Velislava Simeonova

The beginning of the transition and manifestation of neoliberal transformations in the post-socialist cities led to abrupt changes in the skyline (urban, architectural, social), horizontal and vertical expansion, differentiation in social-classes and other characteristics of these spaces. In many cases these changes led to urban contestation that has been totally exempt from academic interest.. The basic goal of this research is to trail the trend of stratum homogenization in the southern arc of Sofia, of changing the natural rural landscape in the former villages, of occupying this part of new capital city suburbia, with modernized and densely build up “collar”, entirely in favor of representatives of high and upper-middle class in the Bulgarian capital city, a situation that has brought a “latent urban conflict” that could emerge in any moment.

Resumen
La formación de la Unión Europea y la investigación sobre sus transformaciones territoriales a diferentes escalas durante las últimas tres décadas han sido los responsables de la "aparición" de un proceso multidimensional y multidireccional denominado europeización. En la presente comunicación se lleva a cabo un análisis teórico-metodológico con el fin de comprender y estudiar las nuevas prácticas, que configuran dicho proceso y su afectación en cuanto a la planificación local de los países miembros. Este estudio está enmarcado dentro de una investigación de mayor rango enfocada a la elaboración de un modelo metodológico para registrar las influencias y la implementación de los sistemas nacionales de planificación que supone la Europeización.

Being a cornerstone of analyses in the domain of regional geography, the study of the spatial inequalities could also be perceived as an important instrument to measure the dynamics, the strength, the sustainability, and the scale of the differences between investigated units, thus providing also the necessary base for making up sound recommendations for the regional and cohesion policies.
Although there are many studies of the inequalities at supranational, national and regional level, the majority of them lack complexity by concentrating only on certain indicators or development aspects. Therefore, the aim of this paper is not only to study the dynamics in key indicators, but also scrutinize the inequalities on a more complex base. Considering the major tasks of the research and the available statistical data, our analysis is best suited at the level of NUTS3 regions. In order to create spatial model of the development, we develop author’s methodology for complex assessment, which is based on multifactorial analysis of 6 groups of indicators: economic, infrastructural, social, political, demographical, and ecological. Subsequently, we compare our model with the scenarios represented in the Bulgarian “National concept for spatial development 2013-2025” aiming to uncover to which of them our model corresponds best. To summarize, the empirical results of the study prove that despite the EU membership the regional inequalities in Bulgaria remain striking, which poses a real threat to the future of some peripheral regions and to the sustainable development of the country.

The author’s interest in this subject, as well as its general relevance, are provoked by the insufficient research in the field of spatial planning in the Balkan region, and especially concerning the period after the political changes that started in the 90s. To widen the scope of the study, we concentrate on
four countries - two of them are EU members; the third one is characterized with high degree of European integration and the other one is lagging behind in terms of socio-economic parameters. The main idea of this article is to offer a theoretical and methodological points for empirical research designed to compare the different notions of territory/space, to scrutinize the diverse planning cultures and to summarize the guiding principles in the legislative framework and main planning documents.

The post-socialist development in the cities of Eastern Europe since the 90s of the last century has deeply changed the compact one-class model of the city due to the dispersion, as well as spatial and social fragmentation of the capitalist cities. During the past few years, the theoretical problem of isomorphism between the physical and social space of post-socialist cities and social inequalities as expression of hierarchy of places (Bourdieu, 1997) is still a topical issue for Bulgarian scientists. Cities like Sofia remain on the periphery of the general and scientific literature interests (Hirt, 2012). Since 1989 they have been marked by the rapidly expanding suburban areas and have seen the processes of privatization of urban space and the isolation of "High life" inherent in the Western societies. The result of the coexistence of different social classes in the suburb area of Sofia remains completely misunderstood and is still a main topic of the Bulgarian urban and radical geography. The purpose of this paper is tracking the current trends of the south - southwestern periphery of the metropolitan area of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, as an expression of neoliberal urban conflicts and the classes' fragmentation. A special focus of the study islaid on the phenomenon of the gated communities perceived as a global and irrefutable marker focused on the transformation of the urban southern periphery. The study covers four peripheral districts of the city, namely - Panchаrevo, Vitosha, Ovcha Kupel and Bankya.

The  urban  space  has  always  been  one  of  the significant  factors  in  assessing  the society that inhabits and the projection of the evolution of urban planning decisions.
The fall of the socialist regimes made a series of urban transformations describing the peculiarity of post-socialist development in the entire region of Eastern Europe.
This communication reviews some of the parameters of urban change in Bulgaria, after  more  than  twenty  years  of  transition  and  focuses  on  the  context  of  the  new challenges of urban planning in the Bulgarian cities, with special attention to the City of Sofia’s case.