Towards a Framework for Sustainable Monotowns: Identity, Transformation, and Heritage in Post-Socialist Cities

Kateryna Didenko

doi:10.2478/aup-2026-0005

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Towards a Framework for Sustainable Monotowns: Identity, Transformation, and Heritage in Post-Socialist Cities

Architecture and Urban Planning

Volume 22 (2026): Issue 1 (January 2026)

By: Kateryna Didenko

Open Access

|May 2026

Abstract

The article develops a methodological framework for analysing trajectories of identity reframing and for examining the post-socialist development of monotowns in Eastern and Central Europe. The methodology employs an interdisciplinary comparative case study approach, used as a meta-method and encompassing a multi-level research structure, aimed at providing a foundation for developing recommendations for rethinking Piatykhatky’s (Kharkiv, Ukraine). The methodology can subsequently be applied to other monotowns in Ukraine.

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