European Regional Science Association
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European Regional Science Association
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The abstract for paper number 338:
Stefano Panebianco, Institute of Spatial Planning (IRPUD)
Faculty of Spatial Planning
University of Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany, Michael Kiehl, Faculty of Spatial Planning
University of Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
Suburbanisation, Counterurbanisation, Reurbanisation? An empirical analysis of recent employment and population trends in Western Europe
The shift of population and employment from the older urban areas to suburban and rural areas has been widely discussed and analysed, starting in the United States where Berry and Cohen introduce the term “counterurbanisation” in 1973 already. Later on their findings were confirmed for Europe by the studies of Vining and Kontuly (1977) and Drewett (1980). However, some critics assess the phenomenon of counterurbanisation as a result of an inadequate area typology where the growth and sprawl of urban areas is counted as rural growth by mistake (Gordon 1979; Koch 1980). Others doubt that the urban-rural shift is more than a transitional phase (Dematteis/ Petsimeris 1989). In contrast some studies published by the end of the 1990s in Great Britain and Germany give evidence for an ongoing employment deconcentration (Bade 1997; Breheny 1999; Turok/ Edge 1999).
This paper wants to shed light on recent employment and population trends in Western Europe. It consists of three major analytical steps: Firstly, for a choice of West European states a comparable classification into urban, intermediate and rural areas is carried out. On this basis, a second section analyses the aggregated development trends of the three spatial categories, including both population and employment figures. The results are displayed both in tables and cartographically. Finally, the paper analyses the degree of divergence or convergence within and across the three types of areas and draws conclusions for the fields of regional economics and spatial planning.
Unfortunately full paper has not been submitted.