Slavomíra Ferenčuhová

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

This article seeks to contribute to the debate on the proposal to decentre urban theory and to develop postcolonial urban studies, and on the related issue of the geography of the production and circulation of knowledge. It focuses on how scholars writing about post-socialist cities explain why their sub-field has so far contributed little to urban theory, and it proposes an alternative––historically informed––perspective on the issue.

Comfort, identity and fashion in the post-socialist city: materialities, assemblages and context

This paper works at the intersection of three bodies of writing: theories relating to fashion, identity and the city; debate relating to urban materialities, assemblages and context; and cultural interventions advancing the study of post-socialism. Drawing on empirical research undertaken in Bratislava, Slovakia, we unpack a blurring of public and private space expressed through clothing. In contrast to elsewhere in the city, in Petržalka, a high-rise housing estate from the socialist period, widely depicted as anonymous and hostile since 1989, residents are renowned for wearing ‘comfortable’ clothes in order to ‘feel at home’ in public space. We describe the relationship between fashion, identity and comfort as an everyday ‘political’ response to state socialism and later the emergence of consumer capitalism. We argue, however, that by considering materialities, assemblages and context that studies of fashion and consumer culture can offer more complex political, economic, social, cultural and spatial analysis. To that end, we show how personal and collective consumption bound up with comfort and city life can be understood with reference to changing temporal and spatial imaginaries and experiences of claiming a material ‘right to the city’.

Introduction: Post-socialist cities and urban theory

The main stimulus for this theme issue came from the perception shared by several scholars that “post-socialist” (or “post-communist cities”)1 cities are poorly visible in the urban studies literat...

Conceptual forum: the “post-socialist” city

Abstract This conceptual forum consists of three contributions that critically assess the relevance of the theme issue’s central concept – the post-socialist city. By doing so, we elaborate on a long-standing discussion that has been taking place among urban scholars interested in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which is whether and to what extent “post-socialist” still makes sense to describe and understand what has been happening in this region’s cities over the past 30 years. In addition, this forum maps potential pitfalls urban scholars encounter when they use this term and searches for ways to overcome these. The first two contributions (Hirt, Ferenčuhová) deal with the role of the socialist city as a theoretical concept to which the post-socialist city is inherently connected. The third text (Tuvikene) proposes a new conceptualization of post-socialism in urban studies that would extend the relevance of the term beyond the imaginary world of post-socialist cities. Together, the three contributions attempt to add to the debate about research on post-socialist cities and its relation to, and position in, international urban theory.