the reconstruction of the panel housing estates and the redevelopment of the
inner city industrial areas. This could slow down the suburbanisation trends in
the future and the array of the social and environmental costs on the society.
ConclusionsThe spatial structure of the capitals in Central and Eastern Europe has been
deeply influenced by almost half-a-century totalitarian government and
command economy, which has resulted in a specific population density profile.
The transformations after 1989 have resulted in several new trends observable
in most of the cities in the region: the commercialisation of city centres, the
gentrification in the inner cities and the suburbanisation in the outer zones.
All these trends indicate processes of population redistribution within the
urban territory and a general direction towards flattening of the population
density profile. However, the intensity of the transition towards the “market
city” considerably varies and has produced a differentiation of the single urban
areas.
The suburbanisation in the post-communist cities has some different
characteristics and underlying causes from the corresponding process in
the Western European and North American cities. It is less pronounced and
still doesn’t generate serious social problems. In fact, it brings about some
economic revitalisation of the outer urban regions, which have been for long
over-dominated by the central cities. The suburbanisation problem in most of
the cities in Central and Eastern Europe is not the suburbanisation per se, but
its uneven spatial incidence over the territory of the urban region, which is a
source of other spatial imbalances. However, as the transition progresses, the
suburbanisation trends and their negative effects on the society and nature,
are likely to intensify considerably, unless the massive public investments are
made in the panel housing estates and the inner city industrial areas.
Yani Valkanov
1 The text is a shorten draft of a paper awarded with the third prize in the International
Essay Competition for young authors 2002, organised by the Foundation for Urban and
Regional Studies. The full text is published in: Eckhardt, F. (Ed.): The European City in
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