Post-socialist city development in Tirana

This thesis surveys how city development is contested in post-socialist Tirana, Albania. It explores how different actors contest city development in Tirana and how the concept of community informs their work. Furthermore, this study explores how socialist city development informs post-socialistic city development. Contestations in post-socialist city development are studied through a theoretical framework formed by a combination of two theoretical approaches: A discursive governmentality theory by the sociologist Nikolas Rose, and a theory of social practice in the political field by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Previously, articles and texts on post-socialist city development offer a limited starting point from which to analyse contestations in city development. Therefore, to analyse contestations between practicing actors involved in city development, the research localises the rationalities, techniques and the produced social and physical patterns which are created through socialist city development. To examine how and which actors emerge in post-socialist city development, the above perspective is supplemented with Bourdieu’s theory of th