Geographia Polonica (1984) vol. 50

Spatial patterns of urban demographic structures on the example of South-Polish towns

Adam Jelonek

Geographia Polonica (1984) vol. 50, pp. 55-66 | Full text

Abstract

The spatial structure of towns has long been a common topic of interestto researchers in different fields. The problem of urban spatial structure croppedup first in studies on the physiognomy of towns and, through deepened analysesof the historical development of towns, of their gradual accretion and diversification,they gradually comprised the functional differentiation of individual city quarters.Parallel with studies on the spatial structure of immovable facilities and on thefunctional differentiation of the urban territory, the demographic line of researchin urban studies was developing too. Population size and population densitywere the demographic factors that most frequently appeared in those studies.Subsequent studies involved the age and sex structures of urban populations,their education and occupation structures (Bystroń 1915, Wąsowicz 1935, Jelonek1968. Jelonek and Werwicki 1971). On the ground of socio-cultural premises,a broad research trend known as urban social ecology has developed too (Weclawowicz1975, Zbieg 1978). An analysis and a comparison of studies in those variousresearch directions vindicate the contention that morphological and demographicphenomena in urban space are interdependent.

Adam Jelonek, Institute of Geography, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland