Traditional agricultural landscapes (TAL) in Slovakia represents a mosaic of unique small-scale arable fields and permanent agricultural cultivations such as grasslands, vineyards and high-trunk ...orchards, which did not change during the collectivization of agriculture from the 1950s to the 1980s. After the change to a market-oriented economy in 1989, the management of these valuable structures decreased rapidly. The aim of this study is to investigate the distribution of TAL in Slovakia and to analyse the driving forces behind their accelerated abandonment. The study was conducted at two scales, i.e. country-wide and in three case-studies. 3013 TAL polygons encompassing 44,464 ha were mapped from aerial photos, recording basic characteristics such as land-cover composition or degree of management. A detailed field study concerning the attitude of local people to the management of TAL was conducted in three case study areas. The results from the country-wide mapping shows, that 50% of the TAL area is regularly managed, 34% is partly abandoned, and 16% is abandoned. Abandonment occurs most intensively on steep slopes and on less fertile soils. The distance from settlements is important in the case of TAL with dispersed settlements and TAL with arable land and grasslands. Interviews at the case study level showed that financial profit is the main factor, which would motivate the local people to farm the TAL. Around 30% of respondents showed no interest in management. Local farmers identified the financial instruments in agriculture, in the form of unfavourable subsidies and the financial inaccessibility of modern tools and machinery as the main barriers in ideal management, together with an inadequate market and the weak support of local government. In addition, there are other cultural factors that play a role in their abandonment such as changes in the rural culture, attractivity and diversity of other ways of living, lack of successors, health and age constraints, as well as a number of persisting problems regarding unresolved land ownership in some areas.
•50% of Slovak traditional agricultural landscapes are partly abandoned or abandoned.•Abandonment occurs most intensively on steep slopes and less fertile soils.•Financial unprofitability of small-scale farming has triggered abandonment.•Around 30% of inhabitants has no interest in TAL management.•Cultural drivers like changes in the rural culture, diversity of ways of live played the role as well.
This article explores the implications of political-historical relations and research evaluation policies for the use of nationally oriented journals in 28 post-socialist countries. The study uses ...Scopus as a source of national and international journal publications. A national journal is defined as a journal in which there is one author affiliation country accounting for at least 50 per cent of all articles published in the journal. The study distinguishes between domestic national journals and foreign national journals. Comparison between publications in national journals (INO-P>50 in 2019) in 1996 and 2019 highlights that the tradition of publishing in national journals which dates back to the 1990s and more recent publication requirements are two factors that affect a country's percentage share of publications in national journals. These findings support earlier studies indicating that journals from post-socialist countries are used mainly for local promotions and formal fulfilment of policy rules. There is no correlation between the ratio of national vs international publications to GDP. Findings on foreign national journals indicate that the lack of local/national journals promotes publishing in national journals of other countries.
The aim of this article is to distinguish types of the suburbs that are typical for post-socialist European countries. The typology organizes the variety of suburban forms according to the degree to ...which they favour the creation of public spaces, or the access to such spaces in the city or nearby town. A new typology is based on six criteria: (1) the level of neighbourhood (spatial scale), (2) the time when the neighbourhood was erected, (3) spatial interaction with the nearest town/city, (4) the prevailing type of investment, (5) street layout, (6) access to the city centre by public transport. Suburbs are diversified in terms of their potential for the establishment of public spaces. It has been proved that individual housing in the form of neighbourhoods which are planned, densely populated and based on street grid is the most preferred type from the perspective of building social capital. The typology was developed for Warsaw Metropolitan Region, although it may be applied also in the research of post-socialist countries other than Poland and urban regions within them.
•Different process of suburbanization in post-socialist countries requires the adoption of a new typology of suburbs.•The typology allows to indicate the most preferred types of suburbs from the perspective of creation of public spaces.•The typology may serve as a guideline in preventing the replication of the monofunctional ‘bedroom’ neighbourhoods in the future.
Co‐residential partnerships are a pre‐condition for childbearing and less time is spent in these unions when there is difficulty finding partners, a delay in union formation, and partnership ...instability. Our study explores patterns in co‐residential partnerships across birth cohorts in 11 post‐socialist countries to assess changes in the number of years spent in these partnerships and the patterns underlying any trend. Using the Harmonized Histories dataset, based on partnership data from generations and gender surveys, we calculate changes in co‐residential union trends. In about half of the countries, the share of women who have not entered a co‐residential union by age 30 increased, whereas the proportion still in their first union by this age decreased universally. The latter trend, reflecting union instability, pre‐dates the transition from socialism. Delays in starting the first union were seen in only a few countries immediately after the transition began but more countries experienced union postponement in coming‐of‐age cohorts in the 2000s. A declining median age at first union in the former Soviet republics before and immediately after the transition from socialism balances the impact of increased union instability. Overall, the number of years spent in a co‐residential union before age 30 declined across the Central and South‐Eastern European countries, especially in Hungary. Union dynamics may have contributed to declining fertility in these countries. In contrast, little or no change in time spent in unions in the post‐Soviet countries indicates that union dynamics were less likely to have influenced these women’s fertility behavior.
After the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, former party members were particularly likely to start businesses and become entrepreneurs. What remains unclear, however, is whether ...this entrepreneurial activity was driven by the resources, information, and opportunities provided by former party membership or because individuals with specific individual attributes were more likely to become Communist cadres (self-selection). This study is the first to separate the causal effect of former Communist party membership from self-selection. Using individual-level Life in Transition-III survey data and a control function approach, we find that former Communist party membership has facilitated business set-up but not business longevity in Central and Eastern European countries. We also show that people who joined the former ruling party had fewer of the traits associated with entrepreneurship such as unobservable personality traits, ability, motivation, and entrepreneurial aptitude, and as such were negatively self-selected. We show that former Communist party membership still matters for business practices, business ethics, and the nature of doing business in transition economies.
The break-ups of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were accompanied by some of the worst military conflicts in modern history, claiming lives of thousands of people and forcibly displacing ...millions. We study how people displaced by war and conflict within these countries fare on the labour market in the long term – 10 to 15years after their displacement. Our conceptual framework draws on the theory of cumulative disadvantage and the notion of unemployment ‘scarring’. Data come from the Life in Transition II survey, conducted in post-conflict, post-socialist countries in 2010 (n=10,328). Multiple regression analysis reveals a significant long-term labour market disadvantage of forced displacement: people who fled conflict 10–15years ago are more likely to be long-term unemployed, experience a recent job loss and work informally. We also find that people affected by conflict (both displaced and non-displaced) are more willing to acquire further education and training. These results are not uniform across demographic groups: displaced women consistently experience a greater labour market disadvantage than displaced men, and people affected by conflict in the younger age group (18–34) are particularly keen to acquire extra education and training. Overall, our results highlight a long-lasting vulnerability of the forcibly displaced in developing and transition economies, and advance the emerging literature on the effects of internal displacement on labour market outcomes and human capital accumulation. We also discuss how forced internal displacement extends the theory of cumulative disadvantage.
•Forced internal displacement leads to a significant long-term labour market disadvantage.•People who fled conflict are more likely to be unemployed and work informally.•People affected by conflict are also more willing to acquire further training.•Displaced women experience a greater labour market disadvantage than displaced men.•Young people affected by conflict are particularly keen to acquire extra education and training.
This paper examines spa developments in post-socialist countries, especially the process of adapting facilities to attract and accommodate commercial (non-state funded) guests and international ...tourists. This includes the development of infrastructure, the upgrading and regeneration of facilities, the improvement of service quality and the enhancement of visitor experiences and customer satisfaction. The research in this paper draws on customer satisfaction and service quality theory from the hospitality sector in order to consider how far spas are meeting international standards and to make recommendations for future improvements. Online review data was analysed from one of the most popular spas in Budapest, Hungary to highlight issues relating to tourist satisfaction and experience. Despite considerable investment in the thermal bath buildings and facilities as part of a national programme of regeneration, several issues relating to service quality still need to be addressed. This represents a common challenge for the whole post-socialist region, so the work aims to identify future directions for spas in this region in their transition from domestic, therapeutic medical baths to international, wellness spas.
Although the origins of the theoretical debate regarding political–economic alternatives are as old as Proudhon, Marx and Engels, discussion concerning alternative economic and political spaces has ...come to the foreground very recently. More specifically, in the field of geography the most influential approach has been that associated with work on diverse economies, developed initially by Gibson-Graham. Research in this area has increased at a significant rate, revealing a multitude of practices in what we call the hidden ‘neverland’ all over the world, while simultaneously posing a number of new and open questions. This article begins with a review of the main theoretical, methodological and epistemological assumptions underpinning the diverse economies approach. This is followed by a discussion of four concrete types of diverse/alternative spaces; those in post-socialist countries, alternative exchange networks, alternative food networks and the Mondragon cooperative corporation in Spain. The article concludes by arguing that while the debate on alternative and diverse economies may reflect a willingness on the part of the scholars to cooperate in order to build a postcapitalist future, it is also necessary to consider the possibilities and constraints operating at different scales, from individual to global, in order to consider the extent to which alternatives may be successful.
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