engleski

Changes in small island communities – the example of the island of Zlarin

In socialist period, government policy stimulated economic progress in urban areas through massive investments in industry, services and housing. At the same time it neglected the development of rural settlements and agricultural activities which caused great spatial differences within the country. Big social and economic disparities that characterise the regional development in Croatia are especially visible in the Adriatic part of Croatia, where the narrow coastal zone has become an area of population growth, migratory influx of people and dynamic economic development, while at the same time the hinterland and islands have developed into a periphery with demographic decrease, intensive out-migration and unfavourable economic processes. Croatian islands, especially small ones, have lagged behind in socio-economic development and have turned into an area of intensive depopulation, due to emigration in the first place, and afterwards to natural decrease bringing about depopulation and ageing of the population. The paper discusses demographic, economic and social changes which have occurred in the small island community of Zlarin for several decades. The authors will also present results of the research conducted in Zlarin in February 2011.

islands; Zlarin; depopulation; migration; ageing

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