Development of socio-spatial polarisation in Czechia

Анотація. Досліджено особливості трансформації структури економіки міст Західного регіону України. Для цього проаналізовано просторову концентрацію економічної діяльності в містах обласного значення Західного регіону України, а також швидкість та інтенсивність трансформації структури їхніх економік. Залежно від структури економіки міст обласного значення в базовому періоді та інтенсивності структурних зрушень у ній упродовж досліджуваного періоду виокремлено два типи досліджуваних адміністративних одиниць: 1) міста обласного значення, які зберегли профільність економічної структури; 2) міста обласного значення, які диверсифікують структуру економіки. До останніх, зокрема, належать: а) міста обласного значення — промислові центри, які диверсифікували свою діяльність шляхом розвитку сервісної економіки; б) міста обласного значення, які трансформували структуру економіки в напрямі розвитку промисловості; в) міста обласного значення, які, попри поліпрофільність економічної структури в базовому періоді, наростили упродовж наступних років економічний потенціал лише в певному секторі економічної діяльності; г) інші міста обласного значення, зокрема ті, які змінили вектор економічної діяльності в напрямі розвитку суміжних галузей. Констатовано існування позитивних тенденцій (вища адаптивність структури економіки досліджуваних адміністративних одиниць до сучасних умов соціально-економічного розвитку), а також негативних тенденцій (асиметричність регіонального суспільно-економічного розвитку внаслідок концентрації ділової активності та капіталу в містах обласного значення; диспропорційність секторальних і просторових структурних змін в економіці міст обласного значення; посилення монопрофільності економічного розвитку окремих міст обласного значення в контексті загострення ризиків економічної діяльності) у трансформаційних процесах економіки міст обласного значення. Ключові слова: трансформація економіки, міста обласного значення, структура економіки, регіональна економіка, сектор економіки. Формул: 2; рис.: 0; табл.: 2; бібл.: 10.

Analysing urban sprawl and land consumption patterns in major capital cities in the Himalayan region using geoinformatics

Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) are the most widely recognized public health measures recognized globally to prevent the spread of Covid-19. NPIs' effectiveness may depend on the type, combination of applied interventions, and the level of proper public compliance with the NPIs. The expected outcome of behavioural practices varies relative to the intervention duration. This study aimed to assess the trend of community compliance to NPI with Covid-19 incidence and government-initiated interventions, and its variation by residence and sociodemographic characteristics of people. A weekly non-participatory field survey on individuals' NPI practices was observed from the 41st epidemiological week of October 5th, 2020, to the 26th epidemiological week of July 4th, 2021, a total of 39 weeks. The survey covered all 14 regional and national capital cities in Ethiopia. Data collection for the three NPI behaviours (i.e., respiratory hygiene, hand hygiene, and physical distance) was managed weekly at eight public service locations using the Open Data Kit (ODK) tool. The Covid- 19 incidence data and public health measures information from August 3rd, 2020 to July 4th, 2021 were obtained from the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI). More than 180,000 individuals were observed for their NPI practice, with an average of 5,000 observations in a week. About 43% of the observations were made in Addis Ababa, 56% were male and 75% were middle age group (18-50 years). The overall level of NPI compliance was high at the beginning of the observation then peaked around the 13th- 15th epidemiological weeks then declined during the rest of the weeks. The peak NPI compliance periods followed the high Covid-19 death incidence and government-initiated intensive public health measures weeks. Respiratory hygiene had the highest compliance above 41% whereas hand hygiene was the lowest (4%). There was a significant difference between residents of the capital city and regional cities in their level of compliance with NPI. Females comply more than males, and individuals had increased NPI compliance at the bank service and workplaces compared to those in the transport services at P = 0.000. An increased level of compliance with NPI was observed following intensive government-initiated Covid-19 prevention measures and an increased Covid-19 death incidence. Therefore, the intensity of government-initiated risk communication and public advocacy programs should be strengthened, possibly for similar respiratory disease pandemics in the future.

The aim of this academic symposium was to provide an answer to the question whether “youth quotas” offer a solution to changes in age demographics and a looming gerontocracy. Based on the premise that young people have the potential to act as change agents, especially with regard to ecological sustainability, it was our aim to stimulate a societal discussion and to raise public awareness on the topic of youth quotas, whilst providing the discussion with a scientific basis. The question of a power shift between generations is already discussed in many facets in the literature. Many commentators state that a shift is already visible and that the problem requires careful political management. In light of this, the implementation of youth quotas could be a possible method of protecting the interests of younger generations in politics and beyond. The symposium was investigating a topic that is greatly under-researched. Some key questions to be addressed at the symposium were: Should youth quotas be limited to the political arena (political parties, parliaments, etc.) or should they also be implemented in other fields (economic activity, companies, associations, organisations, etc.)? Can youth quotas ensure that a greater sense of urgency is applied to the problem-solving process of future concerns like global warming? Can young people really be relied upon to represent the interests of the young generation as a whole, or will they just follow their own individual interests? Are youth quotas in general an effective instrument to strengthen the rights of the young generation or do we need other and more effective instruments? Intense debates arose over the question of whether or not youth quotas are an effective means to strengthen the rights of future generations. Some junior researchers suggested that young people can be thought of as the “trustees of posterity” as they tend to be fiercer defenders of long-termist policies, especially regarding the environment, since the environmental crisis will have a more concrete impact on their lifespan. But other speakers rejected the causality that young people will have a stronger determination to solve future problems, or will necessarily add a new “young” perspective in the epistemic process of finding solutions to future problems. The indication of these latter speakers was that environmental issues are not the top priority of young people. Regarding the composition of party lists, one speaker pointed to the problem of legitimacy in the outcome of an election. The positive discrimination of youth within a societal group has to be justified because other groups could feel disadvantaged by the implementation of such a strong instrument. Some speakers challenged the analogy of youth quotas to quotas for women or ethnic minorities, because women and ethnic minorities can’t change their status whereas today’s young people, in the normal course of life, will be old in the future. This means that the disadvantage of a person in his or her young age is just temporal. Generational effects were pitted against age effects in this context. Some experts pointed to alternatives to youth quotas. In their view, lowering the voting age and better political education in schools, especially, would produce better results. Another proposed strategy was the implementation of proxy votes for the parents. A vote at the end of the symposium sparked interesting results. Although several reservations were noted, most of the speakers voted for the implementation of youth quotas. All speakers voted for lowering the voting age. The conclusion reached by this academic symposium was that a package of measures is required to give adequate answers to demographic change. Youth quotas could be part of this package. The organisers planned to publish the outcomes of the symposium in an anthology ((April 2015): Youth Quotas and other Efficient Forms of Youth Participation in Ageing Societies. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer).

The study of city system is to examine the whole relationship through the socio-economic activities among cities. It is fundamentally important to analyse the interrelations among cities using the study of a city's system. However, studies have not been sufficiently undertaken till now because of difficulties in data collection. This study attempts to clarify the system of cities based on the analysis of internal migration in Korea, and to compare it with that of Japan based on the analysis of internal migration (Morikawa, 1985).Data used are The Korean National Migration Surveys published by the National Bureau of Statistics of Economic Planning Board and Korea Institute for Population and Health in 1985. The number of city was 50 in 1983 and the number of analysed cities was 45.Analysis methods are as follows. (1) The types of cities were analysed by the number of out-migrants and in-migrants, and each type was analysed by population size. (2) The spatial patterns of migration among cities were analysed by the nodal flows of the largest and secondary flow of the migration rates (out-migration rates plus in-migration rates). And hierarchical structure of cities was analysed by semi-logarithm graph; vertical axis (logarithm graph) represented the city population size and horizontal axis (arithmetic graph) represented the direct distance of each city from Seoul, and each city was linked by nodal flows.The results are as follows:1. The city growth based on the migration appeared conspicuously in middle rank cities, and small rank cities declined. These phenomena are very similar to Japan. In case of Korea, the development of manufacture is a factor of city growth.2. The spatial patterns of migration among cities appeared in the migration field of national level, and all cities are directly or indirectly linked with Seoul. But in the case of Japan, the migration fields are centered in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. The differences between the two countries are caused strongly by the attraction of population force of capital city and the weak development of local cities in Korea.3. The city's rank of population size consists of 6 ranks, and the Korean city's system shows a typical hierarchical structure as seen in Christaller's model. These phenomena are caused by such factors as agglomeration of functions in capital city and centralization of administrative power system and the lack of interchange between Honam and Yeongnam cities by geomorphological hindrance (Fig. 1). The Japanese city system shows a typical hierarchical structure as seen in Christaller's model, but the capital city gradually encroached the system of the neighborhood local cities made by prefectural center cities of middle rank. Accordingly, the existing hierarchical structure is destroyed, and the direct connection to capital city appeared.4. Centralization of administrative power system and primacy impedes the development of regional center cities in Korea. But, practice of local self-government system caused the development of regional center cities in Japan.5. Level of employments and incomes of high rank cities are the highest in terms of the economic characteristics of each hierarchical rank, and middle rank cities appeared higher. But regional center cities appeared lower than middle rank cities in level of employments and incomes. These phenomena became an important obstacle factor of the development in regional center cities.As mentioned above, system of cities in Korea does not consist of well developed hierarchy of metropolitan city—regional center city—prefectural city—local city as Japan. Especially, because regional center cities are undeveloped, and provincial center cities are not dominant in the province cities, it is necessary to promote a more regular hierarchical system.

Medium Density Housing (MDH) is advocated for sustainable urban growth while retaining the amenity and liveability of lower-density urban forms. Despite these advantages, affordable and diverse MDH proves challenging to implement in suburbs with access to employment and services. While scholars do explore barriers and solutions to implementing MDH in Australia, regional city contexts are less understood. Stakeholder perspectives on MDH and its implementation are also limited. This research presents a stakeholder analysis in the regional city of Cairns to address these important gaps. The research employs a case study approach including semi-structured interviews with 19 stakeholders across public and private sectors: developers, architects/building designers, government and industry planners and real estate agents. Stakeholders expressed barriers that are well-documented in the literature–such as the risk-averse nature of the finance sector–but also note key regional differences such as land constraints in world heritage areas, poor public transport, distance from supply chains, soaring insurance costs and susceptibility to cyclones. In the face of these challenges, Cairns stakeholders argue for certain forms of MDH alongside strategic planning, leadership, cross-sectoral and community engagement to support effective MDH infill. These insights are pertinent to other regional cities struggling with MDH in low density contexts. Practitioner pointers MDH needs contextualisation in places outside Australia’s capital cities, as demand and supply side issues require nuanced understanding. Cross-sectoral conversations are key to understanding the complex barriers and opportunities for MDH in regional cities. Strategic planning for where to locate MDH is vital in a context of climate change and coastal hazards.

The more the merrier? Questioning the role of new commercial and industrial locations for employment growth in German city regions

This study is an attempt to assess the vulnerability of the coastal community in the coastal city region of Jamnagar in the Gulf of Kutch, India. It assesses the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to climate variability and captures perceptions about the challenges faced due to climate change. Climate change variables have been analyzed using a relatively longer period time, that is, for 50 years (1955–2004) of rainfall and the number of rainy days in a year. The trends of rainy days per year have also been calculated for the same period of time in order to understand the linkages of rainfall on the economic activities particularly in agriculture and fishing in the city region. The mean annual temperature has been taken to observe the trend in rising temperatures during a span of 40 years (1969 and 2009). The vulnerabilities that the city is subjected to has been assessed with the help of secondary information on climate variables, socio-economic status of the city and stakeholder’s consultation about the possible challenges. The community perceptions about the possible impacts of these climate variables and the related challenges have been captured through a survey of two selected villages—Sachana and Gagva—in the city region. A total of 200 households have been surveyed (100 households from each village) from the agriculture and fishing communities to assess their vulnerability to climate change. The analysis of climate variables reveals an increasing trend in the annual mean temperature observed for period over 40 years during 1969 and 2009 in the Jamnagar city region (JCR). The average yearly rainfall does not conform to the declining trends; however, there has been a declining trend in the number of rainy days per year during 50 years time period between 1955 and 2004. This has resulted in the higher occurrence of extreme climate events such as droughts and floods in the region resulting in loss of life and property. Prime stakeholder consultation in Jamnagar city provided various challenges of climate change such as scarcity of drinking water supply at source, salinity ingress from the ocean, frequent flooding in the low-lying areas particularly in slums and incidence of natural and manmade hazards. Stakeholders have these local priorities to tackle as far as urban planning is concerned, while national- and state-level climate change priorities are larger with emphasis on the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and preparation of new energy policy. Climate change vulnerability in terms of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of the coastal community, particularly those engaged in agricultural and fishing activities, have been assessed. The assessment has revealed that they are highly exposed to the climate change impacts and are more sensitive towards extreme climate change events such as droughts, floods, cyclones and salinity ingress. They have poor awareness of climate change impacts; however, they have reported a change in their crop calendar due to the shifting nature of the cropping season. This has resulted in reducing the desired yields of major crops they grow. The fishing communities have reported decreasing tends in their fish catch throughout the year as compared to the quantity of fish hauled a decade ago. The comparative vulnerability assessment of these two community shows that the fishing community is more vulnerable compared to agriculture community due to lack of awareness, absence of social networks, low technology use and lower socio-economic status.

In recent years, a three-stage mono-polar concentration of higher functions into Tokyo, regional capitals and prefectural capitals has been under way in Japan. This trend is considered to have arisen as a result of the changing spatial organization of major enterprises, exemplified by their head/branch office locations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the national urban system of Japan by focusing on the horizontal and vertical growth of the spatial organization of major enterprises and their temporal changes during the past two decades. A total of 2, 499 listed enterprises is examined here, and the data used were obtained from the Directory of Executives of Major Enterprises (kaisha shokuin roku) and Handbook of Organizations and Establishments (soshikizu jigyosho binran) published by the Diamond Inc.The findings can be summarized as follows:First, an analysis of the spatial organization of four enterprise categories based on the number of cities with branch offices reveals that the more branch offices a category has and the larger it is, the greater the concentration of head offices in Tokyo. In this situation, regional capital cities as administrative centers tend to preside over local cities. This suggests that growth of enterprise is generally accompanied by a process of concentration of head office functions into Tokyo, horizontal growth of the branch office network and vertical/hierarchical growth of administrative functions.Second, the Japanese urban system exhibits a hierarchical structure consisting of three stages: Tokyo as a strategic center, regional capital cities as administrative centers and prefectural capital cities as local business centers. However, a distinction is also observed in the case of regional capital cities; specifically, the system shows signs of differentiation between the higher rank cities of Sendai and Fukuoka and the lower rank cities of Sapporo and Hiroshima. Additionally, the growth of Omiya as a significant center in the northern portion of the Kanto region and the stagnation of Nagoya and Takamatsu are noteworthy. This movement has contributed to the collapse of a clear-cut hierarchical structure and the reorganization of the previously established urban system in the country.Third, an analysis of temporal changes in the spatial organization of the major enterprises under consideration reveals that, in the 1980s, the prefectural capital cities were chosen as the new locations of branch offices and the regional capital cities experienced an expansion of administrative functions in the form of rank elevation to unify the prefectural capitals. In the recessionary years of the 1990s, however, the closure/withdrawal of branch offices and the absorption of smaller ones into large ones generally increased, suggesting a restructuring of the spatial organization of the enterprises.In future research, we will proceed to a more detailed study of the Japanese urban system by devoting attention to differences according to industrial sector as well as studying a variety of affiliated enterprises.

Development of the demographic aging is one of the characteristics out of many challenges of the modern world population. Demographic aging is demonstrated in increased number of the older population and is the sign of the aging structure evolution. The results of the demographic aging are obvious in many countries of the world, including Georgia. The outcomes are reflected in various fields, like family structure, savings, economic development, change of consumption forms, the balance of demand and supply at the labor market, healthcare and social protection services. Increased number of the elderly people will raise the costs of the retirement allowance and care and will be the kind of test for the country economy (Bruni …2017, 20) Despite the trend of increasing proportion of the elderly population in the world, demographic aging is characterized by significant variety. The paper reads the demographic indicators (evaluations and predictions), describes period between 1990-2050. The portion of the population above 65 in entire world of the period was increased from 6.2% to 9.3%. According to the UN scale the world is aged, though least developed countries still maintain demographic youth, though according to forecast, the mentioned counties will be aged from 2030. Based on estimation of the correlation between demographic aging coefficient and factors influencing it there are the following findings, in particular, correlation between demographic aging and birth general coefficient (-0,876) for entire world, as well as total birth coefficient (-0,812) is strong. The linkage between less developed regions is the same, while there is average linkage in the developed regions. As for relationship with migration it is average in developed regions, while it is weak in less developed regions and countries. The most important correlation was identified between the demographic aging and median age reaching almost full relationship (0,973-0,981). It shows that change of median age is the key indicator influencing demographic aging. Demographic changes has been started by reduction of the birth rate since 19th century in Georgia, while portion of the elderly population exceeded 8% since 20s of the twentieth century. The paper refers the data from the public census for description of the demographic aging stages in Georgia according to the age groups (1897-2002); the factors influencing demographic aging are also learnt. The aging index within Georgian population corresponds to the index of the developed regions; this is why the influencing factors on the aging (birth, median age, life-span) mainly look similar to developed regions’ tendencies. It was reflected and will be reflected in aging and the rate forecasted by the UN for 2050 is around 21.8. As for migration, considered as one of the influencing factors on aging, it has a negative impact, characterized for less developed countries. According to the UN forecast migration coefficient for 2020 was 2.5, actually it reached 4.2, what can be the result of COVID 19 pandemics. As for the demographic aging linkage with the influencing factors in Georgia, the correlation of birth indicator is medium (general birth rate is 0.395, total birth rate is 0.612), while the strong linkage was identified between the migration and median age (median age was 0,935; migration was 0,988). The changes derived from demographic aging are reflected in the age structure of the work-capable population, reduction of labor supply. The paper provides three age groups of the labor-capable population (1994-2020), where there is the reduction by 42% of 15-29 age group compared to baseline period. This is the most serious result of the demographic aging. Reduction of the youth share among the work-capable population can have significant losses in terms of innovation, as well as less adaptation to the technological development. It was more obvious during the COVID 19 pandemics. The pandemics highlighted unequal access of the population to the digital technologies. Elderly people are more digitally-isolated and have barriers in accessing commodities and services which are provided online more and more (Ageing in the Digital Era, 2021). The same problem is faced by the population of pre-retirement period as during working processes appliance of digital technologies has been increased in the services. It is estimated that when younger part of the work-capable population be in the young adulthood age, the access to the modern requirements and media literacy will be increased, it will reduce the risk estimated by many scientists on slowing economic development down due to demographic condition during the next few decades. The economy is able to adjust to the changes of the population age structure due to new technologies.

Urban decline, resilience, and change: understanding how cities and regions adapt to socio- economic crises

Logistics company is an economic entity to specialize in organization and operation of logistics activities and has a strategic significance in supporting various economic activities of circulation field and effective operation of the whole social-economic system, even impacting the reorganization of regional spatial structures. However, review articles in the literature show that for a long time most scholars only pay attention to the distribution features or spatial modes of logistics companies at the city scale and organization mode of logistics operational network at the regional or national scale, due to the limit of data collection and methodology, but the distribution patterns of logistics companies and the dynamic mechanisms at the national scale are seldom investigated. Particularly, the number of logistics companies has been increasing explosively since the end of 1990s in Mainland China. For this purpose, in this paper, we choose 1855 A-level logistics companies, rated by the government authority by various criterions over the past seven years, as the study samples, from the spatial scales of region, province and city, to describe and analyze the spatial features of the logistics companies in China, including the overall pattern, spatial centralization, coverage and spatial differentiation. And we explore the dynamic mechanisms of spatial disparities of logistics companies' distribution from the multi aspects. The results show that there are obvious spatial distribution disparities among the logistics companies in China. The coastal region has more logistics companies than inland region and their numbers show a "2:1" ratio. Interestingly, the eastern region also has obvious larger number than central and western regions, with "4:2:1" ratios. Generally, the southern provinces have more logistics companies, and the northern, northeastern, northwestern and southwestern provinces have fewer. Furthermore, the southeast coastal provinces especially Jiangsu and Zhejiang have the most companies. The spatial disparity of logistics companies' distribution among the cities seems to be more significant, showing clear separation of aggregation regions and sparse regions. The logistics companies not only are concentrated in the provincial capitals and economic centers, but also cover a large number of prefectural-level cities, even extending into many counties. More interestingly, South Jiangsu, Shanghai, South Anhui and Zhejiang have a large number of logistics companies and large coverage of various cities. But in each province, logistics companies are mainly located at the capital city and important economic centers and port cities. Logically, this spatial pattern is determined by the various factors combined. The results also show that the economic scale and industrial structure(among eastern, central and western regions, or between northern and southern regions), opening up and international trade, location and transport condition become the important factors to influence the spatial differentiation of logistics companies' distribution. It`s noteworthy that the development of a large number of local and specialized industrial clusters and private economies promotes the emergence and centralized distribution of logistics companies in Zhejiang and Jiangsu. More strikingly, the logistics planning and support policies made and provided by local governments also profoundly influence the development and flourish of logistics market and companies, especially in the coastal region and large cities of central and western regions. Theoretically, this distribution disparity among logistics companies generates different supporting capabilities for each region to operate the socio-economic system effectively. This research can provide a guidance to optimize the distribution of logistics companies and organize the logistics activities.

Australian governments continue to search for a model capable of planning future urban settlements at an extended spatial scale (the mega-metropolitan region) to accommodate high population growth more sustainably. Attempts at decentralisation over the past half century have failed, as state capital cities continue to sprawl in an unsustainable manner and increase their primacy at the expense of regional cities. This paper examines how two technologies, broadband and fast rail—both infrastructures capable of re-shaping space–time relationships—could underpin a transition of Australia’s largest capital cities into megacity regions by functionally integrating regional cities into their core metropolitan agglomerations. With the Melbourne megacity region as a spatial framework, changes in population and economic development are examined for Melbourne and several regional cities in Victoria following the introduction of regional fast rail (RFR) and broadband. The impact of high-speed rail (HSR) for intercity corridors in southeast England is analysed as a possible analogue for future application in Victoria. The results revealed that RFR primarily served to extend capital city suburban development. Only HSR had the capacity to ‘punch through’ and boost growth for ‘basic’ new economy industries in ‘on-line’ urban centres in corridors linked to London. High-speed broadband proved most attractive to Melbourne’s agglomeration of high-skilled information workers. Lower speed broadband services were more uniformly taken up across all centres. This discussion speculates on the impacts of these and other green economy and digitalisation drivers on prospects for a future megacity region transition in Victoria.

PurposeThis longitudinal study aims to understand the circumstances of and changes in student enrollment in Honduras by comparing geographically and socioeconomically different areas and students' year of school entrance.Design/methodology/approachThe sample was made up of 4,043 students from seven primary schools in a regional city and the capital city. Students' enrollment patterns, schooling and trajectories from entrance to departure, whether as a result of graduating or dropping out, were examined.FindingsThe number of students who graduated without repetition increased, and most of the students accessed primary education at the official entrance age. However, grade repetitions and dropouts were observed in the regional city in particular, and differences were also found in the school departure age by region. In the regional city, continuation of schooling after a change in residence has become more common in recent years. Adopting an automatic promotion policy could be one strategy for reducing grade repetitions and dropouts; however, further discussion is required to prepare a remedial opportunity for students who might otherwise lack the minimum proficiency level.Originality/valueFew studies have examined changes in school enrollment in Honduras from a micro perspective. This study contributes a practical approach to exploring educational trends in the region by explaining how students reached their final grades by tracking trajectories, which has not been observed so far in terms of the accumulated average.

The problems of structural changes in the economy of large and medium-sized cities of the Western region of Ukraine are investigated. Special attention is paid to the spatial localization of cities, the cultural and historical traditions of functioning of their economy, the branch specialization and institutional environment of influence on the formation of business climate and economic development as the main factors of structural transformation of urban economy. To compare the peculiarities of economy transformation in the selected for the study large and medium-sized cities of the Western region of Ukraine, the dynamics of change of individual comparable indicators of their development in 2010 - 2017 were analyzed. This primarily relates to such indicators as the volume of freight transportations, the total area of new residential buildings, the retail turnover of enterprises, the capital investments, as well as the export services and its ratio to the export of goods. Based on the analysis of the relevant data, the main tendencies of structural transformation of the economy of large and medium-sized cities of the Western region of Ukraine that were selected for the study have been identified. The mentioned structural transformation are confirmed to be occurring primarily in the direction of equalization of the branch proportions of economic development of cities, irrespective of their size. At the same time, there is a tendency to move from mono-functional to poly-functional specialization of the urban economy on the basis of accelerated growth of those types of economic activity, the potential of which has not been fully realized before. The research gave the basis for the conclusion that the size of the city is not the determinative factor for the development or decline of certain types of their economic activity. Instead, spatial localization and traditions of business culture as well as the characteristic features of the evolution of the institutional environment of the city and the quality of human capital have the primary importance.