Functional Polycentrism and Urban Network Development in the Greater South East, United Kingdom: Evidence from Commuting Patterns, 1981–2001

Abstract

De Goei B., Burger M. J., Van Oort F. G. and Kitson M. Functional polycentrism and urban network development in the Greater South East, United Kingdom: evidence from commuting patterns, 1981–2001, Regional Studies. In contemporary literature on changing urban systems, it is often argued that the traditional central place conceptualization is outdated and should be replaced by a network view that emphasizes the increasing criss-crossing pattern of interdependencies between spatial units. This paper tests how urban networks develop by looking at commuting patterns in the Greater South East, United Kingdom, for the period 1981–2001. Although the empirical results indicate that the Greater South East cannot be currently characterized as a polycentric urban region or an integrated urban network, there is some evidence for urban network development at the local, intra-urban, level, and a decentralization of the system at the regional, inter-urban, level.

De Goei B., Burger M. J., Van Oort F. G. et Kitson M. Le polycentrisme fonctionnel et le développement des réseaux urbains dans l’agglomération du sud-est du R-U: des preuves provenant de la structure des migrations quotidiennes entre 1981 et 2001, Regional Studies. Dans la documentation récente sur l’évolution des systèmes urbains, on affirme souvent que la notion classique de la place centrale est démodée et que l’on devrait la remplacer par une notion de réseaux qui souligne la croissance des interdépendances entrecroisées des zones géographiques. Cet article cherche à tester l’évolution des réseaux urbains tout en examinant la structure des migrations quotidiennes urbaines dans l’agglomération du sud-est du R-U entre 1981 et 2001. Bien que les résultats empiriques laissent voir que l’agglomération du sud-est du R-U ne se caractérise actuellement ni comme une région urbaine polycentrique, ni comme un réseau urbain intégré, il y a des preuves en faveur du développement des réseaux urbains sur le plan local intraurbain et d’une décentralisation du système au niveau régional interurbain.

Royaume-Uni Agglomération du sud-est Réseaux urbains Migrations quotidiennes Modèle de gravité

De Goei B., Burger M. J., Van Oort F. G. und Kitson M. Funktionaler Polyzentrismus und Entwicklung urbaner Netzwerke im Großraum des Südostens von Großbritannien: Belege aus Pendlerströmen, 1981–2001, Regional Studies. In der modernen Literatur über Veränderungen in den urbanen Systemen wird oftmals die These aufgestellt, dass die traditionelle Konzeptualisierung eines zentralen Ortes veraltet ist und durch eine Netzwerkperspektive ersetzt werden sollte, mit der die zunehmend kreuz und quer verlaufenden Wechselwirkungen zwischen räumlichen Einheiten betont wird. In diesem Beitrag überprüfen wir die Entwicklung urbaner Netzwerke am Beispiel der Pendlerströme im Großraum des Südostens von Großbritannien zwischen 1981 und 2001. Aus den empirischen Ergebnissen geht hervor, dass sich der Südosten Großbritanniens derzeit nicht als polyzentrische urbane Region oder integriertes urbanes Netzwerk charakterisieren lässt. Dennoch gibt es einige Anzeichen für die Entwicklung eines urbanen Netzwerks auf lokaler intra-urbaner Ebene sowie für eine Dezentralisierung des Systems auf regionaler intra-urbaner Ebene.

Großbritannien Großraum Südost Urbane Netzwerke Pendlerverkehr Schwerkraftmodell

De Goei B., Burger M. J., Van Oort F. G. y Kitson M. Policentrismo funcional y desarrollo de redes urbanas en el sureste de Inglaterra: evidencias de modelos de desplazamientos, 1981–2001, Regional Studies. En la literatura contemporánea sobre cambios en los sistemas urbanos se suele argumentar que la conceptualización tradicional de un lugar céntrico está desfasada y debería reemplazarse por una visión de redes que haga hincapié en el creciente modelo entrecruzado de interdependencias entre las unidades espaciales. En este artículo comprobamos cómo se desarrollan las redes urbanas al observar los modelos de desplazamientos en la región sureste del Reino Unido durante el periodo 1981–2001. Aunque los resultados empíricos indican que la región sureste del Reino Unido no se puede caracterizar actualmente como una región urbana policéntrica o una red urbana integrada, hay evidencias de un desarrollo de redes urbanas a nivel local e intraurbano y una descentralización del sistema a nivel regional e interurbano.

Reino Unido Zona sureste Redes urbanas Desplazamientos al trabajo Modelo de gravedad

Keywords:

• United Kingdom
• Greater South East
• Urban networks
• Commuting
• Gravity model

JEL classifications:

• O21
• R11
• R23
• R58

Acknowledgements

The authors thank two anonymous referees for their useful comments on an earlier version of this article. All errors remain the authors' own. Frank van Oort's research was funded by the British Council Amsterdam and the Dutch Science Council NWO (Research Grant Number PPS 856). An earlier version of this paper was circulated under the title ‘Polycentric urban configuration and urban network development in the Greater South East, UK, 1981–2001’.

Notes

Although the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) is not a product of the European Community, the European Commission has been involved in preparing it. Being published in all official European languages, the ESDP is arguably the most international planning text that exists (Faludi and Waterhout, 2002, p. ix).

Yet, some scholars argue that it is better to reserve the term ‘polycentricity’ for morphological polycentricity (the existence of multiple centres in a given area), and ‘urban networks’ for polycentric regions that demonstrate strong functional relationships (for example, Meijers, 2008) to avoid confusion.

It should be noted that looking at the network structure is only one way to evaluate the existence of an urban network. In a broader literature, the network model refers to more characteristics, such as the existence of complementarities between cities (Batten, 1995; Meijers, 2007; Van Oort et al., 2010). Herein, it is assumed that cities in a network fulfil different but mutually beneficial roles (Hague and Kirk, 2003). For example, a city specialized in financial services provides these services to (firms in) a city specialized in labour-intensive industry, and vice versa. This issue is addressed in more detail by Van Oort et al. (2010).

Following the typology of Kloosterman and Musterd (2001), the intra-urban scale corresponds here to commuting flows that remain within the urban region. Likewise, the inter-urban scale corresponds to commuting flows between urban regions. More specifically, intra-urban dependencies refer to those interactions in an urban region where only one urban core is involved (Figs 2 and A1–A4). Inter-urban dependencies additionally refer to interactions between districts in different urban regions (Fig. 2, types B and C). In Fig. 2, types B and C urban systems are blended in terms of intra-urban and inter-urban relations, in which intra-urban relations refer to core–periphery relations in which the ‘own’ core and periphery districts are involved, and in which inter-urban relations refer to relations between core and peripheral districts in different urban regions.

Yet, there is considerable academic debate on the exact dimensions and urban structure of the Greater South East. Buck et al. (2002) take the functional urban area of London, measured by the London Metropolitan Area, as the dimension of the Greater South East, though they acknowledge that this might come across as a conservative definition. A more relaxed definition would take Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire into account as well (Buck et al., 2002). Perhaps the largest drawback of the conservative definition is that it does not fit within the current policy-making framework. Gordon (2003) makes a strong case for taking the three Governmental Office Regions (GOR) of the South East, London, and the East of England as the dimensions of the Greater South East. Since this definition is more congruent with political reality, it will be the definition of the Greater South East as used in the present paper.

Census output is Crown copyright and is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Sources: 1981 Census: Special Workplace Statistics (Set C) (re-estimated for 1991 boundaries); 1991 Census: Special Workplace Statistics (Set C); and 2001 Census: Special Workplace Statistics (Level 1).

The law was formulated in Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687).

Even earlier applications can be found in the nineteenth-century work of Carey (1858) and Ravenstein (1885) on, respectively, the analysis of human interaction patterns and migration flows.

Intra-district distances were calculated by means of the formula:

where the intra-municipal distance d _ii is two-thirds the radius of the presumed circular area A _i (for the exact derivation of this and an overview of the considerations involved, see Bröcker, 1989b).

In this, a likelihood ratio test of over-dispersion (CAMERON and TRIVEDI, 1986) is employed to test whether the negative binomial distribution is preferred to a Poisson distribution, while the Vuong statistic (Vuong, 1989) provides evidence whether a zero-inflated model is favoured above its non-zero inflated counterpart.

The coefficients on contiguity and the interdependencies are semi-elasticities. To interpret the impact of, for example, contiguity on the interaction intensity by the estimate of equation (2.3) in terms of an elasticity, it is assumed that a district pair moves from being contagious to being non-contagious. The interaction intensity is then multiplied by a factor:

where 1.349 is the coefficient reported in Model 1 (see Table 2).

In this, only a linear trend was examined. Future research should look at non-linear relationships over time more carefully.