Peripheral regions in Lithuania: the results of uneven development (original) (raw)
Related papers
Peripheralisation trends in rural territories: the case of Lithuania
This article describes the main trends in the changes to the system of rural settlements in Lithuania and determines the regional peculiarities of these changes. The analysis was carried out using data collected during the censuses of 2001 and - sis showed that the population decreased in the majority of settlements independently of their size. However, distinct regional collected from the peripheral areas located further from cities or roads of regional importance. The survey showed that the north-eastern and southern parts of Lithuania are depopulated most, whereas in the western part of the country the number of residents was stable until 2000, and only in the 21st century did it start to decrease due to the increasing emigration rates. Also, the analysis of the structure of settlements allowed us to point out the historical circumstances as the cause of regional differences. In the north-eastern part of Lithuania the settlements are smaller than in the western part of Lithuania. The analysis shows that the increasing importance of the centre-periphery factor will further determine the decline of rural settlements in peripheral territories in Lithuania.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL PERIPHERAL AREAS IN LITHUANIA: THE CHALLENGES OF SOCIO-SPATIAL TRANSITION
European Countryside, 2018
The collapse of the Soviet utopian world, where the government sought to plan and control economic and social processes, caused a wave of significant changes in the post-socialist countries. The territorial regrouping of citizens is one of the hard to control changes that started at the end of the 1990s in Lithuania. This article identifies the major changes in the settlement system in Lithuania and its effects on peripheral areas. The main scope of this article is an analysis of the potential of residents from peripheral areas to adapt to the rapidly changing socioeconomic environment. For the analysis, we used data and information gathered during field trips to peripheral rural areas throughout the country between 2013 and 2014. This study found that the residents who remained in peripheral areas had several opportunities in rapidly changing environment after Lithuania gained its Independence in 1990. Interviews with local authorities allowed us to define three groups of residents and their potential to adapt to the labour market: those who are active, those who are passive and those who choose social benefits instead of a work salary. The survey results allowed us to predict that the 'central-peripheral' spatial structure will be one of the main factors influencing regional development in Lithuania in the near future.
measuring PERIPHERALITY AND accessibility for LITHUANIAN REGIONAL POLICY
Regional Formation and Development Studies, 2014
Regional policy is a very dynamic and broad concept. As we can see from Lithuanian regional policy, regions can be formed very flexibly, using different spatial areas (counties as well as municipalities). This is justified by the main purpose of regional policy-dealing with social and economic inequality. The aim of the Government is, therefore, to identify the remote territories and to divert certain assistance in time. The Government, however, uses short-handed instruments, namely economic indicators, for the revealing of problem areas in Lithuania. The article argues that this is not enough: peripherality and accessibility indicators could be calculated for Lithuanian regions. Calculations of data using the formulas presented quite clear picture and tendencies of territorial development. They proved the existence of poor development axes and good development nucleus. The trend towards institutional development of 6 potential regions in Lithuania could be envisaged.
Shrinking Regions in a Shrinking Country: The Geography of Population Decline in Lithuania 2001-2011
Shrinking populations have been gaining increasing attention, especially in post-socialist East and Central European countries. While most studies focus on the population decline of capital cities and their regions, much less is known about the spatial dimension of population decline on the national level. Lithuania is one of the countries which have experienced very high levels of population decline in the last decades. This study uses Lithuanian Census data from the years 2001 and 2011 to get insight into the geography of population change for the whole country. The results show a sharp population decline in Lithuania of 17.2% between 1989 and 2011, with the decrease being more intense during the second decade of the period. The population dropped in most areas, including the main cities, but increased in the regions surrounding these cities. The predictive models show a clear geographical dimension of population decline, but also reveal that population composition and investments play a role in the process of decline.
Spatial exclusion in Lithuania: peripheries as “losers”, metropolitan areas as “winners”
Przegląd Geograficzny, 2019
This paper reports on a comprehensive evaluation of socio-spatial inequalities as a means of analysing spatial exclusion in line with demographic, social and economic components expressed using 20 key indicators. The utilised method of grouping into quartiles was able to demonstrate increasingly pronounced polarisation trends in Lithuania, with widening disparities to be noted, both between the major cities of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda and their regions, and between peripheral areas of the country. The level of spatial exclusion is seen to be highest in Lithuania’s north-eastern and southern regions, which have been identified as problematic. It is to these regions that a majority of the attention in this work has been paid.
This paper analyses the general trends of the socioeconomic development of the multicultural Vilnius city region. It is located in SouthEast Lithuania, which stands out as the poorest area of Lithuania in terms of its socioeconomic situation. Moreover, in a broader context, Vilnius city region is also located in the middle of the international Central European region, which is often perceived as one of the most " depressed " areas of the contemporary EU. Together with the systemic reforms of the early 1990s the profound economic and social changes have started, in which the Vilnius city region has been experiencing one of the most significant transformations throughout Lithuania. It is obvious that at present the main factor of the intense development of SouthEast Lithuania is the presence of Vilnius city. It has been growing very fast during the recent decades, thus a significant impact on the population structure and the economy of the surrounding areas has been made. The main questions of this paper are: what is the effect of Vilnius' development on the surrounding region and how profound this impact is. The process of transformations of the rural area into the urban one, changes of the population structure, ethnic landscape and economic processes are of greatest concern in the given paper. The Vilnius city region is the area of very dynamic changes, where socioeconomic tension of various kinds is almost inevitable, while the means of planning and sustainable development are quite limited.
The dimensions of peripheral areas and their restructuring in Central Europe
The current paper tries to provide a general overview about the restructuring spatial pattern of peripheral areas in Central Europe. The Visegrad Countries are regarded as Central European countries, in this case, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary are involved. Major methodological problems hampered the process of data collection and the comparison of diff erent delimitations of peripheral areas in diff erent countries. However, a general overview could have been made in order to detect the most important alterations of the spatial structures of the investigated countries. The territorial structures of peripheral areas during the socialist era and nowadays were compared to each other. The changes in the location of peripheral areas refl ect back the increasing role and the infl uence of the capital cities and the largest towns and the ongoing development of the Western territories. At the same time, the crisis of the Eastern border areas – traditional backward areas –...