Suburb as a socio-spatial phenomenon and post-socialist city

  • Roman Lozynskyi Ukrainian Catholic University, st. Sventsitskoho 17, Lviv, 79000, Ukraine; Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Universytetska st 1, Lviv, 79000, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4425-8161
Keywords: suburbs, peri-urban, urban planning, urban studies, social theory

Abstract

The article analyzes the history of the emergence of the socio-spatial phenomenon of the suburbs in the Western world and in Ukraine. A comparison of suburbs in the Soviet Union (with regard to suburban villages, dachas and microraiony) and suburbs in the United States and Canada is presented. An understanding of the suburbs and its architectural / urban planning environment from the perspective of social theory is presented. It was found that the suburbs and their architectural environment were used in the propaganda of the United States and the Soviet Union to produce certain cultural meanings with economic and political consequences.

The subtleties of using the concept of the suburbs in the post-socialist context were considered. Based on the main socio-geographical characteristics of suburban areas of Ukrainian cities, it was found that the use of the concept of suburbs requires theoretical analysis in the post-socialist context and its distinction with the concepts of suburbia (direct imitation, written in Ukrainian as “субурбія”) and suburban space (“prymiskyi prostir”). It is argued that the spatial criterion and the criterion of connection with the city (suitable for the allocation of suburban space and suburban area) are insufficient to define the suburbs and do not reflect the complexity of this phenomenon. Important criteria for the allocation of suburbs are also the social status of residents, their daily practices, place and type of employment and leisure activities, which can be summarized as the identity of residents, as well as the type of residential architecture and character of everyday landscapes.

It was found that because Ukrainian suburban spaces are eclectic with a mixture of different social classes and housing, retain their rural face with the presence of farming, the concept of peri-urban or rural-urban fringe is a better term to describe the suburban area of post-socialist cities than the suburbs. Only certain parts of the suburban spaces tend to become American style suburbs with a predominance of single-family houses, one social class and car use. The theoretical features of understanding the phenomenon of the suburbs and more successful concepts for its definition in post-socialist conditions are important for the creation of more socially thought-out urban planning documentation and strategy for their development taking into account local characteristics.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Roman Lozynskyi , Ukrainian Catholic University, st. Sventsitskoho 17, Lviv, 79000, Ukraine; Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Universytetska st 1, Lviv, 79000, Ukraine

Master of Science in Geography, Lecturer of the Department of Cultural Studies;

Engineer of the Department of Geography of Ukraine

References

Baynazarov, A. M., Lohvynova, M. O., Redin, V. I., & Sehida K. Yu. (2018). Naukovi pidkhody do vyznachennya sutnosti ponyattya “Prymiska zona” [Scientific approaches to defining the essence of the concept of «Suburban Zone»]. Scientific Bulletin of KSU. Geographical Sciences Series, 9, 15-22 [in Ukrainian].

Koroma, N. S. (2016). Miskyi prostir navkolo velykoho mista: rezultaty poliovykh doslidzhen [Urban space around a big city: results of field research]. Journal of Cartography, 16, 156-172 [in Ukrainian].

Klyuyko, T. I. (2013). Prymiska zona ta mista-suputnyky yak obyekty suspilno-heohrafichnoho doslidzhennya [Suburban area and satellite cities as objects of socio-geographical research]. Economic and social geography, 2 (67), 207-213 [in Ukrainian].

Lozynskyi, R. M. (2020). Povsyakdenni landshafty prymiskykh sil Lvova: vizualnyi analiz postsotsialistychnykh transformatsiy [Everyday landscapes of suburban villages of Lviv: visual analysis of post-socialist transformations. Bulletin of Lviv University. The series is geographical, 54. In print [in Ukrainian].

Lozynskyi, R. M. (2020). Kulturni landshafty Halychyny: etyka vzayemodiyi lyudyny z pryrodoyu [Cultural landscapes of Galicia (Ukraine): the ethics of human interaction with nature]. Lviv: Ladeks, 224 s.; 148 il. [in Ukrainian].

Lozynskyi, R. M. (2020). Semiotyka landshaftu ta yoho vizualnyi/tekstualnyi analiz u anhlo-amerykanskiy kuliturniy heohrafiyi [Landscape semiotics and its visual / textual analysis in Anglo-American cultural geography]. Journal of Socio-Economic Geography, 28, 25-34. https://doi.org/10.26565/2076-1333-2020-28-03 [in Ukrainian].

Lozynskyi, R. M. (2021). Sweet home Ameryky: yak peredmistya perestalo buty kvintesentsiyeyu amerykanskoyi mriyi [Sweet home of America: how the suburbs ceased to be the quintessence of the American dream]. Politychna krytyka. Retrieved from https://politkrytyka.org/2021 /09 /24/sweet-home-ameryky-yak-peredmistya-perestalo-buty-kvintesentsiyeyu-amerykanskoyi-mriyi/ (access date:: 05.05.2022) [in Ukrainian].

Lozynskyi, R. M. (2019). Khaos ta nerivnist u lvivskomu peredmisti [Chaos and inequality in the suburbs of Lviv]. Spilʹne, 12, 114-124. Retrieved from https://commons.com.ua/uk/haos-i-nerivnist-u-lvivskomu-peredmisti/ (access date: 05.05.2022) [in Ukrainian].

Mezentsev, K., Provotar, N., Hnatyuk, O., Melnychuk, A., & Denysenko, O. (2019). Neodnoznachni prymiski prostory: tendentsiyi ta osoblyvosti zminy povsyakdennykh praktyk [Ambiguous suburban spaces: trends and features of changing everyday practices]. Economic and social geography, 82, 4-19. https://doi.org/10.17721/2413-7154/2019.82.4-19 [in Ukrainian].

Pidhrushnyi, H. P., Marushchynets, A. V., & Ishchenko Yu. D. (2021). Kyyivskyi metropolisnyi rehion: problemy formuvannya, sklad i mezhi [Kyiv metropolitan region: problems of formation, composition and boundaries]. Ukrainian Geographical Journal, 4, 47-56. https://doi.org/10.15407/ugz2021.04.047 [in Ukrainian].

Slyvka, R., & Zakutynska, I. (2017). Prostorovyi rozvytok prymiskoii zony Ivano-Frankivska: mentalni mezhi, nerivnomirnist, frahmentatsiya. Urbanistychna Ukraiina: v epitsentri prostorovykh zmin: monohrafiya [Spatial devel-opment of the suburban zone of Ivano-Frankivsk: mental boundaries, unevenness, fragmentation]. Urban Ukraine: in the epicenter of spatial change: a monograph / ed. K. Mezentseva, J. Oliynyk, N. Mezentseva. Kyiv: Phoenix Publishing House, 438 p. [in Ukrainian].

Beauregard, R. A. (2006). When America Became Suburban. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 228 p.

Duncan, J., & Duncan, N. (2010). Doing Landscape Interpretation. The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Geography. / Ed. D. DeLyser. London, UK: SAGE. P. 225-247.

Duncan, N., & Duncan, N. (2004). Landscapes of Privilege. New York: Routledge. 276 p. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203505755

Foucault, M. & Miskowiec, J. (1986). Of Other Spaces. Diacritics, 16 (1), 22-27. https://doi.org/10.2307/464648

Harvey, D. (1973). Social justice and the city. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 356 p.

Lefebvre, H. (1991).The Production of Space. Donald Nicholson-Smith trans., Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Originally published 1974. (1974, La production de l'espace, Paris: Anthropos. Translation and Précis.).

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

Lovell, S. (2003). Summerfolk: a history of the dacha, 1710-2000. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 260 p.

Mace, A. (2009). Suburbanization. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Amsterdam: Elsevier. P. 77-81.

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.

Robbins, P. (2007). Lawn people: how grasses, weeds, and chemicals make us who we are. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 186 p.

Soja, E. (1989). Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London: Verso Press. 266 p.

Wiese, A. (2004). Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press. 422 p.

Published
2022-06-08
Cited
How to Cite
Lozynskyi , R. (2022). Suburb as a socio-spatial phenomenon and post-socialist city. Human Geography Journal, 32, 24-33. https://doi.org/10.26565/2076-1333-2022-32-03
Section
Горизонти науки