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Editorial

Aft er 1989–90 major political, economic and societal changes took place in 
the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Due to marketisation of 
state assets, liberalisation of prices and growing exposure to international 
competition and globalisation, profound economic restructuring commenced 
leading to rapid de-industrialisation, growing wage and income disparities 
in these countries. 

At the same time the egalitarian principles of state-socialist redistribu-
tion of income and goods were replaced by the rules of the market which set 
off  profound changes in the socio-spatial organisation of cities. The market 
principles of resource allocation together with a growing exposure to the glo-
bal economy formed basic preconditions for robust shift s in urban land-use, 
growing social inequalities, and the spread of new functions.

The tremendous and sometimes very spectacular changes of post-
socialist cities in CEE att racted great interest among urban geographers. The 
great att ention has been well refl ected in the growing body of literature fo-
cusing on various aspects of urban restructuring. The ambitious aim of this 
special issue is to further enrich our knowledge on post-socialist urban trans-
formation. 

The majority of the eight papers included in this special issue were 
presented at the 4th EUGEO Congress held in Rome 5–7 September 2013. They 
cover a wide range of topics that are thought to be relevant in recent proc-
esses of post-socialist urban restructuring. The diversity of contributions is 
guaranteed not only by the topics and methodological approaches, but also 
by the countries and cities covered. I sincerely hope that this set of papers will 
signifi cantly contribute to the bett er understanding of the phenomenology of 
the post-socialist urban space.

Zoltán KOVÁCS



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