Over the past year residents of Berlin have been able to follow the final and complete dismantling of the Palace of the Republic, the former GDR Parliament and concert hall building. Euphemistically called “Rückbau” (“Removal”) by the authorities on the information posters on display on the building site fence this is the architectural manifestation of a political process: of the transformation of East Berlin into the centre of a “new”, unified Berlin which is a process of post-socialism as much as a process of economic globalisation. Even as an empty space, or rather, especially now that this great void has emerged, it symbolises forcefully the (end of a) transition which can be labelled post-socialist but which has far more different facets than this label indicates at first glance. It symbolises the passing of the socialist system, the takeover by the former West German state as well as current urban policies to rebuild historic city centres, together with the debate about rebuilding the former Schloss (royal palace), and global politics which focus on the commercialisation of urban public space. Another symbol alongside the former Palace is the former Staatsratsgebäude (State Council) with the re-built Karl-Liebknecht balcony (see p.66) which has been used by the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) since 2006. These are but two examples that Mariusz Czepczyński explores in his book on the background of the cultural landscapes of post-socialist cities.

In this thorough study the Assistant Professor at the Institute of Geography at Gdańsk University presents not only his description and analysis of a wide range of post-socialist, that means Central and East-Central European cities but a general discussion of the concept and analytical tool of cultural landscape. He positions post-socialist transformation within the wider context of the transformations taking hold of global urban culture and conclusively points to the continued need of the “post-socialist” discourse. While urban landscapes are constantly being re-formatted and re-appraised, in the case of contemporary East European cultural landscapes these must, necessarily, be compared to the socialist era which has shaped them to a significant, lasting extent: “Post-socialist cities are post-socialist in the sense not because they are better or worse than any other cities; they are post-socialist in the sense that they are different from other cities” (p.181). Furthermore, they are also compared to the West, which has ideologically been their antithesis, and described within the context of global developments. Describing the discourse on post-socialist cities within this broad contextualisation and with a standpoint from within East-Central Europe the current work offers a refreshing view on the reproduction and discourse of cultural landscapes generally. Why is this type of city an important field of research today? Post-socialist societies are, in Czepczyński’s opinion, “probably among the best modern examples” of the tension between circulation and iconography, the two opposing forces which, according to Gottmann, animate geographical space: “The struggle between flows and icons are [sic] extremely visible within transitional society. The change imposes and generates choices to be made, and prioritizes one paradigm over another” (p. 180).

Czepczynski’s book makes a welcome appearance among a steady, yet rather sparse, flow of publications dedicated to the topic of post-socialist urban transformation. While others tend to be edited collections of articles by different authors, his work stands out as one that develops theoretical ideas on the subject more in-depth. As most important recent publications on similar topics should be mentioned “The Post-Socialist City, Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe after Socialism” (ed. Kiril Stanilov, Springer, Dordrecht, 2007) and „The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe, Space, Institutions and Policy” (ed. Sasha Tsenkova, Zorica Vedovi-Budić, 2006, Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg).

Consisting of six chapters the book is structured in two main parts: The first half resembles a Geography textbook on the theoretical and methodological grounds of the study of cultural landscape (Geographical Studies of Cultural Landscape; Representations of Memories and Powers: Discursive Historical Landscapes). Chapter Three presents socialist cities as illustrative examples of how urban landscapes were (and, on a more general level, are) re-produced: the construction of an official landscape of power, designation of public spaces, ideological iconography, staging and concealment, representations of official culture, New Towns and socialist, industrial housing concepts. Here, Czepczyński could have developed more his own conceptualisation, but he has applied and reflects existing literature well, presenting it to the reader in an appealing and thought-provoking manner.

The second half offers what the book title promises: Urban landscapes after socialism, presented in poignantly selected, specific examples from Poland, East Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Structured in a logical sequence, Czepczyński first analyses “Post-Communist Landscape Cleansing” (Ch. 4): On a theoretical level, he reflects here on the “post-“ aspect of the discourses of urban landscape. While the first impulse was in all countries to eliminate communist cultural symbols (p. 116) this process has become a political issue and taken different forms in each country and at varying times. “Many old icons simply disappeared from public view and people’s minds. The leftover landscapes of emptiness or silence, such as empty pedestals, can be meaningful only for those who dare or care to remember” (p. 114). Other symbols of the old order have been reinterpreted, their function has been changed and thus integrated into the developing new landscape and few have remained, empty of course. In Chapter Five Czepczyński explores the other trajectory of current urban landscaping, that shaped by economic globalisation, presenting the “New Landscape Symbols of ‘New Europe’”. This is mainly manifested through the construction of new buildings, a globalised architecture, privatisation of public space and the “tyranny of the free market” (p.153). While the political repression of the socialist system ended, subsequent political and economic powers have created new hierarchies and new exclusions (p. 150). Czepczyński argues well in this chapter how “accumulation of need, capital and power has been manifested dramatically in urban settings” (p. 149). In his short concluding chapter “Interpreting Landscapes in Transition” Czepczyński offers a succinct and persuasive synthesis of his explorations which may be found in this single sentence: “The messages more or less clearly coded in the language of buildings and interpretations have changed from ‘proletarian equivalence’ towards ‘civic discourse’ but actually probably closer to ‘arcadia of consumption’” (p. 186).

Concerning its form, it must be noted that the book contains an irritating amount of misprints. This, however, does not detract from its formal strengths - the great number of illustrative photographs and informative text-boxes throughout the book, amongst others about Arkadia Shopping Centre in Warsaw, Museum of Communism in Prague, Palace of the Republic in Berlin and Nowa Huta. While reading the book the idea of the author as flaneur comes to mind: Czepczyński not only presents scholarly analysis but also reports from his travels across East-Central Europe. The book is a welcome and recommended read.