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Discussion
of Case Study Themes
At
a Glance
Both
the former East Germany and Poland continue to experience
economic and social transformation from communist to
free societies. Both Berlin and Poland act as barometers
in Europe of the challenges and prospects facing those
in favor of democratic rule. Young people will play
a critical role in the diffusion and, ultimately, the
realization of democratic reforms in eastern Germany
and Poland. The contrasts between the social landscape
of East and West Berlin, and between urban and rural
Poland, reflect the geographic realities that are challenging
political and business leaders who favor change and
reform in each place.
Case
Study 1 -- Berlin: United We Stand
A
City Divided Divides the World
Divided by the allies at the end of World War II,
Germany was for decades like a family that had been
split into two antagonistic factions. Berlin itself
was marked by this schism -- for twenty-eight years
the city was cut in two by the Berlin Wall.
Erected
in 1961, for the most part by the Soviet army, the
official reason for the wall was to create a barrier
to protect the East from its capitalist enemy, the
West. In fact, the wall was intended to prevent escapes
from East Berlin to the West. This ominous symbol
of the Cold War divided not only a city, but the entire
world until, in 1989, Berlin was reunified and its
infamous wall destroyed.
The
Urban Mosaic: District by District
Today, the reconstruction of a single Berlin is a
challenge to housing and transportation systems that
once served neighborhoods with varied characteristics,
two distinct centers, and one shared but impermeable
edge. Isabelle Aflalo, a French geographer, has taken
an inventory of the spatial variations in land-use
patterns within the newly unified city. With this
information, she plans to analyze the future direction
of metropolitan Berlin.
Aflalo's
field work begins in the Zoologischer Garten underground
station in the Tiergarten District of the former West
Berlin. The district's main avenue, the Kurfurstendamm,
is often compared to the Champs d'Elysees and faces
the East like a showcase of Western riches, with numerous
commercial and cultural activities. Today, Berlin
must establish a balance in which "Ku'damm"
is only one district among many within the city.
A
second district closer to the former dividing line,
Kreuzberg, tells a different story of land use. While
the Berlin Wall was standing, this area became the
refuge of the less fortunate in society. The Kreuzberg
district reflects such diversity through its cosmopolitan
lifestyle. A whole culture of cheap, if not free,
accommodation characterizes the area. A long-standing
squatter system is legally acknowledged, but Aflalo's
research indicates that ownership issues are not resolved.
Formerly located on the edge of West Berlin, Kreuzberg
is now one of the most centralized districts in the
united city and an increasingly desirable area to
live. Aflalo expects further conflict between the
area's traditional squatter and immigrant populations
and fashionable newcomers whose presence will propel
inevitable rent increases.
Entering
the former East Berlin means leaving subways for tramways
along the avenues. These avenues, now in decline,
follow a much different plan than those on the west
side of the city. The urban layout of the east side
is radial rather than linear. In this more classical,
controlled urban model, the avenues converge on Alexanderplatz,
the historic center of town that was once the symbolic
center of Communist power. An alternative culture
now gravitates toward this former center and may one
day become a new Kreuzberg.
One
refugee fleeing high rent in the Kreuzberg district
tells Aflalo that the building he has relocated to
in the former East Berlin has seventy disputed claims
of ownership. Historically, the building in Friedrichshain
belonged to Polish Jews who were thrown out in 1933
by Nazi soldiers. The German Democratic Republic owned
the building for decades, but current residents now
claim ownership. In the post-Communist reorganization,
what constitutes ownership is now a question for the
courts.
The
Center of Cold War Conflict is Rebuilt by Cooperation
Berlin is unifying under the influence of pacesetting
and dynamic residents of districts such as Friedrichshain
and Kreuzberg. But another important factor in the
city's renaissance is the decision to make it once
again Germany's capital. In Aflalo's travels throughout
the city, she visits Potsdamerplatz, a once lively
center that is poised to reemerge as an economic and
financial stronghold as Berlin becomes an important
crossroads in Europe.
The
city of Berlin is situated at the center of a European
community that may be enlarged by the addition of
many Eastern European countries. In addition to its
position as capital of Germany, Berlin may become,
in the years ahead, a thriving political and economic
metropolis linking East to West.
Case
Study 2 -- Poland: Diffusion of Democracy
Poland's
Democratic Transition Depends on Changing Perceptions.
Democracy reached Poland in 1989 and has since spread
to other Eastern bloc nations of the former Soviet
empire. Now these nations face the turmoil of political
and economic transition, and their fledgling democracies
are being put to a severe test. The transition to
democracy has not quickly brought the prosperity many
Poles expected.
Poles
are beginning to realize that democracy entails not
only the right to vote for politicians. In fact, democracy's
decision-making process must permeate governmental,
civic, social, and even business organizations.
Diffusion:
A Definition
Diffusion is the spread of an idea, an innovation,
a disease, virtually anything from its source outward
across the landscape. A country can become "democratic"
in a political sense literally overnight, but true
democratic practice spreads slowly and unevenly.
About
forty percent of Poland's population lives in small
towns and villages, not in cities where carriers such
as the media, universities, and tourists help spread
new ideas and opportunities. Change comes hard in
the outlying rural areas, where barriers such as isolation
and massive unemployment are high and carriers of
new ideas are few.
Grassroots
Democracy: One Village at a Time
Low voter turnout, the lack of non-governmental organizations,
and the absence of an independent press were signs
that democracy was lagging badly in Poland's small
towns and villages.
One
government effort, the Local Democracy in Poland Program,
has been attempting to introduce democratic practice
to the rural population. Twenty-five towns on the
periphery of Poland were chosen as bases in which
to plant the seeds of democracy. Ninety trainees were
schooled in democratic skills at the Warsaw headquarters
of the Foundation in Support of Democracy, and two
of them were sent back as carriers of model democratic
behavior to their remote village of Korsze.
In this village of 3,200, the closure of traditional
communist cooperative farms has led to record unemployment
of thirty-two percent and a suspicion of reformers.
Accordingly, the steps to real democracy are small.
Instead of starting with a difficult problem, the
trainees chose a Ping-Pong tournament as the town's
first simple act of citizen-initiated social organization.
If
such grassroots organizing is successful in Korsze
and other towns, public engagement in community life
may spread outward from these hubs to adjoining regions.
Although this diffusion will speed or slow according
to local social and economic factors, the organizers
believe that democracy is a process that, in fact,
will be hard to stop.
Nearly
ten years after the original case study, geographer
and developer of the democracy diffusion project,
Joanna Regulska, shares the progress of and obstacles
to the continuing diffusion of democratic practice
in Poland.
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