From a Socialist “Elite Quarter” To a Post-Socialist “Ghetto“: The Story of a Czech Housing Estate for Roma

The article examines Chanov, a purpose-built segregated Roma estate in the Czech town of Most, from its planning in the early 1970s to its post-socialist afterlife as a stigmatized “ghetto.” Situating Chanov at the intersection of socialist housing policy and state policy towards Roma, it traces a state-managed moral economy that assigned Roma a specific “housing class,” rendering their precarity administratively meaningful and publicly justifiable. The study compares institutional presence and everyday governance under socialism and post-socialism, highlighting a shift from formative paternalist state oversight towards selective withdrawal, outsourcing, and fragmented governance by contractors and NGOs. The case reveals the important role of housing in reproducing and stabilizing social inequalities. Although embedded in a local and (post-)socialist context, it also contributes to discussions on how inequality becomes objectified and naturalized across political regimes.