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Land tenure and property development in Eastern Europe
Book reviews
Patchwork portrait of post-socialist land tenure LAND TENURE AND PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT IN EASTERN EUROPE Gestion fonciere et operation
immobilieres en Europe de I'Est edited by Vincent Renard and Rodrigo Acosta
Pirville-CNRS, Paris, 1993, 286 pp This volume contains not less than 25 papers which were presented in a seminar on land tenure and urban development organized in Paris in 1992. The book has three weaknesses. First, it is bilingual (French and English), which diminishes its market. Second, the papers are quite uneven as far as their approaches and their depths are concerned. Most of conference proceedings have the same problem. Third, it is based on country studies, thus cross-national analyses are practically missing. We get a relatively well-balanced picture of Hungary and Poland, whereas the Russian situation is discussed by two papers and the Bulgarian by one. Renard's introductory chapter gives a good framework for the further discussion, but the three papers named 'cross-sectional p r e s e n t a t i o n s ' are
poor in theoretical framework and in cross-national comparisons. The title of the book is somewhat misleading since it deals (with a few exceptions) with urban land only. The merit of the volume is that it focuses on the key problem of transition in post-socialist cities. One should clarify who owns the land before developing a real estate market, land policy and new types of urban planning. The crucial question is the privatization of the land. Each country is following a different path, as privatization is quite a controversial process. In the practice of the postsocialist countries, privatization has different goals. The political goals are to diminish state property and state influence; sociological goals include the reconstitution of a class of owners; e c o n o m i c goals including finding p r o p r i e t o r s for the land and for homes, and thereby improving the efficiency of land use; and finally, among the moral goals are to offer restitution or at least compensation to former owners who lost their property after the Communist take-over. These goals are somewhat contradictory (eg efficiency versus moral goals). Restitution was the primary principle in the former G D R (where it was implemented rapidly), in Czechoslovakia
and in Poland. It is extremely complicated to find the original (more precisely: the 1948) owner. It is also of doubtful benefit to get back an apartment house where tenants pay artificially low rents and maintenance has been neglected for decades. The country studies on Hungary (K Baar), Poland (J Jakobsche, T Kowalewski), Czechoslovakia (O Voboril), Romania (L Ianasic), Russia (L Simonov) and Bulgaria (V Peeva) are quite informative. Another focus of the volume is to consider how one could introduce real estate development in the context of somewhat chaotic legal and market conditions. A number of case studies illustrate the problem. I found two case studies on urban renewal in Budapest inner districts (G Aczel and P Baross et al) to be the best elaborated. In sum, the book offers an interesting insight into the crucial problems of urban land tenure and land management in post-socialist cities. As an old man, I am reluctant to accept postmodern approaches, hence my irritation because of the patchwork character of the book. Nevertheless, I have to admit that the time has not yet come for comprehensive studies on the rapidly changing land tenure system of Eastern and Central Europe.
Gy6rgy Enyedi Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest
Renewable energy, land use and planning The January 1995 issue o f / . a n d Use Policy contained a special feature on renewable energy, land use and planning. The collection o f papers was put together and guest-edited by Dr Gordon Walker at the Division o f Geography, Staffordshire University, UK. Papers included: Energy, land use and renewables Local strategies for renewable energy W i n d power Political conflict over waste-to-energy schemes Biomass energy in Western Europe to 2050 Renewable energy and the public Large-scale wind p o w e r in Denmark
262
Patchwork portrait of post-socialist land tenure LAND TENURE AND PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT IN EASTERN EUROPE Gestion fonciere et operation
immobilieres en Europe de I'Est edited by Vincent Renard and Rodrigo Acosta
Pirville-CNRS, Paris, 1993, 286 pp This volume contains not less than 25 papers which were presented in a seminar on land tenure and urban development organized in Paris in 1992. The book has three weaknesses. First, it is bilingual (French and English), which diminishes its market. Second, the papers are quite uneven as far as their approaches and their depths are concerned. Most of conference proceedings have the same problem. Third, it is based on country studies, thus cross-national analyses are practically missing. We get a relatively well-balanced picture of Hungary and Poland, whereas the Russian situation is discussed by two papers and the Bulgarian by one. Renard's introductory chapter gives a good framework for the further discussion, but the three papers named 'cross-sectional p r e s e n t a t i o n s ' are
poor in theoretical framework and in cross-national comparisons. The title of the book is somewhat misleading since it deals (with a few exceptions) with urban land only. The merit of the volume is that it focuses on the key problem of transition in post-socialist cities. One should clarify who owns the land before developing a real estate market, land policy and new types of urban planning. The crucial question is the privatization of the land. Each country is following a different path, as privatization is quite a controversial process. In the practice of the postsocialist countries, privatization has different goals. The political goals are to diminish state property and state influence; sociological goals include the reconstitution of a class of owners; e c o n o m i c goals including finding p r o p r i e t o r s for the land and for homes, and thereby improving the efficiency of land use; and finally, among the moral goals are to offer restitution or at least compensation to former owners who lost their property after the Communist take-over. These goals are somewhat contradictory (eg efficiency versus moral goals). Restitution was the primary principle in the former G D R (where it was implemented rapidly), in Czechoslovakia
and in Poland. It is extremely complicated to find the original (more precisely: the 1948) owner. It is also of doubtful benefit to get back an apartment house where tenants pay artificially low rents and maintenance has been neglected for decades. The country studies on Hungary (K Baar), Poland (J Jakobsche, T Kowalewski), Czechoslovakia (O Voboril), Romania (L Ianasic), Russia (L Simonov) and Bulgaria (V Peeva) are quite informative. Another focus of the volume is to consider how one could introduce real estate development in the context of somewhat chaotic legal and market conditions. A number of case studies illustrate the problem. I found two case studies on urban renewal in Budapest inner districts (G Aczel and P Baross et al) to be the best elaborated. In sum, the book offers an interesting insight into the crucial problems of urban land tenure and land management in post-socialist cities. As an old man, I am reluctant to accept postmodern approaches, hence my irritation because of the patchwork character of the book. Nevertheless, I have to admit that the time has not yet come for comprehensive studies on the rapidly changing land tenure system of Eastern and Central Europe.
Gy6rgy Enyedi Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest
Renewable energy, land use and planning The January 1995 issue o f / . a n d Use Policy contained a special feature on renewable energy, land use and planning. The collection o f papers was put together and guest-edited by Dr Gordon Walker at the Division o f Geography, Staffordshire University, UK. Papers included: Energy, land use and renewables Local strategies for renewable energy W i n d power Political conflict over waste-to-energy schemes Biomass energy in Western Europe to 2050 Renewable energy and the public Large-scale wind p o w e r in Denmark
262