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Contents

Recommendation (Pierre Merlin)

Preface (Viktória Szirmai)

PART I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
  European New Towns in the 21st Century: An Introduction (Viktória Szirmai)
    The issues
    Relevancy of the new towns' development model
  "Socialist" New Towns' Development: the Formation Period (Viktória Szirmai)
    Determining urbanistic doctrines
    Principal objectives of new towns' development
  The Main Characteristics of East-Central European Urbanisation Processes (Viktória Szirmai)
    A different or a delayed model?
    The impacts of transition
    Social-spatial polarisation
  Social-Spatial Mechanisms and Urban Changes in Hungary (Viktória Szirmai)
    Under-urbanisation issues
    The historical background of urban and rural inequalities
    Deepening urban and rural inequalities
    The social structure of the Hungarian metropolitan areas
  Urban Development in Poland, from the Socialist City to the Post-Socialist and Neoliberal City (Grzegorz Węcławowicz)
    The historical background to urbanisation
    Urbanisation under centrally planned economy
    Polish cities as socialist cities
    The transformation of Polish cities into post-socialist cities
    Toward the neoliberal city?
    The main component of urban policy in Poland
    Conclusions
  Developmental Changes in Slovakia's Socio-Spatial Situation (Peter Gajdoš)
    Introduction
    Historical development of Slovakia's socio-spatial situation
    Development of the socio-spatial situation in Slovakia during the period of transformation
    Specific features of transformation changes in towns and their socio-spatial structure
    Settlement and regional impacts of the socio-economic differentiation of society
    Conclusions

PART II. SOCIAL-SPATIAL POLARISATION MECHANISMS IN THE EAST-CENTRAL EUROPEAN NEW TOWN REGIONS - THE CASE STUDIES
    Social Polarisation in Tatabánya and its Region (Júlia Schuchmann)
    Introduction
    The specificities of the transition period
    The main trends of socio-spatial polarisation
    Conclusions
  Social and Economic Transition in Dunaújváros and its Region (Nóra Baranyai)
    Introduction
    The social characteristics
    Features of the social polarisation
    The future of the local society
    Conclusions
  Social and Economic Transformation in Komló and its Region (Levente Halász)
    Introduction
    The town's historical development
    The decline
    Social and demographic characteristics
    Urban economy
    Social polarisation
    Spatial polarisation
    Conclusions
  Economic Restructuring and Social Polarisation in Kazincbarcika and its Region (Márton Berki)
    Introduction
    History of the new town
    Demographic, educational and housing characteristics
    Economy and business environment
    Social polarisation
    Polarisation processes of the new town region
    Conclusions
  The Former "New Socialist City" in the Neoliberal Condition - The Case of Tychy in Poland (Grzegorz Węcławowicz - Dagmara Mliczyńska-Hajda)
    Introduction
    New town concepts versus the concept of the socialist city
    The industrial city as the model for the socialist city
    The perception of the post-1989 problems and crises
    Conclusions
  Nová Dubnica and its Region: The Slovak Case Study Peter Gajdoš - Katarína Moravanská)
    Introduction
    The geographical location and history of Nová Dubnica and its region
    Characteristics of the growth of the Nová Dubnica region and current processes of its formation
    The socio-demographic structures and socio-spatial polarisation
    Conclusions

PART III. POSITIONS OF NEW TOWN REGIONS IN THE URBAN NETWORK - SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
  Social Polarisation Mechanisms in the Hungarian New Town Regions (Adrienne Csizmady - Zoltán Ferencz)
    Introduction
    New town societies versus the societies of large urban regions
    Characteristics of the spatial-social structure
    Comparison of the spatial-social structures
    Conclusions
  Post-Socialist New Towns in the Urban Network (János Rechnitzer - Judit Berkes - Ádám Páthy)
    Introduction
    The rankings of post-socialist towns
    The internal divisions of the post-socialist new towns
    Conclusions
  The Hungarian Old and New Towns - The Results of the Comparative Analyses (Adrienne Csizmady)
    Specificities of the historical background
    Impacts of socialist development policy (1945-1989)
    The features of the transition period (1990-2014)
    Conclusions
  Urban Structures and Architectural Specificities in the Post-Socialist New Towns (Kornélia Kissfazekas)
    Introduction
    General aspects of planning
    Urban structure - urban-scale formal and structural characteristics
    City centres
    Changes in urban architecture and image
    Dunaújváros
    Kazincbarcika
    Mining towns - Tatabánya and Komló
    The Polish example - Tychy
    The Slovakian example - Nová Dubnica
    Conclusions

PART IV. CONCLUSIONS
  The Main Social Polarisation Features of the East-Central European New Town Regions (Viktória Szirmai)
    Introduction
    Path dependency and the contemporary changes
    Social polarisation among the post-socialist new towns
    A "new" urban development model or merely an unfulfilled promise?
    Conclusions

References

APPENDIX
  List of Authors
  List of Figures
  List of Tables
  List of Maps
  Subject Index
  Photos

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Recommendation

New towns were constructed in many parts of the world and in various periods since antiquity, including a lot of medieval cities, despite the fact that the Middle Ages was not a period of rapid urban growth in Europe. But what is considered as the "New Town Movement" took place during the 20th century after the publication of the famous book by Ebenezer Howard ("Tomorrow: a peaceful path to real reform", 1898, reprinted under the title "Garden Cities of Tomorrow) and translated into many languages. The first "garden cities" were built in the London area (Letchworth from 1903, Welwyn after 1919) and later on in France, in the United States and in many other countries (New Delhi, etc.).

But, between the two World Wars, the original New Town Movement faced a rival movement, developed by "modern" architects who organised the "Congre`s internationaux d'architecture moderne (CIAM)" and adopted the "Charte d'Athènes" (1933). After World War II, most architects and urban planners adhered to the CIAM principles and most reconstruction works as well as new urbanisation in Europe were attempts, although not always successful, to respect the rigid rules of the Charte d'Athènes. Only in Britain, the post-war new towns were in the line of Howard's theory and of the first garden cities. In the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and elsewhere, new towns were planned according to the CIAM. As early as the 1930s, and after the war, more than one thousand "socialist towns" were built in the Soviet Union as applications of the Charte d'Athènes revised by the "constructivist" Russian architects. French new towns, whose construction was decided at the end of the 1960s, appeared as a compromise between Howard's and Le Corbusier's (the most famous of the CIAM group) ideas. In Central and Eastern Europe, the construction of new towns was decided, mostly in Poland and in Hungary, and built according to the "socialist town" model.

In most developed countries, from the 1980s, two questions appeared: ‘Should we build a new generation of new towns? What should be done with nearly completed postwar new towns?' The answer has generally been that, due to the decline of demographic growth, and also under the dominant influence of "liberal" ideology, it was useless to build other new towns in the developed countries. And for existing new towns, the best for them would be to become old towns.

In Russia and in other former socialist countries, including Central Europe, an additional question was: ‘Can the socialist new towns, developed under strict state governance and planned economy, adapt to the new context of market economy and to self- governance? For these towns what have been the consequences of the regime change, of the demographic stagnation (if not a decline) and of the loss of economic priority having been given to mining and heavy manufacturing activities (which was the economic base of these postwar towns)?

The interest of the book edited by Viktoria Szirmai is precisely to scrutinise how the socialist towns of Central Europe coped with this brutal change of the political, economic and social context in the 1990s and 2000s. Through several studies written by the specialists of urban development from these countries, the book is concerned mostly with Hungarian new towns (chapters are devoted to Dunaújváros, Komló, Kazinbarcika and Tatabánya) but also with Polish (Tychy) and even Slovak ones (the small town of Nová Dubnica). It appears that these towns were handicapped by their narrow economic specialisations and by a population which was lacking middle- and upper-class families. But most of them succeeded in their adaptation to self- governance. The demographic and social evolution is more controversial. Some towns still have an unbalanced demographic structure, while other ones benefit from a better equilibrium due to ageing and the partial replacement of the original population. The economic level has generally increased, but the educated young population has difficulties to find jobs in towns still dominated by manufacturing activities and this induces significant out-migration.

The book is not limited to the history and the description of the present state of these new towns, not even to a presentation of the evolution since the drastic change of 1989. It includes a lot of comparisons, mostly based on the Hungarian situation: with large metropolitan areas, with other medium-sized cities, etc., in order to point out similarities and differences. The book is mostly written by specialists of social sciences and will concern mainly social planners.

What is the future of these socialist towns? For the main author, there are more questions than answers about their possible evolutions: "What will the new towns do with their heritage? Are they able to build on the peculiarities they exclusively possess? Are they able to build on their past, on their special architectural endowments, on the activities of the inhabitants who are committed to their town? Are they able to actually accommodate the economic and social requirements of today and are they able to act for the benefit of transition? Are they able to renew? Do they have the ability to establish smaller and broader regional cooperation frameworks where cooperation, the joint exploitation of benefits and not the individual competition, and not the other party's displacement is the goal?". It would have been hazardous for the book to provide a clear prognosis. Factors at work are too numerous and mostly unpredictable to allow any forecast. But the analysis included in the book may help to decide what to do in order to help the socialist towns of Central Europe to turn into successful ‘old towns'.

Pierre MERLIN
Professor at l'université de Paris-I (Panthéon-Sorbonne)
President of the Institut d'urbanisme et d'aménagement de la Sorbonne
(Town and Regional Planning Institute of the University Paris-Sorbonne)

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