Multi-scalar geographies of polarisation and peripheralisation: A case study of Czechia

• Published in: Bulletin of geography Vol. 37; no. 37; pp. 125 - 137
• Main Author: Šimon, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Toruń Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika 2017; Nicolaus Copernicus University Press; De Gruyter Open; Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu
• Subjects: Access; accessibility; Case studies; Center and periphery; Central Europe; Classification; Comparative analysis; Economic geography; Geography; inner peripheries; peripheralisation; polarisation; Postcommunist societies; Regional Geography; Regional variations; Rural areas; Rural communities; Socialism; Socio-Economic Research; Socioeconomic factors; Territory; Urbanization; peripheralisation; accessibility; Central Europe; inner peripheries; polarisation
• ISSN: 1732-4254; 2083-8298; 2083-8298
• DOI: 10.1515/bog-2017-0029

A key issue in socio-economic geography is to understand how regional and social polarization shapes the territorial organization of society. We argue that effects of polarization are not translated simply and straightforwardly in a whole region, but vary to a large extent with respect to different types of accessibility areas. We applied the time-accessibility framework to classify a territory into urban, peri-urban, rural, and remote rural areas at a national and regional scale. Subsequently, we computed comparative indicators for this territorial classification, measuring three dimensions of peripherality for a period of thirty years. The analysis illustrates how polarization and peripheralization works at a detailed spatial level. A case study of the Ústí region shows re-polarization and bi-polarization of the region in its path from socialist urbanization in the 1980s to regional peripheralization in 2011. The use of the time-accessibility framework allows to assess regional changes within long-term and broader changes of core-periphery relations at national level and thus allows for a better understanding of the different nature of socialist and post-socialist peripheries. Finally, the article offers methodical procedures and tools allowing for a comparable research of polarization and peripheralization. Thus, it is responding to the call for more comparative research of peripheral areas in Europe.