The Modern Urban Cartography of Present-day Bratislava.

Following an extensive survey of sources on urban development and comparative analyses of Bratislava and other major Central European cities and Slovak regional centres, Divinsky completed a detailed study of Bratislava's spatial structure using the most recent approaches of the so-called Belgian school. He also produced an intraurban regionalisation of Bratislava as a multi-structural interactive model, mapped and characterised by the cardinal parameters, processes, trends and inequalities of population and housing in each spatial element of the model. The field survey entailed a seven-month physical investigation of the territory using a "street by street, block by block, house by house and locality by locality" system to ensure that no areas were missed. A second field survey was carried out two years later to check on transformations. An important feature of the research was the concept of the morphological city, which was defined as "a continuously built-up area of all urban functions (i.e. excluding agricultural lands and forests lying outside the city which serve for half-day recreation) made up of spatial-structural units fulfilling certain criteria". The most important criteria was a minimum population density per unit of no less than 650 persons per square kilometre, except in the case of units totally surrounded by units of higher densities, where it could be lower. The morphological city as defined here includes only 36% of the territory of the administrative city, but 95% of the popula tion, giving a much higher population density which better reflects the urban reality of Bratislava.

Economic and Social Changes in Czech Society after 1989: an Alternative View

The group presents an analysis of the development of the Czech society and economy during the 1990s. They believe that the Czech neo-liberal strategy of transformation led to a partial and uneven modernisation and that this strategy is unable to provide a firm basis for a complex process of modernisation. The increasing developmental problems encountered during 1996-1999 can be seen as empirical evidence of the inadequacy of the neo-liberal transformation strategy. These problems are connected to institutional shortcomings due to the excessive speed of privatisation, its form with certain important Czech innovations (particularly the voucher method and an attempt to resuscitate the Czech national capital) and with the overlooking of the importance of the legal framework and its enforcement. The overly hasty privatisation has created a type of 'recombinant property' which lacks the economic order necessary to stimulate efficiency in an atmosphere of prevailing social justice. A second reason for the present difficulties is the long-term lag behind the civilisation and cultural standards typical of the advanced European countries. The first steps of the Czech transformation concentrated mainly on changes in the institutions important for the distribution of power and wealth and largely neglected the necessity of deep-reaching modernisation of Czech society and the economy. The neo-liberal strategy created conditions conducive to predatory and speculative behaviour at the expense of creative behaviour. Inherited principles of egalitarianism combined with undeserved economic privileges survived and were reinforced by important new developments in the same direction. This situation hinders the assertion of meritocratic motivations. The group advocates the development and implementation of a complex strategy of modernisation based on deliberate reforms, institutional changes and restructuring on the basis of strategic planning, and structural and regional policies which stress the role of cultivation of the institutional order and of the most important factors of economic growth and development.