Societal Transformation and Regional Differentiation in Czechia: Developments in the Distribution of Job Opportunities and Population

Abstract

The paper focuses on consequences of societal transformation that result in changes in regional development tendencies, during the last two decades. It emphasizes early and more dynamic changes in the geographical distribution of economic activities as compared to population distribution. In spite of the time delay involved in population distribution dynamics, their transformation tends to lead to integration and the lower order processes of changes show a similar orientation. Divergent processes clearly dominated the last two decades. The article specifies basic differences in terms of the inequality of distributions of the assessed processes as well as degrees of changeability. First, there is an important difference between territorial and social differences, or inequalities. A secondary distinction is established between geographical scale levels, on the one hand, and the progress of functional subsystems (residential places – job locations – economic performance, etc.), on the other. Major factors conditioning regional differentiation are indicated. In particular, the attractiveness of a given geographical macrolocation and the educational level of its population appear to be critical conditions.