Economic transformation in central and Eastern Europe: The role of regional development

The spatial impact of transition in Central and Eastern Europe is becoming an increasingly important question. Two main areas of regional disparity have emerged—core‐periphery contrasts and a West‐East gradient, with more positive development in core and Western areas respectively. A recent embryonic regional policy response is evident in the Visegrad Four countries, including the creation of a distinct Ministry in Hungary, the designation of assisted areas, and the provision of spatially focused instruments. The institutional infrastructure for regional development remains a central problem, including issues of coordination, strategy, implementation and territorial administrative structures. There is both an economic and political rationale for future development, with some potential for the transfer of western experience.     

Changing patterns of landownership in nineteenth-century Palestine: The European influence

Long-term changes in landownership patterns and their implications for settlement have been neglected by geographers, both in theoretical and empirical studies. Studies in this field relating to the Middle East are of a very general nature, and are not based on detailed examination of regional trends, their components, and geographic variables. In Israel, most of the published literature on this issue has dealt with the process of land purchase by Jews and has focused mainly on the period of the British Mandate (1918–1948). Misleading statements abound and the roots of the processes which evolved in nineteenth-century Palestine are poorly understood.The middle of the nineteenth century in Palestine marked the end of a quarter of a millenium of neglect and decline. Around 1800 Palestine was a backward province of the Ottoman empire, largely rural and sparsely populated. Both rural and urban economies were traditional and poor. From about 1850, a process of change began which led to a resurgence and development of the country.An important determinant in this process was an increase of European influence within the Ottoman empire in general and Palestine in particular. This paper (part of a broader study on landownership), will discuss the background, characteristics and motivations of Europeans who purchased land in Palestine during the period, their financial sources, their locational preferences and opportunities. The diverse influences of these land transactions on urban and rural development are considered. These processes ar illustrated by two case studies.     

Renegotiating the Reproductive Bargain: Gender Analysis of Economic Transition in Cuba in the 1990s

This article argues that Cuba's economic demise following the collapse of the former Soviet Union should be seen as a crisis in reproduction as well as a crisis in consumption and production. Using qualitative field research carried out in 1994 and 1995 in Havana and in the province of Matanzas, the author shows that the commodities and services required for reproduction could no longer be guaranteed through the distribution system of the Cuban state. Consequently, people began to devise a range of survival strategies in order to ensure the reproduction of their households, including trading in unofficial markets, leaving formal employment and engaging in a portfolio of income-generating activities in the informal sector. Such strategies were patterned by the existing sexual division of labour and show a reinforcement of traditional gender roles. The article argues that these changes will have important political as well as economic consequences for Cuba's future.     

Book reviews

ILO‐GEET, Economic Restructuring and Social Dialogue in the Ivanovo Oblast, Russia, International Labour Organization — Central and Eastern European Team, Report No. 14. Available from: ILO‐CEET, Moszaru. 14, Budapest H‐1066, Hungary. 62 pp, hb, ISBN 92 2 110302 1 (no price included).

Europe at the Margins: New Mosaics of Inequality. Costis Hadjimichalis and David Sadler (Eds). Chichester, John Wiley, 1995, xii+ 246pp, £45.00 hb, ISBN 0 471 95635 X.

Post‐Fordism: a Reader. A. Amin (Ed). Oxford, Blackwell, 1994, ix + 435 pp, £45.00 hb, ISBN 0 631 18856 8, £14.99, pb, ISBN 0 631 18857 6.

An Enlarged Europe: Regions in Competition?. Sally Hardy, Mark Hart, Louis Albrechts and Anastasios Katos (Eds). London: Jessica Kingsley & Regional Studies Association, 1995, 342 pp., £22.50 pb, ISBN 1 85302 188 1.