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Struggle for the right to the city: Alternative spaces in post-socialist Prague
Pixová, Michaela ; Sýkora, Luděk (advisor) ; Jehlička, Petr (referee) ; Ferenčuhová, Slávomíra (referee)
The dissertation focuses on spaces in post-socialist Prague which transcend the hegemony of capitalist social and spatial relations and provide alternative spaces for non-profit culture and grassroots activities used and operated by students, artistic and creative communities, alternative subcultures, and NGOs. The author presents 14 case studies focused on these spaces, whose existence in the city is threatened. Referring to Marxian urban theory and the concept of the right to the city, the author critically investigates the democratic character of the social structures which are based on the contemporary socioeconomic model, and interprets the way in which the imperative of capital-accumulation, combined with the legacies of the totalitarian past, constrain the development of open democracy and civil society, and the creation of diverse, vibrant, progressive, and socially inclusive urban environments. The empirical part of the dissertation outlines the process of creating and operating alternative spaces in Prague during a changing political-economic context, and describes in detail, alternative spaces that existed in Prague in the early 21st century. The author discusses these spaces in relation to two different regimes, which existed in Czech society before and after the Velvet Revolution in...
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