Robert Krzysztofik
Articles
Geographia Polonica (2017) vol. 90, iss. 2, pp. 71-85 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/GPol.0082
Abstract
Suburbanisation represents one of the most important contemporary problems facing large urban agglomerations. An analysis of the development of urban agglomerations in Central-Eastern Europe, and especially Poland, leads to the observation that this problem is not particularly advanced in any of them. The aim of this article has thus been to examine how relevant it might be to consider the suburbanisation stage in large Polish agglomerations, as a permanent feature of the Klaassen/Paelinck and van den Berg models. Specifically, the article focuses on Poland’s seven largest agglomerations, though there is a particular emphasis on the Katowice conurbation. The essence of the study lay in the identification of differences in the population balance between these agglomerations, and above all, between their cores and outer zones. The study also included data on the structure characterising out-migrations. A consequence of the study was to draw attention to the apparent diversity of the Katowice conurbation, the only one in Poland to record a population decline in both the core area and the outer zone. This specificity was explained mainly by the drivers of polycentricity and post-industrialism. In other agglomerations, these elements were either absent altogether or were involved in separate shaping of urban regional space.
Keywords: suburbanisation, urban agglomeration, postindustrial region, urban polycentrism, Central-Eastern Europe
, Departament of Economic Geography University of Silesia Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec: Poland
Revisiting the question of centripetal and centrifugal forces in urban systems
Geographia Polonica (2016) vol. 89, iss. 4, pp. 429-442 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0066
Abstract
The concept of centripetal and centrifugal forces was formally applied to the geographical sciences by Charles C. Colby in the 1930s; and for decades, these terms have been key elements used in explaining the development of cities and regions. Given that geographical research treats these concepts as represented by scientific metaphors, the work described in this article has sought to look critically at relevant issues from the physical point of view, i.e. in terms of Newtonian mechanics. Although the use of these metaphors is not always found to reflect the reality characterising the observed elements in the socio-economic system of a city and its surroundings,these may serve as an important element of explanations of ‘classical’ geography, new economic geography and Batty’s concept of the “new science of cities”, providing that certain objections are taken account of.
Keywords: city-forming forces, centripetal forces, centrifugal forces, urban system, ontological approach
, Departament of Economic Geography University of Silesia Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec: Poland