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POST‐SOCIALIST GENTRIFICATIONS: Similar, but Different

Author

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  • Matthias Bernt
  • Agnieszka Ogrododwczyk

Abstract

Contrary to the expectations many urban scholars had after the end of socialism, it has taken almost thirty years for gentrification to become a significant urban development trend in Central and Eastern Europe. The reason for this delay is that there are massive ‘commodification gaps’—institutional barriers to the valorization of land and housing—which could only be overcome with great difficulties. In this article, which is based on an empirical study of gentrification in two second‐tier cities in East Germany and Poland, we pick up on this issue and focus on policies that have affected the likelihood of gentrification. We compare two different trajectories of post‐socialist gentrification, finding that the course of gentrification has been deeply embedded into the dissimilar political‐economic framework of transition in East Germany and Poland. This has led to considerable differences in the timing and geography of upgrading and displacement. We distance ourselves from ‘diffusionist’ views, which portray gentrification as a generalizable trend in which post‐socialist cities are ‘latecomers’, based on a model that has been pioneered in Western cities and emphasizes the specificity of gentrifications as well as their embeddedness in national, regional and local political environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Bernt & Agnieszka Ogrododwczyk, 2025. "POST‐SOCIALIST GENTRIFICATIONS: Similar, but Different," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 531-551, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:49:y:2025:i:3:p:531-551
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.13321
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Agnieszka Ogrodowczyk & Szymon Marcińczak, 2021. "Market-Based Housing Reforms and the Residualization of Public Housing: The Experience of Lodz, Poland," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 91-103.
    2. D. Asher Ghertner, 2015. "Why gentrification theory fails in 'much of the world'," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 552-563, August.
    3. Agnieszka Ogrodowczyk & Szymon Marcińczak, 2021. "Market-Based Housing Reforms and the Residualization of Public Housing: The Experience of Lodz, Poland," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 91-103.
    4. Alan Smart & Josephine Smart, 2017. "Ain't Talkin' ‘Bout Gentrification: The Erasure of Alternative Idioms of Displacement Resulting from Anglo-American Academic Hegemony," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 518-525, May.
    5. Matthias Bernt & Anne Volkmann, 2024. "Suburbanisation in East Germany," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(9), pages 1789-1805, July.
    6. 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.
    7. Joanna Kusiak, 2019. "Legal Technologies of Primitive Accumulation: Judicial Robbery and Dispossession‐by‐Restitution in Warsaw," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 649-665, July.
    8. 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.
    9. Wing-Shing Tang, 2017. "Beyond Gentrification: Hegemonic Redevelopment in Hong Kong," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 487-499, May.
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