Planning Capital Cities

Yani Valkanov

Suburbanisation in Sofia: changing the spatial structure of a post-

communist city

The spatial structure of the City of Sofia is typical for most of the former
socialist cities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Four concentric zones can
be identified: the city centre, the inner city from the pre-socialist period, the
large panel estates from the socialist period and the suburban ring. The process
of transition to the democratic political system and the market economy
causes a transformation of the urban structure towards that of the capitalist
cities. The general trends in the post-socialist urban transformation in are
the commercialisation of city centres, the regeneration and gentrification of
the inner city areas and the suburbanization in the outer ring. Although these
processes are in the general direction of making the CEE cities more similar to
the Western ones, the transition towards a ‘market city’ is far from complete.
Sýkora & Bouzarovski conceptualize that the post-communist change of the
CEE cities is not a straightforward one-dimensional process of transition from a
‘socialist’ to a ‘market city’, but a rather complex and lengthy multi-dimensional
process involving interrelated institutional, social and spatial transformations.

The paper investigates the institutional, social and spatial dimensions of the
urban transformations in Sofia after 1989. The institutional transformations
changed the basic principle of political and economic organisations. They
were relatively short-termed and resulted in the re-establishment of land and
real estate markets and the emergence of a large number of private actors
operating. The social transformations involved the medium-term period when
people’s behaviours, habits and cultural norms were adapted to the new
environment. They resulted in a social polarisation, in family structure changes
and in the social and cultural values. The spatial transformations involved the
long-term reshaping of the urban structure: changes in the urban morphology,
the land use, the residential segregation. The paper analyses these processes
in relation with the urban planning policy and practices adopted by the city
government.

Abstracts