Political Identity, public memory and urban space: A case study of Parcul Carol I, Bucharest from 1906 to the present
Authors: Light, D. and Young, C.
Journal: Europe - Asia Studies
Volume: 62
Issue: 9
Pages: 1453-1478
eISSN: 1465-3427
ISSN: 0966-8136
DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2010.515792
Abstract:This article analyses the inter-relationship between political identity, public memory and urban space in South-east Europe through a case study of Parcul Carol I (Carol I Park) in Bucharest, Romania from 1906 to the present. The article analyses how the urban cultural landscape has been reshaped to support the political ambitions of three successive regimes-Romania as a kingdom and liberal constitutional monarchy (1881-1938); state-socialist Romania (1947-1989); and the post-socialist Romanian state from 1989. The article highlights complex continuity from the state-socialist period under post-socialism, rather than destruction of the landscape of state-socialism, combined with the return of pre-socialist landscape elements. The article argues for the need for studies of the fate of state-socialist urban landscapes under post-socialism which consider the complexities introduced by the persistence of landscape elements from the pre-socialist and state-socialist periods and their combination with pre-socialist and post-socialist landscapes to produce hybrid memory-scapes and spaces of the nation. © 2010 University of Glasgow.
Source: Scopus
Preferred by: Duncan Light