Transcript Small towns as centers of rural micro

Small towns as centers
of rural micro-regions
Prepared by : Michaela Töröková (IBAC FEM )
According to:
Vaishar A. , Zapletalová J. : European
Countryside, Volume 1, Number 2 / 2009
Basic terms:
• Counter – urbanization = is the process by
which people and employment move out
of large settled areas to smaller ones - a
process of decentralisation
• Czechia = Czech Republic
• Human capital = the set of skills which an
employee acquires on the job, through training
and experience, and which increase that
employee's value in the marketplace
• Hinterland= A region remote from urban areas
A region situated beyond metropolitan centers
of culture.
• Periphery = it refers to an area of low or
declining economic development
• Small towns = a community of people
smaller than a town
• Sub-urbanization = a suburb is a section of
the city whose main role is residency for
workers of the city. Suburbanisation is the
process whereby residential sections of
the city expand
1. Introduction
• Almost none rural settlement exists
separately with its own detached local
market of jobs and services
• In central European conditions we have
micro-regions (centre of rural space with
small town + surrounding villages )
Small town
Functions:
-
services of the basic urban level
jobs
social contacts
occasions to travel outside the microregion
- service of state administration
- sometimes identity of the micro-region
Aim
Analyse the role and position of Moravian
small towns as centers of rural hinterlands
in different types of region.
Morava
Consists of :
- urban and sub-urban regions
- two larger cities
Brno, Ostrava
- two bigger rivers
Dyje , Svratka
- lowlands and peripheral mountains
- the research had been done in 2005 it took
researchers 8 years
- nowadays the research is doing by Mendel
University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno
2. Role of Small Towns in the
Settlement System
• small towns still play an important role in
European peripheral regions with absence
of big and medium towns
• nowadays when agriculture is being
repleced with multifunctional countryside
in geographical point of view , the attention
must be pay more to small towns
• Styria 1998 in Murau – The first scientific
symposium organized by ECOVAST
( European Council of Village and Small Towns )
Here was discussion about general
problems of the small towns in relation to
the countryside .
• After transformation ( in post- socialist
Czechia ) the economy changed from
centrally- planned to the market oriented
economy
• The research is focused mainly on postsocialist countires
Research
• In the Czech geography small towns are
not so important in interest of researchers
• Small towns are studied as a part of larger
regions
• Geography of peripheral areas has been
developed at Charles University in Prague
3. Small Town Investigation
Approach
Small towns play an important position in the
Czech settlement system
population size
type
inhabitants
%
5 -1 999
Rural communes
2 672 825
26.0
2 000 - 19 999
Small towns
2 983 560
29.0
20 000 – 99 999
Medium-scale
towns
2 489 927
24.1
Big cities
2 146 621
20.9
100 000 and
more
History ( Small towns )
• In the past in Czech was lack of urban
capital
• Czech industralization was based on
noblemen investments
• In the socialist period it was politics of
decentralization
• Nowadays is era of suburbanization and
counter- urbanization and this keep the
role of small towns in settlement system
3 basic types of small towns
I.
Small Towns in the hinterlands of big
cities
II.
The small towns in well- accessible
landscape of fertile Moravian
lowlands
III. Small towns in peripheral positions
II. The small towns in well- accessible
landscape of fertile Moravian
lowlands
Moravian lowlands consists of:
- regular network of small towns and big villages
- every settlement has own independent local
market
- big and medium towns are good accessible from
villages
- rural people in lowlands can satisfy their needs
- advice for this type of towns is to focused on
industry, education, health- care, tourism
III. Small towns in peripheral
positions
- This towns are in difficult situation
because they have natural borderland,
mountains
- Their disadvantage is preconditioned by
difficult accessibility due to hilly relief
- In this area is a big number of small
villages not very far from one another
- Villages hardly have one market
- These villages are dependent on their
small towns which offer ensure job
opportunities, services, social contacts,
transfer points for travelling and etc.
- This villages are poor with lack of
investments
4. Small towns as Centres of
Rural Micro- Regions
Issues of peripheral small towns:
- The big problem and disadvantage is lack
of investments (people give to investors
interesting offers but they are not
enthusiasm because of problems like
transport of raw materials and production)
- The periphery is poor ( business people
cannot expect benefits )
- A fall of the economic power
Real example how can be peripheral
small town used for the business
This example is from pre - war Moravia.
The town Zlín has peripheral (narrow valley
and river Drevnice) position and had about
3 000 inhabitants.
Tomáš Baťa started there his business
activities.
He used a cheap labour force , cheap prices
of land and better position in negotiation
with local authorities.
He was elected a mayor of Zlin and head of
the big shoemaking empire.
Zlin became to the centre of eastern
Moravia.
5. Future of Moravian Rural
Space with Small Towns
I. The second demographic transition
II. Suburbanization and counterurbanization
III. Globalization
IV. Continuation of transfer the jobs from
productive to non-productive sectors
V. Increasing value of leisure ,
environment, space, security ect. for
inhabitants.
VI. Decreasing importance of the state
border as a barrier of development
6. Investigating Small Towns
within Rural Research
• The rural hinterlands play a role of microregional market of small towns. We must
have in connection small towns and
hinterland.
• The relation between small towns and
rural settlements in their hinterlands
should be of great attention. (important
aspects: position with regard to regional
centres, natural conditions regarding to
micro-region development)
• The Czech structure of administration is
typical with a high number of communes.
• 59.1 % of communes have less than 500
inhabitants and 26.5 % have even less
than 200 inhabitants
• The weakness of self – governance in
small communes is solved by creation of
voluntary association of communes as
legal subject with small towns as their
centres as a rule
• The eastern European rural space is
influenced by globalization very slowly but
step by step.
• For rural space it is very important era and
hopefully we can expect a very successful
solutions and changes.
Thank you for your
attention!!!