Paper short abstract:

Drawing upon research on urban renewal in the Polish city of Gdańsk, this paper examines the ways in which the production of empty spaces reconfigures the relationship between people and local history, and functions as political capital for those who promise to 'reorder' the city's past.

Paper long abstract:

Several studies in the social sciences have examined the ways in which urban renewal results in the reconfiguration of relationships between people and places. Yet the issue of how the production of empty spaces may serve to rewrite national and local history requires further exploration. Drawing upon research conducted in the Polish city of Gdańsk, this paper examines the redevelopment of the shipyard that was the cradle of Solidarity, the mass social movement that contributed to the downfall of the Socialist state in the 1980s. In official and popular discourses, the shipyard represents a monument to Polish freedom and a symbolic terrain where Poles articulate their relationship to the state and national history. However, despite the shipyard's significance in official discourses, many buildings associated with the history of the Solidarity movement have been demolished, and more are likely to be pulled down to make way for the construction of a shopping mall, luxury apartments and office space. In discussing how the emptiness resulting from the demolition of such buildings marks a transitional state between the city's industrial (and Socialist) past and a post-industrial era, the paper highlights a paradox: it pursues the argument that while the production of empty spaces sets out to erase some material traces of the city's recent past, it may also be political capital for those who promise to 'reorder' Gdańsk's complicated history, especially at a time when everything (including Poland's political situation) is fluid and uncertain.