Chronic peripheralization through urban (re)development in Bucharest: a study of spatial injustice

Ioana Vrăbiescu

City, 2025, vol. 29, issue 1-2, 76-98

Abstract: European funds for urban development often turn into neighborhood surveillance and policing people in vulnerable situations, contributing to the racialized production of space in Bucharest. This article examines the intersection of urban regeneration programs (URPs) and post-socialist public-private dynamics, revealing how URPs preserve spatial injustice in marginalized urban areas. Tackling the case study of the Plumbuita neighborhood in Bucharest, the article explores how restitution laws, ecological neglect, local governance, and EU development funds deepen racial and class divisions. The article argues that the EU Cohesion Policy, intended to support urban development, instead reinforce racialization and marginalization, particularly of Roma communities. By diverting resources toward policing and surveillance rather than social and infrastructural development, URPs exacerbate poverty and exclusion, creating long-lasting spatial injustice. Thus, what was intended for economic, social, and territorial cohesion instead creates chronic peripheralization in certain urban areas. The analysis contributes to urban studies by demonstrating how local governance, legal ambiguities, and neoliberal policies maintain inequalities in urban settings, particularly in Eastern European cities.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2025.2465924

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