Miasto w reżimie konsumpcji

The article attempts to draw a picture of the modern city from the perspective of consumerism, and with special reference to the processes of ghettoization. European cities were once alive with bustling streets and beautiful recreational areas such as piazzas, parks and public greens. Nowadays, the urban space, almost entirely dominated by the consumer market and subjected to opportunist policies, has lost the delicate balance between the public and the private, between the need to change and the necessity to preserve and protect. The spatial and the social structures of modern cities drift ever further and further apart. On the other hand, Polish urban planning, after many decades of forced isolation, suffers from what could be called a „latecomer syndrome”, which manifests itself in random decision-making and a tendency to imitate blindly certain recent trends in urban architecture. These artificial attempts to accelerate time, however, destroy continuity and hinder the growth of individual identity. Poland still needs to confront the issues the West has tackled long ago, to devise the means to preserve urban landscapes and to reshape the relationship with the constructed environment in a more balanced manner. The drive to release past tensions and to liberalize urban space laws has swung the pendulum of history too far back towards a laissez-faire approach to urban planning.