The role and development perspectives of small towns in central Serbia

Abstract

The link between urban centers and the countryside, including movement of people, goods, capital and other social exchanges, play an important role in processes of rural and urban change of a country. Major demographic and spatial changes have been typical for Serbia in the second half of the 20th century, caused by a dynamic primary urbanization process, i.e. by intense migration trends between rural areas and towns (cities). A special attention in this paper is given to the small urban centers in Serbia (small towns with population of less than 20,000) as the first magnet in proximate contact with the rural surroundings, and the one that therefore could have the greatest influence on organization structure and development prospects of the rural areas. In addition to being difficult to substantiate criteria for urban classification, small towns themselves do not represent a homogeneous group of settlements, and this makes it even harder to put up generalizations that would fit to all the settlements of this kind either within our country or cross-borders. However, here are identified certain common features for the small towns in Central Serbia and their development perspective is analyzed in relation to medium towns and cities of the same territory in consideration. Finally, this paper discusses the importance of policies for small town development in light of a real risk that the process of globalisation may lead to the justification of a new concentration of activities in the large cities, increasing the already significant regional differences in living conditions and economic development.