IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v61y2024i9p1789-1805.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Suburbanisation in East Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Matthias Bernt

    (Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS), Germany)

  • Anne Volkmann

    (B.B.S.M. Brandenburgische Beratungsgesellschaft für Stadterneuerung und Modernisierung mbH, Germany)

Abstract

Rampant suburbanisation is one of the most visible changes evidenced in cities throughout Central and Eastern Europe in the past three decades. In this paper, we analyse how suburbanisation unfolded in East Germany after reunification. We do this against the background of ongoing debates about the usefulness and meaning of the term post-socialism that have questioned the self-enclosed spatiality of the concept and suggest giving the concept of neoliberalisation a more central role in analysing the changes experienced in this part of the world. We show that the suburbanisation process in East Germany rested on three neoliberal policy orientations: (1) extensive investment stimuli for the construction of new rental housing, (2) promotion of home ownership and (3) the privileging of suburban locations through planning gaps. Since all these policies are based on neoliberal ideas, we argue that neoliberalisation and post-socialist reform agendas have appeared as two sides of the same coin. Against this background, we advocate putting the developments that came after socialism at the centre of the research and call for a new generation of studies on post-socialist neoliberalisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Bernt & Anne Volkmann, 2024. "Suburbanisation in East Germany," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(9), pages 1789-1805, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:9:p:1789-1805
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980231218612
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980231218612
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00420980231218612?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer Robinson, 2011. "Cities in a World of Cities: The Comparative Gesture," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 1-23, January.
    2. Joseph Salukvadze & Kristof Van Assche, 2023. "Multiple transformations, coordination and public goods. Tbilisi and the search for planning as collective strategy," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(4), pages 719-737, April.
    3. Glenn Fuguitt & David Brown, 1990. "Residential preferences and population redistribution: 1972–1988," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 27(4), pages 589-600, November.
    4. Tauri Tuvikene, 2016. "Strategies for Comparative Urbanism: Post-socialism as a De-territorialized Concept," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 132-146, January.
    5. Sander, Birgit, 1994. "Anpassungsprozesse in der ostdeutschen Wohnungswirtschaft: Analyse und Bewertung," Kiel Discussion Papers 224/225, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    6. Michael Storper & Allen J Scott, 2016. "Current debates in urban theory: A critical assessment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(6), pages 1114-1136, May.
    7. Colin Mcfarlane, 2010. "The Comparative City: Knowledge, Learning, Urbanism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 725-742, December.
    8. Dorothee Bohle, 2018. "European Integration, Capitalist Diversity and Crises Trajectories on Europe’s Eastern Periphery," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 239-253, March.
    9. Anna Kuteleva & Klavdiya Chernilevskaya & Polina Salnikova & Egor Shevchuk, 2022. "Russia's Actually (Non-)Existent Neoliberalism: The Development of the Russian Far East as Discourse and Practice," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 74(6), pages 968-989, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shenjing He & Junxi Qian, 2017. "From an emerging market to a multifaceted urban society: Urban China studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(4), pages 827-846, March.
    2. Jennifer Robinson, 2022. "Introduction: Generating concepts of ‘the urban’ through comparative practice," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1521-1535, June.
    3. Å ukasz Stanek, 2022. "Socialist worldmaking: The political economy of urban comparison in the Global Cold War," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1575-1596, June.
    4. Hyun Bang Shin & Loretta Lees & Ernesto López-Morales, 2016. "Introduction: Locating gentrification in the Global East," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(3), pages 455-470, February.
    5. Seth Schindler, 2014. "Understanding Urban Processes in Flint, Michigan: Approaching ‘Subaltern Urbanism’ Inductively," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 791-804, May.
    6. Yong-Sook Lee & Eun-Jung Hwang, 2012. "Global Urban Frontiers through Policy Transfer? Unpacking Seoul’s Creative City Programmes," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(13), pages 2817-2837, October.
    7. Hyunjoo Jung, 2014. "Let Their Voices Be Seen: Exploring Mental Mapping as a Feminist Visual Methodology for the Study of Migrant Women," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 985-1002, May.
    8. Marco Allegra & Irene Bono & Jonathan Rokem & Anna Casaglia & Roberta Marzorati & Haim Yacobi, 2013. "Rethinking Cities in Contentious Times: The Mobilisation of Urban Dissent in the ‘Arab Spring’," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(9), pages 1675-1688, July.
    9. Allen J. Scott & Michael Storper, 2015. "The Nature of Cities: The Scope and Limits of Urban Theory," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 1-15, January.
    10. Jennifer Robinson, 2016. "Comparative Urbanism: New Geographies and Cultures of Theorizing the Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 187-199, January.
    11. Tariq Jazeel, 2021. "The ‘City’ As Text," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 658-662, July.
    12. Mary Lawhon & Yaffa Truelove, 2020. "Disambiguating the southern urban critique: Propositions, pathways and possibilities for a more global urban studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(1), pages 3-20, January.
    13. Charlotte Lemanski, 2014. "Hybrid gentrification in South Africa: Theorising across southern and northern cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(14), pages 2943-2960, November.
    14. Julie-Anne Boudreau & Liette Gilbert & Danielle Labbé, 2016. "Uneven state formalization and periurban housing production in Hanoi and Mexico City: Comparative reflections from the global South," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(12), pages 2383-2401, December.
    15. Meng Wang & Yaoqiu Kuang & Ningsheng Huang, 2015. "Sustainable Urban External Service Function Development for Building the International Megalopolis in the Pearl River Delta, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-26, September.
    16. Tauri Tuvikene, 2016. "Strategies for Comparative Urbanism: Post-socialism as a De-territorialized Concept," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 132-146, January.
    17. Nikhil Anand & Bethany Wiggin & Lalitha Kamath & Pranjal Deekshit, 2022. "ENDURING HARM: Unlikely Comparisons, Slow Violence and the Administration of Urban Injustice," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 651-659, July.
    18. Özgür Sayın & Michael Hoyler & John Harrison, 2022. "Doing comparative urbanism differently: Conjunctural cities and the stress-testing of urban theory," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(2), pages 263-280, February.
    19. Tom Goodfellow, 2018. "Seeing Political Settlements through the City: A Framework for Comparative Analysis of Urban Transformation," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(1), pages 199-222, January.
    20. Anke Schwarz & Monika Streule, 2016. "A Transposition of Territory: Decolonized Perspectives in Current Urban Research," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(5), pages 1000-1016, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:9:p:1789-1805. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.