M. Lux is co-author and co-editor of the book.

Hegedüs, J., M. Lux, N. Teller (eds.) 2013. Social Housing in Transition Countries. New York, London: Routledge

The book is available in the Routledge e-shop.

The book intends to fill the gap in the range of publications of post-transitional social housing policy developments in Central and Eastern Europe, delivering a critical evaluation of the developments in selected countries’ social housing sectors.

The first part of the book provides a conceptual framework for understanding the process of transition, with particular emphasis on the question of convergence and divergence within the region. The second part focuses on housing policy issues such as privatization, housing finance and management, rent regulation, and the situation of the Roma, which have had a major effect on the development of the development of the housing system. The case studies making up the third part of the book focus on the specific aspect of social housing that was most relevant to each country. Twelve countries were included in the comparison: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Ukraine. The authors of case studies are housing researchers and/or practitioners from the respective countries with detailed local knowledge in the field of social housing and housing in general. The case studies therefore provide up-to-date data on housing issues and social housing. The final part summarizes the current problems facing the social housing systems in the region.

The entire book concludes that social housing policy developments are still trapped by the legacy of privatization, the paradox of decentralization, and the informal economy, all of which lead to inefficient allocation practices. The systems remain without an adequate response to basic social housing needs and are continuously destabilized by general economic and fiscal policy changes in the broader European context.