International conference The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-socialist Societies“ takes place from December 4th to 7th in Zagreb in the framework of the manifestation Operation:City 2008.
Previous editions of Operation:City (in the former Badel factory in 2005 and in the former Jedinstvo factory in 2007) have provided an opportunity to reclaim and transform abandoned industrial sites into public spaces. However, Operation:City 2008 is a series of events that showcases the joint activities of independent cultural scene in Zagreb in the fields of cultural production, urban development, spatial policy, cultural policy and citizen participation.
The aim of this international conference is to reflect on the transformations of cities, urban landscapes and urban governance in Croatian, but also other European post-socialist societies.
South East Europe is not a region of huge megalopolises, but rather of administrative and national centres of a smaller scale, such as Bucharest, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Sofia or Zagreb. Transformation crisis, provoked by economic recession and collapse of previous governance, now changed by the new one which started the struggle for transition from centralised system into the democratic society, has overtaken these, above mentioned, post-socialist cities. Furthermore, in former Yugoslav countries these transitions were followed by the war damages and victims, damages of infrastructure and cultural heritage, reset of fundamental human values as well as of social and cultural capital. In this context and vibrant times, cities were faced with the deep crises, which appeared in a daily urban life and in cultural offering.
These post-socialist cities have met fast changes of urban landscape. They were overtaken by trend of building and openings of big shopping malls on the border lines of the cities and by formation and openings of business places and zones in the centres of the cities or on the peripheries of the cities. Illegal building overtook the whole city territory and public investments were inconsiderable. These circumstances were followed by the huge ownership on cars and related to this more and more traffic jam and retardation of the city public transportation.
Anyhow, we can conclude that contemporary social phenomenon demanded new interpretation which changed professional standards of all the participants in the process of city management. Centralised and static concept which was used in urban cultural planning and development of cities, architecture and infrastructure, life of ordinary citizens, can not satisfy requests of dynamic process which had the influence on the whole image of the city.
The whole program of the conference you can find here.
Otagowane jako:
cities, conference, neoliberal policies, post-socialist societies
LabforCulture jest inicjatywą partnerską Europejskiej Fundacji Kultury. LabforCulture jest wdzięczna swoim fundatorom za wsparcie
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Anonymous User | 13 sty 2009