Urban Community Mobilizations in Lithuania: The Withdrawal of the State and the Development of Citizens’ Initiatives

This paper explores community based mobilizations in Lithuania, which have recently become the most important civil actors in the urban environment. The analysis seeks to highlight the scope, reasons and conditions for community mobilizations in two post-Soviet cities of Lithuania: Vilnius and Kaunas. The discussion is placed within a broader debate on the ‘weak’ civil society in Central and Eastern Europe, increasing liberalization and marketization of housing and urban policy, and how Europeanization and economic globalization impact on urban social movements. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with local activists, community leaders, state officials and urban developers, this paper shows that community mobilizations while provoked by the state’s withdrawal from the housing and urban policy, have successfully adopted frames and strategies that challenge the boundaries of the national and/or local urban realm. Their claims involve environmental concerns, a right to the safe environment and to social welfare and security. They demand (and have to various degrees achieved) partnership with the local authorities, while often carry activities, which were envisaged to the municipality. The paper investigates the reasons behind the rise in neighbourhood activism but also the possible consequences of these relationships between community organisations and local authorities.