Local Urban Restructuring as a Mirror of Globalisation Processes: Prague in the 1990s

Abstract

This paper argues that Prague is rapidly becoming a standard Western city considerably shaped by forces of contemporary global capitalism. The impact of global forces on local urban restructuring in Prague is enabled by system transformations, which form the backbone of a government-directed transition to market economy. The system transformations, such as public management deregulation, privatisation processes and liberalisation of prices, have already set 'new rules of the game', have reallocated resources and power, and thus have created the necessary pre-conditions for the next phase of transition. Secondary transformations in the urban environment, such as the struggle for command over space, local labour market restructuring and the emergence of new consumption landscapes, have serious implications for geographically uneven development and the recomposition of urban form. Consequently, the time-space compression, which links Czechs with the Western world, has had highly differentiated impacts on various social groups. In conclusion it is argued that the contemporary transition should be viewed as internal transformations within the project of modernity, and the regulation theory approach is employed to shed light on links between transition in the Czech Republic and contemporary restructuring in the Western world.