Among the many factors that influence the voting behaviour of individual voters, various spatial characteristics have repeatedly been cited as important factors. The diverse impacts of spatial characteristics are collectively referred to as contextual effects. Contextual effects impact voters in different ways: through differences in the local geographical and socio-economic conditions, the varying influence of local communication interactions, observational influences, differences in local political socialisation and local campaigning, or through the effect of candidate residency. This article presents an overview of the most frequently discussed contextual effects and formulates a general typology of them.
This article sets out to examine regeneration policies in Prague. After introducing the concept of regeneration and regeneration theories and reviewing foreign cases of regeneration of problem neighbourhoods, the authors analyse the situation in Prague and attempt to answer three basic questions: How do the authorities in Prague approach social-spatial inequalities and urban regeneration in the city? What are the objectives of the city’s regeneration policies and what tools are used? Who are the main actors involved in regeneration policies and how do they relate to each other? The study of documents and interviews with the people who are the actors involved in regeneration policies showed that the ‘regeneration policies for problem neighbourhoods’ in a post-socialist city differ significantly from the approaches applied in Western cities. In Prague regeneration policies do not rank high on the ladder of local political priorities, and local politicians implicitly assume that the situation in the city and its districts and neighbourhoods will improve, existing problems will be eliminated, and the city’s inhabitants will see a rise in their economic and social status. A detailed analysis showed that the lack of emphasis placed on the regeneration of problem neighbourhoods is mainly due to structural factors. Socio-spatial inequalities in Prague are still smaller than in most otherwise comparable cities in the Western world, the spatial concentration of existing problems is not too great, and the spatial patterns of social and economic problems in the city do not overlap very much. Spatial concentrations of problems in Prague are thus far mainly found in a micro-local form, encompassing just individual buildings, clusters of buildings, or at most one to several blocks.
This paper describes changes in the housing market after the collapse of communism in Central Europe and analyses the current functions and perceptions of the private rental housing in the Czech Republic. It aims to understand why private rental housing is perceived as a sub-optimal housing solution for young adults, whether this affects their family plans, and which policy design could change that. The article uses qualitative research techniques to analyse mental frames, opinions, and attitudes of both potential tenants and landlords towards rental housing. The authors argue that the main problem of rental housing for young tenants is the short-term lease. Lack of mutual trust between tenants and landlords is a main cause of short-term contracts in the private rental segment. The insecurity it produces among young tenants contributes to delayed family formation. A policy tool aiming to overcome that distrust between tenants and private landlords through the involvement of an independent third party as a guarantor of the relationship is discussed.
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