Shock-shift in an enlarged Europe. The geography of socio-economic change in East-Central Europe after 1989

Shock-shift in an enlarged Europe: the geography of socio-economic change in East-Central Europe after 1989:

This book is devoted to a geographical analysis of problems associated with socio-economic changes taking place in East-Central Europe. These problems have resulted from the demise of the Communist order and transition of these countries to a market economy and a democratic system. The volume is structured to provide a confrontation of two viewpoints: the major chapters are written by East European scholars, followed by discussions held with their Western European counterparts. It is intended that this provides depth and clarity to the debate on understanding those geographical problems facing the emerging East European states nearly a decade after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The volume results from contributions made to a geographical conference held in Torun, Poland in late 1994. The papers from academics in Eastern Europe include: transformations of the Polish economy, including a chapter on retailing, societal transformation of the Czech Republic, features of transformation in Slovakia, recent changes in the socio-economic structure of Slovenia, and the resurgence of minorities in that country, privatisation in Romania, restructuring settlements in Estonia. The second part of the book is a collection of papers critically reviewing similar issues from Western European academics, which begins with an overview of a Western European view of the process of socio-economic change in Eastern Europe. The editors acknowledge the problems involved in covering issues systematically when editing a volume of conference papers. However, the problems and consequences of the shock- tactics of switching from Communism to a market economy in Eastern Europe are wide ranging. Each state has tried to discover ways of coming to terms with the new situation, and some are coping better than others, as these papers demonstrate.