Economic Territorialisation in the East

This chapter aims to analyse the specificity of spatial development in Eastern Europe, both from a historical perspective and from the point of view of resource allocation rationality. Subordinated to this objective, it will be explained why and with what consequences for the East, the West does not adapt its production capacities to its strict needs and resources. On the contrary, for geostrategic reasons, it ”opens up” to the more ”natural” economies of the East to exploit their natural and human resources. ”Should we produce or should we buy” is the utmost question of this chapter and the great challenge of the East. To buy, one needs ”purchasing power”, provided by production or credit. The rapid abandonment or the destruction of the production capacities has created a vacuum for purchasing power. Borrowing does not create, but it only transfers purchasing power. Against the background of institutional change, we will analyse the chance of the East to learn on the go. We are also interested to find out whether high-performance clusters can also be developed in the East on the foundation offered by the old communist industries, operating, at the same time, with criteria of both economic and social performance.