Differential urbanisation and primate city growth in soviet and post‐soviet Estonia

Abstract

Although big city growth was not officially favoured in the former socialist countries, big cities did grow fast. The existence and continuing growth of primate and large cities is typically attributed to urbanisation economies, diverging sectoral and spatial interests, and difficulties in managing such a complex process as migration. However, whether such developments are systemic to socialism or reflect universal urbanisation processes is an issue of continuing debate. This paper aims to add to this discussion, and it does so by subjecting it to an empirical test, namely that of Estonia. For this purpose the concept of differential urbanisation is employed, as this model explicitly attempts to bridge the gap between various types of economies and urban settlement networks in both developed and developing countries.