Polycentricity in national urban system: concepts, methods and empirical analysis of Czech Republic
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| Year of publication | 2007 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In the conceptual part of our paper we discus the notion of polycentricity referring to recent European discussions stimulated by ESDP and ESPON and developing our own conceptual framework employed in the empirical analysis. First we frame polycentricity within a more general concept of hierarchical organisation of settlement systems. Secondly, we stress the importance of relational aspect of polycentricity focusing on reciprocal relations between localities. In the empirical part, we first define centres within the Czech Republic stressing their function as job centres (they are selected from over 6 thousands municipalities). In the next step, using data about commuting to work we identify strongest reciprocal relations between centres and delimit integrated settlement systems consisting of centres linked with strongest reciprocal relations. Thirdly, we provide assessment of various aspects of polycentricity within national system and metropolitan areas of Prague and Brno. In the final section, we discuss our empirical insights in the context of European debates that present polycentricity as desirable aspect of settlement systems that fosters both external competitiveness of given territorial entity within global economy as well as internally sustainable development. |
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