Development of Urbanization in Modern Lithuania: Housing, Urban and Regional Planning Policies in Lithuania During the Late Soviet and the Early Independence Period (1987–1997)

Abstract

Urbanization as a process could be defined as one of the key components for the smooth society modernization. However, the Lithuanian urbanization pathway has significantly changed during the early independence period. This article is aimed to showcase how the national housing, urban and regional planning policies were implemented during 1987–1997 within the context of the urbanization model development in modern Lithuania. The changes in urban and regional planning and housing policy centralized during the Soviet period and decentralized under market economy and their relation with the development of urbanization ideals are researched in the article by applying the document analysis. It revealed that the responsibilities of institutional agents were based on a decentralization process, the official role of urban dwellers has changed from passive state welfare recipients to active private consumers in the housing sector, and the coordination of privatization and restitution programs has become a challenge to the public administration institutions, in order to search for the best means to reconcile different interests among different urban dweller groups during the transitional period.