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The Expatriate Real Estate Complex: Creative Destruction and the Production of Luxury in Post‐Socialist Prague

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  • ANDREW COOK

Abstract

This article explores the influence of international financial capital on the production of exclusionary housing markets and spatialities in the city of Prague, Czech Republic. It focuses on the regeneration of Karlín, a district of Prague increasingly defined by the presence of luxury housing and high‐specification office developments. Through a critical discussion of two private companies heavily implicated in the renewal of the district, it is possible to examine the ways in which these actors are contributing to this regeneration. I argue that the regeneration of the district is intimately bound up with processes of capitalist uneven development that couple networks of foreign investors with local municipal authorities through an asymmetric set of power relations. These relations are heavily skewed in favour of the private sector, and the complexity of the linkages between these actors makes meaningful regulation of foreign investment extremely challenging. I also suggest that such practices should not be seen as a transitory position between state socialist planning mechanisms and mature ‘Western’ practices of regeneration, but rather as explicitly post‐socialist in nature, and only as a partial reading of a number of different post‐socialisms, instead of being seen as representative of a singular ‘post‐socialist condition’. Résumé Cet article explore l’influence du capital financier international sur la production de spatialités et de marchés du logement générateurs d’exclusion dans la capitale tchèque. Il s’intéresse à la régénération de Karlín, un quartier de Prague qui se caractérise de plus en plus par la présence d’habitations de luxe et d’aménagements de bureaux très spécifiques. À travers une analyse critique de deux sociétés privées fortement impliquées dans la rénovation du quartier, il est possible d’étudier les modalités selon lesquelles ces acteurs contribuent à cette régénération. Celle‐ci apparaît étroitement liée à des processus d’essor inégal du capitalisme qui associent des réseaux d’investisseurs étrangers aux autorités municipales dans un cadre asymétrique de relations de pouvoir. Ce cadre penche considérablement en faveur du secteur privé, et la complexité des liaisons entre ces acteurs rend extrêmement problématique une réglementation sensée de l’investissement étranger. De telles pratiques ne devraient pas être considérées comme une situation transitoire entre les mécanismes étatiques de planification socialiste et des pratiques de régénération ‘occidentales’éprouvées, mais comme étant de nature explicitement postsocialiste, et seulement dans une lecture partielle de plusieurs postsocialismes différents plutôt que dans une vision représentative d’une ‘situation postsocialiste’ singulière.

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  • Andrew Cook, 2010. "The Expatriate Real Estate Complex: Creative Destruction and the Production of Luxury in Post‐Socialist Prague," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 611-628, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:34:y:2010:i:3:p:611-628
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2010.00912.x
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    1. Stefan Buzar, 2005. "The Institutional Trap in the Czech Rental Sector: Nested Circuits of Power, Space, and Inequality," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 81(4), pages 381-405, October.
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    1. Samaneh Sadat Nickayin & Rares Halbac-Cotoara-Zamfir & Matteo Clemente & Francesco Maria Chelli & Luca Salvati & Federico Benassi & Antonio Gimenez Morera, 2020. "“Qualifying Peripheries” or “Repolarizing the Center”: A Comparison of Gentrification Processes in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-14, October.
    2. Jürgen Bruns-Berentelg & Luise Noring & Adam Grydehøj, 2022. "Developing urban growth and urban quality: Entrepreneurial governance and urban redevelopment projects in Copenhagen and Hamburg," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(1), pages 161-177, January.
    3. Jan Kubeš & Zoltán Kovács, 2020. "The kaleidoscope of gentrification in post-socialist cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(13), pages 2591-2611, October.
    4. Monika Grubbauer & Nebojša Čamprag, 2019. "Urban megaprojects, nation-state politics and regulatory capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe: The Belgrade Waterfront project," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(4), pages 649-671, March.
    5. Zoltán Kovács & Reinhard Wiessner & Romy Zischner, 2013. "Urban Renewal in the Inner City of Budapest: Gentrification from a Post-socialist Perspective," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(1), pages 22-38, January.
    6. Kim, Hyung Min, 2020. "International Real Estate Investment and Urban Development: An Analysis of Korean Activities in Hanoi, Vietnam," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Dejana Nedučin & Milena Krklješ & Svetlana K. Perović, 2021. "Demolition-Based Urban Regeneration from a Post-Socialist Perspective: Case Study of a Neighborhood in Novi Sad, Serbia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-29, September.
    8. 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.
    9. Branislav Machala & Jorn Koelemaij, 2019. "Post-Socialist Urban Futures: Decision-Making Dynamics behind Large-Scale Urban Waterfront Development in Belgrade and Bratislava," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 6-17.
    10. Peric, Ana & Miljus, Milutin, 2021. "The regeneration of military brownfields in Serbia: Moving towards deliberative planning practice?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

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