pre-school, elementary, and high school students; residential housing integrated into the complete cluster environment; and the “humanization of the Ostravice River” for the public usability and enjoyment of the waterfront. Public documents state: “All of this together should create the conditions for a happy life.” As with all urban revitalization projects, one question is: for whom? How do planners take care to distribute both costs and benefits of comprehensive revitalization across social groups in the city?

What place do Ostrava’s minorities have in the vision for the 2015 city? On the one hand, Ostrava 2015 aims to attract international recognition and tourism to the city, giving the project a cosmopolitan character. Yet the vision also has a local scope: to improve the long-term cultural life of the city and the daily lives of residents. The incorporation of education, housing, and environment within the scheme demonstrate the Cultural Capital candidacy’s symbolic impetus to transform the city. Due to its industrial past and the brownfield sites that remain its symbols, aspects of Ostrava’s landscape can be seen as a tabula rasa upon which culture clusters can be erected. Yet no site is vacant in the city: as city planners build upon vacant physical space, they equally build upon the occupied social space of the city, including its diverse residents and the inequalities, conflicts, and interactions that characterize their cohabitation.

My research objective is to interview representatives of the 2015 project in Ostrava. Given its pivotal location in the Ostrava 2015 imagination, I will focus my questions on the Black Meadow Cluster project. In addition, I would like to interview local leaders not involved or peripherally involved in the planning process, hopefully including local activists or leaders within ethnic minority communities or organizations, to hear their take on the scheme. Special attention is paid to integration of members of ethnic minorities into the plans for housing and education.

Resources permitting, I will also visit Pécs, Hungary—the current European Culture Capital—on another occasion to conduct less in-depth series of interviews on the impact or participation of Culture Capital status on ethnic minorities in Pécs, one of Hungary’s most ethnically diverse cities and the home of nine local minority governments. If Ostrava wins the Culture Capital selection round in September, could the project’s implementers learn something from the Pécs experience, relative to the impact or participation of ethnic minorities?

Note: All quotes are referenced to the Ostrava 2015 website: www.ostrava2015.cz
Image derived from Official Website of Ostrava City: http://www.ostrava.cz/

Sasha Borovikova - The Settlement of Slovak Migrant Workers in Ostrava

2010-03-18T12:07:00.002+01:00

Can ethnicity be a determinative factor for an urban settlement?

In big cities, particularly in Western Europe and the USA, we can come across ethnic quarters: Chinese, Arabic, Bangladeshi, Jewish, Russian, etc. Ostrava is not a multicultural megalopolis but as an industrial center. it has always attracted people from other regions of Czechia and from abroad, especially from Slovakia and Poland, recently Ukraine has been added to this list. Throughout the history a great number of mass housing was built for the thousands of migrants who moved to work in the coal mines during the periods of economic upturn, new districts emerged and developed. Besides, Ostrava has a large Romani population inhabiting the Hrušov district. And then a question arises: are there any other examples of the settlements determined by ethnicity in Ostrava?

In my research I decided to focus on the current wave of the Slovak immigrants. Though restructuring of heavy industry and downsizing of coal mines have entailed the highest rate of unemployment in the country, lots of those who lost their jobs decided to stay in Ostrava. And one of the questions is how do they consolidate themselves in the city? I am interested both in those who still work at the factories and in those who found different ways after losing their work. Even the official number of the Slovak migrant workers is relatively big: «at the end of 2008, the Ostrava Job Centre’s register of foreign workers listed 3,843 employees from the EU/EEA/Switzerland, of which 3,026 were Slovak citizens».

What districts of the city do these migrants choose for living? Do they settle in the districts where previous waves of immigrants have settled? And if they live in workers' estates, are there any ethnic peculiarities there? If they do not work at the factory anymore, where and with whom do they generally rent an apartment? Is there any active Slovak community in Ostrava among the workers (and former workers)? Do recent migrants keep in touch with the previous generations? Are there any public places where they gather? Or maybe they are totally dispersed and there is nothing of the mentioned above?

The area I am planning to focus on is Vitkovice, an administrative part of Ostrava, situated in the Moravian part of the city. It has been an industrial center since the establishment of the steelworks in 1828. At present Vitkovice has an engineering group which specializes in machinery production and incorporates about thirty companies. Though this choice is not that strict, and if in the course of research there appear people from other districts (e.g. Hrabová, Mošnov or something else), I could work with them as well. I intend to select 2-3 heroes for an explicit inquiry.

As a result of the research I would like to create a multimedia which will contain soundscapes and visualscapes of the district (in regard to Slovak migrant workers), as well as parts of the interviews and photographic portraits. The aim of this research is to describe the settlement of the Slovak migrant workers by means of their personal stories and media scapes of the areas and therethrough to answer the question to what degree their settlement is determined by their ethnicity.

Federica Gatta - Reading the Borders (Ostrava Research Draft)

2010-03-17T07:39:00.005+01:00

What means Ethnicity in the contemporary city? Does still make sense to speak about ethnic groups in the globalized world?
Maybe these questions hide a deeper issue that we have to ask ourselves about urbanity nowadays.
How are we, as citizens, able to produce culture in the city?
Public space today has lost his function of sublimation of the social conflict due to the increasing need of control and cleaning out of every form of disturb and risk from our shared spaces. The citizen as a consumer is not yet able to modify the public space but with tactics that leave no permanent trace.1)
So understanding where and how the cultural production and the negotiation of social conflict take place in the city is a matter of reading these small traces and finding out the spaces that, out from the "clean, intact and safe" 2), let these practices transform a blank ground to a community platform.

The hypothesis of the research is that conflict between identities is manifestly expressed and negotiated in the "waste" spaces of the city. These "waste" spaces are to be intended not simply as the voids which are around the city, but as every place that produce a boundary: all interruptions of the city flow 3).
As we can visualize the contemporary city as a complex pattern in which every community tends to close itself in an homogeneous space, then we can also imagine how boundaries are multiplying in the city as kind of "buffer zones" between fragments of communities.

Romolo Ottaviani - Stalker, “Planisferio of Rome”, 1995

This research would like to speak about ethnic and cultural integration through the visualization of the physical structure of the borders which these "voids" create inside the city, starting from the idea that the border is the place which gives hospitality to all that is undesirable and "out" of the predominant reality. This means that the border is the potential space for the manifestation of new political and cultural claims, and consequently represents the ground where minorities find their way of expression. The potential of the border lies in its in-betweeness, in its capacity of being nor one side neither the other, but the neutral space in which a different and spontaneous organization is needed and tolerated 4).

Rough representation of Ostrava through its voids.

Ostrava is a city in which the process of deindustrialization, after the boom of the Industrial Revolution, has left many wasted spaces near infrastructures and old factories inside the urban fabric. Nevertheless Ostrava is a city which has hosted lots of migrations, due to his industrial vocation, since the XIX century. This kind of migrations leaves now the place to a contraction and a change of identity of the city, which today is trying to propose itself as a city of culture. One more issue is brought by the big presence of Romani population that, as in many other european countries, lives a condition of cultural and spatial segregation.

The research would like to understand how the wasted spaces of Ostrava are absorbing and giving room to a free elaboration to all these changes and identities. The aim would be to choose one of the ex-industrial areas of the city, which presents a characteristic of being a void between residential districts, in order to map the footprints of spontaneous/illegal uses of it. The result would build a narration of the social claims of the cultural and ethnic minorities that live the city and use this kind of spaces. This would like to be a way to understand how these "uneconomic" devices can be functional for the integration and expression of the ethnicity in the city.

The representation of this research would produce three types of mapping:

One, of a virtual kind, by putting information on a google map.

Another one would be a common map where to collect histories and photos of the place as a collage.

The last one, as a second degree of interpretation, would be a representation of the place through an emotional map that will be probably detached from the geographical reality (non respecting the true distance and size of the elements) but will render the social thickness of the space (representing how the place is perceived from the people).

Öyvind Fählström, - "Section of World Map - A Puzzle," 1973

Notes:

1) Michel De Certeau, “L’invention du quotidien”, Gallimard, Paris, 1990
2) Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment.
3) Stalker Laboratorio d’arte Urbana, Manifesto. Stalker through the actual territories, URL:http://digilander.libero.it/stalkerlab/tarkowsky/manifesto/manifesting.htm
4) Piero Zanini, “Significati del confine. I limiti naturali,storici,mentali”, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 1997

Literature:

James Holston, “Cities and citizenship”, Duke University Press, Durham, 1999
Giorgio Agamben, “Stato di eccezione”, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2003
Giorgio Agamben, “Che cos’è un dispositivo?”, Nottetempo srl, Roma, 2006
Guy Debord, “La società dello spettacolo”, BCD editore, Milano, 2008.
Hakim Bey, “Temporary Autonomous Zone”, Autonomedia Anti-copyright, 1985, 1991
URL: http://www.hermetic.com/bey/taz_cont.html
Ignasi de Solà-Morales Rubiò, "Presente y futuros. La arquitectura en las ciudades". In AA.VV., "Presente y futuros. Arquitectura en las grandes ciudades", Barcelona: Col.legi Oficial d'Arquitectes de Catalunya / Centre de Cultura contemporània, 1996, 10-23
Michel Foucault, “Antologia”, Feltrinelli editore, Milano, 2005

Abdelrazak Bouali - Public presentation of minor cultures in the urban area of Krakow

2010-03-16T08:50:00.001+01:00

Sociologists predict that within a span of our lifetimes the major cities of central Europe, which belonged to the “Eastern block” two decades ago, will transform from almost monocultural to diverse multicultural entities. As the cities we live in become more and more multicultural, question arises how we could ensure peaceful coexistence of many different cultures inhabiting one place so densely, as is usual in modern European metropoles.
Therefore it is important to promote the idea of unity in diversity, which became a slogan for the member states of European Union, amongst the citizens of the union. Giving the major ethnic group means for acquainting with and understanding the culture of other ethnic groups that are sharing the city with it is the first step towards this goal. Various cultural organizations play important role in presentation of minor cultures in the cities and they apply various methods and practices in achieving this. In my contribution to the Ethnicity in the city research seminar, I will document these approaches of several selected institutions in the city of Krakow.

I had selected two renowned museums in Krakow namely National Museum and Czartoryski Museum which I will examine in order to find out how is the culture of ethnic minorities presented there I will focus on three key issues:
1. Which ethnic groups and cultures are presented in the cultural facilities?
2. How much space do these cultures have for their presentation?
3. What methods and ways are they using for the presentation?

Apart from the renowned organizations I had selected those organizations that are focused on promotion of culture of specific minority present in the city of Krakow. According to official census that took place in 2002, the three largest ethnic minority groups are Slovakian, Ukrainian and Jewish. I would like to perform research in at least one organization for each of these minorities.

For the Slovakian minority I shall conduct research within the Association of Slovakians living in Poland. This association takes part in many activities especially social and cultural events and educational courses. It also houses the magazine for Slovakian minority in Poland called Život. The association focuses on Slovakian communities in Krakow and other Polish cities and funds its activities through offering printing and publishing services.
For the Ukrainian minority I shall conduct research within the Ukrainian Social and Cultural foundation of St. Volodymir, which runs Ukrainian art gallery in Krakow. This gallery holds exhibitions of classical and contemporary Ukrainian art. The foundation is supported by Ukrainian Greek-catholic church.
For the Jewish minority I shall conduct research in the Galicia Jewish museum, which offers a contemporary look at the Jewish past in Poland and presenting Jewish culture from new perspectives. This museum is partially funded from international foundations and various associations of Jews and therefore is focused on promoting the Jewish culture towards international community, taking advantage of tourism in Krakow.

Within these ethnic-specific institutions I will focus on two issues:
1. What methods and ways are they using for the presentation?
2. What methods and ways are they using for attracting their target groups?
Regarding the research method, I will perform interviews with curators and program managers of these organizations as well as analyses of their exhibition or dramaturgic plan. I will also create several photo series, documenting the efforts of various cultural organizations to present minor cultures.
This research should result in formulating examples of best practice that could serve as reference point to any cultural institution which intends to promote idea of diverse intercultural society in the area of former “Eastern block” countries. Furthermore, outcomes of this research would serve as the first part for the comparative study of presentation of minor cultures in the “Western block” and “Eastern block” cities.

Used literature:

1. Community Cohesion: A New Framework for Race and Diversity, T.Cantle, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008
2. Identity, Ethnic Diversity and Community Cohesion, Margaret Wetherell, Sage Ltd, 2007

Jürgen Rendl - Ostrava and Krakow Research Draft

2010-03-16T08:45:00.001+01:00

a) mapping the very surroundings of detention centers

with my research i'd like to focus on one of the less visible aspects of migration - the nature of detention centers. i want to analyze the very urban/rural context they are embedded in, and find out about the socio-spatial setting and perception of these non-places. as a first stage i will focus on web based research, as there seems to be plenty of information about some comprehensive projects and studies about detention available. for the practical part during the seminar i would like to conduct a sound-mapping of these locations.

b) about migrants utilizing cracks in 'steel suburbs'

imagining a survey in krakows nowa huta and ostravas suburb zabreh, looking for some kind of ‚cracks‘ in the suburban tissue that could potentially be used resp. are already utilized by migrants. assuming that there are similar structural changes going on in both suburban areas, these processes tend to leave empty spaces, which are just like in ‚standby mode‘. Besides the fact that such spaces are indeed often used by migrants, they also reflect the transient character of migration as a phenomenon.

regarding the very approach i could imagine this research to be conducted together with a photographer, walking through both suburban areas and benefiting from our outsider's view in detcting these cracks.

Klára Vomastková - Theorizing EthniCity

2010-03-16T08:34:00.002+01:00

In the current academic discourse, Ethnicity is considered as a social construct (see for example Barth, Brubaker, Puskác); there is a common view among researchers that ethnicity is not a natural condition or natural essence but something that is created and kept through social interactions. In researching ethnicity, I would like to follow Brubaker, according to whom race and ethnicity exist just through our perception, representation, classification, categorization and identification (Brubaker 2004). Ethnicity is therefore done and performed by particular agents in various situations, when we perceive and categorize people or places. Various agents can also experience ethnicity differently, depending on their social location within power hierarchies and interlocking inequalities (see Herbert 2008:6).
City does not represent only a physical space but also the society living in this space. We can characterize city as a dynamic social space and social structure where various cultural innovations can originate (see Ferenčuhová 2009). When we consider urban space in this way, we can explore various social processes connected with ethnic differentiation, symbolic boundary creation and power-relations and creating inequalities in our society. When we consider recent Czech history, there is quite a significant change between the Czech socialist city and post-socialist city. These changes are connected with the processes of social and economic transformation; migration and formation of what some scholars called “new inequalities” during the 90's. These changes are also connected with the new ways of urban space differentiation where ethnicity and social capital became most important factors.
In current Czech politic and academic discourses, there is a big interest especially in the growing processes of Roma space segregation and ghettoization which are apparent both in the urban and rural space. The majority of Roma people in the Czech Republic (or in other countries of Eastern and Central Europe) deal with poverty and live at social margins of the society which can be symbolized by ethnically segregated and socially deprived city quarters downtown or by dormitories for poor people at the city periphery.
Ostrava is presented as a big city with the highest population of the Roma in the Czech Republic (see Navrátil 2003, Veryvision 2008). The growth of the city is tightly bound with its development of heavy and mining industry which influenced the general character and image of Ostrava. This caused a need for a higher population and unskilled laborers which led to the migration waves within Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. During the fifties, there was a migration of Roma people from Slovakia initiated by the communist state due to the labor empowerment of industrial regions and Roma assimilation conceptions especially in case of Eastern Slovakia (elimination of traditional Roma settlements) (Pavelčíková 2004). During 60's and 70' there was a big increase of Roma population in Ostrava especially due to the follow-up migration (family members) and high natality.
The character of the city is typical for its leap industrialization in very diversified and dispersed self-contained districts of the city which are typical for various historical and social contexts, manners of housing and living (Navrátil 2003). The dynamics of the city development is therefore connected with significant changes in population structure and formation of places – districts or streets – which are typical for their gradual decline of infrastructure, concentration of poor Roma inhabitants who lost their jobs in city industrial factories during the 90s.
In my research project I would like to focus on a particular quarter of the city which is often characterized as ghettoized and ethnically segregated (Temelová, Víšek 2007). The processes of constructing boundaries – spatial, symbolic and social – between inhabitants of the stigmatized locality and other city residents can have many forms.I would like to concentrate on the local context formation of “Roma schools” which are connected with the processes of ghettoization and boundary construction. I would like to make use of some findings and data of the international comparative research Edumigrom where I took part as a researcher and develop some of these topics at the seminar.

Literature
Brubaker, R. (2004). Ethnicity without Groups. Cambridge: Harvard Press 2004.
Ferenčuhová, S (Eds.). 2009. Město: proměnlivá ne/samozřejmost . Červený kostelec: Pavel Merhart.
Herbert, J. 2008. Negotiating Boundaries in the City: Migration, Ethnicity and Gender in Britain. Queen Mary, University of London, UK.
Pavelčíková, N. 2004. Romové v českých zemích v letech 1945-1989. Praha: Úřad dokumentace a vyšetřování zločinů komunismu.
Sýkora L., Temelová, J. (Eds.) 2005. Prevence prostorové segregace. Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Přírodověděcká fakulta, katedra sociální geografie a regionálního rozvoje.
VeryVision 2008. Sociálně demografická analýza Slezké Ostravy s přihlédnutím k tzv. sociálně vyloučeným lokalitám. Final report. August 2008.

Ioana Florea - Exploring Ethnicity in the City of Experts

2010-03-16T08:22:00.003+01:00

My research project starts from the social constructivism idea that reality is how people perceive it and how they think it is – because their perceptions and beliefs lead to practices; of course, this is not a “one way” determination, but a circular process, from practice to perception and from perception to practice and further on.
The understanding of “ethnicity” used in this project it is based on: 1) philosopher Michel Foucault’s power-discourse theory – stating that any public affirmation is a discourse and it involves power relations (being either micro- or macro-social); and 2) historian Eric Hobsbawm’s invented traditions theory – stating that culture, tradition, cultural identity are continuously transformed, negotiated, rediscovered or forgotten by the different social groups associated to them.
For example, ethnicity can be used by a group, as a legitimizing discourse to reclaim certain ancient rights or properties; on the contrary, it can be used to deny the rights of a certain group; or a certain ethnic tradition, such as a celebration or an artefact, can be advertised and commercialized as tourist attraction, by romanticizing (and thus reinventing) its meaning.
From this double perspective, ethnicity can be analysed as a fluid concept (as opposed to fixed), like a mirror revealing social relationships, social contexts, transformations of social realities.
I would like to turn this “mirror” towards the future, in order to illustrate how perceptions, discourses, re-inventions of ethnic issues would develop, and thus shape the future cities. I choose to study this process at the local level of Ostrava; it is a representative case study because it is a city in transformation, with many possible futures and with similarities (economic, political, historical, and social) to many other East European cities.
So, in order to turn towards the future, I propose to turn towards the ones who build it or who will build it: through policy, through the power of decision, through expert discourses about it, through the sharing of knowledge and information about it; among the social actors playing this role, the social sciences scholars are of special importance – as experts of the social reality.
I plan to explore the social reality of the social sciences scholars, in order to (at least partly) answer the questions: how do social sciences professors teach about ethnicity (generally and locally)? how do students – the future experts of social reality – perceive ethnicity and ethnical issues (as individuals and as specialists)? how is this topic reflected in courses, projects, articles, planned programs, at the Faculty of Social Studies in Ostrava?
Social knowledge (and not only), although aiming to be objective, cannot totally escape subjectivity – but is can be sincere, by clearly stating its premises and its reference system; it is what Max Weber understood through “axiological neutrality” in social sciences. The research will offer the social sciences scholars (professors and students) to come closer to “axiological neutrality” and state their perspectives.
In addition, the Faculty and some of its professors are partners in the “Ostrava European Capital of Culture” Project and their approach on ethnicity will have an imprint on the overall Project; and the Project, if implemented, will have an imprint on the entire city of Ostrava and its region – thus, directly creating the city of the future and its approach of ethnical issues. This part of the research can open a wider discussion about the Project and its multi-layered impact.
The exploration will be based on qualitative instruments: in-depth interviews (unstructured and semi-structured) with University professors and students, audio-recorded. The analysis of interviews will try to picture the city of the future, as seen and invented by the social experts, and the role ethnicity will play as a social discourse, in that context. I will also edit an audio-installation with key words from the interviews, illustrating the “mirror” effect of the study’s central concept.

Viorica Buica - Jewish Memorials: Berlin – Bucharest

2010-03-16T08:01:00.001+01:00

Premises
The memorials built during the last decades share an approach which brings to mind an aesthetics of absence, often leading to an interesting paradox: through a rather abstract structure, they manage to convey a strong symbolic message, often relating to the victims of totalitarian régimes but, at the same time, they allow for this message to be “covered”, meaning, completely assimilated by the public. Even more so, the usage of a slightly abstract architectural vocabulary gives the visitors, watchers and passers-by a crucial role in the transmission of the symbolic message. From this point of view, the new memorials are public spaces, fully integrated in the urban tissue, dynamic and lively, which allow users to explore them and to constantly define new uses for them. To prove this theory, we have chosen two case studies, both of them memorials dedicated to the Jewish victims of World War Two: the former, in Berlin, designed by architect Peter Eisenman, and the latter, in Bucharest, by artist Peter Jacobi, recently inaugurated.

Location and history
After presenting a short history of the Jewish communities in the two cities, I will analyze the location of each memorial trying to see how it relates with the urban context and the impact on people’s perception.
The Berlin memorial was built on the vacant site between the Brandenbug Gate, a symbol of Prussian power and authority, and Potsdammer Platz, one of the main tourist attractions in West Berlin. Out of the two hectares granted to the monument, 3.000 square feet are covered in concrete blocks, the tallest of which reaches up to 4 metres in height. The central situation allows for the open air memorial to be crossed, visited and used, by the people of Berlin and tourists alike, on a daily basis, investing it with an important public function.

The Holocaust Memorial in Bucharest was built within the limits of the former Brezoianu Park, in a central area of the city, which, despite its status, is seldom frequented by passers-by and tourists (although their number has increased greatly during the last few years). Nevertheless, the area has great potential, the memorial being situated near important landmarks, such as the Bucharest City Hall, the Ci[migiu Park, the historical House of Economies (the “CEC” building) and the House of the People, presently the seat of the Romanian Parliament. A future urban design scheme of the entire area (dictated by the necessity of both expanding the City Hall and building a bridge over the river Dambovita) will have to take the new structure into account and try to amplify the project’s public side. The Memorial comprises four elements, each with its own, fairly recognizable, symbolism, namely The Column, The Star of David, The Romany Wheel and the Via Dolorosa (the latter being one of the points that makes the Bucharest memorial even more abstract than the one in Berlin).

The relation with the city. The public life of the monument
Peter Eisenman’s project, remarkable through its very lack of monumentality and situated at the limit between art and architecture, enjoys the full dynamism of public life. Its structure is free, open, the memorial becoming part of the city and the street, through the placing of miniature concrete blocks, only a few milimetres in height, on the nearby sidewalks. This expansion is a symbolic gesture, underlining the necessity of a continuous integration of memory, first of all, but also of any urban intervention.
Open to all, the Memorial was soon “seized” by all types of visitors: tourists and locals resting on the smaller volumes, children and adolesecents exploring new routes and chasing on the adolescents hiding in the higher area to smoke or kiss. Conceived with no particular functions, the Memorial generates so many uses precisely by being so abstracly simple, for it sets free the passers-by’s imagination and creativity.

Despite being clearly defined by an all-around corridor and an ivy-covered lawn, The Holocaust Memorial in Bucharest has several access points that allow people to cross it, integrating it into their daily urban itinerary (the place’s symbolic charge is not overwhelming, allowing passers-by to gradually uncover several messages). Unfortunately, the measures undertaken by the local administration in order to ensure security affect both the ensemble’s open nature and its aesthetic profile.

I will observe directly during several days the public life of these two memorials, i will discuss with the visitors and analyze their opinions about Jewish communities, trying to underline the differences of using the public space in the two cities.

Images: © Peter Eisenman Architects, © HotNews.

Ruby Saakor Tetteh - Research Project in Relation to Objectives of Ethnicity in the City

2010-03-15T18:03:00.000+01:00

The idea of Ethnicity in the City is appealing and proactive as it works to manage prospective challenges associated with migration into the urban space. Migration concerns individuals or families that travel out of their original settings to another to live and work for a better life. The characteristics of migration may be in the realm of rural-rural migration, rural-urban migration, urban-rural migration and urban-urban migration. In the context Ethnicity in the City, it places a spotlight on managing the issue of rural-urban migration in European cities which is increasingly becoming a challenge for policy makers.

It is in this regard that the research intends to focus on security within the urban setting. This is a direct result of migration and problematic for policy makers and inhabitants within the urban setting. The security implication of urbanization is essential in any growing integration of persons in European cities. It is also deep rooted in planning as well as essential to guarantee security of persons within this newly growing city.

Among other issues, conflicts between local residents and new migrants may create tensions within the city and it is vital that structures are put in place to create opportunities for both groups while guaranteeing security for all. Suggestions may include advocacy work to create job openings, requisite training for new entrants and new living quarters to accommodate the growing population, an objective that is in line with ideals of Ethnicity in the city.

Emily Bereskin - Tourism and Discourses of Ethnicity within the Urban Environment

2010-03-15T17:29:00.001+01:00

This research project investigates the influence of tourism, place marketing and entrepreneurial forms of urban governance on the formation of urban ethnic discourses. The working argument is threefold:
(1) that place-marketing and tourism create a new discursive field in which narratives of ethnicity expressed through the built environment are rewritten:
(2) that various agencies with differing agendas pursue diverse strategies in marketing heritage and ethnicity; and
(3), that disenfranchised communities are often silenced by official neoliberal discourses while simultaneously being given a place to speak through the development of their own tourist attractions and place-marketing schemes.

The drives to generate service-sector growth and to attract investors and businesses through strategic marketing are perhaps the most aggressive forces shaping cities today. These goals have powerful impacts on spatial planning, new construction, urban policy, and resource allocation.1) Such urban regeneration schemes are particularly attractive to transitioning cities, such as post-socialist cities or newly deindustrialized cities, looking to develop new methods of income generation. Moreover, given the low overhead costs and the ease with which small suppliers can infiltrate the market, tourism is a sector which socially and economically disadvantaged people can enter with relative ease.2) Thus, both the government (often through public-private partnerships), and community groups in transitioning cities often seek to develop a strong tourism industry in order to generate revenue and build infrastructure.3)

During such regeneration processes, discourses and narratives relating to the cities' heritage and demographics are rewritten. On both a macro and a micro scale, ethnic identity is expressed in cities through an array of spatial, social, and symbolic forms: businesses, cultural and community centers, districts, neighborhoods, language, dress, graffiti, flags and other symbolic markers, etc. Individual and collective identities both are defined, expressed, and legitimized through spatial and material practices.4) In turn, these expressions shape cultural and ethnic identity formation. All cultural expressions from extravagant monuments to daily dress are essential to the formation and preservation of collective memory—and therefore, to creation of a common heritage, itself one of the defining markers of an ethnic group.5)

Tourism and place-marketing provide a new discursive lens for the rewriting of ethnic discourses and the reformation of ethnic images in the city. Tourism and place-marking are essentially discourse-producing mechanisms aimed at audiences interested in the cultural and historical narrative of a particular place. Place-marketing actively rewrites and redevelops the built environment of the city and its narratives by
(1) selecting particular structures and narratives over others for promotion
(2) reframing those structures in order to make them more tourism-friendly and “readable”
(3) changing structures and districts into tourist attractions and thus reassigning ownership of the city and
(4) spurring urban development schemes. And like all discourses, those produced for the sake of tourist consumption are subject to any number of falsifications or manipulations to suit a particular purpose.

Analyses of how a city chooses to present itself, which narratives it chooses to present, which it chooses to ignore, which social groups are included and excluded, can provide valuable insight into a particular group's acceptation, legitimacy and integration, within the city.6) Governments and urban management regimes worldwide create new formations of ethnic, cultural, and national identity through the development of tourist attractions, tourist narratives, and place-marketing schemes. Tourism can both bind ethnic groups to the nation as well as provide them the tools with which to declare and maintain their separateness.7) Under Rabin, new government sponsored tourism patterns and trails in Israel engendered new imaginings of nationhood which, for the first time in decades, conceived of Palestinians living within the 1949 Armistice line as Israelis.8) Tourist interest in socially marginalized groups, such as the Sherpa in Nepal, can successfully increase that group´s social standing within a state and can lead to not only a greater share of representation, but also an increase in government resources, be they financial or infrastructural. On the other hand, ethnic groups considered adverse to a country´s self-image, such as the Turks in Germany, will remain purposely excluded from the country/city’s touristic landscape. Individual and community-group based tourism ventures have been used in the urban centers of Northern Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina to contest the legitimacy of the dominant historical or cultural narratives. Other times, cities will boast cosmopolitanism, whether extant or imagined, to make themselves more appealing to tourists and investors. A variety of strategies clearly exist; what is most evident, is that cultural and heritage based-tourism is an important factor in the symbolic reformations of collective ethnicities and the relations which structure intergroup relations.

Ostrava and Krakow are both cities still undergoing the long process of transitioning from Socialism and deindustrialization, and which have actively pursued cultural and heritage based regeneration to attract tourists and investors. Krakow was the European capital of Culture in 2000 and Ostrava is currently a candidate for 2015. Both cities have boast rich multicultural heritages. Yet, while both EU and non-EU based immigration are changing the dynamics of these cities, they do however remain relatively homogeneous. In Ostrava, discussions of ethnicity are linked primarily to national minorities, who are represented in the city's symbolic landscape through an array of cultural centers (German House, Polish House, etc.). In Krakow, urban managers are actively producing a discourse of the city as a diverse, open, and cosmopolitan locale, in efforts mostly to appeal to the vast numbers of tourists the city sees every year, rather than to actually reflect the reality of citizens actually in residency. Histories of ethnicity and ethnic relations in both cities must be historically situated, as the cities' Jewish heritages and histories of forced migrations inevitably shape contemporary understandings and formations of ethnicity. In Krakow especially, we see a continually growing interest in Jewish heritage and Jewish history, which has developed almost entirely in response to tourist interest. The Jewish district of Kazimierz is heavily marketed in city promotional materials and the city has developed a specific Jewish heritage trail. Kazimierz boasts kosher restaurants, Jewish bookstores and hosts a yearly Jewish cultural festival. The entire character of the neighborhood has changed within the past 15 years to become essentially, more Jewish; all the while only about 100 self-identified Jews live in the city. The largest minority group in both cities, the Roma, is essentially invisible in the cities' symbolic landscapes.

A discursive analysis of representations and presentations of ethnicity in these cities combined with political and sociological research into how immigration and formations of ethnic identity are perceived and constructed, can tell us much about official discourses on ethnicity in the city and how groups may or may not try to contest these discourses. Tourism, place-marketing, urban regeneration, ethnic discourses and identity formation and ethnic relations are intimately intertwined. And the city—in its spatial, social, and symbolic sense—is at the center of this dynamic interplay.

Notes:
1) See for instance: David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry into the Origins of Social Change (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1989); Denis Judd and Susan Fainstein, eds. The Tourist City (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1999); and, Sharon Zukin, The Culture of Cities (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1995).
2) Susan Fainstein and David Gladstone, “Evaluating Urban Tourism” in The Tourist City, eds., Dennis Judd and Susan Fainstein (New Haven: London: Yale University Press, 1999), 24.
3) David Gladstone, From Pilgrimage to Package Tour: Travel and Tourism in the Third World (New York: Routledge, 2005); David Harrison, ed., Tourism and the Less Developed World: Issues and Case Studies (New York, NY: CABI Pub, 2001).
4) Morrisey, Mike and Frank Gaffikin. “Planning for Peace in Contested Space,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research vol. 30 no. 4 (December 2006) 873 – 893.
5) Donald L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict (Berekely: University of California Press, 1985).
6) Marc Howard Ross, eds. Culture and Belonging in Divided Societies: Contestations and Symbolic Landscapes (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).
7) Michel Picard and Robert E. Wood, eds. Tourism, Ethnicity and the State in Asian and Pacific Societies (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997).
8) Rebecca Luna Stein, Itineraries in Conflict: Israelis, Palestinians, and the Political Lives of Tourism (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008).

Andrea Barna - Getting acquainted with the interest of the population of Krakow about the Jewish issues and their possibilities

2010-03-15T16:41:00.002+01:00

Despite the dark past which surrounded Krakow during the Second World War, many Jewish people decided to stay in Krakow and try not only to accept the past, but show it to others, remind them of atrocity and make them learn from it, mainly with the help of their one-year-long festival, the Jewish Cultural Festival. As I am majored in communications I would like to do a research about their PR possibilities outside Krakow of attracting people to visit Krakow in order to get to know more about the dark past the Jews suffered. The research field I am most interested in is the media and PR possibilities that are the most helpful for this issue and the most usable to boost this kind of cultural tourism of Krakow. Krakow is definitely one of best places to help these ambitions as many Jews stay there preserving their culture; have an appealing architecture and gastronomy; and Auschwitz is also close enough. I firmly believe that with a stronger PR built upon this, the tourism of Krakow could boost soon, but only maximising the small, free possibilities could also achieve great results. I also would investigate the attitude of Krakow today in this issue in order to harmonize the interests and possibilities.
The most favourable possibility is the Jewish Cultural Festival. Searching other Jewish festivals on the Internet I could not find any advertisements about each other. Should we think that these are competitors? My answer is no, they need to help one another in order to reach the target groups. These festivals usually focus on different free time activities, so they really could advocate each other. Boskovice Festival in the Czech Republic; Klezmer Paris in France, Yiddish Summer Weimar in Germany, Klezfest in England, Jewish Summer Festival in Hungary, Klezmer Festival in Lithuania and the different festivals in Poland (Krakow, Gdansk, Lódz, Bialystok, Chmielnik, Warsaw) all could help each other and collaborate. As far as I know there is not a central web site that provides information on these. To establish one could help all of them, and with the initiation Krakow could control it. Establishing one is a long process, so naturally it is not my intention in the two days I can spend in Krakow with my research.
The second types of possibility I would like to draw the attention to are the museums, synagogues, cemeteries, cultural places… that preserve the Jewish past and culture and so form the settings of the festivals. These places could find equal partners in other countries. To show an example I would like to mention the Jewish Summer Festival in Hungary that has five main settings: Dohány Street Synagogue, Rumbach Street Synagogue, Hungarian Jewish Museum, Symbol Budapest and the Uránia Movie Theatre. All of them could advertise synagogues, museums, cinemas that are the settings of the festivals in Krakow. This is again a huge project that is still not utilized.
In my view an elaborated PR project focusing each year on one country and the customs and memories of its population would draw the attention of the foreigners and make them feel that it is a vital issue they do not know enough about. It could really boost the cultural tourism of Krakow and could also draw the attention of the new generation to our diverse cultures and the past from which we always need to study.
In Krakow my research will focus on the people who live there for a long time. I would take interviews focusing on their needs. The projects I mentioned above can work only if the people support them and see what they can profit from them. Their feelings and attitudes can be the basic contribution or hindrance of any kind of PR activity. Based on complex interviews I would like to reach as many people and target groups as I can in those two days. It could show the facts how much the people advocate boosting cultural tourism based on Jewish history and culture in Krakow.
I think the connection of my research and ethnicity is obvious. I would focus on the everyday people. By asking them about their interest in this issue and their contribution and feelings about it, I could get to know a lot about their way of thinking of the past, different cultures, the Jewish culture, the memorials around them and their knowledge. A later aim can be the realisation of the PR projects I mentioned above, but I would use these two days to get acquainted with what the people want inside Krakow and what they make possible or just reject.

Peter Michalik - Draft paper for European City seminars: Ethnicity in the City (Ostrava - Krakow)

2010-03-15T11:14:00.000+01:00

My project, as a part of the European City seminar: Ethnicity in the City project, covers one specific area of a possible research: the metamorphoses of a formerly Jewish Krakowian district. Kazimierz, once a separated city, used to be the place of residence of the Jewish community in Krakow for centuries. Deep changes, following the deportations during the Second World War, transformed the character of the place to a high degree. Nowadays, only fragments of the Jewish community remained in Kazimierz, which means, that the cultural and ethnical group, that was shaping the district for a long time, is missing. The district became a part of the must – see Krakowian touristic routes, a place where masses of visitors spend their money and to whom the character of the place is being adapted to a certain degree. On the other hand, Kazimierz is an importan place of European cultural and historical memory. The Old synagoge and Jewish cemetery are sites visited by pilgrims from all aroud the world. This ambivalent character of present Kazimierz is a factor, that falls into my field of research, covering both the metamorphoses of the urban reality and the ethnical relevancy of the studied area. The core of my research is the way, how the persisting communities are reflecting these ambiguities cinsidering their personal relationship between memory and the urban space.

Viorica Buica - Ethnic memory and contemporary public spaces: A study about Bohaterow Getta Square, Krakow

2010-03-15T08:28:00.005+01:00

Premises
Given the proliferation of public squares in contemporary cities, but given also the gradual atrophy of their social role, their success can no longer be exclusively associated with how they were formed, nor with what they contain, but, first of all, with what happens inside them. Its life should come first, be it an extremely dinamic square, with shops and lively commerce, a quiet place, inviting to contemplation, or a place to meet friends and find out the latest news, a place for social and political debates, or just a space that has all these functions, at different hours of a day. This interactive dimension has even deeper meanings and challenges when the place is and ethnic and commemorative one, like in the case of new Bohaterow Getta Square (ex-Zgody Square) in Krakow.

The remodellation of Zgody Square by the Polish architects Piotr Lewicki and Kazimierz Latak managed to recuperate the intense ethnic memory of the place, but in the same time to create a powerful and liveable new public space for the city.

Short history of the place
Zgody Square is a historical place in the city, loaded with painful memories, reminding of the extermination of Jews in World War II. On March 3, 1941, the German authorities closed off a great part of the Podgorze district, in order to transform it in a ghetto for the Jews in the city; in the beginning, 17.000 Jews were relocated here. Taking up an area of 20 hectares, the ghetto streched from Zgody Square to Rekawka Street and between Lwoswska Street and Wegierska Street. It was sealed off from the city with a high wall and strategically situated next to an industrial district, with many plants, including the now famous “Schindler’s factory”.
Also the Plaszow concentration camp was near by, while the adjoining Zablocie train station facilitated future deportations. On May 30, 1942, for instance, the ghetto dwellers without identity cards where rounded up in Zgody Square and more than 4.000 of them left for the Belzec death camp.
The tragic ethnic memory of the place had to be integrated and “told” by the vast project of remodelling the square. Also, supporting the project, the old pharmacy in Zgody Square (owned by a man that helped a lot the Jews in the area during World War II) was turned into a museum of the Holocaust.

Urban solution
This urban project has the quality that it does not assign any use to the space, allowing passers-by and visitors to interact with the site and feel its memories, but also to add new ones. Even the commemorative dimension is high, the square represents a dynamic, functional and modern public area.

Seeing archival films and photos, reading memoirs of those who survived the Holocaust, the architects interpreted the history of the Krakow Ghetto as a sequence of movements, that capture a drama: a column of miserable human beings marching along the pavement, each with a stool over his heads; a girl crossing the street has a chair with its backrest down in her hands.

The architects knew that after the nazis liquidated the Ghetto, Zgody Square was full of useless things, a meaningful trace of the absence of their owners: wardrobes, tables, sideboards and other furniture have been abandoned; they have been moved from one place to another no one knows how many times now.

All this information generated a story that streches over the entire surface of the square, while the simple process of “defamiliarization” brings out objects stripped of their everyday practical functions: chairs, a well with a pump, rubbish bins, tram stops shelters, bicycle racks and even traffic signs.

The materials used symbolize the pass of time and they are very simple, almost humble: patinated bronze, corroded cast iron, paving blocks of grey syenite and ordinary concrete.

The Polish architects created a symbolical discourse that turns the square into the site’s memory, making visible that which could not be seen anymore, compensating for the irremediable absence of essential facts and things.

Uses, social life and symbolic meanings
Observing directly the daily life of the square, I will try to draw some conclusions regarding the following issues:
- how people interact with the new urban elements (and also the perspective of the tourists)
- the correlation between social identity and the activities in the square
- the relation of the square with the Kazimierz and Podgorze areas (with Jewish communities)
- the patterns in using the public space
- the presence of Jewish symbols and the way people react to them
- the presence of Jewish community in the square

In the end, I will try to compare the Zgody Square with some other european public squares with a powerful ethnic dimension in order to see the impact of the ethnic memory on contemporary urban life.

Note: the images were provided by the architect Piotr Lewicki.

Siobhan Magee - Ostrava and Krakow Research Draft

2010-03-13T21:28:00.000+01:00

Introduction
The actions and appearance of a passenger on a tram often mark them out as either an ‘insider’ or an ‘outsider’. This distinction is central to the idea of ‘ethnicity in the city’ because ‘ethnicity’ and ‘culture’ are political concepts with the power to be either inclusive or damagingly exclusive. When we think about our travels on trams, or indeed or other forms of public transport in European cities, one of the words that is likely to describe our journeys is ‘busy’- that is, busy with people. This business is also at the heart of what makes the city special- that it contains a great number of people who, despite their close proximity to one another, are strangers with diverse beliefs, backgrounds and lifestyles. In which ways do these people feel a common bond, a sense of community with one another? In which ways to they fear, resent and misunderstand those whom they perceive as ‘different’?

‘Insiders’ and ‘outsiders’?
Ethnicity is based on a feeling of belonging to particular historical or cultural tradition. I predict that the discussions and fieldwork in Ostrava and in Krakow will expose the trickiness of the word ‘ethnicity’. It is a confusing term because it is very similar to ‘culture’. It is also a potentially very dangerous word. Both historically and in the present day, ‘ethnicity’ is brandished as a tool for exclusion, racism, discrimination and genocide. ‘Ethnicity’ is a sensitive and momentous topic. It is impossible to give it a thorough and ethical appraisal in only two days. But I suggest that the Krakow tram works as a snapshot of the ‘insider/outsider’ dichotomy central to ethnicity.
On the one hand, a tram constitutes a group: when we board a particular tram, we join a ‘community’ in a specific place and time. This community is based on the belief that each passenger wants the same thing: to travel. When we travel on such transport, we are expected to act in a very specific way. ‘Insiders’, those ‘in the know’ within a certain social situation know these rules. For example, on a Krakow tram, there might be a tacit agreement between passengers about how much eye-contact it is acceptable to make with a stranger, or how close one should stand to them. Ideas about generation, disability and gender come to the fore with the mundane but heavily political question ‘for whom should I give up my seat?’
But on the other hand, such rules can create ‘outsiders’: migrants and tourists who are not familiar with tacit and written codes of conduct. People unfamiliar with the tram-system, new to the city, might be unsure about how to buy and validate a ticket. Insufficient knowledge of such a system might lead to the double-threat of social embarrassment and accidental illegal behaviour in the form of fare-evasion. Do people help those unfamiliar with such rules, or do they allow them to consolidate their ‘outsider’ identity?

Perceptions of Trust
Trams, along with other forms of public transport, are many citizens’ most frequent point of interaction with state and municipal governments. When people complain of a tram being late, or being dirty, they very often are also either implicitly or explicitly criticizing those in positions of power. In capitalist societies, municipal authorities also serve as mediators between passengers and advertisers. A passenger on a Krakow tram is exposed to countless advertisements for businesses and services: shopping malls, travel agents, hairdressers- the list goes on. Can municipal governments be trusted to mediate between businesses and the tram’s ‘captive audience’ of consumers?
However, a tram passenger is not only compelled to interact with state and municipal authorities, but with other passengers too. If he/she is able to trust these authorities, and indeed the driver of the tram, in which ways does he/she also go about ‘trusting’ fellow passengers? Public transport is quite unique in its requirement that one exist in close proximity with strangers. Which assumptions do passengers make about others when judging who is ‘trustworthy’ and who might be ‘risky?’ How might these be attached to differences in gender, age, social class or nationality?

How might these issues be explored in Krakow, using the practical and heuristic devices of ‘tramlines’?
• Looking at the map of tramlines. The names and locations of tram-stops tell a story about a city. They are often named after a famous person or a significant event.
• Signs, for example prohibitions such as ‘no drinking’. This could use photography or video.
• Advertisements. This could also use photography.
• ‘Ethnicity’ with the axes of other divisions within society. For example, exploring ‘ethnicity and gender’. Other ideas could be ‘ethnicity and age/generation’ or ‘ethnicity and social class and/or wealth’.
• ’24 hours of the tram’- observing a tram around the clock, to see how its atmosphere changes when light fades to dark, and when it passes through different parts of the city, areas perceived as ‘nice’, ‘not so nice’ and even ‘dangerous’.

Laszlo Szemelyi - Bratislava/Vienna Research draft

2010-03-13T16:30:00.001+01:00

Laszlo Szemelyi
Peter Pazmany Catholic University
Piliscsaba, Hungary

Introduction
When we analyze countries in practically any aspect – from economic growth opportunities through crime and living standards to environment protection and sustainable utility system –, it turns out that the number and proportion of skilled workers is a crucial success factor to the country. Not surprisingly we can take this to the level of cities, the relation between success and skilled workers remains the same, for in any country most skilled workers are employed in big cities.
While the emigration of highly qualified people is a problem more or less all across Europe, it is worth noting that there are two important differences between Eastern and Western countries. Western Europe has long been challenged by the threat of their professionals moving to the USA as the latter is often considered by them offer an almost unmatched mix of money, research personnel concentration and meritocracy. However if we look at Eastern Europe and in this case Slovakia, apparently not only the USA seems to have this kind of pulling attractiveness but also some Western European countries, predominately the Benelux states, UK, Germany and Austria.
Secondly, most Western European countries trying to fill holes in skilled labor force can rely to some extent on historically related countries providing immigrants with proper skills as a heritage of colonialism. In Eastern Europe this source of brain gain is practically absent. Very few skilled immigrants could be described as coming from a country which has been historically dependent on the country of the immigrant’s destination. An example of this kind of immigration source can be the Hungarian diaspora in the neighboring countries. Another example could be the case of Poland, the borders of which having been changed so many times in history.

Research goals
Having touched upon the special circumstances in Eastern Europe under which its skilled migration situation is forming, we should note the fact that the emotional side of migration is at least so important as the economical. Though when we ask skilled migrants about their motivation, income perspectives is by far the most important factor, if we turn to those who decided not to relocate from their home country mention mostly personal reasons like family, friends and culture. No surprise that in case of an emigration in the country of destination the alien environment and the language problems often make the emigrants seek the company of their fellow countrymen.
The question is: are skilled migrants an exception? Is ethnicity, if we define it as forming national migrant communities separated to a large extent from communities of the majority as well as from other national migrant communities, absolutely typical amongst them? And if not, can we note any relation between their ‘skilled nature’ (more educated, having good fix job and consequently higher living standards, possibly more open to higher culture) and their openness to other communities or the openness of the majority to them?
Due to the nature of the problem it is wise not trying to do a survey and decide about skilled migrant ethnicity upon quantitative results. It is much worthwhile doing interviews with them to be able to grasp the shades of community membership, activities and openness to other communities. I plan to talk to skilled immigrants in Bratislava about their view of the communities in the city and their participation in them. I also try to find out how important they think this part of migrant life is and how crucial this aspect was in their decision to relocate to Bratislava.

Research impact
If a city or a country wants to be successful, it has to solve the problem of keeping existing skilled workers, educating more and possibly attracting more from abroad. It is impossible to reach this goal without knowing the motivation of these people affecting their decisions on staying or moving, learning or not, choosing one city or another. My research will help city leaders understand how skilled immigrants view their public relations and what is the possible effect of this on their future location. In addition, this research will show if any ethnic problems are related to the skilled immigrants and what is their opinion about it.

European City Seminars 2010 - Ethnicity in the City

2010-03-13T16:27:00.000+01:00

1) Ostrava (Czech Republic) and Krakow (Poland), 16 – 21 April 2010.

2) Bratislava (Slovakia) and Vienna (Austria), 14 – 18 May 2010.

3) Berlin (Germany), 18 – 21 June 2010

Historically, European cities always faced the challenge of dealing with migration; the urban much more than the rural spaces thus became the realm in which the ability to integrate, accommodate and include diverse and changing populations had to be negotiated. Any talk of inclusion should, however take note underlying power structures, and question who defines the rules of integration. How are the chances of this model´s survival in a changing economic and demographic environment, characterized by the influx of new migrants, the rising power of developers and investors, and the spread of urban areas beyond its historic borders? The uncertainty about the future of the “European city” model is maybe most visible in case of the cities of Central and Eastern Europe, which experience a process of rapid changes that affects the cities´ social and built fabric and the political steering of its development.

With these statements in mind Multicultural Centre Prague (website European City), Insitute for Public Affairs, Villa Decius Association and Rejs e.V. (magazine Plotki) invite researchers, journalists and artists to participate in a unique project that will deal with ethnic themes in central European cities. The outcome of this project will contain several case studies and media material as photo series, audiovisual recordings etc.

Selected participants will participate at the following research seminars:

1) A six day-long 'travelling' research seminar in Ostrava (Czech Republic) and Krakow (Poland), 16 – 21 April 2010. Focusing mostly but not exclusively on the two cities of Ostrava and Krakow, the participants will present and discuss their own contributions and conduct the field research in and around Ostrava and Krakow.

and/or

2) A five day-long 'travelling' research seminar in Bratislava (Slovakia) and Vienna (Austria), 14 – 18 May 2010. Focusing mostly but not exclusively on the two cities of Bratislava and Vienna, the participants will present and discuss their own contributions and conduct the field research in and around Bratislava and Vienna.

and/or

3) A four day-long research seminar in Berlin (Germany), 18 – 21 June 2010. Focusing mostly but not exclusively on the city of Berlin, the participants will present and discuss their own contributions and conduct the field research in and around Berlin.

The programme is open for everyone living in a EU member state with good knowledge of English. Researchers (senior researchers, PHD and MA students in the widest range of social science including but not limited to sociology, geography, anthropology, history, cultural studies), journalists and artists (photographers and film-makers) are especially encouraged to apply.

Some pictures from meeting in Belgium

2009-03-19T11:32:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Lina and René!

Post seminar on post industrial ...

2009-03-19T00:09:00.003+01:00

Le Bois du Cazier

Uploaded some photographs from Brussels and our field trip onto my Flickr page. It would be great if more of us shared their better shots.

Le Bois du Cazier

Cristian MIHU - How to write documentaries about post-industrial space

2009-03-10T13:40:00.000+01:00

The urban and architectural industrial heritage in the post-socialist European countries are scratched on one hand by the indifference, even hostility of post-communist societies which ignore and reject in-corpore their own recent past, and, on the other hand, by the rapacity of the real estate developers, as well as by the political view which often considers post-industrial space only through its capacity of generating economical profit.
Although quite often subject of public debates about the future of post-industrial urban space - especially in post-socialist countries after their European integration - this concerns haven’t been shared to a broader public and did not mark relevant reconsiderations of the decision-makers’ attitude. Therefore, the documentary film might be seen - everywhere in Europe - as a very efficient way of increasing awareness, generating attitude and preoccupations at a larger public level.
But in what extent might such documentaries been made by people who are not professionals of film industry or television? The development of digital technologies allows nowadays a general access to the required film equipment and consequently, allows shooting at prices that were inconceivable ten or fifteen years ago. But even if today more films are made then several years ago, a lot of them are totally or at least partially uninteresting, un-structured, boring, not enough powerful so that they don’t help at all ideas or debates they are trying to serve.
Our presentation aims to underline the importance of the film script for the final quality of any filmed material. Moreover, it intends to present the main dramatic principles of writing for film in general and for documentary in particular, starting from basic concepts as story, structure, plot, premise, and conflict.

...............
Yves Lavandier: „La dramaturgie”, Ed. Le Clown et l’Enfant, Cergy, 1997
Irwin R. Blacker: „The Elements Of Screenwriting”, Macmillan, New York, 1996
Michael Hauge: „Writing Screenplays That Sell”, HarperPerennial, New York, 1991

Anneke INGWERSEN - Luftschlösser, Ivory Towers and “Doorzonhuisen”…

2009-03-10T10:43:00.004+01:00

Second try, because of the bad letter:

Public Spaces constitute an interface for personal perceptions and projections, where imaginations and visual illusions emerge. Besides of being a place where rational restrictions, logical laws and public interests dominate, public streets are at the same time a ‘no - man’s – land’. As such they have the potential of being reshaped by individuals. Over and over again. As an Artist I participate in this reshaping of Urban Space.

In my Fine Art I focus on the combination of the experience of public space and the connotations of optics. Alienation of spaces by shadow - light play is the central theme in my art and my research. By this the aspects of Space and Optics in term of physical experiences are getting together. Especially the possibilities of misguiding the viewer during the process of visual perception grab my attention.

Existing architecture and the structure of public spaces are the starting point for an artistic process. I combine the research about the history of a place with the process of imagination and drafting Fine Art works. This culminates in short videos, light-installations and series of photography’s.

In Brussels I will present this artistic research by some art projects concerning the use of public space realized by myself and others.

In 2007, I concentrated on the psychological Gaze. The starting point was the special Dutch kind of terrace house, the ‘Doorzonhuis’, where the sun can shine through, from the front directly to the back and so does the gaze. During that time I made the video “Leyla in Doorzonland”, where the slightly voyeuristic character Leyla gets a look in the house of the neighbours. It struck me that voyeurism is facilitated by the structure of architecture.

In 2008, my fascination for the philosophical concept of “Panoptism” as used by Michel Foucault resulted in the light-installation “Secret Room”. The term “Panopticum” was used both for the famous “freakshow’s” allover Europe during the last centuries and for the special kind of architecture for a prison introduced by Bentheim, in which the situation of the ‘seeing - it - all’ was created. My different interests came together: the power of the gaze of the other; the human behavior in public space; architecture and shadow play.

‘The concept of Strangeness and Recognition in Art and Philosophy, The Artist’s view on Migration and Alienation’ was the topic of my thesis paper, during the graduation from BA Of Fine Arts. Using P. Leary’s concept of “Strangeness and Recognition” on the street as an interface of meeting and judging, I take photography’s in urban spaces, documenting people and their interactions, f.e. for the book Moskow, in 2006.

I will finish the lecture with an insight into the incomplete process of “Man on the Hill”, exemplary for my long during interest in the political and corporate changes of 1989 in Europe and what that did with my imagination.

Anneke Ingwersen

Castle-In-The-Air, Russia

"Secret Room", 2007

"Panopticum", 2008

"Moskow", book with photography's. 2006

"Man On The Hill", 2006-now

"Säulenhain", 2008

Hana DAŇKOVÁ - Honza

2009-03-09T14:05:00.000+01:00

Honza is miner from Sokolov´s brown-coal mine named "Marie Majerova" after czech working-class writer.
He spent almost his whole life as employee in mines of Sokolov. After year 89´ he tried to switch job and worked in newly grown-up pubs, bars and clubs in mountain area of Krusne hory. Unfortunately, he didn´t succeed to keep the job, while the working conditions in many of clubs and bars focusing on German clients were too tough for him to accept.
After few year, he returned to "Marie Majerova". He is now 53, expecting his retirement in two years. What is he about to do after his retirement, he doesn´t even want to guess. "I spent almost my whole life working here, in mine, and I already know, I cannot do any other job. All my friends are here. I go crazy sitting at home, especially in this city. Appart from job, it doesn´t offer anything."

His city, like many others in this area, were built for workers and their structure didn´t count with people who live different lifes than working ones - pensioners, children, youngsters, disabled people....

Stories of people living in cities can be noted down in many ways, using numbers of media. Space can be parabolized by (motion) picture, drawings, graphics or sound recording. I have chosen the last one.

http://eldar.cz/jitro

Sylwia Strebska - Kamionek

2009-03-07T19:39:00.006+01:00

Kamionek nowadays is a part of Praga Południe district of Warsaw. It has mainly postindustrail areas, former worker’s living areas and old, historical tenement houses. In XI century it was a small village called Kamion. In XIX century it developed rapidly with manufactures and in 1889 it became a part of Warsaw. In
1938 Kamionek had more than 40 industrial plants and factories and became a big industrail district.

Surprisingly that part of the city was not as distroyed as the rest of Warsaw during the 2nd World War. The huge problems of this part of the city started after economical and political changes of 90-ties. Many of factories had bancrupted and people lost their jobs. The key social problems of Kamionek are nowadays:
social stratification, unemployment, marginalization of the poor, pathologies – crimes, alcoholism, lack of social integrity. Unfortunately the heritage of the area is in most of cases devastated. Industrial buildings are being torn down to be replaced by modern ones – especially the living appartments.

At the moment the plans created by the city government to protect and revitalize abandoned industrial historical and socialist complexes and old houses seems to be only on paper. There are many examples of recent demolition of former factories in this area, which were declared as a historical industrial buildings. The area portrays the architectural mess, neglectness and “the moon landscape”. The Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities or the building of the District Court are worth mention as good examples of renovating and adapting the former industrial plants.

The Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities (Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej, SWPS) was founded in 1996. In December 1999, SWPS purchased the former office building and industrial facilities of an electrical device plant on Chodakowska Street. Work on renovating and adapting the premises was launched in January 2001. In October, a ceremony inaugurating the new academic year and SWPS's fifth anniversary was already held in the newly remodelled building.

Gruia BĂDESCU- Steel-Town Makeover: Evaluating Urban Regeneration Policy in Sheffield and Bilbao

2009-03-06T17:56:00.004+01:00

When one of the songs topping the US charts is about unemployment and disillusion in a steel-factory town, we may imply that society is experiencing some deep changes. Indeed, Billy Joel’s 1982 ‘Allentown’ described a situation that became all-too familiar in the early 1980s: the rapid decline of North American and European industrial towns. As the world recession deepened and manufacturing production moved eastward and southward, industrial towns experienced a severe loss of jobs, social disgruntlement, and population shifts. However, we may find today that many of these cities have reinvented themselves through programmes of regeneration, with a variable degree of success. I will present in Brussels a comparison of two case studies that were deemed “successful” urban regeneration schemes: the internationally renowned case of Bilbao, and one of the English responses- the city of Sheffield.

The cities share an industrial past of being important steel producers. In order to solve the problems created by the loss of industry, they both used a cultural policy focused on iconic architecture and city branding. Bilbao was one of the initiators of the trend in contemporary city-making that asked “what can the cultural bring to the economic” (Garcia, 2004), and Sheffield was one of the followers. However, the main question to be asked is how can this type of cultural policy achieve the goals of urban regeneration? Were these strategies successful or do we have here what David Harvey referred to as a “carnival mask”, which takes the attention away from the real problems of the city?

Bibliography:

Cadell, C; Falk, N and King, F (2008) Regeneration in European cities: Making connections, Bristol: Policy Press.

Crouch, C and Scott Hill, M (2004) Regeneration in Sheffield: From council dominance to partnership. Ch. 11 in eds. Crouch, C, Trigilia, C, et al. Changing Governance of Local Economies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Garcia, B (2004) ‘Cultural policy and urban regeneration in Western European cities: lessons from experience, prospects for the future’ Local Economy, Volume 19 (4), pp. 312-326.

Gomez, M (1998) ‘Reflective images: the case of urban regeneration in Glasgow and Bilbao’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 22 (1), pp. 106-121.

Holmes, K and Beebanjan, Y (2006) ‘City centre masterplanning and cultural spaces: A case study of Sheffield’ Journal of Retail and Leisure Property, Volume 6, pp. 29-46.

Plaza, B (2006) ‘The return on investment of the Guggenheim museum Bilbao’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 30 (2), pp. 452-467.

Plöger, J (2007) Bilbao city report, Case report 43, LSE, CASE

Power, A; Plöger, A and Winkler, A (2008) Transforming cities across Europe: An interim report on progress and problems, Case report 49 LSE, CASE.

Rodriguez, A; Martinez, E and Guenaga, G (2001) ‘Uneven redevelopment: New urban policies and socio-spatial fragmentation in Metropolitan Bilbao’ European Urban and Regional Studies, Volume 8(2), pp. 161-178.

Vicario, L and Martinez Monje, PM (2003) ‘Another ‘Guggenheim effect’? The generation of a possible gentrifiable neighbourhood in Bilbao’ Urban Studies, Volume 40 (12), pp. 2883-2400.

Winkler, A (2007) Sheffield city report, Case report 45 LSE, CASE.

Slávka FERENČUHOVÁ - Changes and Continuities in the Post/Socialist Planning of the City of Brno, CZ

2009-03-06T09:03:00.000+01:00

The cities in the post-socialist central and eastern European countries are often described as undergoing important changes since the 1990s. The transformations associated with the overall societal changes concern the appearance of the cities, the processes of their re/building, the strategies of governing and planning, as well as the lives of their inhabitants. The question is whether the current changes in these cities are comparable to the parallel urban development elsewhere in Europe and/or to what extent they are specific to post-socialist cities and influenced by their socialist past. My primary interest is however not in studying the actual appearance and development of the post-socialist cities, nor in observing how they are experienced in the everyday life. I am more concerned to question the ways the different actors - inhabitants, governors, or scientists - talk about the cities, about their inhabitants and about the urban life. I focus on the changes in the conceptualizations and representations of the cities as objects of research, planning, or as places of living. In this particular case, I am interested in urban planning as a specific part of urban governance.

The post-socialist urban planning proposes new visions of the future urban development and new strategies of their realization. The emphasis is often on creating new images of the cities attractive to the potential investors, the tourists, as well as to the inhabitants, and on suggesting the corresponding development projects. The ways the cities cope with the tasks and the new context since the 1990s (the idea of entering the global competition between the cities, the new roles of cities in the nation states, the need to deal with the socialist legacy) have been explained in numerous studies (e.g. Young and Kaczmarek 2008; Cochrane 2006; Cochrane and Jonas 1999; Stenning 2000; Eckardt 2005; Ward 2004)). In the Czech Republic, the planning ideas and principles seem to resemble the current strategies of the urban development elsewhere and, at the same time, to display a radical novelty compared to the urban planning under the socialist regime (Musil 2002). However, in order to understand more fully the changes that occurred in the urban planning in the post-socialist context since the 1990s, it is vital to focus on the basic principles and ideas formulated in planning and to compare them with those that were characteristic of the planning discourse in the previous period. A deep understanding of the changing core ideas of planning (such as what constitutes a city as an object of planning or what represents the planning activity itself) can be best obtained through analysis of textual planning documents issued since the 1950 till today.

Therefore, my focus is on studying the ways the contemporary urban planning conceptualizes the city as its object, pictures the historical situation and explains the ideal planning practice along with proposing new visions of development. In the case of the city of Brno, I compare these representations proposed in the recent planning documents with the corresponding representations created in the past. The aim of such a study is to trace the changes and to depict possible continuities in the planning ideas developed over time. If combined with an overview of the findings about the current planning practice in the cities elsewhere in Europe, this approach allows understanding the specificity of the post-socialist urban planning, as well as commenting on the relationship of its ideas to the historical context.

Cochrane, A. 2006. “Making up meanings in a capital city. Power, memory and monuments in Berlin.” European Urban and Regional Studies 13(1): 5 - 24.

Cochrane, A. - Jonas, A. 1999. “Reimagining Berlin: World city, national capital or ordinary place?” European Urban and Regional Studies 6(2): 145-164.

Eckardt, F. 2005. „In Search for Meaning: Berlin as National Capital and Global City.” Journal of contemporary European Studies 13(2): 187-198.

Musil, J. 2002. „Co se děje s českými městy dnes.” In: Horská, P - Maur, E - Musil, J (eds.) Zrod velkoměsta: urbanizace českých zemí a Evropa. Praha: Paseka. S. 298-331.

Stenning, A. 2000. „Placing (Post)Socialism.“ European Urban and Regional Studies, 7(2): 99-118.

Ward, J. 2004. „Berlin, the Virtual Global City.“ Journal of Visual Culture 3(2): 239-256.

Young, C. - Kaczmarek, S. 2008. „The Socialist Past and Postsocialist Urban Identity in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Łódź.“ European Urban and Regional Studies 15(1): 53-70.

Veronika KOVACSOVA - Shrinking diversity: the usage of space in Bratislava

2009-03-05T14:01:00.010+01:00

In today’s post-industrial economy, where cities are thrust in a whirl of rivalry with each other, the concept of knowledge-based and creative industries appears continuously. A very popular and effective ‘tool’ to revitalize urban economies in many Western societies has been localizing and integrating cultural industries into the cities’ infrastructure, where arts and culture play an important role in urban growth and change.

The concept of cultural industries has been studied extensively during the last few decades, mostly because of its reference and relevance to today’s knowledge-based societies (from a comparative point of view, Ondroš & Korec (2006) even make a link between the historical developments of Eastern and Western Europe, where the post-Fordist or – industrial period is compared to the post-socialist one). A number of urban economists (Harvey, 2001; Martin, 2006) are claiming cities in today’s post-industrial economies will survive through innovativeness, uniqueness, diversity. Often, these factors are identified as pre-conditions for a vibrant environment in contemporary cities, where culture and arts play an important role.

What is happening in today’s urban space of Bratislava, is that empty (especially) industrial buildings are being torn down to be replaced by high-rised buildings designed by internationally renowned architectural studios. Even though independent centers located mostly in formerly empty industrial buildings like ‘13 kubíkov’, ‘Tranzit’ or ‘Cervenka’ exist and provide spaces for exhibiting and creating art, their position compared to Stanica (in Žilina), Kasárne (in Košice) or even A4 (which is a Bratislavian governmentally supported cultural platform) is less influential. Therefore, their existence is also threatened due to difficulties to get finances from the government or even general public. Zukin argues that “artists also derive satisfaction from performing a creative life in spaces that remains distant from both the popular commercial mainstream and high culture venues.” (Zukin, 2008:729). Probably the most successful example of redeveloping a former industrial building is where the Design Factory resides. At the moment, there is no coherent plan created by the city government to protect and revitalize abandoned industrial socialist-complexes. One of the most recent controversies is around demolition of a former factory producing plastic materials Gumon in August 2008, which was declared as a historical industrial building in May 2008. Scott (2007) argues that these abandoned and dysfunctional industrial and commercial sights should be reused and revitalized, providing spaces for artists. Although it may be argued that pilloried artists are agents of gentrification (Zukin, 1995; Ley, 1996; Sassen, 2001:342; Scott, 2008:555) because they move to abandoned buildings in cheaper neighborhoods and revitalize them with their activities, Markusen (2006:1937) claims that in stagnant or small-town environments it is harder to argue that new artistic spaces are displacing anyone.

Jacobs argues that “planners can easily destroy city primary mixtures faster than these can grow in unplanned districts” (Jacobs, 1961:177). The problem is not with building twelve storey houses, but in the routine-mindedness of real-estate developers and standardization – little or no diversity in dwelling types. Jacobs argues that “the more homogeneity of use in a street or a neighbourhood, the greater is the temptation to be different in the only way left to be different.” (Jacobs, 1961:225). Especially preserving and recycling the old-industrial buildings and turning them into concert halls, art galleries or theatres (Evans, 2004; Scott, 2008:556), would create this distinctive factor of a neighbourhood.

References:

EVANS, GRAEME (2004), ‘Cultural industry quarters: from pre-industrial to post-industrial production’. In D. Bell and M. Jayne (eds.), City of Quarters: Urban Villages in the Contemporary City. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited

HARVEY, D. (2001), The Art of Rent: Globalization and the Commodification of Culture. In Harvey, David Spaces of Capital. Towards a Critical Geography, pp. 394-411. New York: Routledge.

JACOBS, JANE (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Vintage Books, New York

LEY, DAVID (1996), ‘Follow the Hippies’: The Cultural Politics of Gentrification. In: The New Middle Class and the Remaking of the Central City. Oxford University Press: Oxford. pp. 175-221

MARKUSEN, A. (2006), Urban development and the politics of a creative class: evidence from a study of artists, Environment and Planning A 2006, volume 38, pages 1921 – 1940

MARTIN, RON (2006), Economic Geography and the New Discourse of Regional Competitiveness. In Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen and Helen Lawton- Smith, eds., Economic Geography, Past, Present and Future, pp. 159-172. London/New York: Routledge.

ONDROŠ, SLAVOMÍR & KOREC, PAVOL (2006). Súčasné dimenzie sociálno-demografickej štruktúry Bratislavy (Current dimensions of the socio-demographic structure of Bratislava), Sociologia (Journal) 38/2006, p. 49-82

SASSEN, SASKIA (2001), A New Urban Regime? In: The Global City: New York, Tokyo, London. Second Edition. Princeton, Princeton University
Press, pp. 329-344

SCOTT, ALLEN J. (2007), Capitalism and Urbanization in a New Key? The Cognitive Cultural Dimension. Social Forces 85, 4, pp. 1465-1482

SCOTT, ALLEN J. (2008), ‘Resurgent metropolis: economy, society and urbanization in an interconnected world’, International Journal of Urban
and Regional Research, 32(3): 548-564

ZUKIN, SHARON (1995), High Culture and Wild Commerce in New York City, In: The Cultures of Cities. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 109-
152

ZUKIN, SHARON (2008). Consuming Authenticity: From outposts of difference to means of exclusion, Cultural Studies, Vol. 22: 724-748

(This text is an excerpt of my Master thesis ‘Bringing Warhol (back) to Bratislava: transformation of the city’s symbolic capital into income’, November 2008)

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In my presentation I will also try to address the current development of the cities in the Netherlands, which are busy with finding sustainable solutions to (re-)use empty office spaces, the product of the knowledge-based economy of the late 1980s and onwards. The issue of office buildings resembles the situation of empty industrial buildings a lot, although this time with a seemingly slightly different and more elaborate agenda.

Petruţa TEAMPĂU - Sulina – the city of memories

2009-03-05T12:31:00.003+01:00

Most post-socialist cities of Romania can be read as a kind of palimpsest with different layers of meaning, where stories and discourses collide in order to establish a new reading of the city, one that puts the recent communist past out of sight. New business networks, new places, new power relations, are being inscribed on pre-existing spaces, while abandoned industrial landscapes are being reinterpreted.

Sulina, the only town of the Delta, is a small place at the mouth of Danube, the most Eastern locality of Romania. The “city” is actually built on a narrow tongue of land between Danube and the Black Sea shore; surrounded by waters, it has no land connection to neighboring localities. A small, insignificant place in the margins of Romania, lost in between waters, a city looking rather like a village, with a dwindling population and a decaying urban landscape, Sulina has a bewildering, savage beauty, a lure of its own. The city bears witness of its different historical epochs and subsequent functionalities through its architectural blend of XIX century buildings, interwar houses, modern terraces and distasteful blocks of flats. Passing from street I to the other five parallel streets of the city entails a unique gradual translation from urban to rural, each with specific architecture and routine.

During communism, Sulina developed a local industry (mainly in fishing and tinning fish, in making carpets and in repairing naval ships). The demographic structure changed radically; most Greeks, Armenians, Jews have left the country; due to the communist politics of intense urbanization, the population was heavily “Romanian-ized”, and many Lipoveni from the neighboring villages in the delta came “to the city”, in the 70’s, to find work. Since the demise of communism, most of the local industry has dismantled; people lost their jobs, the unemployment rate become one of the biggest in the country, and the city continued to destroy itself. Described by newspapers as “a dying city, lost between two ages”, the city of Sulina struggles to have an implausible future by reviving a past it has long lost. Once part and nexus of one of the first European organizations (The European Commission of Danube), today doomed to isolation, Sulina tries to recuperate a regional identity and position. The official discourse increasingly pinpoints to European integration, portraying Sulina as “the gate of Europe”, thus reversing symbolically its - both geographical and socio-political - marginality, as summarized in the favorite catchphrase of the locals: “We are the first to see the light and the last to see justice”.

My research aims at describing how these ongoing changes (political, demographical, social) affect the outlook of the urban scene and, moreover, how they shape each other. In the case of Sulina, memory plays a vital role in (re)inscribing the landscape with new (old) meanings, erasing or obliterating other (and others’) denotation, and in giving a sense to “our’ city.

References

Petruţa Teampău, Kristof Van Assche - „Sulina - marketing diversity at the "gate of Europe"”, Anthropology of East Europe Review (in print)

Petruţa Teampău, Kristof Van Assche - “Sulina, sulina/when there’s water, there’s no light. Narrative, memory and autobiography in a Romanian town”, in Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender, and Culture (in print)

Petruţa Teampău, Kristof Van Assche - „Sulina, a dying city in a vital region. Memory, nostalgia, and the longing for the European future”, Ethnologia Balkanica, 2008, 13, 1.

Håkan FORSELL - Urban Planning and Property Cultures Takings Clauses and Temporary Solutions in European and US Urban Regeneration Projects

2009-03-05T10:46:00.000+01:00

Many cities today in both Europe and in the United States are faced with serious economic, social and physical challenges including shrinking populations, unemployment, poverty, decreasing tax revenues and squalid living conditions. These problems have a dramatic effect on the physical fabric of declining cities, where large parts of the urban areas are characterized by under-utilized infrastructure, deteriorated buildings and vacant land.

Declining and de-industrialized cities in the modern western world was for a long time regarded as isolated incidents, but major research projects and state funded information campaigns, above all in Germany and in Great Britain, have during the 2000s provided a corpus of investigations that highlight the global range of the occurrences. Urban planning, on state and municipal level, is however still shaped in terms of new growth and construction. It is an ongoing process for the urban researchers as well as the distressed urban communities to encourage city governments to become more of an activating and less of a regulating force in future urban planning.

The dominating interest in recent studies has unquestionably been on urban government achievements to rearrange the legal framework, the administrative routines and the financial investments to infuse fresh life in the urban communities. Less attention has been drawn to the actual implementation of governmental policies vis-à-vis private property owners and investors for revitalizing or successfully reorganizing urban space and urban social relationships.

The present study wishes to examine an assumption being made elsewhere, but seldom scrutinized, in current research on ‘Shrinking cities’, namely that the outcome of public intervention is highly dependent on the ownership structure and the capacities and interests within a specific “property culture”. In declining cities planning tools like zoning have had little to offer since empty or deteriorated space dominates the urban landscape, and private actors have been more or less unwilling to engage in continuous investments. Long-range planning for these areas has recurrently been unsuccessful.

The research approach will study two highly diverse features of private-public property relationships in regeneration projects in the US and in Europe: 1. the takings actions and 2. the “interim solutions” of city or state governments in declining urban areas.

Takings action (expropriation, eminent domain) is a longstanding implementation technique of urban planning involving the power of government to take private property against the will of the owner, as long as the taking is for a public use and just compensation is paid. During the last decade, not least in the USA, governments have used takings action not only to promote public utilities, but to revitalize urban land through economic development by private or semi-public projects.

Interim solutions represents the opposite side of the implementation field that governmental planning and private property owners are involved in. The interim-concept refers to the temporary activation or disposal of vacant land or buildings, and the legal and political framework that makes such a disposal possible. In several cities in Europe, interim solutions have abridged maintenance and security costs for property owners, simplified the building permit process and reduce legal and administrative barriers.

Hence, the study will focus on the extremes of urban planning in post-industrial urban areas, the “hard” vs. the “soft” tools to deal with urban decline. The overarching goal of the study is to test the presupposition that the legal and economic integration or disintegration of private property depends on the city’s political climate, and hence on the city government’s ability and willingness, inability or unwillingness, to mediate new use patterns of land and buildings to empower community and social resources.

Maria SCHILLER - A European intercultural approach in the face of economic decline: what can we learn from post-industrial cities?

2009-03-05T10:44:00.000+01:00

Theoretical Context:
Starting out from my Phd research on governance of cultural diversity in European cities, my paper will tackle the more specific and very topical question how changes in the economic structures of our societies and the withdrawal of the welfare state system can be dealt with in contemporary governance approaches and policy developments on cultural diversity. The wane of multiculturalism and the decline of the welfare state have posed several challenges to multicultural, intercultural and diverstity policies in the past years. In the face of the recently emerging economic crises however new and even more profound challenges to the feasibility of diversity policies can be expected and it is necessary to scrutinize current policy approaches on their abilitiy to provide answers to the emerging questions.

Middle-sized, post-fordist cities, which often have received high numbers of guestworkers in the past seem as highly relevant in this regard, as they allegedly do exhibit some experience with the difficulties of the withdrawal of the economy and might thus also provide examples of good practice within this context. The „Intercultural Cities“ programme of the Council of Europe , which is currently half-way through its pilot phase, features an interesting selection of 12 European cities (Greenwhich/UK, Izhvesk/Russian Federation, Lublin/Poland, Lyon/France, Melitopol/Ukraine, Oslo/Norway, Patras/Greece, Subotica/Serbia, Neuchatel/Switzerland, Berlin Neukölln/Germany, Tilburg/The Netherlands, Reggio Emilia/Italy), with very different situations and histories of diversity. Yet this programme aims to develop and establish a common vision and policy approach of „interculturality“ and to create a network of intercultural cities which later should be expanded to other cities in Europe. While some of the participating cities have been depicted as role models for a very well established welfare system, some of have profound experiences with de-industrialization and the struggle to promote a policy for cultural diversity despite few economic resources and economic hardship among its inhabitants.

I would like to analyze the current engagement of the Council of Europe in promoting an intercultural policy for European cities and scrutinise if this approach is prepared to handle possible difficulties due to economic recession and if it is able to offer answers not only furthering intercultural exchange but also to very substantial questions of economic advancement and change.

Methodology:
In a first step I will thus prepare an in-depth analysis of the policy documents („White paper on intercultural dialogue“) and project material of the „Intercultural Cities Programme“ (Concept Paper, Policy Grid, Resource Pack, Intercultural City Profiles). In a second step I will try to illustrate my analysis on a case study of one city (which will be either through fieldwork in the Czech-German borderland in the framework of the European city seminar or through some investigations/literature review on one of the cities of the intercultural cities programme – most likely Tilburg).

Literature:
Council of Europe
2008 White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue: „Living together as equals in Dignity“

Council of Europe
2008 The intercultural city: what it is and how to make it work: Concept Paper

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural cities: Resource Pack

Council of Europe/ Phil Wood/ Comedia
2008 Ten Steps to an Intercultural City Policy: Guidance for policy-makers with good practice examples

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Greenwhich/UK

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Izhvesk/Russian Federation

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Lublin/Poland

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Lyon/France

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Melitopol/Ukraine

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Oslo/Norway

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Patras/Greece

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Subotica/Serbia

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Neuchatel/Switzerland

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Berlin Neukölln/Germany

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Tilburg/The Netherlands

Council of Europe
2008 Intercultural city profile: Reggio Emilia/Italy

René SEYFARTH: Regeneration for whom: Post-industrial heritage as hegemonic claim for space

2009-03-05T10:31:00.005+01:00

My PhD-project deals with the nexus between heritage and local cultural identity as well as with the thereby produced exclusions within the use and interpretation of urban space. This issue will be addressed by examining architecture, since architecture is frequently perceived as an evidence for local identity in past and present. Urban planning policies often emphasise the need of the inhabitants for identification with the urban space, in many cases by referring to local history and the creation of “meeting places”. But it is rarely questioned whether the references to local traditions, history and the construction of a cultural identity have disadvantageous impacts on society as a whole or on minority or rather marginalised groups in special.

Post-industrial cities are concerned with dynamic processes of the re-interpretation of urban space since their image(s), and one could say, also their right to exist is questioned. Formerly prosperous cities became with their economic decline depreciated and are perceived as an agglomeration of (social, economic, ecological,...) problems. It is not that these problems have not been existed while the economy was prospering – it is more a change of the perception of and debate on post-industrial urban spaces that have been changed. My project is dealing with these debates on change: which heritage is mobilised, which future is projected and not at least: by whom? I will further analyse the claims for urban space (e.g. the differing strategies of urban regeneration in post-industrial cities) and which inclusions and exclusions are produced by these claims and changes. Within this scope I am focussing on contested heritage sites and minorised positions.
Workspaces and industrial sites for example are increasingly considered as important part of the cultural heritage of a city and/or region, especially since the 1970s. However, the importance and significance of architecture is revised from time to time: both as a cultural technique in general and with regard to particular buildings. Accordingly, the strategies of regeneration are different and are often proceeding simultaneously within one city. While the demolition of one industrial building another one is turned into a museum or centre for performing arts, re-vitalised as workspace for production, rededicated as apartment or office space and still other buildings are squatted or are dilapidating without any use. In any case these post-industrial spaces cannot be understood only as of the built environment but also as imagination, intervention and medium, and be it at least as a sign of economic decline. It is part of the social space not only as physical building but also as an object of public and individual perception, of controversy and rivalling interests. This involvement into the social sphere of a city makes architecture and especially those which is marked as “heritage” part within the formation of cultural identity.

Following Kaschuba who criticised the thesis about the homogenising vigours of globalisation and the re-orientation to regional contexts as an opposite tendency to this trend (Kaschuba 2001) and Belina with his deep scepticism about explanations based on culture and tradition (Belina 2003) it should be discussed if there are further possibilities to explain these phenomena and the underlying motivations. As Böhme noted, the production of space (e.g. by architecture as well as by declaring architectural heritage) does not only serve to fulfil a human need for orientation or identity but is also responsible for the suppression of reality/realities (Böhme 1995). Regarded from this perspective, the commodification of urban space in favour of anticipated needs (e.g. of consumers, tourists, or prospective investors) also leads to a scarce attention for differing needs, especially concerning social minorities. For this reason the desire for a distinguishable local identity may just result in an advancing spatial homogenisation and displacement processes like gentrification (Wirth and Freestone 2003).
Taking into account the close relatedness of heritage, tradition, historiography and commemoration – notably by or referring to architecture – and the maintenance of elite formation and hierarchy (Philo and Kearns 1993; Fezer and Heyden 2004) it is important to argue with the inclusive as well as the exclusive potential of policies for post-industrial sites and areas (cf. Lewi 2005; Birke and Larsen 2007; Tan 2008). I hope to contribute to the European Cities Seminar by demonstrating by means of examples some aspects of what this question includes.

Bibliographical reference

Belina, Bernd (2003): Kultur? Macht und Profit! - Zu Kultur, Ökonomie und Politik im öffentlichen Raum und in der radical geography. In: Gebhardt, Hans; Reuber, Paul und Wolkersdorf, Günter (Ed.): Kulturgeographie. Aktuelle Ansätze und Entwicklungen. Heidelberg/Berlin, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag: 83-97.
Birke, Peter and Larsen, Chris Holmsted (Ed.); (2007): Besetze deine Stadt! - Bz din by! Häuserkämpfe und Stadtentwicklung in Kopenhagen. Berlin/Hamburg, Assoziation A.
Böhme, Gernot (1995): Atmosphäre. Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp.
Fezer, Jesko and Heyden, Mathias (2004): Hier entsteht. Strategien partizipativer Architektur und räumlicher Aneignung. In: Fezer, Jesko und Heyden, Mathias (Ed.): Hier entsteht. Strategien partizipativer Architektur und räumlicher Aneignung. Berlin, b_books: 13-31.
Kaschuba, Wolfgang (2001): Geschichtspolitik und Identitätspolitik. Nationale und ethnische Diskurse im Kulturvergleich. In: Binder, Beate; Kaschuba, Wolfgang und Niedermüller, Peter (Ed.): Inszenierung des Nationalen. Geschichte, Kultur und Politik der Identitäten am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts. Köln, Böhlau. Band 7, Alltag & Kultur: 19-42.
Lewi, Hannah (2005): Whose heritage: The contested site of the Swan Brewery. Fabrications 15 (2): 43-62.
Philo, Chris and Kearns, Gerry (1993): Culture, history, capital. A critical introduction to selling places. In: Philo, Chris und Kearns, Gerry (Ed.): Selling places. The city as cultural capital, past and present. Oxford: 1-32.
Tan, Pelin (2008): Istanbul: Neighbourhood resistance and the counter-cultural space. dérive. Zeitschrift für Stadtforschung 33: 15-19.
Waldvogel, Florian (2003): Culture Jamming: Die visuelle Grammatik des Widerstands. In: Babias, Marius und Waldvogel, Florian (Ed.): Die offene Stadt. Essen/Dortmund, Kokerei Zollverein/Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur: 72-82.
Wirth, Renee and Freestone, Robert (2003): Tourism, heritage and authenticity: State-assisted cultural commodification in suburban Sydney, Australia. Perspectivas Urbanas / Urban Perspectives 3: 1-10.

Lina ZIGELYTE: Demolition as a space for (re)action

2009-03-05T04:58:00.009+01:00

'Lietuva' cinema house. Photo: www.vilma.cc

Cities establish themselves upon layers of time and space. However, temporality and spatiality become fluid entities within cities - they are being perpetually redefined.

The concept of a post-industrial European city poses at least a few questions. Firstly, what is post-industrial? Secondly, where do we draw the demarcation lines of Europe in 2009? And finally, what becomes of a city in the light of the other two inquiries?

This presentation focuses on a Pro-Test Lab set up around a cinema house called 'Lietuva' ('Lithuania') in the heart of Vilnius' historical centre. The project, initiated by new media artists duo Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, is probing into the intersection of public and space. While the project questions the legitimacy of cinema's privatisation (which should result in building's demolition followed by erection of residential apartments), artists turned cinema space into a generator of meaning. Pro-Test Lab, set up four years ago upon the closure of 'Lietuva' in the squated ticket office located in the lobby of the cinema house, became a kernel of a movement questioning the demolition of public spaces in the capital of Lithuania. Moreover, Pro-Test Lab addresses inadequate reaction of the public towards these processes.

Furthermore, the project has generated a somewhat symbolic meaning in the country due to the title of the cinema house and the fact that the building was sold to one of the most influential companies in Eastern Europe, with their interests stretching from retail business to nuclear energy. Thus Pro-Test Lab explores the discourse on capital shaping cities.

My presentation poses the question on how such performative demolitions (of places and senses) reshape modern city by generating spaces as realms of (re)action.

Philosopher Brian Massumi argues that we have always lived in the process of simulation and the question lies not in the attempt of tracing the copy or the model, but in addressing how to deal with this simulation. Art, he maintains, neither resembles nor replicates, but 'multiplies potentials' (Massumi, 1989) and recreates a territory, which is not territorial. I contend that performative spaces should become a significant part of modern cities and particularly those in 'new Europe' as capable of transposing history and reshaping the ontological categories of space and public.

Pro-Test Lab. Photo: www.vilma.cc

Bibliography:

Hassenpflug, D. 1998. Atopias - The challenge of imagineering. Available online: http://www.tu-cottbus.de/Theo/Wolke/eng/Subjects/981/Hassenpflug/hassenpflug_t.html

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Interviu su Nerijumi Mileriu: Vilnius: tarp Skandinavijos Siaurietiskumo ir Lenisko Slavizmo. 2007. Kuras, D. Lietuvos Rytas. Available online: http://www.lrytas.lt/-11941752761192779191-n-milerius-vilnius-tarp-skandinavijos-šiaurietiškumo-ir-lenkiško-slavizmo.htm

Latour, B., Yaneva, A. 2008.«Give me a Gun and I will Make All Buildings Move : An ANT’s View of Architecture », in Geiser, Reto (ed.), Explorations in Architecture: Teaching, Design, Research, Basel: Birkhäuser. Accessed online: http://www.bruno-latour.fr/poparticles/poparticle/P-138-BUILDING-VENICE.pdf

Massumi, B. 1987. Realer than Real. The Simulacrum According to Deleuze and Guattari. Copyright, no. 1, pp. 90-97

Shaw, V. D. 2001. The Post-Industrial City in Ronan Paddison (ed.), The Handbook of Urban Studies. London: Sage

Maroš KRIVÝ

2009-03-04T15:48:00.002+01:00

In contemporary European city, post-industrial space represents the main form of obsolete, empty space. I will start by presenting the critique of two main methods of its transformation - speculative redevelopment and conservation. I will then track the origins of a different architectural and spatial sensibility in the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, Robert Smithson and Bernd and Hilla Becher. Their work tries to escape this opposition. Instead, it explores the aesthetics of the empty space itself. But this does not mean that it would escape the „political“ choice between redevelopment and conservation. On the contrary, it aims to change the whole setting of the problem. It is political in the precise sense that it refuses the existing form of the question and rather than giving another answer, it gives a new question. It explores the empty space as such and it focuses on such moments of cities and architecture which are considered as incomplete. But it looks at them as at any other spaces and architectures. Their work gives voice to the before and after of architecture, to ruins and ruins-in-reverse and explores their own autonomous existence.

The presentation will be followed by the short presentation of my own work, in which I explore the problem of architectural „distribution of sensible“ and of the contemporary urban ruins-in-reverse.

Simon CHANG - Gilvánfa: a remote Roma village in Hungary

2009-03-02T13:12:00.002+01:00

In Hungary, only 0.3 per cent of Roma hold post-secondary school diplomas
and only one in four complete primary school. They comprise an estimated 5-7 per cent of the loin national population but make up two-thirds of the prison population. Their jobless rate is over 60 percent, more than six times the Hungarian average. And their life expectancy -- a vital measure describing health, economic and social conditions -- trails the national average by as much as ten years.

Even today, only one in five Gypsy families could afford to send their children to
secondary schools.

Gilvánfa, a distant small village located by the Hungarian border with Croatia, 34km from Péc. The living condition there is poor, the rough “main road” of the village and the filed is the playground of the kids, there is no school, no shops around; few buses came to pick up some women from the village to a TV factory nearby to work…

spotsonscreen@hotmail.com
www.simon.chinito.com

Raluca NAGY and Neil MACLEAN - Le Canal

2009-02-27T14:33:00.006+01:00

Brussels has its river, the Senne / Zenne, as the majority of important cities. But unlike these, the Senne is not visible. In the centre of Brussels, the infectious river was completely covered up to reduce the foul smell and major boulevards were built over top in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Senne is still visible in the outskirts of Brussels.

The only “river” somehow crossing Brussels remains le Canal, officially called the Brussels-Charleroi Canal since it runs from the South of Charleroi to the North of Brussels. The Canal is part of a North-South axis of water transport in Belgium and the North of France. This main purpose of the Canal as part of a water transport network seems to have decreased during the last years, together with the deindustrialisation.

The Brussels bit of the Canal and the gentrification around it, in the area closer to the center, are fascinating.

The Northern area of the Canal still feels industrial, whereas the South one, towards Charleroi, is more “homey”. Walking or biking South along the Canal reveals calmer outskirts with funny street art, strange galleries with giant Buddha-s and people living on houseboats.

When arriving in Ruisbroek, a village outside Brussels, one can be rewarded after a long trip along the Canal with a beer and a cozy atmosphere at the local bar near the train station.

Further South, the Ronquières inclined plane, lifting boats through almost 68 m vertically, is another remarkable feature of the Canal, looking like a big achievement of the glorious industrial seventies which lost its shimmer.

Paula MUHR - Sentimental Journey

2009-02-27T14:26:00.004+01:00

The series is a very personal account of my travels through the Balkans, a visual archive of fleeting encounters and nostalgic metaphors. I refuse to take an objective stance or to tell a straight-forward story which would comply with the clichés related to the Balkans as a politically tumultuous region. Instead, I aim to capture simple almost banal everyday experiences in order to reflect on previously unobserved shades and values of this region in transition. I am constructing a kaleidoscope of everyday fragments which reverberate with childhood memories, histories of migration, different religious traditions or bear residues of the communist era. The emphasis is on registering the cultural density around objects and practices that evoke something which could be termed as cultural unconscious.
By collecting and montaging “impressionistic” records of various urban scenes, I am mapping this heterogeneous, multifaceted and complex region marked by an unstable balance between the old traditional values and modern Western influences. The selected everyday occurrences offer insight into larger social issues, as they are symbolically charged inscenations and ritualised collective constructions. The images have an almost idyllic, utopian value as they represent phenomena which are soon to disappear in the process of modernisation. Yet they are also invested with irony and humour as they testify to irruptions, oddities, and personal inventiveness as a response to the limitations of circumstances present in each particular case.

European City Seminars 2010 – Postindustrial Urban Space

2009-02-20T15:29:00.007+01:00

It has been argued that there is something distinctive about a European City when compared to, for instance, an American city. The ´European City´ as a sociological concept relies on the idea that cities in Europe have demonstrated their power and willingness to make interventions for the prevention of social conflict and the good of it inhabitants. Often, these interventions took place against the strict financial logic or current global trends. In the 19th century, sewage systems and street lighting were first installed into the poor neighbourhoods and local councils choose to house people who weren't able to afford buying or renting property. The rise of the national (welfare) state to its strongest position somewhat reduced the power of cities, as many of the social institutions were transferred to the state.

However, today, with pan-continental institutions and global economic forces coming to the fore, national governments have been weakened to a certain extent. The partial withdrawal of the welfare state again leaves local decision makers in an interesting position. What can and what will they do? How large is the space for independent policies? Are they forced to restructure the European City according to market principles, or will it become a corrective counter-force, which seeks to maintain social cohesion in places where the social fabric has been destroyed by economic changes?