Ghettoization in East Europe

Ghetto in Bucharest , Romania

Growing up is not a easy task , many of us can relate to this , and its even harder to grow up in a unstable environment that is always marked by social and economic instability . 

 Our early childhood is a crucial point in our becoming as adults, this is the time when the start to build our own axiological system that is a extension of the one validated on a social level. We can note some interesting development paths when we take a closer look to the life journey of the children that lived their childhood in postcommunist East Europe.

  The change of regime had a lot of consequences on many levels , the transition from a very centralized system where the state owned everything to a market economy where only the strong ones can survive was a task that the political class of that time didn't seem to manage very well .

 The privatization of many of the industrial giants that were created during the massive industrialization of the socialist era meant that a big segment of the population was left without a job and this was even worst in monoindustrial areas. 

 The working class was facing a lot of issues in that period , some that regarded their identity and function in society and a economical one . 

 The identity issues were triggered by the fact that some professions were not compatible with the market's need and so people could not find jobs that would fit their professional training . A phenomena that was a secondary effect of the changes in the configuration of the national economy was the so called "ghettoization" of many of the major urban centers of the countries of the former socialist block .

 Ghettoization is a term that describes the general degradation of a city quarter from both a material and moral perspective . 

 The social - economic degradation of this urban areas turns them in to hot spots for organized crime , human trafficking and prostitution . Urban decay can be noticed in two ways , from both a physical and social perspective . From a physical perspective ghetto areas lack good cleaning and  poor architectural quality , social sings include , as I mentioned earlier , a group of phenomena like organized crime , human trafficking and prostitution to a unstable or the lack of one .

  The lack of a solid axiological system leads to a life dominated by instability and a lack of perspective and planed evolution . Other social characteristics of ghetto areas are : specific language - usually a limited range of words and expression  and limited contact with the exterior environment - both imposed or self imposed .

 Obsessive functionalism and imitation play a big role in the culture of this areas , by obsessive we understand  the tendency to create a culture that is constituted only from elements that have a strictly functional role and that can be removed and replaced when the environmental conditions do. 

 Elements that have symbolic or  ornamental role are not needed . Imitation plays a great role in ghetto culture , is the way in which information from the exterior environment is dragged in and made to suit the social and economical realities of the ghetto . 

 Ghettos can be seen in almost any major eastern european urban center and some states designed national public policies to limit the spread of this phenomena which has negative effects on the social balance of a nation . Ghettoization leads in time to the apparition of social gaps , polarization and limited access to resources and public services.