Urbs - Magyar Várostörténeti Évkönyv 10-11. (Budapest, 2017)
Abstracts
Abstracts RÓBERT BALOGH Commodification and industrial landscape in Debrecen at the end of the 19th century Debrecen is not included among the typical Hungarian industrial cities. However, the Eastern outskirts of the city fundamentally changed in the last two decades of the 19th century, following the construction of the tobacco factory, the wagon factory, the slaughter-house, the Debrecen-Nyírbátor light railway, the Debrecen-Gút forest light railway and timber yard, and the building of the tannery soon afterwards. These factories and facilities formed the basis of the socialist industrialization of the mid- 1950s and thus the district became a commuter hub. The paper examines the commodification of the eastern, south-eastern quarter of the city that is the process how a part of Erdőspuszta and the area itself became a commodity, i.e. an exchangeable unit of economic wealth. The transformation of the forestry, the construction projects and the extension of the administrative region show what the city knew about the surrounding landscape and also how far the city market extended its influence. The region’s commodification and the larger market led to the disappearance of the marginal lifestyle, which was connected to the spontaneous forestry around the city. In the eastern part of the city, workers’ colonies were built, where a new lifestyle appeared. On the one hand, the methodology of the paper is based on the classic monography, Nature’s Metropolis by William Cronon, in so far as it questions the boundary between nature and society. On the other, it is based on the research of the University of Sussex Centre for World Environmental History on the interrelation between commodification and scientific knowledge as well as its representation. ÉVA BODOVICS Constructive flood. Urban development based on flood The paper examines the creative force of water in urban development from an unconventional perspective, focused on destruction instead of construction. The paper highlights through the example of Miskolc, at some points in comparison with Szeged, how Urbs. magyar várostörténeti évkönyv x-xi. 2015-2016. 453 461. p.
