| Abstract [eng] |
This doctoral dissertation examines the problems of socio-spatial exclusion in the sparsely populated rural areas of Lithuania. The rapid peripheralisation of such areas has led to the processes of depopulation, while the declining population density in such rural areas causes decrease in the number of institutions providing different socially important services. Such a shrinkage of the service network increases exclusion and further reduces the population size. It has been determined that approximately a fifth of the country’s population lives in the peripheral rural areas constituting the part of Lithuania that loses its population most rapidly. Most of these areas can be attributed to sparsely populated areas where population density is ≤ 12.5 inhabitants/km2. The number of such areas is increasing and, in the near future, nearly all non-suburban rural areas will be sparsely populated. The service institutions are unevenly distributed across the territory of the country and the rate of their decline also varies. An increasing proportion of the public service institutions are concentrated in the municipal administrative centres; therefore, the actual socio-spatial exclusion of the peripheral elderships (LAU-2 regions) where the network of institutions is already sparser, increases even more. The decisions of local actors, at least in the short term, determine where and when specific institutions are closed; thus, the processes of socio-spatial exclusion are determined not only by the rate of depopulation. These decisions not always are optimal in view of the emerging settlement structure and the geographical location of the area. The optimisation of the network of institutions according to the new geodemographic reality is inevitable, but it must be carried out taking into consideration the territorial characteristics defining the processes of depopulation and changes in the population structure as well as the geographical location of the settlements. |
