engleski

Transformation of Zagreb in the post-socialist period: an unfulfilled vision

Since the collapse of the socialist system in the 1990s, the post-socialist countries have been trying hard to join European and global political and economic processes in the decades of a long and still unfnished transition process New concepts (market economy, privatization of state property, home ownership rights etc.) have enabled private interest to override public interest. In all areas of life it is clearly visible that the role of the state has diminished, especially in terms of its responsibility for the social rights of citizens ; instead, a relatively small number of private actors (investors, developers) have increasingly gained in importance. During the transition period most countries, including Croatia, have followed similar spatial planning patterns: domination of private interest, random and incomplete construction projects. Spatial planning has been quite intense so that ’East European privatism is like Western privatism on steroids’ (Hirt, 2012: 27), especially since 2000. Urban space is modelled by short-term private interests. Consequently, attractive locations suffer from residential and commercial overbuilding which brings immediate economic proft to those involved in the process. Public interest is conveniently forgotten. Local infrastructure facilities and services become inadequate for pleasant housing or common needs of daily life (lack of public spaces, playgrounds, green areas, schools, kindergartens). Tis is especially visible in Zagreb, which has experienced population growth during the aforementioned period, and which has expanded intensely following specifc urbanization and suburbanization trends. We look at some of these changes (gentrifcation, overbuilding, touristifcation, automobilization etc.) in the centre of Zagreb but also on its periphery.

post-socialism, transformation of urban space, private and economic actors, processes in the city centre and on the periphery, Zagreb

nije evidentirano