Urban Social Problems and Marginalized Populations in Postsocialist Transition Societies

Abstract

Despite growing scholarly interest in residential segregation in Central and Eastern Europe, thus far insufficient attention has been paid to understanding marginalization in these postsocialist transition societies through the perceptions of stakeholders. The present article reports the findings of a qualitative study of the perceptions of urban social problems in the city center of Prague, Czechia. Semistructured interviews with the key actors involved in the city’s social development are used to understand what social phenomena they perceive as problematic, how they localize them within the urban space, and how their perceptions translate into policy attitudes. We find that stakeholders emphasize the issues of homelessness, drug addiction, and the appropriate delivery of social services in their narratives. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the repressive nature of policy interventions partly results from a lack of experience of overcoming such societal issues and partly results from weak coordination at the city level.

Measuring Disability Inclusion Performance in Cities Using Disability Inclusion Evaluation Tool (DIETool)

“…For instance, it can be perceived on a basis of gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, ethnicity, socio-cultural background, economic status, etc. For the purpose of designing fully inclusive cities, stakeholders need to understand the needs of citizens within each of these groups and make them a part of their strategic planning and implementation agendas [12,16,17]. However, cities are difficult to design and as a result, vulnerable groups with a set of needs that differ from a "norm" get often excluded [2,[16][17][18][19].…”

Actas del XIX Congreso de Tecnologías de la Información Geográfica. TIG al servicio de los ODS Zaragoza, 12 a 14 de septiembre de 2022

“…Los entornos urbanos juegan un papel fundamental en las sociedades actuales, pues constituyen el motor del crecimiento en todas sus vertientes (Bettencourt y West, 2010) y albergan a una gran parte de la población que, en contextos como el español, asciende a un 82,2 % de la población total (Ministerio de Transportes Movilidad y Agenda Urbana, 2020). Para abordar algunos de los retos de planificación asociados a estos espacios, como la movilidad insostenible, la desigualdad social o las problemáticas ambientales (Banister, 2011;Grimm et al, 2008;Temelová et al, 2017), se requiere de un conocimiento profundo de la distribución espacial de los usos del suelo en estos entornos, necesitando fuentes de información geográfica adecuadas.…”

Assessments of Modal Split in Long-distance Passenger Transport

“…They often have a specific focus, examining the sex, age, social status, subjective perception of feelings during a journey, etc. In Czechia, the research of sociology of mobility, transport behaviour and the choice of the means of transport was conducted by Brůhová-Foltýnová et al (2008) and Braun-Kohlová (2010), while the issues of daily mobility and day-to-day life were dealt with by Temelová et al (2011) and by Mulíček et al (2013).…”