Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69

Urban development and urban life in international perspective

Articles

Urban Geography for the XXI century

Denise Pumain

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 7-22 | Full text

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Abstract

Geographers, and especially those involved in cooperative work inside the IGUfor the last decades, have contributed in a significant way to provide original insights in boththeoretical and practical urban issues. By developing and illustrating the concept of urbansystems, they have emphasized the importance of scale effects and spatial organization in theurban realm. Comparative research at intra- and interurban scales have demonstrated theuniversality of the problems created by the process of urban transition, under a variety ofcultural forms and socio-economic circumstances. A formalised consideration of metropolisationtrends, social polarisation, urban image and identity is already well advanced, whereasquestions about the vulnerability of megacities or the elaboration of comparable indicators onan international basis are still in progress. The time has also arrived to elaborate a newconvergence between urban geography and mathematical modelling, to bring about a betterintegration of spatial analysis and urban dynamics in the increasingly numerous and sophisticatedurban information systems.

Keywords: urban gepgraphy, urban development, urban live, urban systems

Denise Pumain, INED Etablissement Public Scientifique et Technologique, 27, Rue Du Commandeur 75675 CEDEX 14, France

The migratory system of Berlin after unification in the context of global restructuring

Michael Tiefelsdorf, Gerhard O. Braun

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 23-44 | Full text

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Abstract

The migration process within the politically unified Berlin seems to be anexcellent indicator in how far these two sub-systems have already merged socially andeconomically or have restructured under the present global economic stress. Classical questionson the behaviour of an intraurban migration system include: (i) What is the stage ofdevelopment back to an unique migration core? (ii) What is the stage of a re-developed orre-established radial pattern of stepwise out-migration flows? (iii) Is there a converging ordiverging behaviour towards an integrated intraurban migration system? (iv) How do migrantsperceive distance, and (v) are there imaginary walls that structure a migratory urban systeminto sub-systems? An origin-destination constrained interaction model and descriptive statisticsare used to address these questions. Preliminary results provide sufficient evidence todisaggregate the complexity of the migration flows into two levels comprised of local andglobal systems.

Keywords: Urban restructuring, globalisation, migration path ways, spatial interaction model, urban GIS, stage of unification

Michael Tiefelsdorf, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3C5
Gerhard O. Braun, Department of Geography - Urban Studies and GIS Free University of Berlin, GrunewaldstraBe 35, 12165 Berlin, Germany

The urban system of Poland in an era of increasing inter urban competition

Piotr Korcelli

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 45-54 | Full text

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Abstract

The article discusses the prospective role and rankings of the major Polish citieswithin the emerging European urban system. Special emphasis is placed on the present andfuture impact of Berlin upon Poland's urban network. It is concluded that cities in the Westernregions of Poland, such as Poznań and Wrocław, will be subject to both the positive and thenegative effects related to the expansion of Berlin - the extension of its zone of influence andits metropolitan shadow. Conversely, one can expect that the development of Warsaw willnot be adversely affected by its competition with Berlin. The recent successful transformationof Warsaw's economy suggests that the city, in fact its urbanized region, has been graduallyassuming the role of Poland's main economic core region, the position traditionally held bythe Upper Silesian conurbation. Warsaw has also good chances to become a major commercialand transportation centre in East-Central Europe.

Keywords: urban systems, inter-urban competition, metropolitan functions, economic restructuring

Piotr Korcelli [korcelli@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Hierarchical distortions within the Romanian urban system

Ioan Ianos

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 55-66 | Full text

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Abstract

The consequences of the state intervention in the layout of some towns, orcategories of towns, show up in the general configuration of the urban hierarchy in Romania.The main distortions are due to the disproportionate ratio between the town and its adjacentarea and to the communist conception that the economic stability of the former is based uponrelations only within an overcentralized system. Since the progress of each town was notconnected with the functioning of the whole urban system, the latter, together with theregional systems, began showing distortions: e.g. an undersized national urban hierarchicalbasis, an overdeveloped median sector, an underdeveloped upper sector and an oversizedcapital, Bucharest. Regional systems, in their turn, are either under- or oversized compared tothe next lower-rank towns. There are indications that such distortions will be graduallyeliminated. It is imperative to promote a clear-cut policy for the development of rural settlementswith centrality functions, and of large cities (regional centres) in order to enable themto take over some of the functions released by decentralisation at national level, simultaneouslywith the economic restructuring of medium-sized centres - the county capitals. The analysisis focusing exclusively on the hierarchical distortions occurring at national and regionallevels.

Keywords: hierarchical distortion, distortion genesis, urban system, Romania

Ioan Ianos, Institute of Geography, Bucharest Dimitrie Racovita 12, sector 2, 70307 Bucharest, Romania

Towns and metropolitan areas in Switzerland: a centrality in metamorphosis through mutations in the work force and selective migrations

Antonio Cunha, Jean-bernard Racine

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 67-90 | Full text

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Abstract

Even if the urban centres of Switzerland appear to have avoided the problemsassailing those of neighbouring countries, they are none the less suffering from the effects ofa profound economic mutation which is changing the face of Switzerland's economic evolutionand altering the perceptions that the Swiss and their political authorities have of theirurban future. In recalling this evolution, we are moved to the observation of a socio-spatialrecomposition (the expansion of urban areas towards metropolitan space) that is significantfrom an economic point of view, as well as of the emergence of new social and ecologicalimperatives which bring the established relationships between public action, social structuresand territorial distributions radically into question. In this federalist country with its uniquetradition of direct democracy, any urban policy inevitably finds itself in confrontation witha whole range of conflicting territorial interests: institutional, economic and socio-cultural.A minute analysis of these interests - conducted on the basis of data gathered at the communallevel throughout the urban areas of Switzerland and defining the structures and the qualityof the work force - demonstrates that they are linked to correlates - both territorial andbehavioural - which are determinant in the emerging relationships of social and environmentalchange active at different levels throughout Switzerland. These overlapping conflicts ofinterest may well prove dangerous to national cohesion in the long term.

Keywords: Globalisation, metropolisation, centrality, mobility - division of labour, professional qualification, selective migration, social exclusion, Switzerland

Antonio Cunha, Instituí de Géographie, Université de Neuchátel Ecole des HEC and Instituí de Géographie University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Jean-bernard Racine, Instituí de Géographie, Université de Neuchátel Ecole des HEC and Instituí de Géographie University of Lausanne, Switzerland

The international functions of the Italian urban system in the European context

Piero Bonavero

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 91-108 | Full text

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Abstract

The paper summarizes the main findings from an empirical analysis of theinternational integration of the Italian urban system in the European context. The nationwidedistribution of the international functions is examined; the international profile of the citiesforming the metropolitan level of the Italian urban system is then defined, and a taxonomy ofthe cities of non-metropolitan level is provided. From this, the co-existence of two differentpatterns of European integration through the international functions within the Italian urbansystem emerge, reflecting respectively the "interconnected networks" model and the "hierarchicalnetworks" model.

Keywords: urban internationalisation, Italian urban system, European integration

Piero Bonavero, Dipartimento Interateneo Territorio, Politecnico e Université di Torino Piazza Arbarello, 8, 10122 Torino, Italy

Developing redevelopment: a project, a city image, a planning process. The case of the "Neue Mitte Oberhausen"

Ludger Basten

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 109-118 | Full text

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Abstract

This paper looks at a major urban redevelopment project in the city of Oberhausen,Germany, trying to establish the reasons for succesful implementation in the face ofa severely competitive climate among the municipalities of the Ruhr. It is shown that strongpolitical forces underlie any official planning process. An adoption of modern planningtechniques seems important as far as internal management capacities and official planningprocesses are concerned. But in terms of receiving final planning approval from neighbouringmunicipalities, the regional planning council and the provincial government, personal andpolitical factors seem more important than project contents or organisation.

Keywords: urban redevelopment, decision-making, politics of planning, city image, planning process

Ludger Basten, Department of Geography, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany

Home-work distances and the urbanized society: a macro-micro level question

P.s.m. Smit

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 119-134 | Full text

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Abstract

In the Netherlands, commuting, and the traffic congestion which is caused byit, has increased steeply over the past decades. The process is related to ongoing suburbanizationof households, mainly families with children, and to an increased complexity of thehome-work relationship and the suburbanization of employment. Moreover, individual lifecycles have become more differentiated which has resulted in an increase of one-personhouseholds and two-income households. This paper describes changing home-work distancesover time and in different region types in the Netherlands.

Keywords: home-work relations, suburbanization, mobility

P.s.m. Smit, AME, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, 1018 VZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Spatial chain patterns of intra-urban migration

Yuji Murayama, Takashiinoue Inoue, Yuichi Hashimoto

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 135-152 | Full text

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Abstract

This research analyzes quantitatively the track of individual chain-type migrationof many residents to determine how they move in response to changes in their lives, i.e.,whether there is spatial regularity on the chain patterns of intra-urban migration. The studyarea for this research is the industrial city of Yokkaichi, Japan. The study helps us tounderstand the state of intra-urban migration at the non-aggregate level for all residents duringa 15-year period. Special attention is given to the age at which a resident relocates, and to theinterval between two successive movements, i. e., the stationary period.

Keywords: Spatial chain, migration, Japan, urban system

Yuji Murayama, Institute of Geoscience, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki, 305, Japan
Takashiinoue Inoue, Department of Economics, Aoyama Gakuin University, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150, Japan
Yuichi Hashimoto, Faculty of Letters, Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060, Japan

The changing context of racial segregation: an examination in metropolitan Detroit

Robert Sinclair

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 153-167 | Full text

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Abstract

The study of racial segregation has long been an important theme in urbangeography, encompassing a broad range of topics, from static racial patterns to the emphasison race as a political and social construction. The present study takes a broader approach,focusing upon the changing contexts (national and metropolitan) within which a city's urbanracial patterns evolve. More specifically, this paper (a) raises some questions concerning thenature and assumptions of some of the segregation literature, (b) looks at the changing racialpatterns of one city, Detroit, in terms of their social and historical context, and (c) considerssome of the social implications of the contemporary spatial pattern of race within the metropolis.The postwar spatial pattern of Detroit's black population can be divided into fourdistinct periods, described as (a) spatial confinement, (b) spatial release, (c) spatial stability,and (d) spatial diversity. The racial pattern in each period is placed in its local and nationalcontext, and related to broader contemporary socioeconomic processes and problems whichare molding the metropolitan landscape. In the 1990s, these problems are quite different, butno less severe than in the past, and might well include a spatial division within the metropolitanblack community itself.

Keywords: national/political context, socio/economic context, power relationships, polarization, spatial separation

Robert Sinclair, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48202, USA

Planned segregation: Cape Town and Brasilia

Isabel Maria Madaleno

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 167-180 | Full text

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Abstract

The paper examines the role of architects, urban geographers and planners inurban planning and city management. We stress that those are political acts. Therefore, thereare no longer technically correct judgements but only political decisions. Hence, the paperassesses the negative examples of urban conception, through the case study of two towns inthe Southern Hemisphere, in order to enhance the importance of technicians in the processesof devising new cities or managing preexisting urban spaces. The paper concludes that urbantechnicians should be capable of reconciling the superordinates' dream cities with the subordinatesrealities and economic constraints.

Keywords: urban planning, segregation, races, social strata

Isabel Maria Madaleno, Universidade da Beira Interior Rua Marqués D 'avila e Bolama, 6200 Covilha, Portugal

Poverty indicators in a metropolitan city: Hyderabad

A. Geeta Reddy

Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 69, pp. 183-201 | Full text

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Abstract

Urban poverty, signified by the presence and growth of slums, is widespreadin rapidly growing cities. This paper examines the quality of life, impact of the publicdistribution system, and effect of environment on health of the poor in Hyderabad. Largehouseholds, low literacy and educational levels and concentration of workers in the lowestorder economic activity of mainly unskilled work are features observed. An overwhelmingmajority live below the poverty line, displaying a wide range of living standards and healthproblems. The variations in poverty, trends in transition to improved life and possibilities ofreducing poverty are highlighted in the conclusion.

Keywords: slums, characteristics, hierarchy, poverty alleviation

A. Geeta Reddy, Centre for Area Studies in Urban and Regional Planning in the Indian Ocean Countries, Osmania University Hyderabad - 500 007, India