Rural Gentrification in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper develops a conceptual framework for interpreting the process of rural gentrification in Central and Eastern Europe. It highlights the commonalities and differences of the phenomenon as they relate to its dynamics, trends and spatial patterns. The analysis shows two trajectories of rural gentrification: seasonal interest in rural areas and related to suburbanization, in which endogenous and exogenous factors of rural gentrification can be distinguished. The author sees the reasons for the uniqueness of the process in the socio-historical specifics of the region: its agrarian character at the beginning of the 20th century, the specific ethnic composition of the middle class in the interwar period, under-urbanization in the period of real socialism and the process of postcommunist transformation creating a “capitalist class without capital.