Post-Socialist Urban Forms: Notes From Sofia

Hirt, Sonia

doi:10.2747/0272-3638.27.5.464

Cited by 74 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This can also be formulated in terms of determining the nature of urbanisation processes in the fringe according to the types explained in section 4.1 -Western type, rural-to-urban, or a third, specific type. In accordance with the objectives and scope of this analysis, special attention is to be paid to the research works of Hirt (2006Hirt ( , 2007a, which also addressed the southern outskirts of SofiaSuburban districts Hirt (2007a, p. 757) identified three key characteristics to be explored for the purpose: '(1) demographic (i.e., who moves to the urban fringe), (2) functional (i.e., how are the centre and the fringe economically linked and where do peri-urban residents work? ); and perhaps most notably, (3) locational and motivational (i.e.…”

Section: Analysis Of Residents' Preferences and Motivations Determinimentioning

confidence: 99%

Specific Issues of Urban Sprawl in Bulgaria

Slaev

Kovachev

2015

ESR&P

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Section: Analysis Of Residents' Preferences and Motivations Determinimentioning

confidence: 99%

Specific Issues of Urban Sprawl in Bulgaria

Slaev

Kovachev

2015

ESR&P

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“…While the socialist city had common landscape qualities--a clearly-defined urban perimeter, specific aesthetic character and spatial scale, and a functional balance between public/private and retail/industry (Hirt, 2012)--the post-socialist landscape is not marked in the same way. However, contemporary urban landscapes of the region do share some similar features: high-rise modernist housing developments, imposing public buildings, poorly funded public transportation systems, and blurring of their sharp urban edge (Hirt, 2007).…”

Section: Post-socialist Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical exercise, health, and post-socialist landscapes—recreational running in Sofia, Bulgaria

Barnfield

2016

Landscape Research

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The changes that have been brought about since the end of state socialism include modifications to the urban landscape of cities like Sofia, Bulgaria. There has been a decline in the number of green spaces, sports facilities, and state-run sport programmes. The changing urban landscape has seen the increase in car travel, car parking, and projects such as the Sofia Metro. Citizens from Bulgaria are among the least active in Europe, this has an enormous effect on the prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases. However, during the last decade there has been an increase in recreational running, and in particular informal running clubs in Sofia. This paper uses recreational running to understand the changing landscape of post-socialist cities and its effect on techniques of public health. Using data from two in-depth qualitative case studies of informal running clubs from Sofia to examine the effects of the changing urban landscape on recreational fitness practices and well-being, the rationale of this paper is that this has the potential to generate fresh suggestions about the effective promotion of public health through exercise in view of how and where urban running is currently conducted in post-socialist landscapes.

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“…Bearing concrete constructions, these apartments were marked by a single coherent architectural style, a result of the socialist regime's embrace of a specific strand of modernist architecture in a context based on anti-capitalist and anti-bourgeoisie ideologies and driven by the political objective to provide everyone with a home (Hirt 2006). The materialities of these homes carry with them significant historical and political meaning.…”

Section: Setting the "Stage" Materials Accounts Of (Post-) Socialist mentioning

confidence: 99%

Performing “home” in the sharing economies of tourism: the Airbnb experience in Sofia, Bulgaria

Roelofsen

2018

Fennia

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This article explores how “home” is performed in the emerging sharing economies of tourism, drawing on the example of Airbnb in Sofia, Bulgaria. Based on an (auto)ethnographic approach, this article analyses the sometimes contested ways in which both hosts and guests engage in the everyday embodied practices of home-making. In doing so, it challenges Airbnb’s essentialized idea of home as a site of belonging, “authenticity” or “localness”. It also shows how the political and historical specificities, as well as the materialities of people’s homes significantly shape the ways in which ordinary practices of homemaking play out and consequently affect feelings of (un)homeliness as part of the Airbnb experience. By using performance theory as an analytical framework, this article seeks to contribute to a critical understanding of the contemporary geographies of home in relation to the global sharing economies of tourism, one that is attuned to openness, interrelatedness, and a constant mode of becoming.

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Post-Socialist Urban Forms: Notes From Sofia

Cited by 74 publications

References 29 publications

Specific Issues of Urban Sprawl in Bulgaria

Specific Issues of Urban Sprawl in Bulgaria

Physical exercise, health, and post-socialist landscapes—recreational running in Sofia, Bulgaria

Performing “home” in the sharing economies of tourism: the Airbnb experience in Sofia, Bulgaria

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