Polycentrism in Europe

1

• Polycentrism in Europe
• Simin Davoudi
• Professor of Planning and Environment
• Director of CUDEM

Leeds Metropolitan University
2
European Spatial Development Perspective

• The ESDP
• 1991
• Committee of Spatial
• Development
• Potsdam

3
Outline

• Unpack the concept of polycentricity
• Trace its origin
• Clarify its multiple interpretations at various
  spatial scales
• Examine its meaning in the ESDP

4
Polycentrism and Multiple Interpretations

• A strategic spatial planning tool
• A specific form of urban structure
• A socio-economic policy goal
• A place-marketing image

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Polycentrism at Multiple Spatial Scales

• Intra-urban scale (or internal city structure)
• Inter-urban (or intra-regional) scale
• Inter-regional (or intra-European) scale

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Intra-Urban Scale

• Cities continue to grow outwards
• Their growth patterns are conceptualised by
• Monocentric models
• Polycentric models

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Intra-Urban ScaleMonocentric Model

• This model describes the
• city as a circular
• residential area
• surrounding a central
• business district in which
• all jobs are located.
• (Ernest Burgess, 1925)

8
The Future of Urban Forms

• Kevin Lynch, 1961
• The Pattern of Metropolis
• Urban Star
• Core City
• Urban Galaxy
• ..

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The Future of Urban Forms

• Catherine Wurster, 1963
• the Future of Urban Complex
• Constellation of
• diversified and
• integrated cities

10
The Demise of Monocentricity

• The monocentric model, fit for the ideal 19th C.
  city,
• became irrelevant in the face of
• Rapid decentralisation of economic activities
• Increased mobility through new transport
  technologies
• Multiplicity of travel patterns and complex
  cross-commuting
• Changes in household structure and lifestyle

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Intra-Urban ScalePolycentric Model

• The shift to a polycentric pattern of urban
  growth has
• been driven by
• The changing economic relationships within and
  between firms
• The significance of agglomeration economies in
  distribution of employment and population
• The tendency of firms to cluster when spatial
  transactional costs are high

12
The Polycentric City

• Polycentric city consists of a centre and a
  number of concentrated sub-centres with high
  population and employment density

13
Polycentricity versus Dispersion

• Polycentric city
• An organised system of
• sub-centres
• Dispersed city
• An unorganised urban
• sprawl

14
Halt in Decentralisation

• Break up in the pattern
• of decentralisation due
• to
• A return to urban living
• The sustainability pull
• The pro-active urban policy measures

15
It is happening in America, too!

• Not all population movements are centrifugal

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Inter-Urban Scale

• Polycentric urban region (PUR)
• a region with three or
• more historically and
• politically separate cities
• with little hierarchical
• ranking in a reasonable
• proximity and with
• functional interconnections

17
European Examples of PUR

• Flemish Diamond
• in Flanders, Belgium
• Brussels
• Leuven
• Antwerp
• Ghent

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European Examples of PUR

• Rhine-Ruhr in Germany
• Dortmund
• Essen
• Dusseldorf
• Cologne
• Bonn

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European Examples of PUR

• Padua-Treviso-Venice
• Area in Northern Italy

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Other Examples of PUR

• Kansai in Japan
• Osaka
• Kyoto
• Kobe

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Archetypical Example of PUR

• Randstad in Holland
• Amsterdam
• Utrecht
• The Hague
• Rotterdam
• And, the Green Heart

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Problems of Definition

• A PUR is a region with three or more cities in a
  reasonable proximity and with functional
  interconnection
• What is a reasonable proximity?
• How do we measure functional interconnection?

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What is a reasonable proximity?

• One hour (Geddes, 1915)
• 40 minutes (Blumenfeld, 1971)
• Half an hour (Batten, 1995)
• ???

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How do we measure functional interconnection?

• A common criterion is the labour market flows
  based on journey-to-work statistics
• But, what about
• Non-work trip-generation activities
• Other flows such as resources, goods and
  information?

25
Capturing Complex Interrelationships

• Western Wedge
• of London
• London Berkshire
• area

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Inter-Regional Scale

• Megalopolis
• resulted from the
• coalescence of a chain of
• metropolitan areas, each
• of which has grown
• around a substantial
• urban nucleus
• (Gottmann, 1957)

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Inter-Regional Scale

• Urban field is a mosaic
• of different forms and
• micro-environments
• which co-exist within a
• common communication
• framework, a new scale
• of urban living
• (Friedmann Miller, 1965)

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Inter-Regional Scale

• Ecumenopolis, or world city, comprises of
• interconnected settlements across the world.
• 
  (Doxiadis, 1968)
• Is the time-space dimension shrinking?

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Inter-Regional Scale

• BeSeTo
• Urban Corridor
• in East Asia
• Beijing
• Seoul
• Tokyo

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The ESDP and the Intra-European Scale of
Polycentricity

• ESDP promotes
• polycentricity at the level
• of Europe as whole to
• achieve
• Economic competitiveness
• Social cohesion

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EU Economic Competitiveness Agenda

• The pentagon
• a single zone of global
• economic integration
• London, Paris, Milan,
• Munich and Hamburg
• 50 of GDP
• 40 of population
• 20 of area

32
EU Social Cohesion Agenda

• Persistent regional
• disparities are set to
• grow
• EU territory is not a
• level playing field

33
EU Core Periphery Image

• European Megalopolis (Gottmann, 1976)
• Golden Triangle (Cheshire Hay, 1989)
• The Blue Banana (Brunet, 1989)
• The pentagon (ESDP, 1999)

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Polycentricity as a Normative Agenda

• The ESDP promotes polycentrism to
• Challenge the polarised image of Europe
• Make the EU
• Economically more competitive
• Socially and spatially more equitable

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Polycentricity as a Normative Agenda

• A Bunch of Grapes (Kunzmann Wegener, 1991)

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Challenges to the ESDPs Promotion of
Polycentricity

• Is a zero-sum game achievable?
• What kind of policies are most effective?
• What is to be done?
• Is the PUR a panacea for economic
  competitiveness?
• Can a PUR be created artificially?

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Polycentricity?

• Polycentricity started as a tentative notion, a
  provisional working model. But, all too swiftly,
  it has become hardened into an idée fixe. It now
  appears everywhere.
• Instead of being used as an aid to describe an
  existing or merging reality, it is coming to
  determine that reality.