Project information
Former Industrial and Mining Cities: Urban Development Issues and Future Prospects

In the 21st century, changes in urban structures of European cities have become faster. Modern influences on urban development are even more evident in former industrial cities. As seen in the city of Brno, for example, cities have started to change at an unprecedented pace. Every major quarter in Brno includes areas which have undergone some degree of development in the past 20 years. Even though most cities in the post-socialist countries have changed under the pressure of economic transformation, it is also the influence of the post-industrial society that directs interests and investments of developers. That is why the aim of this project is to study the changes of urban structures under the influence of both deindustrialization and post-industrial society.
The first stage of the research focused on socio-economic effects of deindustrialization. It was carried out under the project no. MUNI/A/1097/2022 called Deindustrialization in Europe and its regional context. Based on the results of this first stage, the follow-up project will address the issues of city structure changes that have been caused by deindustrialization and activities by members of a post-industrial society. The execution of the project will be divided into two parts. The first part will focus on the modern, post-industrial society and on the description of its characteristics, for example employment types, social habits, living conditions, leisure activities, transportation, or environmental challenges. Research methods include a thorough literature review followed by a search for and analysis of archival materials (photographs, texts, newspaper articles) separately for the UK (Manchester, Sunderland) and Czech (Brno, Ostrava) case study cities. As far as the second part of the project is concerned, activities will include spatial analyses of selected areas in four case study cities with respect to changes caused by deindustrialization and the transformation of society to its post-industrial stage. Based on the results from the first and second year of research, it should be possible to describe contemporary trends in post-industrial cities and formulate recommendations that the selected cities could use to implement in their development strategies.