Paper short abstract:

The paper shows the twofold nature of Warsaw’ transitional chaos: how the generalized notion of chaos blurs the real existing power clash and how the social and material potential of bottom-up urban development may and should be revealed to create new patterns or urbanization.

Paper long abstract:

As Stanilov puts it, chaos was 'the Zeitgeist of the transformation period'. However, the experience of a messy public sphere was condemned in the second decade of transition focused on the re-creation of tidy and 'European' public space. It is no coincidence that these noble claims went hand in hand with the growing domination of global capitalist forces against bottom-up transitional strategies. Stalls were replaced with malls, kiosks with high-rises, and - last but not least - the enthusiasm of bottom-up entrepreneurship with growing frustration.

I want to reveal the twofold nature of transitional chaos. First, I claim that there is no 'general' chaos. In the universe of uneven urban development the versions of chaos are also uneven. A generic notion of chaos blurs the really existing clash of specific powers.  Actors producing the most tangible version of chaos (stalls, informal constructions) are all too easily blamed for urban development problems caused by the domination of other powers, hidden behind the façade of urban order (e.g. clean office buildings). Second, using examples from Warsaw I show how particular 'chaotic' phenomena from the transition period can be re-used to create truly new patterns of urban development. Being both a researcher and an activist, I see a real challenge in pursuing what Walter Benjamin would call 'a redemptive analysis' of the materiality of urban transition, in which the potential of bottom up social energy would be redeemed rather than lost in the process of post-transitional urban restructuring.