IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/quageo/v44y2025i2p5-17n1002.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lithuanian Rural Settlements: The Legacy of Soviet Rural Planning and Current Challenges

Author

Listed:
  • KRIAUČIŪNAS EDIS

    (Department of Regional and Urban Studies, Institute of Sociology at the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Vilnius, Lithuania)

  • BURNEIKA DONATAS

    (Department of Regional and Urban Studies, Institute of Sociology at the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Vilnius, Lithuania)

  • UBAREVIČIENĖ RŪTA

    (Department of Regional and Urban Studies, Institute of Sociology at the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Vilnius, Lithuania)

  • BARANAUSKIENĖ VIKTORIJA

    (Department of Regional and Urban Studies, Institute of Sociology at the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Vilnius, Lithuania)

Abstract

The article analyses the changes to the system of the distribution of population in rural areas in Lithuania, one of the former Soviet states: it compares the transformation of settlements during the socialist era and the transformations of the rural settlement system after 1990. The aim of this paper is to analyse the results of the Soviet rural settlement planning policy and to evaluate post-Soviet rural development trajectories in Lithuania. Despite different political and economic systems, depopulation was the most important demographical trend in Lithuanian rural areas from the second half of the 20th century. The transformation of rural settlements after the collapse of the Soviet system has been quite chaotic and difficult to control. In the 21st century, both the shrinking periphery and the newly expanding settlements lack the infrastructure of public services.

Suggested Citation

  • Kriaučiūnas Edis & Burneika Donatas & Ubarevičienė Rūta & Baranauskienė Viktorija, 2025. "Lithuanian Rural Settlements: The Legacy of Soviet Rural Planning and Current Challenges," Quaestiones Geographicae, Sciendo, vol. 44(2), pages 5-17.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:quageo:v:44:y:2025:i:2:p:5-17:n:1002
    DOI: 10.14746/quageo-2025-0013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.14746/quageo-2025-0013
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.14746/quageo-2025-0013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Costis Hadjimichalis & Ray Hudson, 2014. "Contemporary Crisis Across Europe and the Crisis of Regional Development Theories," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 208-218, January.
    2. Zita Izakovičová & Peter Mederly & František Petrovič, 2017. "Long-Term Land Use Changes Driven by Urbanisation and Their Environmental Effects (Example of Trnava City, Slovakia)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-28, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Panagiotis Artelaris & Yannis Tsirbas, 2018. "Anti-austerity voting in an era of economic crisis: Regional evidence from the 2015 referendum in Greece," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(4), pages 589-608, June.
    2. Batara Surya & Hamsina Hamsina & Ridwan Ridwan & Baharuddin Baharuddin & Firman Menne & Andi Tenri Fitriyah & Emil Salim Rasyidi, 2020. "The Complexity of Space Utilization and Environmental Pollution Control in the Main Corridor of Makassar City, South Sulawesi, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-41, November.
    3. Ramona Pîrvu & Cristian Drăgan & Gheorghe Axinte & Sorin Dinulescu & Mihaela Lupăncescu & Andra Găină, 2019. "The Impact of the Implementation of Cohesion Policy on the Sustainable Development of EU Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-20, August.
    4. Małgorzata Świąder & Szymon Szewrański & Jan K. Kazak, 2018. "Foodshed as an Example of Preliminary Research for Conducting Environmental Carrying Capacity Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-22, March.
    5. Sorin Cebotari & Jozsef Benedek, 2017. "Renewable Energy Project as a Source of Innovation in Rural Communities: Lessons from the Periphery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-16, March.
    6. Michael Storper, 2018. "Separate Worlds? Explaining the current wave of regional economic polarization," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 247-270.
    7. Athina Arampatzi, 2017. "The spatiality of counter-austerity politics in Athens, Greece: Emergent ‘urban solidarity spaces’," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(9), pages 2155-2171, July.
    8. Jana Nozdrovická & Ivo Dostál & František Petrovič & Imrich Jakab & Marek Havlíček & Hana Skokanová & Vladimír Falťan & Peter Mederly, 2020. "Land-Use Dynamics in Transport-Impacted Urban Fabric: A Case Study of Martin–Vrútky, Slovakia," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-24, August.
    9. Christian Reiner & Maximilian Benner, 2022. "Cooperation bias in regional policy: Is competition neglected?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(1), pages 187-221, August.
    10. Andy Pike & Andrew Cumbers & Stuart Dawley & Danny MacKinnon & Robert McMaster, 2015. "Doing evolution in economic geography," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1532, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2015.
    11. Zuzana Pucherová & Regina Mišovičová & Gabriel Bugár & Henrich Grežo, 2021. "Changes in Landscape Structure in the Municipalities of the Nitra District (Slovak Republic) Due to Expanding Suburbanization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-27, January.
    12. Stelios Gialis & Michael Taylor, 2016. "A Regional Account of Flexibilization Across the EU: The ‘Flexible Contractual Arrangements’ Composite Index and the Impact of Recession," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1121-1146, September.
    13. Syafri Syafri & Batara Surya & Ridwan Ridwan & Syamsul Bahri & Emil Salim Rasyidi & Sudarman Sudarman, 2020. "Water Quality Pollution Control and Watershed Management Based on Community Participation in Maros City, South Sulawesi, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-39, December.
    14. Federico Savini, 2021. "Towards an urban degrowth: Habitability, finity and polycentric autonomism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(5), pages 1076-1095, August.
    15. Luis Alfonso Escudero Gómez, 2021. "Land at the Service of the Regional Growth Coalition: Projects of Special Interest in the Region of Castilla–La Mancha (Spain)," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-18, August.
    16. Karsten Grunewald & Olaf Bastian ., 2017. "Special Issue: “Maintaining Ecosystem Services to Support Urban Needs”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-9, September.
    17. Zita Izakovičová & László Miklós & Viktória Miklósová & František Petrovič, 2019. "The Integrated Approach to Landscape Management —Experience from Slovakia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-21, August.
    18. Batara Surya & Hadijah Hadijah & Seri Suriani & Baharuddin Baharuddin & A. Tenri Fitriyah & Firman Menne & Emil Salim Rasyidi, 2020. "Spatial Transformation of a New City in 2006–2020: Perspectives on the Spatial Dynamics, Environmental Quality Degradation, and Socio—Economic Sustainability of Local Communities in Makassar City, Ind," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-50, September.
    19. Ron Martin, 2018. "Is British economic geography in decline?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(7), pages 1503-1509, October.
    20. Topaloglou Lefteris, 2020. "Spatial (in)justice and place-based strategies in innovation ecosystems: the case of the Alexander Innovation Zone in Thessaloniki," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 49(49), pages 81-92, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:quageo:v:44:y:2025:i:2:p:5-17:n:1002. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.