DIVERGENT PATTERNS OF ADAPTATION AMONG CENTRAL EUROPEAN OLD INDUSTRIAL REGIONS

摘要

With the fall of the socialist system, Central European1 economies underwent a strong industrial crisis, which was particularly damaging to concentrated spaces of mining, heavy industry and mass production. Referred to as Old Industrial Regions (OIRs) or sometimes Old Industrial Areas in regional studies (cf. Steiner, 1985, 2003; Cooke, 1995; Boschma and Lambooy, 1999), these regions experienced widespread economic, social and environmental degradation, and were widely considered the losers of transition processes with prospects of long-term stagnation (Gorzelak, 1998). The failure of socialist economies was strongly associated with images of industrial dereliction and decay; criticisms of the planning system often focused on industrial policy as a central dilemma (e.g. Janossy, 1969; Kornai, 1980; Winiecki, 1986), and some of the early democratic movements also included an environmentalist, anti-industrial element.