Overcoming the Limitations of Comparative Urban Research in the (Post-) Socialist Context

Ferenčuhová, Slavomíra (2023) „Overcoming the Limitations of Comparative Urban Research in the (Post-) Socialist Context“, In The Routledge Handbook of Comparative Global Urban Studies, edited by Patrick LeGalès and Jennifer Robinson, London: Routledge. ISBN 9780367254667

This chapter focuses on how a wider historical context can considerably constrain comparative research in urban studies in a particular locality at a particular time. Yet, constraining conditions may also stimulate a search for alternative strategies to develop dialogues across regions and borders. The chapter refers to the example of the history of comparative research on cities in Central Europe and focuses on the attempts to overcome the limitations of contact, or travel constraints, that researchers developed in the 1970s and 1980s on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Eventually, the author observes the specifics of comparative research of post-socialist cities today, namely a regionally confined orientation of this research.