Hirt, S. 2015. Planning during Post-socialism. International.pdfVIP

1 Please cite as: Hirt, S. 2015. Planning during Post-socialism. International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (2nd Edition), Vol. 18, pp. 187– 192. London: Elsevier. Planning during Post-socialism Sonia A. Hirt Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Virginia Tech Blacksburg, Virginia, USA 540-231-0795; shirt@ /shirt/ Keywords Communism, socialism, state socialism, post-communism, post-socialism, transitional countries, Eastern Bloc, Eastern Europe, Soviet Union, urban planning, spatial planning, central planning Abstract This article analyzes the state of public-sector planning in countries that subscribed to a Marxist, state-socialist ideology during some part of the twentieth century, and especially those countries that comprise the former Eastern Bloc (today often referred to as the “transitional countries”). Central economic planning was a defining feature of state socialism. With its collapse, this type of planning was abandoned. During the early years of post-socialism, all types of public-sector planning, including urban spatial planning, were severely weakened as well. A tentative revival of urban planning can be only recently observed. 2 Thirty years ago, in 1985, nearly half the world was comprised of countries that regarded i themselves, and were regarded by others, as socialist. In these countries, located on five continents (predominately Europe, Asia and Africa), a single-p