Post socialist or global capitalist? Recent urban form in Belgrade and Krakow compared with developments in the UK

Abstract

Based on recently published work (Djordjevic & Milojevic, 2018; Kantarek, Kwiatkowski & Samuels, 2018) and current studies work at Belgrade University and Cracow University of Technology, recent developments in these cities are compared with UK projects, mainly in Oxford. The projects are located on an urban transect from city centre to urban periphery. Some projects in Belgrade and Krakow e.g. new central area shopping malls, and gated housing communities, are immediately comparable to those in the UK since their form does not only depend on their regulatory contexts but on land ownership, finance and the structure of the development industry. Individual houses on the urban periphery are different as are attitudes towards post war housing estates. It is suggested that these differences depend on the traditions of planning and development, which have been carried across major changes in political and economic circumstances.