From socialist icons to post-socialist attractions: iconicity of socialist heritage in central and eastern Europe

Nick Naumov, Adi Weidenfeld

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The 1989 fall of the Iron Curtain marked the beginning of new economic, socio-cultural and political realities for the former socialist states in Central and Eastern Europe. Along with the economic restructuring from state-centralised to market economy, democratisation and liberalisation initiated a transformation of the socialist urban space, which was characterised by the changing role of its iconic landmarks. This conceptual paper examines these post-1989 changes, which range between the removal of these landmarks and their transition into market led iconic and flagship attractions. The paper identifies the changing role of tourism from a top- bottom orchestrated to a market led activity, which explains the transformation of some of these landmarks. It introduces a new framework for studying this process by suggesting that iconisation, de-iconisation and re-iconisation processes are interrelated to other strategies and approaches to the transition of the socialist urban landscape into a western market economy. The paper identifies avenues for further research and provides some recommendations for improving the management of similar processes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)379-393
Number of pages15
JournalGeographia Polonica
Volume92
Issue number4
Early online date22 Jul 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2019

Keywords

  • Iconicity
  • Flagshipness
  • Tourism
  • Visitor Attractions
  • Socialism
  • Heritage
  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

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