Central European University A Program for University Teachers, Advanced Ph.D. Students, Researchers and Professionals in the Social Sciences and Humanities Summer University

Resource  Persons: 

Gábor Csanádi (ELTE Institute of Sociology)
József Hegedüs (Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest)                     
Eva van Kempen (University of Amsterdam, Holland)
Thomas Knorr-Siedow (Institut fur Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplannung, Germany)
Peter Marcuse (Columbia University, USA)
Enzo Mingione (University of Milano, University of Padova, Italy)
Jiri Musil (Central European University, Prague)
 

Course Description
The socio-economic structure of a city and the spatial allocation of different social groups can be interpreted as the spatially objective reflection of their complex system of social relations. As the house or apartment has the highest value among available durable consumer goods and as the different social groups are trying to express social distances by spatial segregation the changes in the socio-spatial structure of cities can be interpreted as one of the best indicators of changes in basic structural inequalities. In Eastern European cities residental segregation increased significantly during the post-Communist transition. Higher status groups began to move out of the cities into the suburbs and the decline of the inner-city accelerated. Disadvantaged social and ethnic groups are strongly concentrated in urban slums. Subsequently, many Eastern European cities are falling into two parts: one which consists of higher status groups and where business and administration functions are becoming more similar to those in Western European cities, whereas the other part is mostly inhabited by the ’losers’ of post-Communist transition and is becoming more and more similar to third world cities.

The course intends to analyze
- post-Communist urban developments within the context of social and economic
 restructuring,
- the new forces structuring the socio-spatial structure of cities in the context of
   privatization, deregulation and globalization,
- the new roles of urban culture and multiculturality.
 
 Course content
Introduction: János Ladányi
Globalization and the Partitioning of Cities: Peter Marcuse
Urban Poverty and the Underclass. An international comparison. Local Welfare
      Systems:  Enzo Mingione
Changing Patterns of Social and Ethnic Residential Segregation in Budapest and in Comparative Perspectives:János Ladányi
Privatisation and Urban Restructuring: Urbanism as a Way of Life Revisited:
                      Jiri Musil
Privatization and Urban Restructuring in Russian Cities:  Ovsej Shkaratan
Trends in Social Segregation of the Nineties. Integrated understanding of socio-spatial
      system of large conurban areas (Measurement methods and empirical results):
                      Gábor Csanádi
Urban Housing Problems in Central and Eastern Europe after Transition:
                  József Hegedüs
Urban Renewal in the Welfare State. A Means of Social Consolidation or Change?:
                      Eva van Kempen
Urban Renewal as a Means of Civic and Economic Inner-City Revitalisation. Experiences and
    Theoretical Deliberations about Interior Development of European
    Cities in a Contrasting Look at Western and Eastern Europe:
                    Thomas Knorr-Siedow
Conclusions: János Ladányi
 

Round Table Discussions:
     Changes in Urban Governance in Central Europe
          Chairman: György Enyedi
     Privatization Strategies in Post-Communist Countries
        Chairman: Iván Tosics
     New Roles of Urban Culture and Multiculturality
       Chairman: István Teplán
     Urban Inequalities in Comparative Perspective
       Chairman: Zoltán Kárpáti

We have recruited some of the world’s most famous urban specialists in order to give this program a unique perspective via different disciplines from geography to sociology and history.