Plans, pragmatism and people : The legacy of Soviet planning for today's cities

Dublin Core

In broad terms, the thesis of this book is that a socialist city did indeed develop, but that its characteristics and thus its distinctiveness are an amalgam, on the one hand of socialist features deriving from Marxist theory which postulates a very high level of centralized state power and planned operation of the economy, and on the other hand of surviving elements of earlier capitalism and new elements of rediscovered capitalism, the whole amalgam being heavily affected by those uncontrolled and surely ideologically uncontrollable elements, the individual and technology. Moreover, the theoretical concept of a "City of Socialist Man", and the plans drawn up to bring it into being, have at every stage been focred to yield to pragmatic decisions taken to achieve immediate, shorter-term goals. This modified view, if correct, still means that the ex-Soviet cities today face a special set of circumstances that differ in a number of respects from those occurring in "capitalist" cities and which vitally affect the appearance of the city, its functioning and the way of life of its citizens.