ABSTRACT
The group, which largely consists of eastern European countries, demonstrates a “mosaic” of different pathways of urban development, including the process of shrinkage. The distinguishing feature of all these countries in the context of the issue discussed in this book is not so much their geographical or cultural proximity as their common path of development after World War II. This path was marked by the prolonged operation of a centrally planned economy, with strong interference of the central government in the process of urbanization and spatial planning. The process of postsocialist transformation is also exhibited by the former German Democratic Republic following its reunification with West Germany in 1990. Urban shrinkage affects all postsocialist European countries, albeit to a different extent. They demonstrate a higher intensity of urban shrinkage than the European average. Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, as well as the Baltic states, are the “European leaders of urban shrinkage”.
