INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE: DIFFERENCE OF DEGREE OR KIND? Gábor Lux Introduction The territory of post-socialist Europe is a space fragmented by old (historical) and recent (post-socialist) divisions. The frameworks of integration and directions of orientation have changed multiple times within one century, but there are also long-running differences which continue to affect development processes. Like all macro-regions of Europe, overall development trends are characterised by strong path-dependency, and are formed by socio-economic as well as political condi- tions. The first decade of post-socialist transformation was characterised by a sharp increase in territorial disparities at both national and sub-national levels. Some catching-up has taken place in the Visegrad countries and Slovenia, while the process has been more protracted in Romania and Bulgaria, and especially in some Western Balkan states where transformation-related recession was coupled with the destruction and other economic consequences of the war, leading to accelerated de-industrialisation in states involved in long conflicts ( Vojnić 1994). Of the increase in national and sub-national differences, the first one has proven to be the more significant. In reviews of the post-socialist transition process, the question of the region’s peripheral situation in Europe is often discussed: Sokol (2001) places the whole of post-socialist Europe on a geographical and economic “super-periphery”, but, in respect of its internal division, considers the Western Balkans as favourably placed (next to Central Europe) in comparison with the Soviet successor states. Both Sokol and Petrakos (2002) emphasise that the “creative destruction” of production systems was not always followed by substantial recovery. Bartlett (2009) suggests that Slovenia and, to some extent, Croatia have successfully integrated into the European economic order as peripheral actors, whilst other Western Balkan states have remained on the super-periphery. Similar questions are raised with respect to Romania and Bulgaria as well.