Fragmenting and isolating neighbourhoods: a way of creating flexible spaces and flexible behaviours?

Abstract

The paper discusses changes that have occurred in Poznań neighbourhoods over the last decades. All issues discussed in the article are in the context of two kinds of flexibility: flexibility of neighbourhood spaces (city-planning meaning) and flexibility of neighbourhood behaviour (sociological meaning). A flexible neighbourhood space is understood here as one allowing various groups of inhabitants conflict-free and liberal use to pursue their individual lifestyles, but also a possibility of entering collective life. Flexible neighbourhood behaviours are such life strategies which are chosen by an individual without restraints resulting from a strictly developed area, formal commands, or cultural rituals. The aim of the paper is to seek an answer to the question of the extent to which fragmented and isolated neighbourhoods turn into a rigidly defined common territory and the extent to which they are a space allowing flexible behaviour patterns, and what social behaviours can be found in those areas. I examine this issue in two perspectives: city-planning (flexibility of neighbourhood spaces) and sociological (flexibility of neighbourhood behaviour).

Perspectives of gated communities’ socio-spatial integration: the case of post-socialist Lithuania

“…The increasing development of GCs is also emphasised in the studies of most post-socialist East and Central European cities (Bitušikova et al, 2010;Bodnar et al, 2010;Brade et al, 2009;Burneika et al, 2017;Gąsior-Niemiec et al, 2009;Gentile, 2012;Hirt, 2012;Hirt et al, 2010;Marcińczak et al, 2015;Polanska, 2010;Sýkora, Bouzarovski, 2012;Stanilov, 2007;Stoyanov et al, 2006;etc.). Investigations and case studies of GCs in Poland (Gądecki, 2013;Kotus, 2008), Hungary (HegedŰs, 2009;Kovacs et al, 2014), Bulgaria (Smigiel, 2013), Serbia (Hirt et al, 2010), Lithuania (Pociūtė-Sereikienė, Krupickaitė, 2016) and the Czech Republic (Sýkora, 2009) have revealed increasing social segregation and tensions, as well as a lack of social cohesion and a sense of community within GCs and local society. This new pattern of segregation, which has developed as a 'dominant cultural ideal' (Hirt, 2012), has to be analysed when considering the socioeconomical changes of post-socialist societies.…”