Post-Socialist Path in Urban Development

Nowadays all welfare states without exception must face the increasing level of poverty and social exclusion. The situation in post socialist states, where the transition deepened the instability of the economy, is even worse. Social security is at risk by the territorial manifestation of segregation not only for vulnerable groups but a broader part of the society. Post-socialist societies faced three different types of changes at the end of the 20th century. On the one hand, the transformation of totalitarian political structure and the redesign of the economy into a democracy or market economy, on the other hand, the growth of the service sector, which has ousted the dominance of industrial production, and, thirdly, integration from their isolated position into the global world economy. All of these have influenced the development of cities as spatial projections of societies. Most of the East-Central and Eastern European cities have been fighting for sustainable development for the last couple of decades and are trying to reposition themself to the changing regional and global environment. This paper aims to present the impacts that have affected cities in the regime-changing countries during the socio-economic transition and how these influenced the development or even the decline of urban functions compared to urbanization processes in other regions of the world.