Iron Cities: Discussion on the Logistics Landscapes Exhibition
“Iron cities were built here. Agricultural land was taken, and those huge halls were constructed. Huge. And there is a large flow of people coming from afar. And I still haven't heard anyone praise their salary.” With these words, the owner of a pub in a small town in western Bohemia near one of the complexes summarizes the entire logistics situation.
What Vernesque calls iron cities truly resemble towns with their size and number of temporary “inhabitants.” Logistic centers with massive warehouses are a physical reflection of the current global economy, a system based on a continuous flow of goods. Over the last three years, the total area of warehouses in our country has almost doubled. In relation to GDP, we now have nearly twice as many as Poland and three times as many as Hungary and Slovakia. We are becoming the warehouse (and warehouse managers) of Europe.
In the discussion, we will touch on several questions on this topic. What impact does the construction of large-scale warehouses filled with less qualified labor have on Czech society, the Czech countryside, its everyday reality, and future? What role do micro-changes play in social structure, cohesion, and neighborhood relationships? Are light modular systems according to international certifications sustainable, and do they only temporarily change the landscape, or do they represent a gradual, irreversible change to the environment? Logistic centers are not cities, parks, nor just mere infrastructure. So, what are they?
Discussion guests:
Vít Bohal is a doctoral student in critical and cultural theory at Charles University. He is a member of the Prague group Diffractions Collective, which focuses on topics such as accelerationism, posthumanism, geophilosophy, and critical theory. His texts have appeared in magazines such as VLAK, VICE, A2larm, A2, Word Addict, and Tvar. He is a co-editor of the publications Reinventing Horizons (display, 2016) and Allegorithms (Litteraria Pragensia, 2017).
Martin Ouředníček is an associate professor at the Faculty of Science at Charles University, leading the research team Urban and Regional Laboratory operating in the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development. He is the editor of several books, such as the Atlas of Social-Spatial Differentiation of the Czech Republic (2011), Historical Atlas of the Population of the Czech Lands (2017), Social Geography of the Prague Urban Region (2006), Social Transformations of Prague Districts (2012), Sub Urbs (2013), and Social Environment of Prague (2017), and author of more than 100 scientific publications.
Michaela Pixová is a social geographer researching urban environments and their relationship to alternative cultures, active civil society, and social inequality. She works as a research associate at the Institute of Sociological Studies, FSV UK in Prague. As an author, she collaborates with the online journal A2larm.
Photo: CTPark Bor
What Vernesque calls iron cities truly resemble towns with their size and number of temporary “inhabitants.” Logistic centers with massive warehouses are a physical reflection of the current global economy, a system based on a continuous flow of goods. Over the last three years, the total area of warehouses in our country has almost doubled. In relation to GDP, we now have nearly twice as many as Poland and three times as many as Hungary and Slovakia. We are becoming the warehouse (and warehouse managers) of Europe.
In the discussion, we will touch on several questions on this topic. What impact does the construction of large-scale warehouses filled with less qualified labor have on Czech society, the Czech countryside, its everyday reality, and future? What role do micro-changes play in social structure, cohesion, and neighborhood relationships? Are light modular systems according to international certifications sustainable, and do they only temporarily change the landscape, or do they represent a gradual, irreversible change to the environment? Logistic centers are not cities, parks, nor just mere infrastructure. So, what are they?
Discussion guests:
Vít Bohal is a doctoral student in critical and cultural theory at Charles University. He is a member of the Prague group Diffractions Collective, which focuses on topics such as accelerationism, posthumanism, geophilosophy, and critical theory. His texts have appeared in magazines such as VLAK, VICE, A2larm, A2, Word Addict, and Tvar. He is a co-editor of the publications Reinventing Horizons (display, 2016) and Allegorithms (Litteraria Pragensia, 2017).
Martin Ouředníček is an associate professor at the Faculty of Science at Charles University, leading the research team Urban and Regional Laboratory operating in the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development. He is the editor of several books, such as the Atlas of Social-Spatial Differentiation of the Czech Republic (2011), Historical Atlas of the Population of the Czech Lands (2017), Social Geography of the Prague Urban Region (2006), Social Transformations of Prague Districts (2012), Sub Urbs (2013), and Social Environment of Prague (2017), and author of more than 100 scientific publications.
Michaela Pixová is a social geographer researching urban environments and their relationship to alternative cultures, active civil society, and social inequality. She works as a research associate at the Institute of Sociological Studies, FSV UK in Prague. As an author, she collaborates with the online journal A2larm.
Photo: CTPark Bor
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