Making city-bases: homeless places, poverty management, and urban change in Pilsen, Czechia

0536842 - SOÚ 2022 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Vašát, Petr
Making city-bases: homeless places, poverty management, and urban change in Pilsen, Czechia.
Urban Geography. Roč. 42, č. 9 (2021), s. 1252-1269. ISSN 0272-3638. E-ISSN 1938-2847
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA15-17540S
Institutional support: RVO:68378025
Keywords : homelessness * place * poverty management * NIMBY * assemblage urbanism * comparative gesture * post-socialist city
OECD category: Urban studies (planning and development)
Impact factor: 3.563, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Limited access

The article explores how homeless people make places in the public space, while revealing some of the overlooked effects these places may have on the wider city. The article relies on extensive ethno- graphic research and media coverage analysis of a place called Eskalátory (the Escalators) in Pilsen, a second-order city in Czechia. Eskalátory is part of an underpass with a four-lane road, a tramway, and four outdoor escalators, altogether, forming a specific urban assemblage. The paper describes three specific assemblage enact- ments of poverty management, homeless placemaking, and socio- materiality, and argues the place played a crucial role in urban change involving the surrounding area. Therefore, it conceptualizes Eskalátory as a “city-base”, an assemblage produced by actors human and non-human that contributes to urban outcome.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0314589