CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Gothár, Emma |
|---|---|
| Title | Parks as symbols of political regimes' approaches to the environment: A comparative historical study of Budapest Varosliget and Berlin Tiergarten |
| Summary | The analysis of different political systems’ approaches to the environment is essential, since they influence decisions about environmental issues. Urban public parks are indicators of the environment and hence, the approaches of diverse political regimes to these parks indicate their approaches to the environment in wider sense. The comparative historical study of Budapest Városliget and Berlin Tiergarten based on qualitative methods and secondary research has examined how these parks symbolize different political regimes’ approaches to the environment, including environmental and broader political values in different periods of history under diverse political systems. Based on the Városliget example, it has been explored, how the approach of the Hungarian illiberal democratic regime to the environment differs from other political systems’ approaches, and what its main characteristics are. Diverse environmental, political, social, cultural and historical values and functions of the Városliget and the Tiergarten have been interlinked over the parks’ histories with multifaceted significances. Whereas during its history the Tiergarten’s ecological values have been predominantly seen as privileged assets compared to any other values attached to the park, the Városliget has been several times overloaded by extra, often environmentally damaging functions. The Városliget’s reconstruction to a Museum Quarter initiated by the current Hungarian government would make the final step towards the permanent urbanization of Europe’s oldest public park. Based on the Városliget example, the Hungarian illiberal democracy has ecologically controversial priorities and its approach to the park is characterized by the domination of representative functions and symbolic power demonstration counterplotted with environmental values. |
| Supervisor | Antypas, Alexios |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/gothar_emma.pdf |
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