Szirmai, V. (ed.): “Artificial Towns” in the 21st Century: Social Polarisation in the New Town Regions of East-Central Europe 179Book Review – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 66 (2017) (2) 175–186. Szirmai, V. (ed.): “Artificial Towns” in the 21st Century: Social Polarisation in the New Town Regions of East-Central Europe. Budapest, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Sociology, 2016. 501 p. In different parts of the world, Artificial Towns, new towns and planned cities frequently represent materialised visions and utopian concepts of com- munity. Due to the close relation between functional and architectural structures and societal ideals, this type of settlement is influenced by changes of the socio-economic system in a particular way. There is a requirement of adapting to new societal needs, and the question emerges how this adaptation affects socio-spatial relations in different contexts. This is the main focus of the book “Artificial Towns in the 21st Century”. It is dealing with characteristic processes of societal re-evaluation and considers the potentials and problems of fitting such towns to new social realities and needs. The 501-page-long edited volume is an out- come of the research project ‘Social Polarisation in the Hungarian and Eastern-Central European “New Town” Regions. Impacts of Transition and Globalisation’. The leader of the project and editor of the volume, Viktória Szirmai, head of department at Kodolányi János University of Applied Sciences, proposes the main aim of the volume as follows: “The mission of this book … is to present polarisation mechanisms, contemporary social structural relation- ships and their economic, political and architectural determination in new towns…” (p. 15). As the subtitle of the book indicates, the focus is the new towns that were developed in communist times in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). However, at the beginning of the book, which introduces the characteristics that are inherent to this type of settlement and distinguish Artificial Towns e.g. from socialist high-rise housing estates, a clear definition of Artificial Towns would have been helpful for the reader. New towns are usually interpreted as prototypes of the socialist way of life and, in some cases, nation- building projects, as well as a solution of the housing question without reproducing social inequality. Their development is associated with forced industrialisa- tion in the communist regime. Hence, their economic base was often mining or heavy industry. After the political changes in and after 1990, these economic sectors experienced a fundamental reas- sessment and devaluation. As a direct outcome of the shift new patterns and dynamics of regional economic development emerged, and socio-spatial polarisation began to increase in the whole of Central and Eastern Europe. These processes had a strong impact on the development of the new towns as well. Areas which were affected by the decline of traditional industries and which were not capable of developing a new economic basis often showed high and increasing dependencies on public transfer payments. This is, beyond others, reflected in the standard of housing and living conditions. Many regional economies within CEE countries are severely challenged by asymmetric power relations in the globalised economy. Hence, socio-spatial dispari- ties have been rising considerably in rural as well as urban contexts (see e.g. Tsenkova, S. 2006; Smith, A. 2007; Brade, I. et al. 2009; Smith, A. and Timár, J. 2010; Ehrlich, K. et al. 2015). It is against this backdrop that large-scale high-rise housing estates and new towns from the communist times are frequently struggling with processes of downgrading and depopulation. As different chapters of the volume show, Artificial Towns established in state-socialist planned econo- mies have managed to cope with the profound trans- formation of the social and economic framework after 1990 in different ways. DOI: 10.15201/hungeobull.66.2.7 Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 66 2017 (2) 180 Book Review – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 66 (2017) (2) 175–186. Although there are numerous studies on urban de- velopment after communism, most of them focus on capital cities (see e.g. Stanilov, K., 2007; Borén, T. and Gentile, M. 2007; Andrusz, G. et al. 2008; Brade, I. et al. 2009), whereas in-depth analyses of new towns are rather scarce. The present book is bridging this gap to a certain extent in the field of post-socialist urban studies. The development of Artificial Towns is a prime example for how challenges of the transformation pro- cess take shape on the local and national levels, and how they influence the social well-being of the local population. Thus, investigating socio-spatial devel- opment of these towns seems a particularly relevant issue. Moreover, extensive empirical information on socio-spatial structures in case study towns mainly in Hungary but also in Poland and Slovakia, as well as the comprehensive comparison with other urban types, provide a sound basis for urban planning strategies. Pierre Merlin, professor of the Town and Regional Planning Institute of the University Paris-Sorbonne, emphasises in his recommendation to the book that the variety of the presented studies might help de- velop strategies to support that “the socialist towns of Central Europe” are turning to “successful old towns”, even if numerous factors have an impact on the process which are hard to predict (p. 13). Detailed description of the eleven new towns in Hungary and the specific local trajectories of selected case studies (also including architectural characteristics and urban structural features) provide a remarkable insight into urbanisation processes in the communist and post- communist periods. Still, it would have been a ben- efit for the book to better embed the results of these studies in contemporary discourses in international urban research. The book consists of four major parts written by so- ciologists, economists, geographers, architects and ur- ban planners. The first part discusses general theoreti- cal considerations of the development of new towns in the 21st century. It scrutinises such diverse issues like the period when socialist new towns were established, general characteristics of CEE urbanisation, and na- tional peculiarities in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. In her introduction Viktória Szirmai juxtaposes the development of new towns in Eastern and Western Europe after World War II with the transition period after 1990, and even makes an outlook to new towns or planned settlements in the developing countries. Her main question while looking for signs of failure or successful renewal is “whether the development of new towns was the possibility of a new urban de- velopment model or an unfulfilled promise” (p. 38). Chapter 2 focuses on the development of socialist new towns, its underlying doctrines of urbanism, as well as their dominant social and ideological mecha- nisms. Szirmai describes the impacts of the trans- formation during the 1990s on Central and Eastern European (CEE) urbanisation, too. In the scientific literature, the identified processes have often been connected with the question if the urbanisation in communist and post-communist contexts represents a typical catch-up development or follows a specific trajectory (e.g. Brade, I. et al. 2009). Szirmai takes a modern and global approach to urbanisation. For her, cities are shaped beyond global and transnational power relations “by each country’s specific histori- cal features or regional power and political-social conditions” (p. 48). The following chapters outline the impacts of com- munism, post-communist transformation and glo- balisation on urban development and urban social- spatial structures in the national contexts of Hungary (Szirmai), Poland (Grzegorz Węcławowicz) and Slovakia (Péter Gajdos). Here the authors provide detailed historical information on interdependencies between the change from socialist to post-socialist societies and socio-spatial differentiation on the local and regional levels. The focus is the complex connec- tion of urban-rural relations against the backdrop of industrialisation and deindustrialisation. The second part of the book gives an in-depth de- scription of the historical development and social-spa- tial polarisation in selected new town regions, which were established in line with programmes of rapid industrialisation communist governments imple- mented in these countries. Out of the six new towns the authors of the book scrutinise four are located in Hungary. They include the regions of Tatabánya (analysed by Júlia Schuchmann), Dunaújváros (Nóra Baranyai), Komló (Levente Halász) and Kazincbarcika (Márton Berki). A case study from Poland on Tychy by Grzegorz Węcławowicz and Dagmara Mliczynska-Hajda, and another study from Slovakia on the Nová Dubnica region by Péter Gajdos and Katarína Moravanská supplement the findings of the Hungarian case studies. Beyond discussing historical considerations, the authors extensively analyse the impact of economic transition and social polarisation on the selected town regions. Descriptions are mainly based on cen- sus data, the results of in-depth interviews as well as local policy and planning documents. The authors point out key problems that are typical for most of the towns they investigate, like over-aging and de- population due to declining birth rates and negative migration balances, and social problems, in particu- lar unemployment. It would be interesting here to learn more about the personal living conditions of the inhabitants and about how they evaluate the qual- ity of urban surroundings in the study areas. Socio- economic disparities, both between and within urban areas, also mirror the residents’ ability or inability of social participation, and determine their unequal ac- cess to social goods like health and education. 181Book Review – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 66 (2017) (2) 175–186. The third part of the book takes different compara- tive perspectives. It aims to identify and explain the ways new towns in Hungary responded to the eco- nomic crisis. Adrienne Csizmady and Zoltán Ferencz investigate whether these towns have been experi- encing a similar increase in socio-spatial differences as large towns in Hungary with more than 100,000 inhabitants, and juxtapose the two urban types along population statistics and questionnaire sur- veys. Beyond others, the authors consider migration plans of the residents and different structural zones within those city regions. They focus on changing centre-periphery relations and processes of social seg- regation. As their results reveal, the social structure of inner city areas in bigger traditional cities reflects the conventional Western trends with an increase of higher status groups, while this tendency does not apply to the new towns. János Rechnitzer, Judit Berkes and Ádám Páthy investigate the position of post-communist new towns in the Hungarian urban network. They carry out a cluster analysis based on data concerning occu- pational structures, employment potential and social indicators like education. They demonstrate that in- dustrial cities in the same cluster are struggling with similar difficulties. Nevertheless, some of them man- aged to cope with the challenges of transformation in a more successful way, while others failed. Adrienne Csizmady provides detailed explanation for such different urban perspectives through a long-term comparison of socio-economic development in the eleven Hungarian new towns, which are gradually becoming old towns. Relying mainly on economic and demographic indicators she distinguishes three types of development, namely advanced, stagnant and declining towns. Her finding that some cities managed to succeed by utilising their socialist her- itage might be surprising on the one hand. On the other hand, it points to the crucial question of how the symbolic and ideological content of new town architecture can contribute to a new urban identity and therefore improve future development prospects. Based on urban structure, the image of urban ar- chitecture and the location, function and composition of the city centre in the selected six towns Kornélia Kissfazekas aims to confront planning ideas of com- munist times with current reality. In fact, she high- lights the similarity of planning principles in various countries despite different national contexts due to the massive dominance of Soviet-modelled urban planning policy. However, peculiar historical, local and geopolitical trajectories resulted in some differ- ences. An important finding is the need for a new view on communist new towns in light of the fall of communism, and the Westernisation of society. Kissfazekas emphasises the reinterpretation and in- creasing attention to the architecture of socialist real- ism as an important urban strategy. This idea opens up new perspectives regarding the potential of such new towns as loci of national or cultural heritage and social identity-making. The concluding final part discusses the impact of the heritage of communist new towns for contempo- rary urban societies. This raises the question whether, and if yes, to what extent, the preservation of charac- teristic features inherited from the communist period provides some potential for future community life. The research presented in the frame of the volume made clear that, despite a considerable trend of so- cial differentiation, the new towns are still workers’ towns, where living conditions of the population are less favourable than the national average. Referring to the different degree of social and socio-spatial changes as well as changes in architecture since 1990 Viktória Szirmai finally puts the question whether Artificial Towns are sustainable environment for their residents or rather an unfulfilled dream of a new ur- ban way of life. The book does not claim to answer this and related queries finally. However, it sketches out a range of development opportunities and provides comprehen- sive information on new towns in CEE, mainly based on demographic, social and economic statistics. In contrast, little information is provided on how the in- habitants themselves perceive their environment and what they think about the future of their hometowns. I suppose it would be fascinating and important for further research in this field to learn more about the subjective perspectives of the inhabitants. It would re- quire a stronger focus on qualitative approaches and methods, however, to reveal the significance of the structural heritage from communist times for the self- perception of the people and for their everyday lives. In sum, the anthology is a very detailed and in- formative scientific contribution to a better under- standing of social development in new towns of post- communist Central and Eastern Europe, but also of socio-spatial development in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in general. All studies and chapters provide remarkable expert information and local knowledge. The analysis of different case studies clarifies that a comprehensive assessment of communist new towns is problematic for the variety of individual settings and development trajectories that are shaped by lo- cal impacts and general socio-economic processes in a globalising world. Notwithstanding, some reflec- tions on how these findings on communist Artificial Towns could contribute to the international scientific debate and what we can learn from them for urban contexts around the world could increase the value of the volume. The book contains 54 figures, 33 tables and 20 maps. The appendix with a number of informative photographs taken by the authors give excellent 182 Book Review – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 66 (2017) (2) 175–186. impressions of architecture and the condition of the built environment in the new towns presented in the studies. The volume is warmly recommended to social scientists, architects and representatives of urban and regional planning as well as to university students interested in regional and urban develop- ment, especially in the Central and Eastern European context. Karin Wiest1 R E F E R E N C E S Andrusz, G ., Harloe, M . and Szelényi, I . eds. 1996. Cities after Socialism: Urban and Regional Change and Conflict in Post-Socialist Societies. Oxford, Blackwell. Borén, T. and Gentile, M . 2007. Metropolitan pro- cesses in post-communist states: An introduction. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 89. (2): 95–110. Brade, I ., Herfert, G . and Wiest, K . 2009. Recent trends and future prospects of socio-spatial differentiation in urban regions of Central and Eastern Europe: A lull before the storm? Cities 26. (5): 233–244. Ehrlich, K., Henn, S., Hörschelmann, K., Lang, T., Miggelbrink, J. and Sgibnev, W. 2015. Understanding new geographies of Central and Eastern Europe. In New Geographies of Central and Eastern Europe. Eds.: Lang, T., Henn, S., Sgibnev, W. and Ehrlich, K., Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1–21. Hamilton, F .E .I ., Dimitrovska Andrews, K . and Pichler–Milanović, N . eds. 2005. Transformation of Cities in Central and Eastern Europe: Towards Globalization. Tokyo, United Nations University Press. Smith, A. 2007. Articulating neoliberalism: Diverse economies and everyday life in “postsocialist” cities. In Contesting Neoliberalism: Urban Frontiers. Eds.: Leitner, H., Peck, J. and Sheppard, E., New York, Guilford Press, 204–222. Smith, A . and Timár, J . 2010. Uneven transforma- tions: Space, economy and society 20 years after the collapse of state socialism. European Urban and Regional Studies 21. (3): 115–125. Stanilov, K . ed. 2007. The Post-socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe after Socialism. Dordrecht, Springer. Tsenkova, S. 2006. Beyond transitions: Understanding urban change in post-socialist cities. In The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe. Eds.: Tsenkova, S . and Nedović-Budić, Z ., Heidelberg, Physica Verlag, 21–50. 1 Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Leipzig, Germany. E-mail: K_Wiest@ifl-leipzig.de