The curse of coal or peripherality? Energy transitions and the socioeconomic transformation of Czech coal mining and post-mining regions

Moravian Geographical Reports

article

Bohumil Frantál¹  Jindřich Frajer²  Stanislav Martinát¹  Lucia Brisudová² 

[1]Department of Environmental Geography, Institute of Geonics, The Czech Academy of Sciences

[2]Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc

关键词: coal mining;    coal phase-out;    resource curse;    regional resilience;    Czech Republic;   

DOI  :  10.2478/mgr-2022-0016

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

来源: Walter de Gruyter GmbH

【 摘 要 】

New empirical evidence regarding theories of the resource curse and regional resilience in the context of energy transitions is presented in this article. Our analysis aimed to answer the questions of what the principal differences are between coal mining and other regions in the Czech Republic, and what are the determinants of population decline, unemployment and populism as some of the key indicators of socioeconomic transformation. Unlike most current European studies focusing on NUTS2 or NUTS3 regions, we deal with data for districts (LAU1). The analysis revealed that (in aggregate) coal mining and post-mining districts are worse off in terms of air quality, population vitality, labour market and social capital indicators. It would be problematic for policy implications to consider coal mining and post-mining districts as homogenous categories, however, since there are significant inter-group and intra-group differences in most indicators. Coal mining itself and its decline did not prove to be a direct determinant of population loss, unemployment, and support for populism. The factors significantly affecting these phenomena are geographical (peripherality, urbanisation, population density) and socioeconomic (education level, business activity).

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC-ND