New Norms — Old Modus. Tensions from Socialist Planning Surviving the Regime Change in Hungary
Abstract
Post-socialist transformation is a widespread phenomenon with numerous variations. Even if the study is restricted to Eastern European countries, their recent developments vary depending on their distinct socio-economic contexts and historic path dependencies.
In constructing new planning systems, these countries did not have a single model to follow. What they shared, however, is that the emerging market system demanded new regulatory forms of planning that were alien to the socialist planning tradition, in which the plan operated more as a horizontal structure synthesizing a range of sectoral public investment programs [Tsenkova, 2011]. Whereas the phenomena of post-socialist urbanization are elaborately reviewed and debated in the discourses on urban geography, economy and governance, the literature on urban planning in these cities is very limited. The first generation of studies on the era’s planning challenges, lacking sufficient empirical material, offered generalized accounts of the links between land reforms, the alienation of real estate, and the development of planning institutions [Andrusz, Harloe, Szelényi, 1996; Bertaud, Renaud, 1997; Hamilton, Andrews, Pichler-Milanović, 2005; Tsenkova, Nedovic-Budic, 2006; Stanilov, 2007]. In response, this paper presents an empirically deep single case study of the urban planning regime’s transformation in Budapest between 1990 and 2010. It introduces the substantial time shifts between the reforms in different domains and the resulting tensions. Whereas economic reforms had already targeted the decentralization of the planning under socialism in the 1960s, the spatial planning system‘s persistence remained apparent even in the years following the regime change. With the rapid and excessive post-socialist decentralization of authority, political competences concerning urban planning were delegated to lower levels. In contrast, its modus operandi long remained largely unchanged, not properly adapted to the transformation of the economic and political systems. The hypothesis is that there exists a nexus between the persistence of socialist planning and the laissez-faire type of post-socialist urban development by means of the internal tensions within the urban planning system and its resulting dysfunctionality under the new market conditions.
The methodology for this study draws on content analysis of policy documents and secondary sources of analytical information pertinent to the urban planning regime in Budapest during the time period under investigation, supplemented by personal interviews with major stakeholders.
Downloads
References
A Fővárosi Városrehabilitációs Keret működésének kiértékelése [Evaluation of Budapest’s Urban Renewal Fund] (2001). Budapest: Városkutatás Kft.
Andrusz G., Harloe M., Szelényi I. (eds) (1996) Cities After Socialism. Urban and Regional Change and Conflict in Post-Socialist Societies. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Inc.
Bertaud A., Renaud B. (1997) Socialist cities without land markets // Journal of Urban Economics. Vol. 41. No. 1. P. 137–151.
BFVT public interest report (2014). Режим доступа: [http://www.bfvt.hu/download.php?98bdd9a700fd3fdaeaead249522f88dd](http://www.bfvt.hu/download.php?98bdd9a700fd3fdaeaead249522f88dd) (дата обращения: 13.04.2017).
Blanchard O. (1999) An Interview with János Kornai // Macroeconomic Dynamics. Vol. 3. No. 3. P. 427–450.
Dániel Z. (1996) A bérlakás-privatizáció paradoxona. Nemzeti ajándék vagy ráfizetés? [The paradox of privatizing rented housing: a national gift or a bad bargain?] // Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review-monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences). Vol. 43. No. 3. P. 204–230.
Demszky G. (2012) Elveszett szabadság: láthatatlan történeteim [Lost Freedom — My Invisible Stories]. Budapest: Noran Libro. P. 269.
Gábor C. et al. (2010) Város — tervező — társadalom [City, Planner, Society]. Budapest. Sík Kiadó. P. 483.
Hamilton F.E.I., Andrews K.D., Pichler-Milanović N. (2005) Transformation of cities in Central and Eastern Europe towards globalization. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
ITS Budapest Stratégia. Режим доступа: budapest.hu/Documents/Integralt_Varosfejlesztesi_Strategia/BP_ITS_Strategia_Megalapozo.pdf (дата обращения: 15.04.2017).
Jałowiecki B. (1988) Społeczne wytwarzanie przestrzeni [Social Production of Space]. Książka i Wiedza. P. 195.
Kiss D. (2018) Modeling Post-Socialist Urbanization. The Case of Budapest. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag. P. 58–65; 135–179.
Kondor A.Cs., Szabó B. (2007) A lakáspolitika hatása Budapest városszerkezetére az 1960-as és az 1970-es években [Impact of the housing policy on spatial structure of Budapest in the 1960’s and 1970‘s] // Földrajzi értesítő. Vol. 56. No. 3–4. P. 237–269 (242).
Ladányi J. (2007) A lakóhelyi szegregáció változó formái Budapesten [Changing Forms of Residential Segregation in Budapest] // A történelmi városközpontok átalakulásának társadalmi hatásai [Societal Impacts of the Historical Centers’ Transformation] / G. Enyedi (ed.). Budapest: MTA Társadalomkutató Központ. P. 199–215 (206).
Némedi-Varga S. (1998) A külföldi tőkeberuházások a világgazdaságban [Foreign Capital Investment in the World Economy] // Statisztikai Szemle, P. 390–406 (391). Режим доступа: [www.ksh.hu/statszemle_archive/1998/1998_04-05/F1998_04-05_390.pdf](http://www.ksh.hu/statszemle_archive/1998/1998_04-05/F1998_04-05_390.pdf) (дата обращения: 18.04.2017).
Rainer J. (2010) Magyarország története. A Kádár-korszak 1956–1989. Budapest: Kossuth Kiadó. P. 40–44.
Somogyi E., Szemző H., Tosics I. (2007) Városrehabilitáció kétszintű önkormányzati rendszerben: budapesti sikerek és problémák (1994–2006) [Urban Renewal in the Dual-Tier Municipal System: Successes and Issues in Budapest (1994–2006)] // A történelmi városközpontok átalakulásának társadalmi hatásai [Societal Impacts of the Historic Centers’ Transformation] / G. Enyedi (ed.). Budapest: MTA Társadalomkutató Központ. P. 69–91 (77, 80).
Stanilov K. (2007) The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe after Socialism. Dordrecht: Springer.
Stanilov K. (2007) Urban Planning and the Challenges of Post-Socialist Transformation // The post-socialist city: urban form and space transformations in Central and Eastern Europe after socialism / K. Stanilov (ed.). Dordrecht: Springer. P. 413–425 (414).
Szelényi I. (1983) Urban Inequalities under State Socialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. P. 148.
Tosics I. (2013) A Conceptual Framework of the Post-Socialist Transition of Cities. Policy, Planning, and People: promoting justice in urban development / N. Carmon, S.S. Fainstein (eds). University of Pennsylvania Press. P. 76–100.
Tsenkova S. (2011) Venturing into Unknown Territory: Strategic Spatial Planning in Post-Communist cities // Urbani izziv. Vol. 2245. No. 22. P. 83–99 (85).
Tsenkova S., Nedovic-Budic Z. (2006) The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe Space, Institutions and Policy. Heidelberg: Physica.
Verdery K. (1996) What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next? Princeton: Princeton University Press. P. 21.