Resilience capacity and vulnerability: A joint analysis with reference to Slovak urban districts

The country of interest in this paper is Slovakia. Slovakia is a small country in Central-Eastern Europe and can serve as a good example of an open and export-based economy, subjected to the global crisis. Thus, in the context of the 2007-2008 economic crisis, the RCI in the 79 Slovak districts is examined with respect to their vulnerability in the first period of rising unemployment (2008-2012), as well as in the second period following vulnerability to the economic shock (2012-2014). A clear West-East divide in the resilience capacity can be seen. The more urban and export-oriented districts with high RCI values are shown to be exposed to high vulnerability compared with the rural districts. On the other hand, the small, peripheral districts respond to a lesser extent, or with a delay, to the shock.