Abstrakt
Krymska Street in the Vrsovice District is a part of the broader city centre of The Capital City of Prague (the Czech Republic). Since the Vrsovice District was historically an independent market town, the locality has a small-town atmosphere with residents' strong ties to this place.
Now, the area is changing under the continuous gentrification process. On this street, the Korso Krymska Festival originated as a small neighborhood festival in 2013.
In this case study, the Festival is shown to be part of an ongoing gentrification process of the locality and is viewed as an instrument for the symbolic and material occupation of the street. Supporting the dominant group (entrepreneurs and their followers), the Festival is changing the image as well as the rhythm of the street, ignoring the needs and participation of the disadvantaged community (residents) living in the relevant area.
Being a silenced, and due to this, also a disadvantaged group, residents are losing their ability to regulate the rhythm and type of usage of the street that used to be their home. The proposal that is based on in-depth interviews, a narrative analysis of the media content and ethnographic observation, investigates the Festival practice and image as a source of the material and symbolic appropriation of the street.
It also defines thre e main media narratives that took over the entrepreneurs' agenda, while residents became a marginalized group. It seems that local entrepreneurs gained resources as well as access to the power of the media and are seen as main actors in the gentrification process of the area.
