Jozsef Hegedus - Böcker

This book provides an important new contribution to the literature about Eastern Europe following the political changes of the early 1990s. Its focus is on housing, which before these changes was dominated in all Eastern European countries by state control and, to a lesser extent, state provision. Here, the contributors aim to describe and analyze the fundamental changes that are now taking place as these housing systems, together with their supporting financial institutions and building industries, are privatized.This book provides an important new contribution to the literature about Eastern Europe following the political changes of the early 1990s. Its focus is on housing, which before these changes was dominated in all Eastern European countries by state control and, to a lesser extent, state provision. Here, the contributors aim to describe and analyze the fundamental changes that are now taking place as these housing systems, together with their supporting financial institutions and building industries, are privatized.The core of the book consists of seven chapters by Eastern European research teams, each covering a different country and providing accounts of local housing systems before and after the recent political changes. The core and supporting chapters all emphasize analysis of housing change with reference to social and political change and discussion of the effects of privatization on the availability and distribution of housing.

The rapid political changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union have had repercussions for many elements of the socialist system. Housing provision, always an important part of the socialist agenda, has undergone extensive changes. These have solved some problems but given rise to others. The studies in The Reform of Housing in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union highlight the various aspects of housing reform, including such issues as rehabilitation, private initiatives, housing quality, welfare requirements and home ownership. While in some countries policy-makers have adhered to the older methods of housing provision, in others the number of massive state-run projects has declined in favour of smaller privately-funded enterprises. The latest changes reflect the socio-economic restructuring of the countries in general and thus housing can be seen as a spearhead for reforms throughout the system. The contributors are active researchers in the former Eastern Bloc who analyse the latest reforms and academics from Western Europe who supply a context of broader housing issues. They analyse the external factors that have influenced the reforms and assess the outlook for the future.

This volume intends to fill the gap in the range of publications about the post-transition social housing policy developments in Central and Eastern Europe by delivering critical evaluations about the past two decades of developments in selected countries’ social housing sectors, and showing what conditions have decisively impacted these processes. Contributors depict the different paths the countries have taken by reviewing the policy changes, the conditions institutions work within, and the solutions that were selected to answer the housing needs of vulnerable households. They discuss whether the differences among the countries have emerged due to the time lag caused by belated reforms in selected countries, or whether any of the disparities can be attributed to differences inherited from Soviet times. Since some of the countries have recently become member states of the European Union, the volume also explores whether there were any convergence trends in the policy approaches to social housing that can be attributed to the general changes brought about by the EU accession.

This book presents an overview of private rented housing in selected new EU member states and other transition countries – a topic scarcely researched to date, as it is largely part of the informal economy, and consequently often invisible to official statistics.

This volume intends to fill the gap in the range of publications about the post-transition social housing policy developments in Central and Eastern Europe by delivering critical evaluations about the past two decades of developments in selected countries’ social housing sectors, and showing what conditions have decisively impacted these processes. Contributors depict the different paths the countries have taken by reviewing the policy changes, the conditions institutions work within, and the solutions that were selected to answer the housing needs of vulnerable households. They discuss whether the differences among the countries have emerged due to the time lag caused by belated reforms in selected countries, or whether any of the disparities can be attributed to differences inherited from Soviet times. Since some of the countries have recently become member states of the European Union, the volume also explores whether there were any convergence trends in the policy approaches to social housing that can be attributed to the general changes brought about by the EU accession.