Depopulation Differences in Slovak Former Mining Cities. The Role of Geographical Conditions and Local Interventions

Abstract

There is a specific group of former mining cities facing depopulation in Slovakia. They lost their key growth factor because their natural resources have been exhausted over the centuries or their extraction has become inefficient in the global economy. Nevertheless, even among them, we can find significant differences. We attempt to identify the drivers behind these surprising, at first glance, results, focusing on clusters of 15 cities with similar mining development grounds. We also try to identify some potential fields of action and good cases to cope with such development. We argue, that although cities and their local self-government have no chance to beat global market trends, or geographical location disadvantages, their reasonably intended activities can have depopulation mitigating effects at least in some of them. Such a chance is multiplied if a better intergovernmental support framework is available.