Changes in the Urban Landscapes of Postsocialist Northern Hungarian Cities (Miskolc, Ózd, Kazincbarcika) since the Regime Change – with particular emphasis on urban rehabilitation

Abstract

Within the confines of recent treatise, three-decade-long urban transformation processes have been scrutinized concerning the alteration of urban landscapes of Northern Hungarian post-industrial cities with particular emphasis on regeneration and rehabilitation. The once homogenous urban structures of Miskolc, Ózd and Kazincbarcika went through serious fragmentation and polarization due to various political, social, economic and environmental changes. Owing to the triumph of capitalism, new urban phenomena have been observed: diverzification of quality urban functions, soft and hard types of gentrification, establishment of functional main squares, enlargement of green urban areas, humanization of public spaces, brownfield investments, social urban rehabilitation, ghettoization, etc. Numerous urban neighbourhoods owning privileged status during the socialist era (block of flats, industrial outskirts) are facing gradual dilapidation, though once neglected spatial units have come into the limelight of post-socialist urban renewal (historic urban cores, inner suburban areas). Gated communities housing the upper class and segregated socio-economic ghettos are located and mushrooming in each other’s direct vicinity. The examined cities must have faced serious urban recession then were obliged to enhance resilience towards economic, social and environmental cataclysms. Eventually their effectiveness can be explained with the niveau of socialist heritage, the adaptability to market economy expectations, the competence of local authorities, the quality of crisis management, the depth of socio-economic crisis after the regime change of 1989/90, the way of local regime changes.