Desarrollo territorial policéntrico y ciudades intermedias: recursos productivos y dinámicas económicas locales en Andalucía

Abstract

In the present process of globalisation and extension of the European Union a multiplication of the forms of expression of the territories is observed. Parallel to a progressive space concentration of the strategic resources and the power, is taking place a process of decentralization inside many countries through a polycentric development in which the networks of cities contribute to favour the territorial cohesion and where the intermediate cities are acquiring an increasing protagonism. In this article a presentation is realised of the present challenges that confront those intermediate cities, of small and average size, and of the factors of impulse able to invigorate them, determining the attention to the selection of adapted indicators, especially in those concentrating in the economic reality, and serve to define their present situation and recent evolution. The study finalises by an empirical analysis that applies the previous to a concrete reality. The empirical analysis is realised for the cities of Andalusia with the aim of knowing how the use of productive resources affects the economic capacity of these cities, making for it diverse synthetic indices by means of a multivariant statistic analysis, and establishing a typology of the intermediate cities that tries to synthesize the observed trajectories and behaviours.