Socio-spatial situation in Slovakia and its problems and development in the 20th century

The article discusses the historical development of socio-spatial situation in Slovakia; concentrating especially on its developmental problems result ing in unfavorable conditions of this contemporary situation influenced als o by social, demographic, economic, ecological and civilization problems. I t focuses on the analysis of the regional level of society in the 20(th) ce ntury with a special attention being paid to the period of the industrial u rbanization. The first part presents the circumstances related to the shift in the civil ization basis of society's development, its supposed sources and influence on the socio-spatial organization of Slovak society. The original situation in the first half of the 20(th) century was difficult, due to the delay in industrial and urbanization processes, which later became intensified in t he 1950's. As the context and impacts of the shift from agrarian to industr ial society as well as the transformation from rural to urban society indic ate, these shifts were asynchronic, notably the urbanization process was si gnificantly delayed. The second pari pays attention to the factors influencing the formation of socio-spatial situation of society, presenting how the industrialization an d urbanization processes intensified the industrial and social development of society, it points at the specific features of accelerated industrial ur banization, which were during socialism influenced mainly by concentration, centralization and state paternalism. Moreover, the text deals with how th ese factors influenced the socio-spatial situation of society when besides the undeniable modernization effects had also caused significant problems a nd imbalances such as the deepening of differentiation and polarization of regional and residential development, and the shaping of marginal territori es and residences. The specific effects of urbanization process are analyze d from the point of view of social, socio-economic, socio-demographic and s ocio-cultural sphere of society, as well as the impacts of this process on regional and residential communities and their developmental dispositions. Concluding part focuses on the contemporary socio-spatial situation, going through a multilateral transformation in which the unsolved problems of pre vious periods are mixed with the new problems of present period. This situa tion is marked by the formation of a new polarization displayed in differen t potential and developmental dispositions of regions and various types of residences. Deepening social disparities are characterized by social inequa lities, which result from the characteristics of the social potentials. Thu s, along with spatial disparities, social disparities are deepening as well , both being concentrated in specific regions.