The Impact of Social Transfers in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper analyses the impact of social transfers in seven Central and Eastern European countries using 16 datasets provided by the Luxembourg Income Study (Czech Republic 1992, 1996; Estonia 2000; Hungary 1991, 1994, 1999; Poland 1986, 1992, 1995, 1999; Romania 1995, 1997, Slovakia 1992, 1996; Slovenia 1997, 1999). The principal objective is (a) to provide an overview of the development of social inequality in Central and Eastern Europe; and (b) to quantify the change of poverty rates among the total population and among targeted groups (unemployment compensation, means-tested and family benefits beneficiaries) before and after transfers. The results of this paper show that although the access to these benefits is no guarantee for leaving poverty, social transfers significantly improve the economic conditions of families in need. Without the existence of these types of provisions, Central and Eastern European societies would not only be more unequal societies, but would be also more atomised and disaggregated societies. In the long run, this might seriously damage further reforms or the democratisation process itself

Building events in inner-city Gdańsk, Poland: Exploring the sociospatial construction of agency in built form

In this paper, I explore the ways in which buildings interact with the social fabric of everyday life. My main argument is that agency in the built environment is practised and performed through a dynamic relation between households and the built fabric, among other actants. The paper is based on an ethnographic study of forty-two inner-city households in the Polish city of Gdansk, combined with archival research. I investigate the forces that constrain and enable the transformation of residential dwellings over time, with the aid of Jacobs's concept of 'building events'. I wish to provide a more elaborate theorisation and operationalisation of the building event, while applying it to the interrogation of relations between buildings and households in the given context. The paper explores the different modalities through which buildings have been forced to create new allies and associations-allowing for the interpretive flexibility of their technological frame-in order to keep surviving and functioning in different sociopolitical circumstances. © 2009 Pion Ltd and its Licensors