Contested Czech Cities from Urban Grassroots to Pro-Democratic Populism

Contested Czech Cities From Urban Grassroots to Pro-democratic Populism Michaela Pixová [email protected] Contested Czech Cities “Neo-liberalisation, and resistance to it by urban grass-roots movements, may be a dominant trend everywhere in the world, but each country and city has a par- ticular trajectory about how political protest develops, changes, and is worked through. Michaela Pixová brilliantly looks at a range of such movements in post-socialist Czechia, and has a fascinating set of stories to tell. Contested Czech Cities combines sophisticated theoretical interpretation with detailed empirical case studies from four cities, and Pixova produces a thought analyses which has considerable political implications for us all.” —Robert Hollands, Professor of Urban Sociology, Newcastle University, UK “Pixova ofers the frst encompassing analysis of Czech urban grassroots movement, taking into account the context of global urban change as well as the specifcities of the local context. A most welcome contribution!” —Kerstin Jacobsson, Professor of Sociology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden “Contested Czech Cities is essential reading for anyone interested in urban activism in a post-socialist environment. Michaela Pixová investigates urban grassroots movements in Czechia, concentrating on how they frame urban problems, which strategies they employ, and what solutions they ofer. Her critical approach towards the often undemocratic nature of Czech urban processes, and their frequent abuse by non-transparent interests, should inspire new activists to emerge and take action.” —Vladimíra Dvořáková, Professor of the University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic “Michaela Pixová provides an empirically rich analysis of four urban mobiliza- tions in the Czech Republic to critically assess the conditions for, and impact of, grassroots activism in post-communist settings. It is a welcome contribution to the literature on post-communist urban grassroots movements.” —Associate Professor Ondřej Císař, Charles University, Prague [email protected] Michaela Pixová Contested Czech Cities From Urban Grassroots to Pro-democratic Populism [email protected] Michaela Pixová Institute of Sociological Studies Charles University Prague, Czech Republic ISBN 978-981-32-9708-1 ISBN 978-981-32-9709-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9709-8 © Te Editor(s) (if applicable) and Te Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Tis work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Te use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Te publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Te publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional afliations. Cover illustration: © Maram/shutterstock.com Tis Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. Te registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore [email protected] For Killi, Izzi, Brad, and Máni [email protected] Preface Tis book is about urban life in contemporary society under the endur- ing grip of neoliberalism and the accompanying dismantling of democ- racy and social welfare. It is about the urban struggles of active citizens and grassroots movements against uncommunicative self-interested governments whose only focus is on accommodating the interests of private business and corporations in the city. Te exact same interests which have turned the built environment of our cities into wealth-producing machines and storage facilities for the accumulated capital of the rich and into spaces where ordinary life is becoming increasingly difcult, if not impossible. Te situation is particularly bad in countries with a totalitarian past, where the gap between politicians allied with private business and citizens is especially large, further reinforcing top-down rule without public participation, and limiting the ability of citizens to change this vicious cycle. But neoliberalism is not only present in the physical space of our cities and the way in which it afects our material lives and political participation. Tis all-encompassing ideology and political economy has had a profoundly destructive efect on many other aspects of our society and the way we operate on a daily basis. Academic and family life vii [email protected] viii Preface have changed as well. Te tremendous struggle I have experienced while writing this book testifes to the fact that young academics in precari- ous working conditions can hardly combine their career with raising a family unless they enjoy some form of class privilege and have the sup- port of their family. Te academic afliations of young researchers are increasingly project-based, temporary, highly neglectful of their personal situation, and full of insecurity. I realized this when I had my second child in the middle of writing this book. My little baby boy had serious health issues which signifcantly delayed my work on the project; how- ever, I was not allowed to interrupt my project, because I had already done that once after having my frst child. To avoid a negative eval- uation from my research funder, I continued to write this book long after I fnished receiving wages—often at night, at the cost of my hus- band’s working hours, or while paying for a nanny from my savings— because my country supports neither childcare for children who are less than three years old, nor academics in a difcult life situation. My child is okay now, but my academic career is not. Overwhelmed with unpaid work, I simply did not have the capacity to submit new pro- jects. Nor could I apply for grants from the funder of this book, because the project had not yet fnished. It has thus taken a long time to fnish this book. While writing it, a lot has changed, including myself. I have always been an enthusiastic urban geographer and urban activist. I love urban geography, exploring cities, and talking and writing about them. During the production of this book, I realized that neoliberalism is not only destroying our cities and the ability of young academics to combine their research with family life, but what is more, I started to feel deep pain because of the destruction it is doing to our planet. Te felonies of the system that runs our lives are wrecking our only home in the entire universe and fating humanity to a dark future. Te crisis of the climate and environ- mental breakdown hit me particularly hard during a long heatwave in summer 2018 and made my writing even harder. I have consequently turned towards climate activism as urban conficts suddenly seemed rather negligible in the face of the unprecedented threat humanity now confronts. [email protected] Preface ix For a while I struggled to fnd motivation to fnish this book, but after time I realized that my fears about the state of the planet and the prospects of our survival have a lot in common with the urban struggles I am writing about. Both national governments and municipal author- ities are illegitimately colluding with private businesses in order to prey upon our limited natural resources, be it the planet—the one and only fnal object in the universe humans have ever been capable of inhabit- ing—or urban space, which is also limited, and whose use value must no more be subordinated to the value of exchange in order to become sustainable and just. Te very same governments and economic system they are supporting and profting from are knowingly perpetuating the self-destruction we are currently living through, destroying the future of the young generation, and doing everything they can to make life both in cities and on the Earth impossible. On a warming planet, overheated by the wolfsh greed of this highly unjust economic system, cities are and will keep turning into spaces which are both increasingly unaforda- ble and unliveable for ordinary people. So fnally, here is this book. A book about urban grassroots movements in Czechia, which have simply become fed up with the non-transparent alliances between political and economic elites, whose insatiable desire for proft is stepping on citizens’ interest to have a liveable city. Tis book is based on research which shows that the only way grassroots movements can disentangle their cities from the infuence of non-transparent networks between political and economic elites is by imposing citizen control over urban governments. It seems that in the context of a particularly closed structure of political opportunity and democratic defcit, this is the only way citizens can achieve the necessary professionalization and democratization of urban processes that would ensure a liveable city. Perhaps we now need a grassroots movement which will do the same to our national government in order to achieve a liveable country and, conceivably, a liveable planet as well. At the same time, we are also living in a moment of deep crisis. A crisis of the environment, of our political economy, and of the entire lifestyle to which we have grown accustomed.

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