FUNCTIONAL AND SPATIAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF TOWNS IN A TRADITIONAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC REGION – A THEORETICAL APPROACH

Abstract

Traditional socio-economic regions established in the so-called second Kondratiev cycle (N.D. Kondratiev (1925)) reflect a stage of dominance of mining and metallurgical industry in economy. The Katowice conurbation is an example of such a region in Central Europe. The goal of the article is to identify the most important functional-spatial transformations, especially the ones that took place after the political and economic transformation. Attention was focused mainly on the problems of revitalization of post-industrial areas, development of housing within industrial centres and suburbanization tendencies.