Presentation byTabitha Redepenning, ASEEES Convention, November 12, 2022, Chicago
Panel: Identity, Inclusion, and Exclusion in Twentieth-Century Eastern European Architectural and Urban Planning Discourse
Chair: Johnathon Vsetecka, Michigan State University
Papers:
Ania Hyman, American University: Social Housing Estates and the Post-World War II Reconstruction of Warsaw, 1945-1955
Tabitha Redepenning, Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe (Germany): Urban Authenticity in Szczecin: A Modern or a Historic City from a Tourist Perspective
Ia Kupatadze, Ilia State University (Georgia): Architecture as a Tool for Social Stratification
Ketevan Gurchiani, Ilia State University (Georgia): Precarious Life of a Building
Abstract: The paper takes an interdisciplinary approach combining urban studies, memory studies, public history, and tourism theory to explore urban representation and authenticity as a driver of cultural change through the unique example of Szczecin/Stettin. It examines the long durée of narratives surrounding the staged city image since the beginning of the 20th century, oscillating between modern and historic, green and industrial, international and national, through the discussions about de- or reconstructions of individual structures.
Discussant: Marie-Alice L’Heureux, University of Kansas
Panel Description: Architecture and urban planning have always been powerful tools of shaping the society. Our panel looks at case studies in Szczecin, Warsaw, and Tbilisi, and explores how the communist authorities in the Soviet Union and Poland manipulated the built environment to advance their polices of inclusion/exclusion.
