The Czech Sociological Review is announcing a Call for Abstracts for a thematic issue in English on:
'Urban Dynamics and Neighbourhood Change in Cities after Transition'
Guest editors: Martin Ouředníček and Lucie Pospíšilová, Charles University in Prague
Planned issue: Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 52 (6), December 2016
The transition from a centrally-planned to a market-based economy and from a socialist to democratic society brought about significant changes to the urban environment in Central and Eastern European (CEE) cities. Some developments in CEE cities have been similar to what Western cities experienced earlier, but other changes have been specific to the post-socialist context. Twenty-five years of a new political and social system has moreover impacted different cities and the various types of neighbourhoods in them in different ways. Post-transition cities today are facing new urban dynamics and a new kind of socio-spatial differentiation resulting from the same or similar economic and social processes as those experienced by their Western counterparts. To borrow the terms of ecological urbanism, CEE cities have ‘sifted and sorted’ their urban populations into different areas (‘enclaves’), a development not observed under socialism.
It is now possible to thoroughly investigate and assess the consequences of transformation on what we call ‘cities after transition’ in CEE. The population censuses carried out in the region around 2011, a quarter century of data collection on migration and demographic change, and ‘big data’ (e.g. mobile phone location data) are rich sources of information on the CEE population that can provide insight into the post-socialist period of urban development and neighbourhood change. This thematic issue seeks to take advantage of these sources and discuss the changes and processes that have had and have the most dynamic influence in cities after transition and identify the new socio-spatial and spatio-temporal patterns evolving in CEE cities.
The issue welcomes empirically-oriented papers assessing urban changes within the context of post-socialist transition on both the macro and micro level.
The issue is interested in topics such as (but not limited to):
- new evidence of patterns of segregation along socio-economic, ethnic and demographic lines
- new evidence of neighbourhood change in post-socialist cities
- new evidence of housing segmentation along socio-economic, ethnic and demographic lines
- new evidence of mobility patterns in post-socialist cities.
The Czech Sociological Review invites original research articles on this theme from all relevant disciplines (urban sociology and urban geography, urbanism and demography). The deadline for the submission of abstracts of papers (300–500 words) is 31 May 2015. The abstracts must clearly indicate what methodology and data are to be used. They must be submitted directly to the guest editors – martin.ourednicek@natur.cuni.cz and lucie.pospisilova@natur.cuni.cz – who will inform authors of the selection of their proposed paper abstracts by 15 June 2015. Full-text papers will be expected no later than 31 October 2015.