Post-socialist Period Research Articles

Stambene karijere u Hrvatskoj

Visok udio kućevlasništva malo govori o tome na koje načine pojedinci i kućanstva u Hrvatskoj rješavaju svoje stambeno pitanje, a krossekcijski podatci o strukturi stambenih statusa, stambenim politikama te predtranzicijskim istraživanjima stambene opskrbe daju nedostatne odgovore na to pitanje. Oslanjajući se na koncepte stambenog statusa, stambene tranzicije i stambene karijere te na periodizaciju dominantnih sustava stambene opskrbe od 1975. do 2015., u radu adresiramo sljedeća pitanja: prvo, koji su dominantni oblici stambenih tranzicija u Hrvatskoj, drugo, kako su stambene karijere povezane s ishodišnim statusima te treće, koji su dominantni obrasci stambenih karijera u Hrvatskoj. Navedena pitanja potom dovodimo u odnos s obilježjima stambene opskrbe u pojedinim razdobljima te ih, naposljetku, razmatramo iz perspektive međukohortnih razlika. Rad se temelji na analizi retrospektivnih anketnih podataka o stambenim karijerama koristeći metode povijesti događaja (eng. event history) i analize sekvence. Anketiranje je provedeno na nacionalno reprezentativnom uzorku (N=1000) u sklopu IPSOS Pulsovog Omnibus istraživanja u studenome 2016. godine. Analiza je usredotočena na identifikaciju obrazaca stanovanja u Hrvatskoj te na prikaz stambenih karijera pojedinaca u razdoblju socijalizma i postsocijalizma (1975. – 2015.). Kroz cijelo promatrano razdoblje dominira obiteljski tip stambene samoopskrbe, slijede stambene tranzicije s osloncem na tržišnu opskrbu, čiji je broj u porastu, a perzistentno su najmanje zastupljeni, i do razdoblja krize gotovo iščeznuli, socijalizirani modaliteti tranzicija. Stambene tranzicije iz roditeljskog doma počinju kasno, a trajanje jednom otpočetih stambenih statusa, napose onih vlasničkih, vrlo je dugotrajno. Stambene karijere relativno su jednostavne te u većini slučajeva vode vlasništvu kuće ili stana, često kroz ostanak u roditeljskoj nekretnini.

Прогностика риск-факторов устойчивого регионального развития в России (на примере Ростовской области)

The article investigates a number of factors that determine the sustainability of socioeconomic development of Russian regions. On the example of one of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation that are part of the Southern Federal District - the Rostov region, risk factors that affect political and social processes in the regions in the conditions of technical recession, sanctions and pandemic restrictions have been established. It is concluded that in the current conditions of functioning of regional socio-economic systems, it is advisable to carry out economic reforms that ensure the adjustment of socio-economic development results obtained in the post-socialist period.

URBAN CHANGES AND PROBLEMS OF NOVI SAD IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Novi Sad is the second-most populous city in Serbia. As an urban entity, and an immigration factor, its importance increased after the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Due to the immigration of inhabitants, both from the former republics of Yugoslavia and from other parts of Serbia, population growth has led to morphological changes. The city expanded towards Futog, Rumenci and Bački Jarak. In addition, the city has undergone significant changes in the internal physiognomy, in the central parts of the city, as well as in the other parts. In the central parts of the city, efforts are being made to preserve old architectural buildings. However, in the eighties of the last century, the demolition of old buildings in the center began. In their place, they sprouted buildings of modern architecture, which do not fit into the previous style of construction, pertaining to the late 19th and early 20th century. This trend continued later throughout the 21st century. Particularly evident are the changes in the shift of individual, collective construction, which is characteristic of the center itself and the narrower and broader surroundings of the city's central parts. Collective housing facilities are springing up all over Novi Sad, depending on the investor. The style of construction is changing, as well as the purpose of some urban spaces. An additional problem is the increasing traffic load and congestion of roads, especially during the time of getting to school and work, as well as the time of return. These are just some of the apparent issues that Novi Sad faced in the post-socialist period, which need to be solved for the sustainability of an organized city.

Winning and losing rural localities of the post-socialist economic restructuring: case study of Czechia

Retreat from socialism at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s conditioned significant social, economic and environmental changes for former socialist countries. Transformation from the centrally planned economy under the authoritative regime to market economy and democratic system re-structured also economies of rural areas. As a result, the conversion to capitalism constructed successful rural localities enjoying growing wealth whereas, on the other hand, other rural localities struggle with high unemployment, low incomes and following emigration of qualified people. This paper, on the example of rural space in Czechia, analyses time spatial development of number of jobs on local level and reveals main factors which have been constructing economically successful and unsuccessful rural localities in the post-socialist period. Based on this, six model responses to post-socialist economic rural restructuring are identified: globally integrated service-oriented, entrepreneurial, industrialised, post-productivist, deindustrialised and post-mining and energy-producing rural localities.

Evolution and changes of tourism in Macedonia in the post-socialist period (1991–2018)

The study provides a historical and contextual analysis of the evolution of tourism in Macedonia. The time scope is defined as the period between 1991 and in 2018. The study investigates the tourism development in Macedonia in the post-socialist period of the country, using the Butler (1980) Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC) model as an analytical tool. The model provides a framework to explain the complex processes of the development and changes in tourism in the country over the years. For this purpose, an analysis of secondary data sources is implemented to find the changes in the evolutionary stages of tourism development. The findings show that tourism in Macedonia is in a stage of development, and that it has not yet reached the consolidation stage. Lastly, the study offers a better understanding of how tourism in Macedonia is changing in the complex post-socialist period.

Changes of tourism in Croatia in the post-socialist period

21 years of transformation in the tourist function in the territory of Croatia has been summarized in the article. This area has come a long way from the region that was an integral part of Yugoslavia, through the area of warfare related to the civil war to one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the world. The number of tourists has more than tripled, with an increase from 57% to 1830% in individual counties of Croatia during the analyzed period. At the same time, there was a disproportionately low increase in capacity of accommodation base across the country at the level of 76%. This increase took values from 20% to 350% in extreme districts.

Spaces of transition: testing high standard housing in late-socialist Belgrade

ABSTRACT This article explores housing models and hybrid typologies advanced as part of an urban renewal programme in Belgrade (Serbia, former Yugoslavia) in the 1980s. We argue that these typologies were tested against the socialist-modernist model of mass residential construction that had been dominant since the 1960s. Our research identifies the design methodologies employed in the insertion of collective housing typologies into an elite residential quarter of traditionally-planned detached family houses, in the case of high-standard housing project Dedinje II/2 (1979–1986) designed by the architect Zoran Županjevac. The article particularly focuses on local adaptation of the transnational concept of designing spaces of transition between community and privacy. Instrumental in this adaptation, we aim to show, was the educational experience and professional practice critical of radical modernism gained by the architect in the USA, UK and Austria. In particular, we find that the project reflects the transfer of knowledge and experience across cultural, geographic and political contexts. The resulting typologies, we contend, not only represented an example of a pluralist approach to late-socialist architecture but provided models for re-thinking housing in the transition to the market economy of the post-socialist period.

이천년 대 이후 중국노동자 문화현실과 담론연구 : 베이징 피춘의 사례를 중심으로

The article examines the aspects and meaning of the cultural practice of worker’s house (Gongyou zhijia) of Pi Village(Picun) in Beijing, focusing on how the status of Chinese workers is changing since 2000s and how cultural realities and discourse are organized and changing, Through the discussion of this article, I have stated that what the practice in Pi Village is done directly by new worker through the method of literary and artistic and that it is a practice that constitutes the commons. Above all, this is important in that it was done through discourse and practice that rejects the name “peasant who works and lives in city(Nongmingong)" given by the system and names themselves "new workers(Xingongren)." The practice of Pi Village expresses surrounding new workers are the industrial and service workers who are not peasants any more and urban workers who have the right to live, be educated and work in the city at the same time. This is a practice that reveals the problems of the uneven binary system that separates the city from the countryside, which defined them as peasants out of conformity with reality, while renaming themselves as new workers. In this regard, the case of Pi Village is a reality that takes issues with the rural-urban dichotomy.<BR> the social and historical level of China, the discourse and practice of Pi Village can be re-contextualized as revealing the problems of this uneven urban-rural binary system and carrying out the revising it directly. Through the practice of Pi Village, the relationship between urban and rural areas in China during the post-socialist period is being re-thought and re-established.

Systematization of Kazakh music in Mongolia: activities of theater and radio station during the Soviet era

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the systematization of Kazakh music in Mongolia during the Soviet era in Bayan-Ölgiy Province, focusing on the music collection and preservation activities led by a theater and radio station. Bayan-Ölgiy is located far from Ulaanbaatar; adjacent to Kazakhstan, Xinjiang (China), and Russia. Using three–years participation observation, this study identified three activities in promoting the systematization of Kazakh music in Mongolia: importing musical knowledge and technology from the Soviet Kazakh Republic (1950–1960s); establishing a radio station and audio archive following the Sino-Soviet split (1960s–1980s); collections of Kazakh music in Mongolia (1960s–1980s). These activities were driving forces for Kazakhs to claim their identity in the post-socialist period in Mongolia. Diener found that Kazakh culture in Mongolia was preserved thanks to the geographic isolation of Bayan-Ölgiy. However, this study clearly identifies international relations and Bayan-Ölgiy’s strategic location as drivers of systematization of Kazakh music in Mongolia.

Place attachment to a larger through a smaller scale: attachment to city through housing typologies in Tirana

The study examines the attachment to city through housing typologies in an urban context, taking the case of post-socialist Tirana, which was facing the issue of urban identity. The approach of examining attachment to city through housing typology was used because housing is observed to be the predominant morphological stock of the urban fabric, which impacted a quasi-metamorphosis in Tirana’s identity and also because home was found to be the scale of place whose significance was highest from the attachment point of view. The methodology used in the study included sampling, surveying and data processing through SPSS. The sampling of housing typologies was conducted based on their architectural features that had evolved in pre-socialist, socialist and post-socialist periods, within a zone of Tirana called the “Middle Ring”. The questionnaire was administered to 225 inhabitants, namely, 25 dwellers per each of nine housing typologies, while the outputs were processed using SPSS software. Overall, the results showed that most of the interviewed inhabitants were attached to city through their dwellings. Most of the dwellers of seven typologies felt attached to city on different levels, whereas those of two typologies mostly felt unattached; thus, attachment to city is dependent on housing typologies. Predominantly, good location and architectural values of dwellings and slightly less a sense of belonging to a self-described nobility of Tirana were given as reasons for attachment to city. Overall the predictors that influenced the place attachment were found to be dwelling quality and comfort, duration, home ownership and age.

The processes of incorporation and secession of urban and suburban municipalities: The case of Poland

ABSTRACTThe aim of the article is to explain the phenomena of mergers and territorial disintegration of Polish towns and cities from three perspectives: social, economic and spatial-primal. Administrative border changes are fundamental components of local urban policy guidelines in countries that have experienced a dual history in the socialist and post-socialist periods, such as Poland. The main method of the authors research was the application of statistical and cartographic methods focused on measuring quantitative administrative changes in urban areas and their demographic effects. The scope of the research covered all towns in Poland existing in the years 1945–2018. Since the changes in the administrative boundaries of cities particularly concern the rural areas in the vicinity of large cities, the suburban municipalities surrounding urban centres were analysed too. The findings underline the deterministic role of political systems in the territorial expansion of towns and cities, and indicates their role for current planning decisions. The authors conclude that noticeable differences between two analysed periods have had at least two significant causes. First, the political and economic systems determining the changes differed, and second, each system was accompanied by differing directions of economic development and therefore also different ‘urbogenic’ forces.

POST-SOCIALIST LABOR FORCE AS A COMMON-POOL RESOURCE

The article is devoted to the challenges of the labour market in the post-socialist period. It discusses the issues related to the physical properties of the post-socialists labour force and the social and legal framework in which it operates. Labor traditionally is considered to be a private good in the economic literature, possessing the properties of high excludability and rivalry. We argue that in the post-socialist period, labour looks more like a common pool resource system rather than a private good. In the absence of appropriate legal and social structures, such a system is likely to operate under the conditions of open access. In the long run, this could lead to a depletion of this resource. We argue that looking at labour in the frame of common pool resource, first we can justify better the use of the traditional instruments for intervention at the labour market, and second, this could help to develop a more efficient system for preserving and development of the labour force in the long run.

In search of identity: Adult education in Bosnia and Herzegovina between the socialist legacy and neoliberal tendencies

The paper presents an analysis of the key processes in the field of adult education in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) referring to its socialist past and current tendencies dominantly motivated by the country’s aspiration towards accession to the European Union (EU). Any effort to offer a systematic overview of the history of adult education in BiH faces ambiguity and a lack of systematic data. Unlike other parts of the education system where historical accounts are to a certain extent preserved and subject to scholarly studies and investigations, adult education in BiH seems to be a field without a documented past. Based on critical discourse analysis, the paper intends to unravel the intricate socio-political texture that has shaped the key themes in adult education both in the country’s socialist past and its democratic present. The results of the analysis indicate several quite clear patterns: (a) the ambiguous treatment of the socialist past, from romanticising to annihilating its achievements and arrangements; (b) the rise of private institutions in adult education in the post-socialist period and the diversification of the education on offer; and (c) tensions between aspirations towards global and European trends on the one hand and insistence on localisation in terms of shaping adult education policy on the other.&#x0D;

From “red” to green? A look into the evolution of green spaces in a post-socialist city

Promoting green infrastructure and other nature-based solutions in urban environments is considered an effective approach to achieve resilience and meet sustainability goals. Countries with a post-Socialist history are still struggling to increase the amount of green spaces in cities. Bucharest is an example of a city that has undergone considerable transformation during the Socialist period (1948–1990) and after. Back then the drivers of urban transformation were mainly related to public land management, whereas after the fall of the Socialist regime private development prevailed. Our study aims to analyze the shift in the amount and distribution of green spaces in Bucharest as a consequence of the transition from a centralized planning system to a market-based system. We used historical maps and aerial images to determine spatial-temporal changes in the structure of Bucharest‘s urban parks and their surrounding areas. To determine the influence of planning approaches on green spaces, we analyzed the legislative framework from the Socialist period (labeled as “red”) and post-Socialist period. Our results showed that the fall of the Socialist regime represented an important institutional change affecting urban green spaces. There was a major increase in the surface and number of green spaces during the Socialist period and a decrease afterwards as a consequence of a weak legislative framework, restitution of lands and ownership conflicts. Our findings provide valuable knowledge on the evolutionary urban processes and sustainability approaches of the post-Socialist period in Romania and important insights for improving planning efforts and maximizing ecosystem services in cities.

Collaboration for survival in the age of the market: diverse economic practices in postsocialist Mongolia

ABSTRACTSince 1990, Mongolia has experienced postsocialist transformation and the government-imposed ‘free market economy’. With the collapse of socialism and the former economic order, ordinary people in Mongolia have survived by engaging in diverse economic practices. The aim of this article is to give careful analysis of how people employed everyday economic practices around three key commodities – cashmere, scrap metal, and marmot pelts – to sustain their livelihoods in this postsocialist environment. Based on ethnographic field research, this article argues that social networks and kinship relations persisted through the socio-economic changes and radical reforms of the postsocialist period, creating the foundations for the diverse economic practices found in contemporary Mongolia. These practices served to distribute wealth equally and to sustain livelihoods after the government’s ‘failed’ privatization in the 1990s.

‘...the opium of the people’? Religiosity in socialist new towns

Although an undoubtedly growing body of scholarly work deals with the economic, political and institutional transformation of post-socialist cities, the no less profound cultural changes former socialist cities have undergone since the beginning of the transition still remain relatively under-theorised. In order to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of these overwhelming cultural transformations, this paper scrutinises religiosity in two Hungarian socialist new towns, Dunaújváros and Kazincbarcika, during and after socialism. Our case studies are based on quantitative and qualitative research methods: in addition to the analysis of religiosity-related census data and long-term parochial datasets obtained from the local churches, in-depth interviews were also conducted with priests, pastors and representatives of the local municipalities. Based on our analyses, two main research results might be outlined. On the one hand, it was revealed that religiosity – although mostly ‘under the surface’, in a less explicit form – played an important role in the daily lives of the residents of both new towns during the state socialist period. This finding is especially compelling, since these mono-functional industrial towns (should have) represented the quintessence of socialist urbanity, planned to be classless and inherently atheist. On the other hand, a remarkable religious revival might have been expected in the wake of the politico-economic transition, with the advent of the ‘free world’. In contrast to this assumption, however, only a slightly increasing (and then, rather stagnating) religiosity was observed in both case study towns. It might be traced back to the overall value crisis of these communities after having lost their formerly privileged position. Therefore, our research results might help us to deconstruct the over-simplified common view of ‘atheism under socialism’ vis-à-vis ‘a religious revival in the post-socialist period’.

Zadar - grad na granici: Skica za socio-demografsku povijest Grada

Basing it on a concise history of Zadar the author develops his thesis about Zadar as a “ city on the border” . This has been true since Venetian times when the boundary with the Turkish dominion was located here, during the Italian occupation of the city when it found itself “ on that side o f the border", and up to quite recently when its immediate hinterland was occupied by Serbian aggression. In these conditions the relationship between the city and its neighbouring environs become specific, ambivalent and discontinuous. These historical conditons determined to a large extent die development and the physiognomy of the city, diwarted the natural circulation of people and goods, prevented die growth of die city and influenced the sociopsychological characteristics of its populace. The author considers, in a more specific way, the consequences of die city’s prolonged isolation from transportation networks which lasted up to die mid-sixties of this century and concludes with some indications about the position of Zadar in the post-socialist period.

Institucionalna in zasebna religioznost v severovzhodni Sloveniji. Primerjalna analiza slovenskih regij po letu 1969

Category: 1.01 Original scientific paper Language: Original in Slovenian (Abstract in Slovenian and English, Summary in English) Key words: religion, northeast Slovenia, statistical regions, privatization of religion Abstract: A comparative analysis of religiosity across Slovenian statistical regions was conducted based on the survey data from the Slovenian Public Opinion project (SPO). It took into consideration available data from 1969 to 2016 and compared four regions of northeast Slovenia (Pomurska, Podravska, Koroška and Savinjska) with other regions in the country. Special attention was devoted to the thesis on privatization of religion in (post)modern societies, as well as to a more general thesis of secularization. Results of the analysis showed that fluctuations in religiosity in Slovenia as a whole were compatible with some previous observations: Until 1978, there was a significant decline in religiosity. This trend then reversed and revitalization of religion took place up until early 1990s. Since then, during the post-socialist period, religiosity did not change much in any direction. The crucial observation within these fluctuations is that the specific features of northeast regions endured through the entire observed period. These specific features are visible mostly in terms of relatively high levels of religiosity in general, as well as in very high levels of institutional religiosity and relatively low levels of private religiosity.

Theoretic sociology and post-socialism

The post-socialist sociology in Croatia is scarcely able to give adequate answers to the pressing questions raised by the latest developments in post-socialist societies. It turns out equally inadequate when explaning the phenomena the Croatian society is beging exposed to at this particular time. The reason lies widely in the fact that societies emerging after socialism cannot be analyzed in terms of established rules and fully grasped categories. Paraphrasing Lyotard's thesis on postmodernism, the article adopts the view that the post-socialist period should be thought of as the paradox of pre-future, since its situation is the one in wich the rules of "what is going to be created" are, at the same time, operating and being made. In the light of such a definition of the social reality of which we only know with certainty that it comes after socialism, it is clear that only theoretical sociology can offer competent explanation of die new "rules in forming" and of their causes, rooted in the previous reality. Therefore Croatian sociology should turn to theoretical analysis of its own premisses, instead of engaging in new and new empiric researches that are always liable to ideological instrumentalizing, and that - in time perspective - speak more eloquently about the initial hypothesis of researcher than of the subject researched.

Institution and inclination in the post-socialist space: Genocide as “memory intervention”

Institution and Inclination in the Post-Socialist Space: Genocide as “Memory Intervention”This article investigates memory discourses around communism in Ukraine and Romania and the manner in which account­ability for the past has been mobilized to shape authoritative trauma based memorializations, public appropriations, and increasingly standardized manners of indexing the past. In the last decade, both countries have gone through successive attempts — through memory legislation, historical commis­sions and historiography — to include these negative historical narratives into an ideational redress in the postsocialist period. Alongside national connotations, I argue that trauma based political projects around memory have become an important site where the narrative of a “European” state is produced. In both national contexts, representations have appropriated and benefitted from more liberal-cen­ter representations of memory, which now match the pan-European paradigm of “totalitarianism” introduced by the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism passed by European Council. This article focuses however on one of the consequences of this transnational dynamics of for representing a renewed, European political space, namely the usage of and appeal to legal notions of memory, such as “genocide”, in both public discourse and historiography.Учреждение и склонность в постсоциалистическом пространстве: геноцид как «вмешательство в память»В этой статье исследуются дискурсы памяти, сформированные вокруг коммунизма в Украине и Румы­нии и способы мобилизации ответственности за прошлое для формирования авторитетных мемориализаций на основе травм, государственных ассигнований и все более стандартизи­рованных способов индексирования прошлого. В последнее десятилетие обе страны прошли через последовательные попытки мемориальные законы, исторические комиссии и истори истори­ографию включить эти негативные исторические повествования в идейные преобразования в постсоциалистический период. Я утверждаю, что наряду с национальными коннотациями, именно основанные на травме и сформированные вокруг памяти политические проекты стали важным местом, где создается повествование о «европейском» государстве. В обоих националь­ных контекстах представления были усвоены и подданы влиянию более либеральных представ­лений о памяти, которые теперь соответствуют панъевропейской парадигме «тоталитаризма», введенной Пражской декларацией о европейской совести и коммунизме, принятой Европей­ским советом. В этой статье, тем не менее, основное внимание уделяется одному из послед­ствий этой транснациональной динамики для формирования представления возобновленного европейского политического пространства, а именно: использование и обращение к правовым понятиям памяти, таким как «геноцид», как в публичном дискурсе, так и в историографии.