Czech Housing Estates: Factors of Stability and Future Development

Abstract

Housing estates are one of the most important legacies of the socialist regime and continue to infl uence the shape of Czech towns even today. Despite pessimistic predictions about their future in the early 1990s, they are still a widespread and valued type of housing. This article, unlike other primarily economically oriented studies, analyses the situation and possible future development of Czech housing states by combining three theoretical perspectives from urban sociology: social ecology, the political economy of place, and a culturalist perspective. A contributing factor to the stable situation of housing estates is the ambivalent relationship that exists towards this type of construction, which ultimately never became convincingly stigmatised. Many of the inhabitants of such estates have moreover established fi rm roots in there and their interest in their place of residence is often sustained by a proprietarial relationship towards the fl at they live in. However, some important factors that could cause this to change in the future include the concentration of ethnic minorities in some locations and the risk of the collapse of collective negotiation among occupant-owners. A deep, empirically grounded prognosis of the future of Czech housing estates requires systematic research focused on a specific location and designed to capture the overlooked political-economic and cultural dimensions of this issue.

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