Geography of research on post-socialist cities: a bibliometric approach

Abstract

The main aim of the article is to investigate the spatial structure of international research on post-socialist cities. The analysis is based on data derived from the Scopus database (2001–2018) and includes issues such as the publication dynamics, structure of authors (with regard to cities and countries), main publishing ‘channels’, as well as networks in ‘producing’ knowledge on post-socialist cities. The analyses conducted primarily lead to a general conclusion about the high spatial concentration of these studies in the scientific centres of Central and Eastern Europe. On a more detailed dimension, however, analyses show a significant diversity in both the publication channels used by researchers and the co-citation networks. On this basis, a conclusion is made about the occurrence of the problem of introversions in research on post-socialist cities on an international scale, which is a broader concept than the Anglo-American dominance discussed for at least two decades.

Totalitarian Flower Pavilion: The Dubious Post-Socialist Legacy of Contemporary Eastern European Cities

“…With the passage of time since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the influence of post-socialist factors on the current state of urban affairs in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) seems to be waning (Bajerski, 2020). However, it is debatable what is to be understood as post-socialist, whether the phenomena associated with the state socialist past are actually linked to it, and how strong this relationship is (Müller, 2019;Tuvikene, 2016).…”

Postsocialist shrinking cities

“…They noted a paucity of comparative studies. Bajerski (2020), investigating which countries and institutions have been contributing to the study of postsocialist cities, found a dominance of research from countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), but his coverage identified an increasing number of articles on China and a notable absence of Russian institutions among the top 20 research institutions publishing on the topic (Bajerski, 2020). The above is indicative that there is a need for comparative studies of shrinking cities that include a broad range of postsocialist countries to identify commonalities, differences, and policy experiences.…”