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- Gentile, Michael, et al.
(författare)
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Housing allocation under socialism : the Soviet case revisited
- 2013
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Ingår i: Post-Soviet Affairs. - : Taylor & Francis (Routledge): SSH Titles. - 1060-586X .- 1938-2855. ; 29:2, s. 173-195
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social or public housing is an important component of the housing supply in most European countries. Nowhere, however, has the notion of social housing been taken as far as in the countries that formerly were ruled by socialist regimes, most notably the Soviet Union. For this reason, it may be argued that the development of theorizations on housing has much to learn from this large but inconclusively studied example. One of the avowed virtues of socialism was that the system, in theory, guaranteed its subjects equal rights to housing. That this was not quite the case is well known in the literature, but in fact no robust evidence to support this view (or the contrary) has been presented so far. Therefore, this paper's aim is to investigate the functioning of the Soviet system of housing allocation, assessing its claims to social equity and justice. Based on a detailed case study of about 3500 Soviet-era housing allocation decisions made in Daugavpils, Latvia, at five points in time covering various stages in the development of Soviet power (full coverage of decisions made in 1953, 1960, 1970, 1980, and January-April 1990), we illustrate how much living space was allocated to whom. In addition, we detail the characteristics of the waiting times involved. We apply both descriptive and regression methods on our data-set, making a significant contribution to what is known about the outcome of housing allocation under socialism and, at a more general level, under strictly supply-constrained conditions.
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| 2. |
- Gentile, Michael, et al.
(författare)
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Soviet housing : who built what and when? The case of Daugavpils, Latvia
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Historical Geography. - : Elsevier. - 0305-7488 .- 1095-8614. ; 36:4, s. 453-465
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Throughout much of the Soviet period, access to housing was a major consideration, both for individual citizens and employers intent on increasing their number of employees. Because of the heavy emphasis on industry, and despite the progress made within the area since the late 1950s, Soviet urban residential provision never managed to fully recover from the acute housing shortage that characterized the Stalin years. In this paper, we address the quantitative side of housing construction during the socialist era. Using the mid-sized diversified industrial town of Daugavpils (Latvia) as a case study, we set out to investigate the extent to which employers were involved in decisions concerning housing provision. To do this, we consult a large volume of archival records, our focus being on documents tracing entries indicating that new living quarters were ready and could be allocated to employees of sponsoring organizations and enterprises.
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| 3. |
- Gentile, Michael, et al.
(författare)
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Spaces of Priority : The Geography of Soviet Housing Construction in Daugavpils, Latvia
- 2010
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Ingår i: Annals of the Association of American Geographers. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0004-5608 .- 1467-8306. ; 100:1, s. 112-136
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As a result of the absence of a land market, socialist-era cities tended to look different from their market-economy equivalents. The difference was made more pronounced by the fact that the command economy also favored industrial investment over infrastructure and housing. Yet, with an increasing appetite for additional labor, needed by production units to ensure plan fulfillment, housing became a means to recruit and retain employees. Not all employers could afford to put resources into such ononproductiveo investment, however, and the literature suggests that the notion of priorities allows for discriminating between those enterprises that enjoyed soft budget constraints, and therefore could afford to spend money on worker welfare, and those that could not. As a heuristic framework based on the economics of shortage, the priority model is compelling, but as yet it lacks empirical substantiation. Setting out to test the landscapes of priority model of urban development, this article details the developments of housing construction in Daugavpils, Latvia, during the Soviet period. Based on extensive archive and field research covering all newly constructed or converted housing projects over the period from 1951 to 1991, it yields considerable, if not unqualified, support for the model that until now has not been made subject to systematic empirical tests.
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| 8. |
- Sjöberg, Örjan
(författare)
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Cases onto themselves? theory and research on ex-socialist urban environments
- 2014
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Ingår i: Geografie. - : Czech Geographic Society. - 1212-0014 .- 2571-421X. ; 119:4, s. 299-319
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although the contribution of geographers to post-socialist urban studies has shown considerable vitality and resulted in a great volume of research, its impact on urban studies as a general field of inquiry is neither proportionate to the momentous changes since 1989 nor to the volume of research that has found its way into the literature. The entire field punches below its weight and, despite recent claims to the contrary, the prominence and visibility of this line of research beyond the confines of established communities of scholars working in the field of socialist and post-socialist urban studies remains insubstantial. This has been pointed out by scholars of a post-colonial bent, who argue that in order to move forward both the alleged parochialism and empiricism of much current geographical work on post-socialist cities and the deference to hegemonic strands of Westerns urban theory need to be shed. This paper attempts to put these claims in perspective, suggesting that while some of the problems decidedly issue from the manner in which of urban geographers themselves conduct and report research on post-socialist cities, post-colonial theory might not be an ideal way forward.
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| 9. |
- Yang, Tao, 1966-
(författare)
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The Effect of Guanxi on the Foreign Market Entry Process into China : The Swedish Case
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Business network theory believes that foreign market entry of a firm is the result of the interactions between the actors of the firm and the network. The foreign country’s network conditions will inevitably influence the process. When entering into China, the Western firms have to face some new network conditions that derive from its socio-cultural environment. The purpose of the thesis is to test one of the cultural specialties, guanxi’s effect on the foreign market entry process of the Western firms into China. Using data collected from Swedish firms established in China, this study finds that the market entry process of Western firms into China appear to show some different features compared with that into Western country markets. It takes more time to become established in China, more social activities and more non-business actors are involved in the process. These social activities within business circles are shown to contribute to the longer establishment time for Western firms operating in China. Moreover, establishment in China is more time-consuming for manufacturing firms than service firms. It requires, among other things, that expatriates actively take part in both business and social activities in China and make efforts to maintain social ties with their Chinese counterparts. The findings contribute to the business network theory by suggesting the existence of a social dimension to the business relationships and the need of a multi-level perspective of business relationships and networks.
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