Anamaria Klasić

Institute for Social Research in Zagreb,

Zagreb, Croatia

E-mail: anamaria@idi.hr

ORCID 0000-0002-2902-1476 

Social mix in Zagreb’s large housing estates

Anđelina Svirčić Gotovac

Institute for Social Research in Zagreb,

Zagreb, Croatia

E-mail: svircic@idi.hr

ORCID 0000-0001-9462-0734

Abstract. In Western and Northern Europe, post-war large housing estates (LHEs) stand out as areas of segregated and minority-populated housing, and have faced numerous attempts of reconstruction with the idea of social mixing. LHEs in Central and Eastern Europe had different developmental pathways. The heterogeneous structure of these estates has persisted until today, but due to the systematic neglect and aging, the estates are threatened by physical and social deterioration. The analysis is based on a survey conducted in Croatia in 2022 on two types of housing estates (socialist and post-socialist; N (Zagreb = 657). The results confirm that the social composition in both types of estates is mixed, with a predominance of middle-class residents and without pronounced social differences. The residential satisfaction is high, so the majority of residents are stayers. Nevertheless, certain regeneration policies should be adopted because the population of the socialist LHEs is aging, which could jeopardize the present heterogeneity and make maintenance of multifamily buildings more challenging, thus contributing to further deterioration of the estates. 

Received: November, 2023

1st Revision: July, 2024

Accepted: September, 2024

DOI: 10.14254/2071-789X.2024/17-3/7

JEL Classification: R23

Keywords: social mix, socialist and post-socialist large housing estates, residential satisfaction, residential mobility, Croatia