Geographia Polonica (1995) vol. 66

Abstract

The application of population potential in the research procedure employed to arrive at Poland's structural régionalisation allows three main tasks to be solved: (1) determining the interaction in the urban system, (2) establishing macroregional nodes, and (3) delimiting peripheral zones of macroregions. The configuration of the potential surface and membership functions indicates the spatial structuring of socio-economic reality at the level of population interaction. It helped to distinguish 9 macroregions in Poland in 1992.

Keywords: structural régionalisation, spatial interaction, population potential, macroregions of Poland

Teresa Czyż [tczyz@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

Previous work on the urban system in Australia emphasised metropolitan primacy. Australia developed in the nineteenth century as six separate colonies with economic activity concentrated in the capitals, which also served as the principal ports. This pattern persisted into the twentieth century and was reinforced by national industry protection policies. There is evidence that Australia's urban system is changing. Since the mid-1970s there has been growth in the number and total population of regional cities. It is argued that this growth is a product of restructuring and the de-regulation of the Australian economy. Regional cities have become more prominent in the national economy as centres for manufacturing, as a consequence of the growth of tourism and recreation industries, through the decline in some areas of smaller urban settlements and as a result of new mining developments. The growth of regional cities challenges established notions on the nature and future development of Australia's urban system and suggests that these centres will become more prominent in Australian economic, social and political life.

Keywords: Urban system, Australia, Regional cities growth, restructuring, national urban system

Andrew Beer, Geography Discipline, Faculty of Social Sciences, Flinders University of South Australia GPO Box 2100 Adelaide, South Australia, 5001

Abstract

The Paper presents recent changes in the Italian settlement system and variations in urban hierarchical relations. Functional classification of towns and their new position compared with the situation at the beginning of 1980s, is newly proposed in terms of three categories of cities, medium-sized towns and small towns. The analysis and verification attempted in this study have revealed a marked reduction in the number of small towns as well as shifts in functional characteristics within urban areas in Italy.

Keywords: Urban system, urban functions, Italian towns, urban geography, devel-opment services in towns

Enrica Lemmi, University of Pisa, Department of Environmental and Spatial Sciences Via S. Giuseppe 22 56100 Pisa, Italy

Abstract

Following the economic growth in Japan after second world war the urban population has increased from 37% to 77% of the total in 1990. Three major metropolitan areas account for about half of the total population of the country. Location of corporate headquarters leads to an emergence of the new spatial order in the country. Corporations seem to have their spatial preferences for headquarters, central and that for sub-branches: this results in the emergence of a specific spatial pattern. Along with the government offices they create Administered Space, a con-struction serving the whole system of capitalist economy.

Keywords: Japan, urbanization, functional spatial units, functional order, corporate organizations, formation of urban system

Naoharu Fujita, Meiji University, Faculty of Literature Institute of Geography 1-1 Komda Surugadai Chiyoda-ku, Tbkyo 101, Japan

Abstract

The article presents the results of studies of the development of Polish towns by size categories. They allowed a synthetic evaluation of the process of urbanisation based on a multivariate analysis of the growth dynamics of 60 largest towns and an analysis of the development trajectories of the particular size groups of towns.

Keywords: Postwar urbanisation in Poland, dynamics of town development, factors of urbanisation in Poland, negative outcomes of intensified urbanisation

Jerzy J. Parysek [parys@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland
Jacek Kotus [tatra@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management, Adam Mickiewicz University Dzięgielowa 27, 61-680 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

Core-periphery concept is discussed in the paper and the invalidity of the simple dichotomy is stressed. This concept is applied to the Polish economic space on the national scale. Changes in the Polish spatial-economic system are analysed during the changes in the political-economic transformation in Poland. Three periods are analysed: (1) the top of the developmental potential of "realistic socialism" in the late 1970s; (2) that of the system's transformation and the development of the basic market mechanisms in the early 1990s; and (3) that of the developed market economy in the early 2000s.

Keywords: Core, sub-core, periphery, semi-periphery, core region, frontier region, depressed region, underdeveloped region, development axis, economic transformation.

Zbigniew Rykiel, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

International migrations caused by socio-economic and demographic reasons, especially from underdeveloped countries to the rich and prosperous areas of the globe are discussed with the focus on Western Europe and particularly on Maghrebi immigration to Spain. Emigration of the people from a backward region even increases the deterioration of local economy, provoking stagnation and inflation. Therefore emigration only can not be seen as an economic take-off for sustained economic development over the frontier areas between developed and depressed territories. Related social questions as well as economic, religious and political may add factors affecting the structural balance of the societies concerned.

Keywords: International migrations, Spain, Maghreb, cheap labour force, Mediterranean world imbalance, Moroccan community in Spain.

Isabel Bodega Fernandez, Instituto de Economía y Geografía, C.S.I.C. Calle Pinar 25, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Juan A. Cebriân de Miguel, Instituto de Economía y Geografía, C.S.I.C. Calle Pinar 25, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Teresa Alonso, Instituto de Economía y Geografía, C.S.I.C. Calle Pinar 25, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Gloria Lora-Tamayo D'Ocon, Instituto de Economía y Geografía, C.S.I.C. Calle Pinar 25, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Ascuncion Martin Lou, Instituto de Economía y Geografía, C.S.I.C. Calle Pinar 25, 28006 Madrid, Spain

Abstract

In recent years, at both local and national levels, various initiatives have been promoted with the aim of creating specific environments and conditions which may favour the creation and development of high-tech activities and/or organise new spaces and structures to locate these activities. Examples of such environments are science and technology parks and other types of high-tech concentrations. The purpose of this paper is to describe the characteristics of Western European initiatives and to suggest possible analogous development patterns for Central-Eastern European countries.

Keywords: Science and Technology Parks, technopoles, innovation centres, East-Central Europe, high technology centres

Michela Lazzeroni, University of Pisa, Department of Environmental and Spatial Science Via S.Giuseppe 22, 56100 Pisa, Italy

Abstract

It is argued that regional development issues in Central and Eastern Europe differ in many respects from those in Western Europe. Generally, in Central and Eastern Europe regional economies are less developed and the economic geography is shaped according to another spatial logic, related to the inheritance of socialism. Territorial fragmentation comes to the fore and the degree of integrational vacuum at the national level develops. This is above all in the larger successor states of the Soviet Union. Regional and local authorities should focus on furthering endogenos development potential rather than on lobbying for external financial assistance. It means above all furthering a networking economy and furthering innovative activities.

Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe. Regional development, Economic geography. Networking economy

Hans Van Zon, University of Sunderland Edinburgh Building Chester Road Sunderland, SR 1 3SD, United Kingdom