Remembering while Forgetting: The Role of Automorphism in City Management in Warsaw

This article summarizes the results of a study of city management in Warsaw. Contrary to the common opinion, the difficulties in effective city management in Warsaw do not stem from its communist past, but from a veneered sedimentation of a rationalist-legalist frame of action. These problems are aggravated by a negative attitude toward imitation of foreign models. The article discusses possibilities for reframing that are created by automorphism, that is, an imitation of the city's invented tradition.