Rethinking the role of land privatization in peri-urban transformations in Ukraine: the case study of Sokilnyky, Lviv oblast

  • Roman Lozynskyi Ukrainian Catholic University, Svjentsitskoho St, 17, Lviv, 79000; Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Universytetska st. 1, Lviv, 79000, Ukraine, roman.lozynskyi@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4425-8161
Keywords: post-socialist transformations, peri-urban area, housing, urban morphology, land-policy, privatization, urban planning, critical social theory

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to find out how the distribution and further privatization of land have affected the changes of peri-urban villages in Ukraine since the 1990s, based on the case of the village of Sokilnyky near Lviv. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the redirection of Ukraine's economy from a planned centralized to a market-oriented crony-capitalism, the peri-urban areas of largest cities have become complex, dynamic and contradictory spaces with drastic changes in demography, housing, infrastructure, and land use. The shift of land policy in Ukraine in the 1990s with the weakening of planning regulations and the way land was distributed are the main triggers of how peri-urban areas have been transforming.

The analysis of changes in land ownership, household farming/agriculture, detached houses’ number and size, household income and urban morphology (street network, location of houses and commercial units) in Sokilnyky since 1990s reveals three key consequences of privatization and commodification of land in post-socialist cities’ environs: a) land privatization provided the opportunity for small-scale household farming/agriculture for one class of people as a survival strategy, especially during the economic crisis of the 1990s, and a place for housing and commercial construction for another, causing the eclectic nature of peri-urban settlements with mixing different classes of people with different lifestyles; b) land distribution and privatization were crucial in the emergence of chaotic, fragmented and ad-hoc housing and commercial units, since land division into plots in the 1990s preceded urban planning and master plan development; c) privatization has also created a condition for biased land-development for profit, resulting in shrinkage of public spaces, communal lands and green open spaces.

The study is based on statistics from local government, historical map analysis, informal interviews/personal communication with urban planners and officials, and fieldwork visual analysis.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Roman Lozynskyi, Ukrainian Catholic University, Svjentsitskoho St, 17, Lviv, 79000; Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Universytetska st. 1, Lviv, 79000, Ukraine, roman.lozynskyi@gmail.com

Master of Science in Geography, Lecturer of the Cultural Studies Department, PhD Student of the Department of Human Geography

References

Atlas avtodorih Ukrainy [Ukraine Road Atlas]. (2012). Kartografiya: Kyiv [in Ukrainian].

Braychenko, O. (2018). Ukrainske peredmistya i protsesy suburbanizatsii [Ukrainian suburbs and suburbanization pro-cesses]. Anthropologii transformatsii. Ukrainske suspilstvo v umovakh globalizatsii ta mizkulturnoi vzayemodii – An-thropology of trarnsformations. Ukrainian society in the conditions of globalization and intercultural interaction, (pp.162-180) [in Ukrainian].

Boytsun, М. (2014). Startegiya rozvytku i rezym nakopychennya: povernennya kapitalismu do Ukrainy [Develop-ment strategy and accumulation regime: return of capitalism to Ukraine]. Spilne – Commons. Retrieved from https://commons.com.ua/uk/strategiya-rozvitku-i-rezhim-nakopichennya-povernennya-kapitalizmu-do-ukrayini/ [in Ukrainian].

Cherevenko, N. (2014). Bahatokvartyrne zytlo u silskiy mistsevosti zony vplyvu Lvova [High-rise buildings in the rural area of Lviv influence zone] Visnyk Lvivskoho natsionalnoho ahrarnoho universytetu. «Seria Arkhitektura i silskohosodarske vyrobnytstvo» - Bulletin of Lviv National Agrarian University. «Architecture and Agricultural Construction Series», 15, 186-191 [in Ukrainian].

Cybriwsky, R.A. (2016). Whose City? Kyiv and its River After Socialism. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Ge-ography, 98(4), 367-379.

Gnatyuk, O. (2017). Demographic dimension of suburbanization in Ukraine in the light of urban development theories. AUC Geographica, 52(2), 151-163.

Gomez, B., & Jones III, J.P. (Eds.). (2010). Research methods in geography. A critical introduction. Wiley-Blackwell.

Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M., & Whatmore S., (Eds.). (2009). The Dictionary of Human Geography, 5th ed. Wiley-Blackwell.

Groth, P.E. (1997). Frameworks for cultural landscape study. Understanding ordinary landscapes. Groth, P.E., & Bres-si, T.W. (Eds.). (pp.1-21). New Haven: Yale University Press.

Hirt, S. (2007). Suburbanizing Sofia: characteristics of post-socialist peri-urban change. Urban Geography, 28(8), 755-780.

Hirt, S. (2012). Iron curtains: gates, suburbs, and privatization of space in the post-socialist city. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley & Sons.

Hirt, S., & Stanilov, K. (2009). Twenty years of transition: the evolution of urban planning in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, 1989-2009. Nairobi, Kenya: U.N. HABITAT.

Holovatyi, J. (1997). Sokilnyky [Sokilnyky]. Lviv. Kameniar [in Ukrainian].

Kitchin, R., & Thrift, N. (Eds.). (2009). International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Elsevier.

Klimina, A. (2015). The role of economic class in understanding social provisioning processes in the post-soviet transition: the case of Ukraine. Journal of Economic Issues, 49 (2), 541-550.

Kubijovych V., (Eds.). (1938, 1943). Geografiya ukrainskykh i sumeznykh zemel [Geography of Ukrainian and Neighboring Lands]. Krakow: Ukrainske Vydavnytstvo.

Lovell, S. (2003). Summerfolk: a history of the dacha, 1710-2000. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Maidansky Mykola. (2016). Interview by author. Unrecorded interview. Sokilnyky.

Malchykova, D., & Pylyenko I. (2017). Vid “rozirvanoho” prostoru do metropolizatsii i suburbanizatsii: Khersonska miska aglomeratsia u novykh vymirakh urbogenezu [From “torn” space to metropolization and suburbanization: Kherson urban agglomeration in new dimensions of urbogenesis]. Urbanistychna Ukraina: v epitsentri prostorovykh zmin – Urban Ukraine: in epicenter of spatial changes, 326-338. Kyiv: Phenix [in Ukrainian].

Mezentsev, K., Bradе, I., & Mezentseva, N. (2012). New social and economic processes in Kyiv’s hinterland. Chasopys sotsialno-ekomomichnoi geografii – Human Geography Journal, 12(1), 156-160.

Mezentsev, К., & Kluiko, Т. (2015). Prostorovi transformatsii zytlovykh funktsiy u prymiskiy zoni Kyeva [Spatial transformations housing functions in suburban area of Kyiv]. Chasopys sotsialno-ekomomichnoi geografii: – Human Geography Journal, 18(1), 87-93 [in Ukrainian].

Mezentsev, К., & Kluiko, Т. (2013). Spatial processes in Kyiv metropolitan region: globalization or post-Soviet transformation. Kyivskyi geograhichnyi shchorichnyk – Kiev Geographic Annual, 8, 92-98.

Mezentsev, К., & Manshylina, T. (2017). Prymiska zona Kyeva: dyfuziyni funktsii obsluhovuvannya [Kyiv Suburban Area: diffusional functions of services]. Urbanistychna Ukraina: v epitsentri prostorovykh zmin – Urban Ukraine: in epicenter of spatial changes, 228-303. Kyiv: Phenix [in Ukrainian].

Mezentsev, К., & Mezentseva, N. (2017). Zytlova suburbanizatsia v Ukraini: trendy ta vidminnosti [Housing suburban-ization in Ukraine: trends and differences]. Urbanistychna Ukraina: v epitsentri prostorovykh zmin – Urban Ukraine: in epicenter of spatial changes, 268-287. Kyiv: Phenix [in Ukrainian].

Nefedova, T., & Savchuk, I. (2014). Second suburban residences of citizens in Russia and Ukraine: evolution of dachas and trends of their post-soviet change. Regional Research on Russia, 3(4), 163-71.

Ovsiuk, O., & Soboleva, O. (2019). U poshukakh zamiskoho komfortu: neformalni praktyky novoseliv kyivskoho peredmistya [In search of suburban comfort: informal practices of newcomers to the Kyiv suburbs]. Spilne – Com-mons, 12, 76-81.

Stanilov, K., & Sykora, L. (2014). The challenge of postsocialist suburbanization and managing suburbanization in postsocialist Europe. Confronting suburbanization: urban decentralization in postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe, edited by Stanilov, Kiril, and Luděk Sýkora, 1-32. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell.

Tsenkova, S., (2010). Informal settlements in post-communist cities: diversity factors and patterns. Urbani Izziv, 21(2), 73-84.

Ukrainian Census. Retrieved from http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/.

Proekt Zakonu pro vnesennya zmin do Zakonu Ukrainy "Pro dobrovilne obyednannya terytorialnykh hromad" shchodo dobrovilnoho pryednannya terytorialnykh hromad sil, selyshch do terytorialnykh hromad mist oblasnoho znachennya» [Draft Law on amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Voluntary Amalgamation of territorial hromadas" on the voluntary accession of territorial communities of villages, settlements to territorial communities of cities of regional importance]. Retrieved from http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=61814 [in Ukrainian].

Warf, B. (Ed.). (2006). Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Sage Publications.

Winchester, H.P.M., & Rofe, M.W. (2010). Qualitative research and its place in human geography. Qualitative research methods in human geography, Iain Hay (Ed.). Oxford University Press.

Zakon Ukrainy «Pro poryadok vydilennya v naturi (na mistsevosti) zemelnykh dilyanok vlasnykam zemelnykh chastok (paiv)» [The Law of Ukraine «On the procedure for allocation of land in kind (on the ground) to owners of land shares (paiv)»]. Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/899-15 [in Ukrainian].

Zakutynska, I., & Slyvka, R. (2017). Prostorovyi rozvytok prymiskoi zony Ivano-Frankivska: mentalni mezhi, ne-rivnomirnist, fragmentatsia [Spatial development of Ivano-Frankivsk suburban area: mental boundaries, irregularity, fragmentation]. Urbanistychna Ukraina: v epitsentri prostorovykh zmin – Urban Ukraine: in epicenter of spatial changes, 304-325. Kyiv: Phenix [in Ukrainian].

Zakutynska, I., & Slyvka, R. (2013). Dynamika tsin na zemelni dilyanky v mezakh prymiskoi zony mista Ivano-Frankivsk [Price dynamics for land within the suburban area of Ivano-Frankivsk]. Visnyk Lvivskoho Universytetu. «Se-ria Geografia» - Bulletin of Lviv National University. «Geography Series», 43(2) 187-193 [in Ukrainian].

Citations

Landscape semiotics and visual / textual analysis in Anglo-American cultural geography
(2020) Human Geography Journal
Crossref

Published
2019-12-10
Cited
How to Cite
Lozynskyi, R. (2019). Rethinking the role of land privatization in peri-urban transformations in Ukraine: the case study of Sokilnyky, Lviv oblast. Human Geography Journal, 27, 48-59. https://doi.org/10.26565/2076-1333-2019-27-06
Section
Наукові повідомлення