Keywords
small towns
rural areas
employment
economic specialisation
employment areas
How to Cite
Abstract
We still know relatively little about the processes of economic transformation in medium-sized towns, which are the cornerstone of the settlement system of many rural areas, together with small towns. This paper considers a group of 39 towns in Northern Italy, located in the area between Asti and Rovigo. Using data from the Italian National Institute of Data Statistics (ISTAT), we investigated the dynamics of the number of the employed at businesses in the periods of 2001–2011 and 2012–2017, the different specialisations of the towns and their ability to attract employees within the respective employment areas. Locally differentiated performance and evolutionary trajectories are evident, preventing us from being able to think of medium-sized (but also small) towns as a coherent whole. It is also clear how the drive towards centralising employees in towns increased following the Great Recession.
References
Adam B., 2006. Medium-sized cities in urban regions. European Planning Studies 14(4): 547–555. DOI 10.1080/09654310500421220.
Balducci A., Fedeli V., Curci F. (eds), 2019. Post-metropolitan territories. Looking for a new urbanity. Routledge, London and New York.
Bartaletti F., 2015. Città metropolitane e aree metropolitane. Il disegno politico e l’approccio scientifico (Metropolitan cities and metropolitan areas. The political project and the scientific approach). Rivista Geografica Italiana 122(4): 389–400.
Bell D., Jayne M., 2009. Small cities? Towards a research agenda. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 33(3): 683–699. DOI 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00886.x.
Bolton T., Hildreth P., 2013. Mid-sized cities: Their role in England’s economy. Centre for Cities, London.
Brunet R., 1997. Territoires de France et d’Europe. Raisons de géographe. Belin, Paris.
Burgalassi D., Iommi S., Marinari D., 2016. Dimensione e offerta funzionale nella crescita urbana. Alcune evidenze nel periodo 2001–2011. (City size, urban functions and growth. Some empirical evidence for Italy 2001–2011). Scienze Regionali 15(2): 37–60. DOI 10.3280/SCRE2016-002003.
Camagni R., Capello R., Caragliu A., 2015. The rise of second-rank cities: What role for agglomeration economies? European Planning Studies 23(6): 1069–1089. DOI 10.1080/09654313.2014.904999.
Cattan N., Saint-Julien T., 1999. Quels atouts pour les petites et moyennes villes en Europe occidentale? L’Information Géographique 63(4): 158–164. DOI 10.3406/in¬geo.1999.2655.
CGET, 2018. Regards croisés sur les villes moyennes. Des trajectoires diversifiées au sein des systèmes territoriaux. La Documentation française, Paris.
Champion T., Townsend A., 2013. Great Britain’s second-order city regions in recessions. Environment and Planning A 45(2): 362–382. DOI 10.1068/a45100.
Clayton N., Morris K., 2010. Recession, recovery and medium-sized cities. The Work Foundation, London.
Cori B., Cortesi G., Costa M., Da Pozzo C., Formentini U., 1978. Il ruolo delle città medie e piccole nella rete urbana dell’Italia settentrionale (The role of small and medium-sized towns in the urban network of Northern Italy). In: Muscarà C. (ed.), Megalopoli mediterranea (Mediterranean megalopolis). Franco Angeli, Milano: 159–170.
Cox E., Longlands S., 2016. The role of small and medium-sized towns and cities in growing the northern powerhouse. Institute for Public Policy Research, Manchester.
Czapiewski K., Bański J., Górczyńska M., 2016. The impact of location on the role of small towns in regional development: Mazovia, Poland. European Countryside 8(4): 413–426. DOI 10.1515/euco-2016-0028.
David Q., Peeters D., Van Hamme G., Vandermotten C., 2013. Is bigger better? Economic performances of European cities, 1960–2009. Cities 35: 237–254. DOI 10.1016/j.cities.2013.07.011.
Dematteis G., Emanuel C., 1990. Reti urbane minori e deconcentrazione metropolitana nella Padania centro-occidentale (Smaller urban networks and metropolitan deconcentration in central-western Po Valley). In: Martellato D., Sforzi F. (eds), Studi sui sistemi urbani (Studies on urban systems). Franco Angeli, Milano: 233–261.
De Roo P. (ed.), 2007. Les villes moyennes françaises. Enjeux et perspectives. La Documentation française, Paris.
Demazière C., 2017. Small and medium-sized towns: A research topic at the margins of urban studies?. In: Hamdouch A., Nyseth T., Demazière C., Førde A., Serrano J., Aarsæther N. (eds), Creative approaches to planning and local development. Insights from small and medium-sized towns in Europe. Routledge, London and New York: 22–35.
Dijkstra L., Garcilazo E., McCann P., 2013. The economic performance of European cities and city regions: Myths and realities. European Planning Studies 21(3): 334–354. DOI 10.1080/09654313.2012.716245.
Dijkstra L., Garcilazo E., McCann P., 2015. The effects of the global financial crisis on European regions and cities. Journal of Economic Geography 15(5): 935–949. DOI 10.1093/jeg/lbv032.
EC, 2008. Green paper on territorial cohesion. Turning territorial diversity into strength. COM(2008) 616 final. Brussels.
Erickcek G.A., McKinney H., 2006. “Small cities blues:” Looking for growth factors in small and medium-sized cities. Economic Development Quarterly 20(3): 232–258. DOI 10.1177/0891242406290377.
Escudero Gómez L.A., García González J.A., Martínez Navarro J.M., 2019. Medium-sized cities in Spain and their urban area within national network. Urban Science 3(1): 1–15. DOI 10.3390/urbansci3010005.
Escudero Gómez L.A., Somoza Medina J., 2010. Medi¬um-sized cities: Polycentric strategies vs the dynamics of metropolitan area growth. The Open Urban Studies Journal 3(2): 2–13. DOI 10.2174/1874942901003010002.
ESPON, 2006. The role of small and medium-sized towns (SMESTO). Final Report. ESPON, Luxembourg.
ESPON, 2014. TOWN. Small and medium-sized towns in their functional territorial context. Final Report. ESPON, Luxembourg.
Eurostat, 2016. Urban Europe. Statistics on cities, towns and suburbs. EU Publications, Luxembourg.
Faggian A., Gemmiti R., Jaquet T., Santini I., 2018. Regional economic resilience: The experience of the Italian local labor systems. Annals of Regional Science 60(2): 393–410. DOI 10.1007/s00168-017-0822-9.
Ganau Casas J., Vilagrasa Ibarz J., 2003. Ciudades medias en España: posición en la red urbana y procesos urbanos recientes. Mediterráneo Económico 3: 37–73.
Garrido Cumbrera M., Rodríguez Mateos J.C., López Lara E., 2016. El papel de las ciudades medias de interior en el desarrollo regional. El caso de Andalucía. Boletin de la Asociacíon de Geógrafos Españoles 71: 375–395. DOI 10.21138/bage.2287.
Glaeser E., 2011. Triumph of the city. How our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier, and happier. Penguin Random House, New York.
Hamdouch A., Demazière C., Banovac K., 2017a. The socio-economic profiles of small and medium-sized towns: Insights from European case studies. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 108(4): 456–471. DOI 10.1111/tesg.12254.
Hamdouch A., Nyseth T., Demazière C., Førde A., Serrano J., Aarsæther N. (eds), 2017b. Creative approaches to planning and local development. Insights from small and medium-sized towns in Europe. Routledge, London and New York.
Henderson V., 1997. Medium size cities. Regional Science and Urban Economics 27(6): 583–612. DOI 10.1016/S0166-0462(96)02169-2.
Holl A., 2018. Local employment growth patterns and the great recession: The case of Spain. Journal of Regional Science 58(4): 837–863. DOI 10.1111/jors.12392.
IFEL, 2019. Il potenziale delle città medie nel sistema Italia (The potential of medium-sized towns in the Italian system). IFEL, Roma.
Jones A., Clayton N., Tochtermann L., Hildreth P., Marshall A., 2009. City relationships: Economic linkages in Northern city regions. Centre for Cities, London.
Kaufmann D., Wittwer S., 2019. Business centre or bedroom community? The development of employment in small and medium-sized towns. Regional Studies 53(10): 1483–1493. DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2019.1585529.
Knox P.L., Mayer H., 2013. Small town sustainability. Economic, social, and environmental innovation. Birkhauser, Basel.
Kunzmann K.R., 2010. Medium-sized towns, strategic planning and creative governance. In: Cerreta M., Concilio G., Monno V. (eds), Making strategies in spatial planning: Knowledge and values. Springer, Dordrecht: 27–45.
Lazzeroni M., 2020. Industrial decline and resilience in small towns: Evidence from three European case studies. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 111(2): 182–195. DOI 10.1111/tesg.12368.
Lemmi E., 2012. Dinamiche e processi nella geografia delle città in Italia. Quadro storico di fine millennio (Dynamics and processes in the geography of cities in Italy. Historical picture of the end of the millennium). Franco Angeli, Milano.
Mainardi R., 1997. L’Italia delle regioni. Il Nord e la Padania (Italy of the regions. The North and the Po Valley). Bruno Mondadori, Milano.
Marques da Costa E., 2002. Ciudades médias: contributos para a sua definição, Finisterra, 37(74): 101–128. DOI 10.18055/Finis1592.
Mayfield L., Courtney P., Tranter R., Jones P., 2005. The role of small and medium-sized towns in rural development. Final Report. Centre for Agricultural Strategy, Reading.
Mecenate 90, 2020. L’Italia policentrica. Il fermento delle città intermedie (Polycentric Italy. The ferment of intermediate cities). Franco Angeli, Milano.
Meijers E.J., Burger M.J., Hoogerbrugge M.M., 2016. Borrowing size in networks of cities: City size, network connectivity and metropolitan functions in Europe. Papers in Regional Science 95(1): 181–199. DOI 10.1111/pirs.12181.
Meili R., Mayer H., 2017. Small and medium-sized towns in Switzerland: Economic heterogeneity, socioeconomic performance and linkages. Erdkunde 71(4): 313–332. DOI 10.3112/erdkunde.2017.04.04.
Monsson C.K., 2015. Resilience in the city-core and its hinterland: The case of Copenhagen. Local Economy 30(2): 191–214. DOI 10.1177/0269094215573415.
Nadou F., 2010. La notion de “villes intermédiaires”, une approche différenciée du rôle des villes moyennes: entre structuration territoriale et spécificités socio-économiques. Online: halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00596204 (accessed: 30 July 2020).
Razin E., Dijst M., Vázquez C. (eds), 2007. Employment deconcentration in European metropolitan areas. Market forces versus planning regulations. Springer, Dordrecht.
Santamaria F., 2000. La notion de “ville moyenne” en France, en Espagne et au Royaume-Uni. Annales de Géographie 109(613): 227–239. DOI 10.3406/geo.2000.1866.
Servillo L., Atkinson R., Hamdouch A., 2017. Small and medium-sized towns in Europe: Conceptual, methodological and policy issues. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 108(4): 365–379. DOI 10.1111/tesg.12252.
Sýkora L., Mulíček O., 2017. Territorial arrangements of small and medium-sized towns from a functional-spatial perspective. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 108(4): 438–455. DOI 10.1111/tesg.12249.
Turri E., 2000. La megalopoli padana (The Po Valley megalopolis). Marsilio, Venezia.
UCLG, 2017. Co-creating the urban future. The agenda on metropolises, cities and territories. UCLG, Barcelona.
Vaishar A., Zapletalová J., 2009. Small towns as centers of rural micro-regions. European Countryside 1(2): 70–81. DOI 10.2478/v10091/009-0006-4.