LOCAL-COMMUNITIES AND TERRITORIALITY IN EAST-CENTRAL-EUROPE

Changes in the political system and modes of production in East-Central Europe after the Second World War have had cumulative effects in breaking-up local communities. The reshaping of the accompanying territorial administrative system defined new spaces within which local communities had to operate. Functional centres provide the framework for rural areas, their networks shaped by land concentration and administrative mergers. The division of labour within large farm units, the relocation of the centres of power, led to the breakdown of territoriality, a process which has contributed to the destruction of local communities. By the 1980s, parts of the region have seen efforts to decentralize economic management by reform and to reinvigorate local communities. This has given a boost to local initiative and widens the sphere of activities of small private contractors. Meanwhile, the problem remains of stimulating greater participation of the population in local development. © 1990.