ACTA UNIVERSITATIS STOCKHOLMIENSIS Stockholm Studies in Sociology

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS STOCKHOLMIENSIS Stockholm Studies in Sociology

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS STOCKHOLMIENSIS Stockholm Studies in Sociology. New series 50 The emergence of enclaves of wealth and poverty A sociological study of residential differentiation in post-communist Po- land Dominika V. Polanska © D o m i n i ka Polanska, Stockholm 2011 Stockholm Studies in Sociology, N.S. 50 I S S N 0 4 9 1 - 0 8 8 5 I S B N 978- 91- 8 6 0 7 1 - 68- 4 (Stockholm University) Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 56 I S S N 1 6 5 2 - 7 3 9 9 I S B N 9 7 8 - 91- 8 6 0 6 9 - 29- 2 (Södertörn University ) Printed in Sweden by US-AB Tryck och Media, Stockholm 2011 Distributor: eddy.se ab/Södertörn University Library To my Family Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................ 9 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 11 The objective of the thesis ................................................................... 14 THE CASE OF POLAND AND GDAŃSK ................................................. 17 Historical overview of Gdańsk ............................................................ 19 Gdańsk in numbers .............................................................................. 21 Territorial development ....................................................................... 24 Inequalities under state socialism ........................................................ 27 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .............................................................. 31 The Chicago school ............................................................................. 31 David Harvey and the capitalist order ................................................. 33 Harvey‘s theory and the Polish case .................................................... 37 Residential differentiation in a post-communist context ..................... 39 Gated communities in post-communist urban landscapes ................... 42 METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................... 44 The qualitative inquiry ......................................................................... 44 Case study approach ............................................................................ 45 Data and data collection techniques .................................................... 46 The mode of procedure ........................................................................ 50 The study of discourses ....................................................................... 51 Validity and reliability ......................................................................... 52 Being a researcher ............................................................................... 53 Limitations ........................................................................................... 54 Ethical considerations .......................................................................... 56 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION ................................................................ 57 The results of the studies ..................................................................... 58 Concluding remarks ............................................................................. 62 A critique ............................................................................................. 72 Proposals for further research .............................................................. 76 REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 79 APPENDIX ................................................................................................... 90 I. Interview guides and questionnaire .................................................. 90 II. Census data 2002 ............................................................................ 95 PAPER I Decline and revitalization in post-communist urban context- a case of the Polish city of Gdansk .................................................................. 99 PAPER II The emergence of gated communities in post-communist Poland .................................................................................................................... 121 PAPER III Gated communities and the construction of social class markers in post-socialist societies - the case of Poland ............................................ 149 PAPER IV The rise of gated neighborhoods in Poland: legal and regulatory framework ................................................................................................... 171 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing the thesis has been a journey I never will forget. I began my doctoral studies at the Baltic and East European Graduate School (BEEGS) at Södertörn University and as an affiliated student at Stockholm University in 2006. Five years later I can finally behold the efforts put to complete it- you are holding it. To begin with I would like to thank BEEGS, the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies and the department of sociology at Södertörn University for making my doctoral studies possible. I am grateful to many people for their help in writing this thesis. First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisors Apostolis Papakostas, Sven Hort, and Kerstin Jacobsson. Especially I would like to thank Kerstin for stepping in as my advisor the last year and for giving invaluable remarks on the final version of the thesis. I look forward to working together in the fu- ture. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the sociology department for their engagement in my work; some special thanks go to Lisa Kings and Jonas Lindström for being my closest colleagues, Jolanta Aidukaite for be- lieving in me and coaching me throughout the toughest part of the writing process, Akvile Motiejunaite for her support and for showing me that there is a life after thesis. I would also like to mention: Zhanna Kravchenko, Paavo Bergman, Abbas Emami, Arne Ek, Tanya Jukkala, Anita Heber, Erik Löf- marck, Ilkka Mäkinen, Sara Ferlander, Lia Antoniou, Christina Axelsson, Ali Hajighasemi, Sanja Obrenovic, and Magnus Wennerhag and thank you for giving me inspiration and friendly support. I am grateful to Michal Bron Jr. for commenting on different parts of the thesis and becoming a close friend and mentor and to Ola Svenonius, Mi- chael Levin and Kristina Abiala for sharing the interest in wine and for all of the moments spent on wine tastings. Beate Feldmann, thank you for sharing my interest in post-socialist cities. I would like to thank: Teresa Kulawik for her support and lovely smile; Michael Gentile for teaching me how to write an academic article; Andrew Stickley for moral support during tough times of review processes, all of my BEEGS-collegues for support and comments given during our annual internal conferences; Anna Kratz for giving lustre to the first year of my doctoral studies and Christopher Zetterberg for teaching 9 me the basics of GIS (Geographic Information System). I owe a great dept to the administration staff at BEEGS. My thanks go to Nina Cajhamre, Lena Arvidson, Lena Andersson, Ewa Rogström and Karin Lindebrandt for their kind and never failing support and for making administrative issues under- standable. I would like to express my gratitude to the commentator at my final seminar Per Gustafsson. I am also thankful to Katarina Friberg and Elżbieta Korolczuk for their comments on the final version of the thesis, hoping for great future cooperations! Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Miguel Vergara, for his support throughout the process of writing and for his artistic input to the final ver- sion. I would furthermore like to express my eternal gratitude to my Mother, Barbara Latvala, for her unconditional love and support throughout my whole life. I dedicate this work to you both. Once again, thank you all. Stockholm, May 2011 10 INTRODUCTION Ever since the beginning of industrialisation, social scientists and, in particu- lar, sociologists have been studying their contemporary societies and the social, cultural and economic changes that characterise the historical periods that followed the Industrial Revolution. These changes have broadly been described in such terms as ―post-modernity‖ (Lyotard, Harvey, Baudrillard, Habermas), ―late modernity‖ (Giddens), ―liquid modernity‖ (Bauman), or ―first and second modernity‖ (Beck). The common belief among these scholars is that a ―new kind of capitalism, a new kind of economy, a new kind of global order, a new kind of society and a new kind of personal life are coming into being, all of which differ from earlier phases of social de- velopment‖ (Beck, 1999: 2). This new phase of social development is here characterised by increased individualisation, social, cultural and institutional changes and the increasing reflexivity among societies in the global context. Above all, by introducing improved security and higher living standards, this process has brought a growing sense of uncertainty to the lives of citizens in contemporary societies (Giddens, 1990). According to many of these schol- ars, the global risks and dangers originate from new technologies and expert systems we have to rely on in our everyday life. Living in a ―risk society‖ involves risks associated with the use of natural as well as cultural resources and primarily with those produced by the society itself (Beck, 1999: 74). On the other hand, Marxist sociologists focus on the economic basis of these changes and point out the flexible modes of capital accumulation and lais- sez-faire

View Full Text

Details

  • File Type
    pdf
  • Upload Time
    -
  • Content Languages
    English
  • Upload User
    Anonymous/Not logged-in
  • File Pages
    98 Page
  • File Size
    -

Download

Channel Download Status
Express Download Enable

Copyright

We respect the copyrights and intellectual property rights of all users. All uploaded documents are either original works of the uploader or authorized works of the rightful owners.

  • Not to be reproduced or distributed without explicit permission.
  • Not used for commercial purposes outside of approved use cases.
  • Not used to infringe on the rights of the original creators.
  • If you believe any content infringes your copyright, please contact us immediately.

Support

For help with questions, suggestions, or problems, please contact us