City and Region: Papers in Honour of Jiri Musil

This book examines the development of cities and regions in times of decisive transformation in Europe during the past 20 years. In Western Europe, cities and regions were challenged from the outside by globalization, and from the inside by technological and demographic change. Eastern areas were confronted with deep restructuring processes enforced by the transition from socialist to capitalistic structures. Currently, all European cities and regions are confronted with challenges stemming from a new global competition for jobs, population, and status. A group of urban sociologists from Poland, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia) and Germany, began a scientific study almost 30 years ago, analyzing and reflecting on these changing structures and processes. This was a time when such an exchange crossing the Iron curtain was not easy. However, they continued to stay in contact throughout the interesting and difficult times of change after 1989. Professor Jiri Musil was one of the central figures within this group. Because of the admiration for his generous and inspiring intellectual inputs, the papers in this festschrift — reflecting the current situation of cities and regions in Central Europe — are dedicated in honor of Musil on his 80th birthday.