Niels Boje Groth

Changes to urban form and commuting patterns: trends in two Danish city regions

This paper compares indicators of polycentricity in a monocentric (MUR) and a polycentric urban region (PUR) in Denmark at two points in time (1982 and 2002). It describes how population, jobs and commuting indicators of polycentricity develop and interact over time. Both the MUR and the PUR tend towards more balanced development. The increasing size of the main node in the PUR is the only deviation from the general trend. The general tendency towards a more polycentric regional structure was most marked in changing interaction and commuting patterns. Inter-urban commuting increased, while intra-urban commuting decreased, leading to dispersion of commuters and a rapid increase in commuting across the region. Commuting distances were shortest in the polycentric region, but it also had the highest growth rates. In both regions, the balancing trend leads to a dispersal of commuting demand over an increasingly complex web of origins and destination nodes. This tendency compels us to question whether people’s choice of residence is becoming increasingly irrelevant to their place of work. In relation to polycentricity and sustainability, this calls into question the degree to which proximity can be a valuable ‘asset’ in terms of planning sustainable transport outcomes connecting residence, jobs and service.

Polycentricity: An Issue in Local Development Strategies? Findings from the Baltic Sea Region

Since its introduction in the mid-1990s, the concept of polycentricity has had a fashionable status in the EU countries. Polycentricity is seen as a means to create a more balanced development and increase the competitiveness for more peripheral cities and regions based on increases in mass and exploitation of complementary assets. However, this “belief” in polycentricity may be problematic as the geography of strategic relevance for many cities is in essence trans-local. The paper presents evidence on the geography of strategic networking assembled from three case cities from the Baltic Sea Region. The strategic networking of cities as they aim to re-develop their economies after decline in manufacturing, rarely rely on polycentric relations within the regions. Cities act as entrepreneurs and cooperate with the most relevant and competent “players” in the market. Strategic partnerships are matched with policies generally neglecting distance and regional associations. The weaknesses of polycentricity as a development concept, and its links to networks of innovation are discussed. Regionally based polycentricity should be seen as a special case of the more general conditions of a new relational geography, where polycentricity may be of relevance to cities depending on regional location and capacity for re-structuring.

Small towns resisting urban decay through residential attractiveness. Findings from Denmark

Small towns are often considered as losing out in the current trend towards urban development. However, research from around Europe shows a great diversity of small town development, including successful development trajectories despite geographical disadvantages. Investigations into this are predominately done in the context of economic development and urban systems, but such approaches fail to explain why a number of small towns that are not centrally located near a metropolitan region are not in decay. This paper examines how the restructuring of retail and service sectors, demographic composition, residential migration, social organisation and community engagement form and affect small town (1000–5000 inhabitants) development patterns in Denmark and specific place-based endowments. The study is carried out with mixed methods, comprising a quantitative analysis of development trends, complemented by qualitative case studies in six small towns. Our findings show how favourable development paths are a combination of a positive development in population, provision of daily commodities and attractive housing, and a high number of local voluntary social organisations. Introducing the concept of ‘residential urbanism’, the paper discusses the extent to which a residentially driven urban development can compensate for the generally unfavourable regional development context.