City and Power - Postmodern Urban Spaces in Contemporary Poland

This book is an empirical study of a central European city focused on the political process. The authors use the example of the city of Wroclaw to present a condition of the urban public sphere in the context of local governance. Contemporary specificity of the public sphere is a result of a long process of system transformation in this part of Europe as well as of the impact new global challenges have had on the political process in self-governmental institutions. The book presents the practice of governance as a form of the political in both institutional and civic spheres of the city. The cases provided (related to politics of memory, the symbolic, sports, subcultures and urban movements) show how circulations of governance practices are created and how they influence the institutional borders of the political.

Autorentext

Katarzyna Kajdanek is an Associate Professor at the University of Wroclaw. Her main research interest is the process of urbanisation, urban culture and rural studies.

Igor Pietraszewski received a PhD from the Institute of Sociology at the University of Wroclaw. His main research interest is the sociology of culture, music and memory.

Jacek Pluta received a PhD from the Institute of Sociology at the University of Wroclaw. His main research interest is urban development, sociology of the public sphere and sociology of culture.

Inhalt

To Leave a Trace on Urban Walls: Youth Cultures in the Third Circulation of Memory in the City - Transformation of Architectural Space in Wroclaw - Bike Power. Cycling movement in urban public sphere - Artists and Power in the Field of (Subsidized) Urban Culture - The Football Paradigm in Wroclaw Urban Policy: the Municipalisation of Slask Wroclaw