Challenges and experiences of a participative green space development in Budapest-Józsefváros

This article is an attempt to present the theoretical and practical backgrounds of a participative green space development in Hungary. The renewed green space, Mátyás square is located in District VIII of Budapest, known as Józsefváros. The neighbourhood of Mátyás square had a very negative image, neglected residential areas extended into the heart of the district suffered by different social problems. The local government of Józsefváros elaborated the so called Magdolna Quarter Programme, that contains the details of the social rehabilitation of surroundings of Mátyás square. In frame of this programme – co-financed by EU through GreenKeys Project – the square has been renewed, a collaborative and participative green space development has been fulfilled. The authors were engaged in this model programme, they attempt to summarize briefly the experiences of this unique project of Budapest. The local residents were successfully involved into the planning and the implementation of the project. The participation was considerably efficient, however the experience shows that a participative project may be shorter than the project leaders thought. As a result of this activities the Urban Green Space Strategy of Józsefváros and a computer program for monitoring of green spaces were compiled as well

Gentrification and rescaling urban governance in Budapest-Józsefváros

The most stigmatised area of Budapest, the Eighth District (Józsefváros) has been undergoing significant urban and social change since 1989. However, compared with what rent gap theory would have forecast, gentrification took off relatively late. After a historical narrative of how rent gap in Józsefváros had been produced throughout the 20th century, we will argue that examining the mechanisms and outcomes of the three dominant dynamics of rescaling urban governance in Hungary – decentralisation without the redistribution of resources in the 1990s; EU accession and Europeanisation of public policies from the 2000s; and recentralisation after 2010 – help us understand when, where and how gentrification has been unwinding in Middle-Józsefváros, the most dilapidated area of the Eighth District. The article will present three case studies of local urban regeneration as paradigmatic for the three rescaling dynamics: Corvin Promenade, Magdolna Quarter Programme, and the ongoing Orczy Quarter project. It will show the underlying revanchist policies and discourses in each case. The main aim of the current paper is to illustrate how a scale-sensitive political economic approach can go beyond the mainstream public and political discourse in scrutinising gentrification, through shedding light on structural factors contributing to exclusion, criminalisation, displacement, and othering

Urban diversity and the production of public space in Budapest

Public spaces are spaces for representation of individuals, social groups, ideologies, values, cultures. At the same time, public spaces are commodifi ed and “disneyfi ed” in capitalism, thus, the creation of a homogeneous, “desirable” spatial form and use of public space is often intended. Therefore, their production is characterised by constant rivalries and struggles and causes social confl icts. In addition, the production of public spaces in post-socialism has distinct development paths which is often characterised by contradicting traditions and objectives regarding the spatial form and the everyday practices taking place there. These contradictions create confl icts between various individuals, social groups, actors of urban policies etc. The aim of the paper is to investigate how urban social diversity is (re)presented in the public spaces of the 8th district of Budapest, Józsefváros. Which groups and values are more visible than others? How do local people use public spaces? The research is based on the content analysis of policy documents and interviews conducted with local residents of Józsefváros – one of the most diverse districts of Budapest. According to our results, the fragmented nature of the local society is refl ected in the use of public space: diversity is present between the public spaces and not within them. Furthermore, some of the recent developments support the homogenisation of values and behaviours in public spaces

New Data to the Knowledge on the Corticolous Mite Fauna in Hungary (Acari: Prostimata, Astigmata, Oribatida)

Authors give a report on the results of the regular collections made between 1990 and 1998 on ornamental trees and shrubs,on streets, in parks, in green spaces of housing estates, in private gardens and in arboreta. A total of 19 corticolous mite species were found belonging to 14 families.Michaelopus corticalis (Michael,1885), Hericia hericia Robin,1868, Eupalopsis maseriensis (Canestrini et Fanzago, 1876), Mediolata vandergeesti (Gomaa et Bolland,1982), Cunaxoides kielczewskii Michocka, 1982, and Neophyllobius spec.nov. are reported for the first time for the Hungarian fauna. Hemisarcoptes budensis Fain et Ripka, 1998, M.corticalis and Cheletogenes ornatus (Canestrini et Fanzago,1876) were the most frequent species in the acarofauna associated with scale insects

Urban Housing Patterns in a tide of change:

The development of the housing markets in different European metropolitan areas is of high interest for the urban development and the real estate markets, which are moving towards globalisation. The Budapest housing market is an ideal candidate for scrutiny from an institutional and evolutionary perspective due to its fragmented nature: different house types, age categories, price levels and micro-locations are found side by side. This is a case ‘in between’ Eastern and Western settings, with its own distinctive path dependence – its development pattern does not resemble any other system. The study comprises an innovative economic analysis of the Budapest housing market structure. Applying the self-organising map and the learning vector quantification sheds light on how physical and socio-demographic characteristics, price and regulation are related in this market. Further analysis is carried out using the analytical hierarchy process together with in-depth interviews of experts and a case study of urban renewal in two neighbourhoods using market data. The results are compared with those of a prior study from Helsinki and Amsterdam, as well as with more general theory literature. The results suggest a great difficulty in relating the empirical findings from Budapest to mainstream theory of housing markets