Urban–Rural Asymmetries in Social Resilience: The Role of Territorialized Institutional Trust in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Social resilience has become a central concept in urban and sustainability research, yet its institutional and spatial determinants remain insufficiently specified in contexts marked by persistent urban–rural asymmetries. The objective of this article is to explain how spatial differences in institutional trust shape divergent resilience trajectories across territories in Central and Eastern Europe. This study develops a conceptual, mechanism-based framework and employs a qualitative comparative illustration based on institutional indicators of trust, service accessibility, and governance effectiveness. The analysis shows that territorialized institutional trust—structured by institutional presence, procedural consistency, and institutional legibility—systematically conditions access to resources, stabilizes expectations, and shapes adaptive behavior, with dense and predictable institutional environments supporting longer-term resilience while thin and uneven ones entrench short-term coping. The findings suggest that social resilience should be understood as an institutional outcome shaped by the spatial organization of governance rather than as a territorially neutral attribute of communities. The broader significance of the study lies in providing a territorially sensitive and institutionally grounded framework for urban sustainability and resilience planning, highlighting how built environment and governance arrangements jointly structure the adaptive capacities of urban and rural territories.