Post-socialist Urban Changes and Role Strain in Assessing the Quality of Life: The Case of Bucharest, Romania

Abstract

The changes through which the former socialist cities passed were depended on multiple driving factors and the expertise of many actors. Post-socialist cities have experienced significant transformations in the past three decades in terms of urban fragmentation, land use and economic restructuring. This article aims to extend its contribution to the quality of life literature, underpinning the post-transition urban changes that occurred in Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. The study focuses on the potential role strain in assessing the quality of life in this city after 28 years of post-socialist transformations. The research is based on a survey conducted by the authors: a number of 985 questionnaires have been administered in 26 census tracts in order to identify the potential role strain in assessing the quality of life. The authors applied binary logistic regression and found that the factors encompassing the role strain relate to personal health status and access to health care, unemployment and low wages, housing conditions and housing affordability as well as environmental risks. Overall, the post-socialist changes can be seen as a spatial–temporal container (Tuvikene, Int J Urban Reg Res 40: 132–146, 2016), but the alterations of hybrid mix physical spatial features still remain and are connected with the divergent tendencies of socio-spatial polarisation. Communities and decision makers must develop the quality-of-life strategies with reliable guidelines.